Cutting Down Our Christmas Tree

This year we went to a Christmas Tree lot where you get to cut down your own Christmas Tree! This was our first time cutting down our own Christmas tree! Although we weren't up in the mountains. We met the Powell's there and had a fun time wandering through the forest of trees looking for just the right one!

Random Rant: I was frustrated a while back when Google+ changed Picasa because I couldn't find a way to embed a slideshow of pictures onto my blog. But then I found a work-around. My work-around no longer works. AAAHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG! This means I have to post each picture individually, which as a result means I won't be sharing as many pictures of the things we do. If I do post a bunch of pictures, the post will be forever long. I'm sure I'll end up doing that, so sorry in advance!

Grandparent's Day

The Powells' now have 3 kids in elementary school. About a week ago, Sadie called me and asked me if I could help out on Grandparent's day since they only have 2 grandparents that live locally. Of course I said yes! When I told Ammon what I was going to do, he said if I was going to go, I should really look the part! So we bought a grandma wig and grandma glasses; unfortunately the glasses didn't arrive in time :(
So this morning I got all ready to go - wig and all, and went to the elementary school. The school serves all the grandparents a light breakfast, and then each grade came in and sang us a song. I was sitting at a table right by where the kids lined up before going up on stage. When Avri saw me, she couldn't stop smiling and giggling! She obviously loved it! When Talmage saw me, he kept looking at me, looking away, looking at me, looking away, etc. Each time he looked at me he gave me a "half" smile (no teeth). When Sadie saw me, she looked away and then refused to look at me again. After the kids were done singing, we got to go visit the kids in their classrooms and do an activity with them. The school divide the time in the classroom into two parts (so grandparents could go to 2 classes). I went to Sadie's class first. When I went in all the kids were sitting on the carpet. I said hi to Sadie, but she wouldn't stand up or acknowledge me. So I went over to her, grabbed her hand and had to help her stand up. Almost the whole time I was in her classroom, she sat with her hand over her mouth - never talking to me - and hardly looked at me. I was so incredibly disappointed. I really thought she would think it was funny! I was sure that I had taken this special day and made it awful for Sadie. The second half of the time I went to Avri's classroom. She was all smiles and thought the wig was great. We did our activity together chatting and having a good time!

After it was all over, when I was in the car, Carrie called me. She had gone to Sadie's room after I had left. Carrie said that Sadie was really quiet at first, but once she opened up, she told Grandma, "Did you see Allison? She had a wig on! It was gray and curly!" And she was very amused and thought it was funny! I was so glad that Carrie told me this; now I know I didn't scar Sadie for life! I think because she wasn't expecting the wig, she was kind of embarrassed and didn't know how to react. But after she had some time to think about it, she decided she really liked it!

Ammon's {28th} Birthday

Ammon had a great day celebrating! At work, people typically take in a food item of some sort to share with everyone on their birthdays. Most of the time it ends up being some kind of treat, which Ammon has noticed don't normally get eaten very well. So he decided he wanted to take something in that was on more of the "healthy" side of the spectrum. So we made yogurt parfaits for him to take to work! They had the choice of peach, strawberry or vanilla yogurt with layers of berries in each. We also had little cups of granola for them to put on top. He said they were deemed the best birthday treat ever brought into the office. That made me feel pretty good since I did all the "behind-the-scene" work on them!

In my family, the tradition is that my mom would make a paper banner that says happy birthday and is decorated all cute for each person's birthday; complete with balloons. Well, earlier this year I made a Happy Birthday banner out of felt that will serve as our birthday banner for...well...ever, I guess. And of course I bought him birthday balloons!

For dinner Ammon wanted Twice-Baked Potatoes as an appetizer. For the main dish he wanted a nice salad with grilled chicken on it. Roasted vegetables and his favorite fruit salad were the sides of his choice. I also made our first batch of pomegranate jello to go with it. It was quite the feast!

For desert Ammon choose my homemade ice cream cake. It wasn't a hard choice for him since it's his favorite cake that I make! Lol!

He received many wonderful presents! Lots of tools, a laser pointer, camping gear and a gift card that I'm sure will be spent on more camping gear! He was certainly spoiled by all of his family!

Chicago!

Sunday morning we made the 3 hour drive to Chicago. The Powell's drove up Saturday morning and had already spent a day there when Ammon, Carrie and I got there Sunday morning. While in Chicago, we used the CTA (Chicago Transit Authorities)to get around; mostly the trains, but we did ride a bus a few times. We parked our car in a train station parking lot and took a train and a bus to Navy Pier. We walked to the end of Navy Pier - what a beautiful view! We sat on some benches for a while and just looked at everything! Then we walked through the Stained Glass Museum. We watched the Powell kids on a few rides, and then we took a bus to Willis Tower. Willis Tower is the former Sears Tower. We walked through a museum and watched a short video before going up the elevator to the 103 floor. It was fun looking down on the city! They had these clear boxes that hung outside of the tower, so that you could look all around - including down - and see the city! It was scary to walk out on it at first, but as long as I didn't look down, it was okay! Next, Kendall and Melissa took off to go to a concert they had bought tickets for while Carrie, Ammon and I took the Powell kids to the Magnificent Mile. Avri insisted that we HAD to walk through the American Girl store! Both Avri and Sadie want one of these dolls! We found one that looked like Sadie (Molly) and they got a catalog so they could look through it more at home. Then we went to the Lego store where they had lego building tables and Lego video games. We let the kids play with the lego toys for a while before we headed to catch up with Kendall and Melissa. Ammon and I were given a recommendation of a restaurant that serves true Chicago style pizza. All 3 times we've been to Chicago, we've gone to this restaurant. There are many locations in Chicago, so we chose to meet Kendall and Melissa at one that was just a couple of blocks from the concert they were at. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and crashed. That seems to be a common phrase when I'm talking about our vacations! I guess that means we're always packing a lot of fun things in! Lol!




Our whole trip was planned around Monday. Most of the museums in Chicago have "free days" where if you live in Illinois you can get into the main part of the museum for free. This particular Monday happened to be the free day for 2 museums - The Shedd Aquarium and The Museum of Science and Industry. In the morning we drove to the train station parking lot and then took the train to the Shedd Aquarium. Then we headed to the Museum of S&I and found a little restaurant to eat lunch at before exploring the museum. We didn't get too many pictures at the museums because we were having too much fun! But the pictures we do have are of us in front of a white screen the projected butterflies. If you stand really still, then the butterflies will come land on you! It was pretty cool!

Harry Potter Party

Time flew by this October! Ammon and I were planning on having the Powell kids over for a sleepover BEFORE Halloween, but it ended up happening the day after. Oh well. It just meant we didn't need to buy as much candy!

I took the Hogwarts Letter and the List of Supplies and rolled them together. I also printed off on cardstock some owls. I tied the rolled up letters onto the feet of the owls - you know, so it looked like the owls were delivering the lettters ;) While we were at Grandma Dietz's house, I went outside and hung one above each child's seat, so that when they went out to the car, they'd have their own owl waiting to deliver their Hogwarts letter to them! Melissa said they went so crazy because they were so excited. There was a debate among the kids as to whether they were going to the REAL Hogwarts, or to Ammon and Allison's house! Avri is such a crack-up when it comes to Harry Potter. Believing in Harry Potter is like believing in Santa Clause for her. She was SO positive they were going to the REAL Hogwarts!

The evening started off when we reviewed how House Points work. You can get them by being good and by answering questions, but if you're too noisy or if you're not being nice, they could be taken away. Of course, we had rubies (printed on cardstock) since that is what Gryffindor uses! Avri asked me how many rubies they had to earn and what the prize was; good thing I use to be a teacher, thinking on my feet with questions like that come fairly easily. They had to earn 20 rubies to be able to watch the movie.

We were watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, so we planned the activities based off of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

We went outside where we had a golden egg (ball of caramel corn wrapped in plastic wrap so we could eat it later)and each child took turns being a dragon guarding the egg, and the one trying to get it before the dragon tagged them. Successfully getting the egg = 1 ruby

Next, instead of going swimming in a lake searching for their best friends, we bobbed for apples! I wasn't sure how well the kids would like this, but they absolutely LOVED it! It might have helped that we used warm water. They all wanted to keep playing this game over and over! Getting the apple = 1 ruby (which they earned a lot of rubies because they wanted to keep playing...)

Although we proved our green thumb abilities with our garden this past summer, we weren't feeling up to the task of growing shrubs into a maze. So instead we practiced for going into the maze. I had made a simple question game on PowerPoint using their Charms knowledge. Just simple questions about different charms/spells. 1 correctly answered question = 1 ruby. I asked Avri before we started if she wanted to be on her own team, or if she wanted it to be 2 kids vs 2 kids. She chose to have Rigdon on her team, because then it would be like she was on her own team. So Ammon helped out Sadie and Talmage (only a little). Although throughout the game she kept saying it wasn't fair because occasionally Ammon was helping Talmage and Sadie, I think she answered more questions correctly! Lol!

We counted up the rubies they had earned, they had earned almost 30(phew!)! If they hadn't earned 20, I'm not sure what I would have done next, because I was planning on watching the movie! During the movie we snacked on caramel corn; and about half way through the movie we took a break to have some ButterBeer. I made it out of slushy cream soda and coolwhip that had butterscotch flavor in it. We drank it in The Great Hall which I decorated with floating candles and pumpkins! It added a really fun touch! Talmage was funny because after drinking his first glass, he asked for "more beer, but no butter." A few weeks later Rigdon asked me, "Remember when we drank beer at your house?" I just started cracking up laughing because I can only imagine him in nursery at church telling how his Aunt Allison gives him beer...I reminded him that it was really just soda pop.

After the movie, it was super late, so we quickly got ready for bed and went to sleep! In the morning we had "Quiditch Pancakes" for breakfast. I made yellow pancakes that had wings coming out of them for the Snitches and then the kids wanted all the different balls that are used in Quiditch so we also made Quaffals and Bludgers!

It was another successful and SO much fun party!!