Thanksgiving

We had a fabulous thanksgiving weekend.  Just the 6 of us (still surprises me everytime I say that.  Are there really 6 of us now?!?), hanging out all weekend, having a great time just enjoying each other.

We decided to do the turkey trot again.  This year we all ran it - while, I jogged a bit, Olivia ran about a quarter of it, Levi rode in the stroller, and the 3 oldest boys all ran.  I gave the boys a monetary incentive for a fast time, and it seemed to encourage them a bit. Last year they ran it in around 11 minutes, and this year Harrison came in at 8:40ish and Noah about a minute later. Maybe next year we'll go for the 5K!

Kids under 8 were free, so I even registered Levi.  He had a number and everything:

Poor kid had just fallen asleep in the car when we got there.  He was great the whole race, even though he was pretty tired.

We got home and got busy cooking.  I kept it simple. I wanted to focus my energy on family time, and not creating a fancy meal that no one was going to eat.  I made a roast chicken, which the kids helped prepare, and our turkeys were in the form of a veggie tray, and fruit platter, also prepared with the kids helping.

The roast chicken was delicious, finished cooking in an hour and a half, and we still had plenty of  leftovers.  

The next day we spent the morning decorating for Christmas

And then headed off to the Christmas Kickoff in Dayton.  There was a little bit of a snafu with forgetting wallets, so we missed out on eating at our favorite place, the Country Cupboard, but we still managed to have a great time, going on a hay ride, visiting with Santa, watching a free movie, and enjoying the lighted parade.

Then on Sunday we finally built our Gingerbread house.

It's so fun that we are really starting to have some solid yearly traditions, that the kids are remembering and looking forward to.  Dayton, the turkey trot and a gingerbread house are definitely Thanksgiving weekend traditions we plan on continuing.

Thankful

For Thanksgiving, I wanted the kids to elaborate a little more on the immense blessings that we enjoy.  Sometimes it is a bit hard to pull it out of them for night time prayers, but I was excited to see them fill up a list in the week before Thanksgiving.  This started out as a FHE activity that we carried over on the next few days.  Each meal, we would try and get every person to list ~5 things. We wrote them on paper strips and made a huge long chain. I did my best to try and not allow duplicates because I wanted them to think.  We quickly got beyond the standard list and figured out some great blessing

I am thankful for:
smiling - L
swing set - H
rain - S
Chickens and hens - O
Ridley Pearson, Dave Barry, JK Rowling - H
coloring pages - N
Hello Kitty shirt - O
trampoline - H
Cinderella - O
Dad coming home from work early - M
our Bishop - S
comf pile - N (a big pile of blankets and pillows)
our baby brother - N
pie - M
Jello - N
ibuprofen - H
letters - O
Sleeping Beauty - O
crawling - L
Disney vacation - S
Balloons - O
flowers and roses - O
reading - H
beautify day - M
animals - N
Bible - N
candy turkeys - N
primary teacher - N
hot cocoa - H
General Conference - S
church - N
jackets - H
dad - N
warm soup - S
Oreos - H
loving children - S
origami - H
playdoh - O & N
skirts - O
ovens and cooking appliances - N
grandmas - O
holidays - N
Scriptures - N
families - O
Moses - S
prayers - N
pajamas - N
Minnie, Mickey and stars - O
our garden - S
pears - O
cars to drive - S
my mom and dad - O
mom's cooking - N
apples - N
leaves - O
jumping in leaves - N
Levi's naps - M
my sewing machine - M
electricity - H
princess dresses - O
doctors - S
flex time - S
warm clothes - S
a temple close by - S
computer - N
my brothers - N
movies - N
ninjago - N
house - H
books - H
internet - H
muddy buddies - M
a helpful mom - H
Rapunzel - O
princess dolls - O
blueberries - O
obedient children - M
Levi - H
strong bodies - S
strawberries - O
Legos - N
tomatoes - O
listening - N
gravy - H
rolls - S
football - S
music - L
vitamins - N
Cinderella cup - O
friends - H
safe neighborhood - S
piano - M
chicken nuggets - O
board games - H
mommy's effort - O
soldiers - M
turkey trot - N
mom's green thumb - S
green lawn - M
tools - S
our freedoms - M
the great plan of salvation - H
puffs - L
free roaming to crawl - L
veterans - N
thanksgiving - N
mashed potatoes - S
our time on earth - H
sandbox - O
family activities - S
KOG - H
a helpful dad cook - M
birds - O
books - L
home teachers - S
candy - N
schools - S
cousins - O
creativity - S
flowers - O
thanksgiving dinner - H
vacation from school - H

The boy's beds

The construction of the boy's beds was a long time coming.  Since Noah was born, the two of them have always been in the same room.  For all of our time in San Diego and Maryland, we had them in an Ikea bunkbed.  After a few months in this house, we decided to sell the bunk bed (yeah craigslist!) and make them some more traditional beds.  As usual, Mollie found a plan on Ana White's website (http://ana-white.com/2010/02/plans-simple-bed-full-size-inpsired-by.html).  These looked very sturdy and not too difficult to make.  Of course, everything takes longer when you actually make it.

I rarely have a full Saturday to dedicate to these projects.  With soccer games and lawn care, the day always goes too fast.  I started with the headboards and footboards.  Mollie and I were forced to improvise when we could not find any 4x4 posts at our local Lowe's.  We bought 2x4 and some hardward that would allow us to attach the side rails to a 2x4 instead. (This involved a little bit of learning with my router.)

I got the beds put together right about the time that I grew frustrated with the boys jumping on their mattresses.  For some reason, mattresses on the floor are the perfect jumping toy.  But when I put them on a framed bed, then that does not happen.  I was so rushed in fact, that I didn't do any finishing.  They slept on raw wood beds for a few months.  Then (after finishing other more pressing projects) I got back to the beds.  We had since found 4x4 lumber at Home Depot (not Lowe's)  and were ready to take on the task of correcting the posts and finishing it.  I'll note only in passing how much I hate finishing.  The endless sanding, filling, resanding. One way that we get around this is to use spray paint.  Because I don't have to wait hours inbetween coats, we can paint the whole thing in less than an hour.

Here's the finished project:

Halloween 2012

We had a great Halloween this year.  Harrison had the homemade costume this year, going as Harry Potter.

Grettle made him that amazing scarf, in record time, after a last minute request by me.  It really made the costume.  I was most proud of the patch I made, by using this method to print directly onto fabric.  I'm thinking I'll figure out some other uses for this new found discovery.  Oh, and that black hairspray?  Yes, it's very hard to wash out.   And yes, it does make a  huge mess in the shower when you attempt to do so.

Olivia has lots of dress ups, and so dressing up is nothing new for her.  It was pretty funny, at the church Halloween party, she seemed surprised that everyone came in costume.  I guess she's used to being the only one dressed up!  She picked out her Rapunzel dress on Halloween night, but declined to wear the wig for more than a few minutes.

Noah found this iron man costume at costco, back in July, and wears it every chance he gets.  Loves it.  Not sure where his love of Iron man comes from.

And Levi was the cutest little tiger ever. I just love this kid.

Downtown Disney

We made it to Downtown Disney on our first and last days at Disney World.  Downtown Disney is a big shopping area, not a theme park.  But it's still pretty magical.  I think if I had to do it over, I wouldn't have gone that first night - it was kind of crowded, and we were all exhausted, but it was a fun place to go, and The kids really loved it. Olivia was so excited to see these princesses flocking the doors to the huge World of Disney store there, and requested her photos with them:

The boys headed straight for the Lego store.  They had a fantastic play area, and the boys made their first purchase of the trip - the exclusive set "Brickly" a model of the lego dragon that is in the water outside the lego store.

 Exhausted, we headed back to our villa for the night.

On our last day, after the Animal Kingdom, we wanted to go back again.  The boys wanted to do some "build your own minifigures," and Olivia wanted to pick out a souvenir at the World of Disney.

Here's Olivia outside the Lego store with some of the amazing lego creations they have decorating the outside:

She thought the little girl dressed up as Cinderella was Cinderella, and needed to give her a hug.

I wanted to eat dinner at Wolfgang Puck's express, a restaurant I had read about before the trip, and it lived up to my expectations.  So good.  And the restaurant was near empty, and we had amazing service, no waiting. If you ever go to Disney World, I highly recommend this as a place to eat.

Here's the kids enjoying their dinner:

We also picked up the last few pressed pennies that Harrison had been collecting to give to his classmates.  He ended up with about 37 pressed pennies in all, so each of the kids kept some as souvenirs also.  I think at 51 cents it's just about the cheapest souvenir you can come by. And the kids really liked cranking the handle to press the penny.  And it was fun for Harrison to have something to pass out to his classmates when he got back.

The Animal Kingdom

I think the Animal Kingdom was our favorite day of the trip. Getting there when it opened was key, and it was the first time we took advantage of the extra magic hours, where only those staying in a Disney resort can go before the park opens to the public. Sam and the little ones headed over to Expedition Everest to get fast passes, while the older boys and I went on Dinosaur.  Then we stayed in dino land, where we got to ride Triceratop Spin twice in a row without getting off the ride.  It's another version of the Dumbo ride, a favorite for all the kids, but especially Olivia.

Noah discovered Primeval Whirl, a "wild-mouse" style ride, and declared it his favorite of the day.  Levi decided to nap in the stroller, which was so nice.  I think one if the reasons I really liked this park is it was quieter than some of the others, which allowed everyone to feel calmer. Here's Levi after a nice nap:

Expedition Everest was a great roller coaster - it stops in the middle, and takes you backwards for a while, which was really fun.  Again, we used fast pass and rider swap to our advantage, Harrison rode it 4 times, and Sam and I each got to ride it twice.

Another highlight of this day was the show, Festival of the Lion King.  Amazing costumes, acrobatics, dancing, singing and a fire dancers.

The Safari ride was also really fun (despite the fact that I think it was our safari drivers first time driving that ride...)  Harrison took control of the camera, and got some great shots of the animals.  I've been to some really good zoos, and the wild animal park in San Diego, and this ride got me better views of lots of animals than I had seen in all those trips put together.  They did a really good job of making it feel like you were on a real safari in the wild.  Here's some of Harrison's pictures:

This was the easiest park to meet up with extended family members too.  We rode the Safari with Dave, Kate and Maizy, and the Andersons, which was fun.

We were also able to go with cousins on Expedition Everest, and Grandma took Olivia on Triceratop Spin. A bunch of the cousins hung out and played in the Boneyard too.

We had to leave the park by about 3, but we really felt like we saw and did almost everything we wanted to.  We did miss out on the live Nemo show, which I had wanted to see, but since it only showed every couple hours, it didn't work out.  We had to rush over to Downtown Disney, and then catch our shuttle to the airport.

We had a really wonderful time at Disney.  If we ever do Disney again, I think we will plan it when we don't have an infant.  And I would really like to check out Disneyland, to see how it compares.  In our research we read that you could go to Disney World every single day for an entire year, and not experience everything there is to experience there.  It really is a wonderful and magical place.

Epcot

Epcot was the first day we managed to get to a park when it opened.  We took advantage of this by heading straight to one of our "must-dos" that didn't offer fast passes.  Sam took the boys to the Sum of all Thrills, while I headed to Soarin' to get fast passes.  The boys loved the Sum of all Thrills.  It was a design-your-own ride, which you got to ride in a motion simulator.  There was no line at all, so they did it twice.  Here's a video of the boys riding it.

While me, Livie and Levi waited, we hopped on Living with the Land, which had no line also.  It was really interesting to me, and I knew Sam and the boys would like it also, so we went again.   I think Disney is great for how many attractions Levi was able to go on.  Then I took the kids on Soarin' while Sam sat with Levi.  All the kids really liked Soarin'.  It's a ride that makes you feel like you are hang gliding through California.  They have wind and smell effects to go along with the video and motion simulation of the ride.  Very cool.

Olivia and I had reservations to dine with Princesses at Akershus Royal Table by the Norway Pavilion, so we split up again, this time Sam took all the boys and headed to find delicious food in the world show case.  Olivia LOVED her time at Akershus.  She got to meet Snow White, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, and Cinderella. The food was also really good.  Even though this meal was a bit of a splurge, I think it was well worth it.  It was the best meal I had the whole time at Disney, and it was great atmosphere.

Olivia waiting to go into Akershus.  She was so excited!

At this dine, they take a photo of you with Belle as you enter, and then bring you an enlargement during your dine.

We also had a special character greet at Epcot - a perk of our Disney Chase Visa.  I got an offer for this credit card a couple months before our trip, and I'm so glad I did.  They gave us $250 in Disney gift cards with our first purchase, which covered all the food we ate out while at the parks.  And as a bonus we got to meet with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy, in a private location without very much of a line.



Again, the character actors at Disney are pretty amazing.  The masked characters do not speak, but they interact so well. Here, Minnie mouse was doing peek-a-boo with Levi.

We called it a day about 4, and headed back to the villa.  We had to start to pack and get ready to check out the next morning before heading to the Animal Kingdom.