What We Do For Fun

So what do we do for fun around our house?    

Here's a little glimpse:   

As a family, we love reenacting cooking shows from the Food Network.    My kids (all of them) beg for us to do these on a regular basis.  Glen and I find them a little draining, and especially dread the massive kitchen mess that always ensues, but we try to humor them about once a month or so.  Most of my kids are now better cooks than I am and it's been fun to see even Ellie and Adam stretch themselves to create really tasty (and even beautiful) food without recipes.   I like to think that their future spouses will thank me profusely someday.

Adam, Emma, and AnnaLisa were the judges this time.  Mommy was the first one out and Daddy was the winner.  

Ellie plays dress-up with her friends.  Dress-ups lately have gotten a lot more sophisticated than the fancy princess outfits of her younger days and now they usually involve some elaborate role playing in a historical time period.   This day it was a princess and Little House on the Prairie mash-up where Ellie was  "poor Rapunzel"  and Hannah the faithful servant girl who tried to help Rapunzel.  There was no electricity and they had to use candles and cook over a fire.     

Adam plays strategic board games.   Give him any strategy game and with practice, it won't take long until he will be the new family champion! This day he was playing 10 Days In Europe Game , but "7 Wonders" is his current favorite.  We play games together as a family at least a few times a week and for sure whenever we get together with the "S" family!   Adam also just started an every other week chess club with some local homeschoolers, since he can't talk any of his sisters (or mother) into playing that with him.  

Emma makes fancy breakfasts.   The breakfasts shown below are not for a special occasion of any sort. She just really seems to enjoy that quiet early morning time in the kitchen to create beautiful and delicious food.  

 I tote kids around to their doctor's visits, classes, etc., and try to take advantage of moments to spend special time with a kid whenever I can.    Yesterday Ellie had her appointment with a seizure specialist (also known as an epileptologist) downtown, so when her appointment was finished and I realized we were only about 2.5 miles from the National Zoo and still had a couple hours before the next kid had somewhere to be, it was a no-brainer.   The zoo was empty, the animals were active, and there were zoo keepers everywhere eager to share information about the animals to anyone who would listen.  We learned all about how they track pandas in the wild and best of all got to watch the very cute baby panda playing for a while!    

Cami makes cupcakes.  This clearly isn't a surprise, but perhaps the fact that after 3-years of being in business that she still regularly fills big orders for people and that she's still willing to make special orders for mom, may be a bit more of a surprise.  She recently held a big sale for her entrepreneurship class and sold 11-dozen cupcakes (on left) and  a week later was still willing to make these "brainy" cupcakes for me to share with friends celebrating another friend's anniversary of overcoming brain cancer.

Glen makes chocolate covered strawberries!    Okay, so this was just for Valentine's Day, but it was such a sweet gesture and so much more interesting than showing a picture of him watching BYU sports, that I had to throw it in.  

I had to laugh to see how many of our family's past-times involve food.   What can I say?  I think I'm raising a family of foodies!    Even Spencer sends me pictures of meals he's proudly prepared for himself….complete with the  budget friendly ingredients of beans and rice!  

One of Spence's culinary creations

So what do YOU do for fun in your house?  

A Peek at Christmas

Christmas is finally here and everyone at our house is giddy with excitement!     

Even our furniture-less living room is bursting forth with twinkling Christmas lights, paper snowflakes, and looped chains across the ceiling.  

Our front door is thrilled to be blanketed with warm Christmas greetings from friends and family from far and near.   It's actually filled up even more since this picture was taken and we are now figuring out where to put the overflow!

Our table was shocked with happy surprise when we actually had our annual Christmas in Bethlehem dinner by candlelight BEFORE Christmas this year instead of after.   We had falafel, flat bread, lentil soup, greek salad, hummus, and baklava.  It was all absolutely delicious and the kids made it completely by themselves this year.  {yay, for me for teaching the kids how to cook!}

Even the kids' playdates have taken on a Christmasy vibe.  Here are Ellie and Hannah dressed as a Pilgrim and an Indian playing an old-fashioned Christmas.  They were sooooooo excited when I allowed them to light the candles long enough to take the picture of them! 

The Christmas joy spread into the neighborhoods when we took our Young Women Christmas caroling!   We played a little joke on them in the name of teaching a lesson, but it was thrilling experience nonetheless to gather with them in songs of praise! 

Santa has been visited….

at least by two of our kids….

and now we're running some last minute Christmas errands, gearing up for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner out at a restaurant, our Christmas Eve devotional that helps us remember the true meaning of Christmas, and then snuggling up and waiting for Santa to come! 

Merry Christmas!!!  

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Day 311: I ♥ Home Depot Kids' Workshop

We love the Kids' Workshop that Home Depot hosts the first Saturday of every month.  The kids think it's the coolest thing in the world to wield their own hammer and nails....

They love the sense of accomplishment when their project is done....

and they love that no matter what time we go, there's always at least a friend or two there.   Today there were four. 

Day 98--Cheap Fun!

What do you do when Daddy has to work through Spring Break?

Play with your friends as much as possible!

Day 9--Silliness Overload!

It was a wild Friday night with lots of princess dress-ups, fake screaming, and loads of silliness!

Not shown: The knight in shining armor, Adam, who kept the girls screaming and running!