Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: Family Fun (Page 10 of 25)

Happy 50th Anniversary Larry and Nadine

February 28, 2011 / / 1 Comment

Last week we celebrated Ryan’s Parent’s 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Fifty years. That’s a long time! But then when I think that we’ve already experienced 18 1/2 years together, I realize that 50 years will pass before we know it.

For their Anniversary Celebration, they didn’t want a big party or open house like we had originally thought. They chose instead to gather the family in the temple for a session and sealings, then have everyone get together for a nice dinner.

It was really special to be there in the temple with all of Ryan’s brothers and sisters and spouses, and even some of the grandkids. I hope we can do that again.

We also all wrote letters to the happy couple about our favorite memory. This one is John’s letter.

I wrote this letter:

February 19, 2011
50th Anniversary Celebration

Dear Mom and Dad,

I want to thank you for raising a wonderful family. Specifically, a wonderful son who is now a fabulous husband. He is a patient, caring man, and I know he learned that from the both of you. In fact, I used to be a little bit paranoid because I thought that the both of you had NEVER raised your voices or yelled at your kids. I’ve never heard either of you yell or even use cross words. Ryan does tell me tales of mischief during his younger years, (a lot of mischief, in fact, but he always blames it all on Kyle) and assures me that, yes, his mom did yell at him, and might even have whacked him with a spoon. That’s a relief. I thought you might have been perfect!

I’m also happy to hear about the occasional flop in the kitchen. Every time I eat anything you have made, it’s pretty much perfect, so I wondered if you had just been born a naturally great cook. It’s nice to know that some of your dinners weren’t so well received and that your cakes were sometimes flat. It makes me feel better.

The first time I was given some of Dad’s famous truffles, they were in a cool whip container labeled “turkey gravy”. He didn’t say what they were, just passed them around. I looked in the tub and said, “You’re giving me turkey gravy cubes?” I felt a little foolish to discover that they were NOT turkey gravy, but yummy truffles. We all had a good laugh and we still occasionally call them turkey gravy cubes.

I appreciate your efforts in getting the family together. The monthly family home evenings are a fun way for the cousins to interact, and to learn about the gospel. You are teaching them by example that the family really is the most important thing. And there’s no family drama, either. No one says, “well, if she’s going to be there, then I won’t come”. I attribute that to you and your loving ways. As a daughter-in-law, I realize how lucky I am to have married into such an accepting family.

The kids also love the one on one time spent on their birthday date. I’m thankful that they get to have time with you by themselves to connect with their grandparents. And they love the freedom to chose ANY place they want to eat. I’m sure you’ve gone everywhere from McDonald’s to Olive Garden, and every place in between.

Have I embarrassed you enough? Well, that was not my intent. I just wanted to let you know that I am so thankful to be part of your family. Thank you for accepting and loving me like a daughter, and for loving, teaching, and taking care of my kids. We have all been blessed by you. Happy 50th Anniversary, and may you have MANY more!

All my love, Paige

Ryan also wrote a letter about some of his favorite memories growing up. Maybe I can get that inserted into this post as well.

I don’t know if you can read Jenna’s letter, but she wrote about staying at their house once, and how the honeybear had red eyes. She even drew a picture. Oh, these kids are cute, aren’t they?

After the temple, we went home and picked up the kids and went to the Chef’s Table, where we had reserved a special room for the celebratory dinner.

The food was fancy, but still delicious, and it was fun to be with the whole family.


It was a special day. I still remember my grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary, and what a big deal it was that everyone be there. My parents are creeping up on their 50th anniversary, as well, so I guess it’s time to start thinking about that. To my in-laws, I wish you a Happy Anniversary, and thanks for raising such a great husband for me! Here’s wishing you many more happy anniversaries.

Date Night

February 6, 2011 / / 2 Comments

I asked my dear husband out on a date for Friday. Yes, a DATE. I figured we hadn’t been out together just the two of us on a date since we went to a quick dinner on my birthday. We really should be able to squeeze in at least ONE date a month, you would think, but sometimes even that is difficult.

So, after my harried afternoon of ultrasounds and baking bread with the activity day girls (no, it’s not my new calling, I was just helping out), I made a quick dinner for the kids and the two of us snuck out. Thanks to my friend Lisa, I had won tickets to a concert/comedy night by the very funny and talented Jason Hewlett.

First we went to dinner at Cafe Rio and I got my fav, the Cafe Rio chicken salad. Yum.

Then we went over to the Waterford School for this fun benefit concert.

Even though I didn’t know Dan Sloane, by the end of the night we felt like we knew him and we hope for the best for him. And Jason Hewlett was AMAZING! So funny! If you ever get a chance to see him live, go for it.

The music was fun, the comedy was great, and I was glad to have been there. Such a great date night with my hubby! Does that count for our Valentine’s Day date?

J is for Jenna

January 30, 2011 / / 3 Comments

Sunday was Jenna’s 10th Birthday! What a fun age 10 is.

She didn’t get a party this year, but did decide to get her ears pierced, so Jenna and I went to the mall to let the ear piercing professionals at Claire’s pierce her ears. She was very brave and didn’t even hardly say ouch.

Here she is with her newly pierced ears.

We also went out to Applebees with the whole family. Since it can get very crowded there on a Saturday night and we didn’t want to have an hour long wait for dinner, we scheduled a lunch date. It was nice.

For her cake, Jenna wanted an owl cake. Not wanting to disappoint, I found SUCH a cute owl cake!
cake

But you know how these cake designs go…they look SO easy in the directions, but when making the cake, there are so many variables. Maybe the cake is not so dense and it doesn’t hold up very well, maybe the frosting isn’t thick enough, maybe things fall over.

I had baked the cakes, and my girls really wanted to help frost the cake. Which was good, because then I could shift the responsibility on to them and hopefully ease my stress (cake decorating REALLY isn’t a talent of mine). cake

We got him all assembled and decorated, but then he started leaning. And leaning more. We kept trying to prop him up with shims of cookies and additional chopsticks stuck through the middle.

“What would Duff do?” I said to the kids in somewhat of a panic. Jenna was in the other room listening to our conversation, and she must have REALLY wondered what was going on with our cake.

Finally we decided to prop up the plate so that he could stand a little straighter. And the frosting didn’t seem to be stiff enough and I was worried that his eyes might just slide off his face. As soon as the cake was done, we called Jenna in from the other room so she could see him before he collapsed.

She was thrilled. She actually put those orange dots on the owl’s tummy herself. And what do you know? The cake did not tip over, collapse, or have have his eyes slide off. Success!!

When we look back at these pictures, I’m sure my girls will remember the “fun” we had making this cake together, and hopefully they will laugh at the memory.

I hope it was a wonderful birthday for my dear little girl, Jenna. She is a joy in our family and we LOVE HER VERY MUCH!

Disneyland!

January 22, 2011 / / 1 Comment

Oh the fun! Oh the joy! Oh, the walking! Disneyland was such fun!! Monday was kind of crowded, with it being a holiday and all. I was walking along headed to the Indiana Jones ride, and I saw a guy who looked like Kelly. Kelly and Kristi are our Disneyland friends. For the past couple of times we’ve gone to Disneyland, their family has met us there. Seriously! Of course, they go to Disneyland practically every other weekend, so I guess it’s not a huge sacrifice to meet us. I hadn’t told her about this trip, because I didn’t want to bother her and make them think they were obligated to meet us there. But there they were!

What are the odds of actually finding a friend there, on the crowded day, when there are two whole parks where we could be? Pretty cool. We chatted for a few minutes while my little ones whined and asked ‘aren’t we going on that RIDE?’, and it was fun to catch up!

By 5 we were all tired. We decided to go check out our lovely (and free!) room at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel. And Grand it is. The 8 of us (6 of us and my parents) took a few moments to lay down on the beds and couch and thought we might never get up. Now to decide what to do. Do we rest up and go back to the park? Do we call it a day? Do we go swimming? (The kids had already gone swimming both nights previous at the pool in Las Vegas and at the Residence Inn where we had all spent the night before. Even if it’s not really warm enough to swim, they are just so thrilled to be ABLE to swim in January, they’ll take anything.) Well, we decided to take a swim. Since two of the girls were staying with Grandma and Grandpa at the other hotel, that meant Ryan had to drive the grandparents back to their hotel, and have one of the girls run up and get swimsuits, then come back to our hotel. Thankfully, Ryan never complained about his job as chauffeur. He’s a great guy that way.

We braved the cold (when the sun goes down, it’s no longer the balmy 76 degrees we were so enjoying) to check out the fancy pools. Would you believe it? The fancy hotel’s fancy pools were NOT warm. And no hot tub. What?! The kids jumped in and had no problem, while the old farts (me and Ryan) took some convincing to get in. We ended up having fun swimming and playing in the cold water, but couldn’t last all that long. We still had to do something for dinner, and we were SO tired. We changed our clothes, John had a big melt down, and a time out, and then we finally got moving and ended up at a nearby restaurant for dinner. And by the time we dropped off the two girls at the Grandparents’ hotel, John was asleep in the back seat.

Day 2 at the parks dawned nice and early. We had our world of color fast passes, we had our plan, and we headed to California Adventure. It was just a short walk through the secret gate from our hotel. It was amazing. We walked over to Soaring and RAN through the line. There was NOBODY in the park!! We felt like the special people! After that we waited for the rest of the park to open so we could head with the rest of the crowd to Toy Story Mania. We weren’t at the front of the line, but it was only about a 10 minute wait. It was such a fun ride, we turned around and did it again!

The whole day was so nice! Hardly any lines, no crowds! The biggest crowd we encountered was in going to the Alladin show in that huge theater. If only we hadn’t all been dragging and tired! After we did every ride we wanted to in California Adventure, we ate, browsed the shops, then went back to our hotel to take a little rest and get our jackets before we came back to see the World of Color show.

While it is an amazing show, the fun was dampened a little by all the waiting and waiting. We were all sitting comfortably when they told us we’d all have to stand up to make room for more people. What the what? Don’t you people know we’ve been standing and walking all day and our feet canNOT stand for 60 more minutes? That’s when we started getting grumpy. We should have brought our camping chairs, or laid out a blanket and sprawled out on it like we do when we watch fireworks, instead of STANDING scrunched up with 70,000 of our closest friends.

Yes, the show was spectacular, but imagine how great it would be if you watched it sitting down?

Our third day at Disneyland we started out with no plan (big mistake). We let the kids chose the rides they really wanted to go on, which included some that we missed and some that they wanted to do again. John and I rode King Triton’s Merry Go Round many times. (I could only handle three times. Two consecutive. That is my merry go round limit. Any more and we may enter barfing territory). Ryan and kids rode California Screamin three times in a row, bringing their total up to 5.

Because the crowds were still down, we were able to squeeze in a few more rides after lunch, but by then it was getting cold. Of course, on the day that we didn’t wear our sweaters. By 5, we were getting down right cold, and had really had enough of the park. We had to do a little shopping, because Grandma wanted to buy the kids their birthday presents there at Disneyland, if there was something they wanted. Unfortunately, the things they wanted were spread out throughout the park. Megan wanted a Bolt dog, but not the ones with flowers in their mouths for valentines day. Natalie wanted a specific Grumpy shirt that we had seen in the shop by the Grizzly bear ride, John wanted a light saber, Jenna didn’t KNOW what she wanted. Grandma wanted a certain purse that she had seen in the gift shop at California Adventure. We split up, with Ryan taking the boys and Megan to the other hotel, then coming back for us 15 minutes later, after we had quickly finished our shopping.

So that was our trip wrap up. It was a fun trip! But before we go to Disneyland again, Ryan and I need to both lose 30 pounds so that all that walking and climbing and fastpassing doesn’t sap all our energy and we can keep up with the kids.

Now we’re back in Utah where a high of 37 seems balmy when the sun is shining. Oh, well. It was great to get out of the cold and wonderful to spend it with family.

Cole, by the way, was well taken care of. Yes, he did miss us, and was pretty lonely at home, but with dinner appointments every night and fun things to do all weekend, he didn’t score too badly. And now he won’t be struggling to get caught up like some other people I know. Can you say science fair?

Vacation, all I’ve ever wanted?

January 17, 2011 / / 2 Comments

Claire from “Modern Family” said, “I’m a mom traveling with my kids. This isn’t a vacation, it’s a business trip.” I must say, I can relate. We are taking our long awaited trip to Disneyland. And yes, I did win it, back in the summer. But when you “win” a trip to Disneyland, that includes two nights in a hotel and four 3 day passes. Since we have to actually GET to Disneyland, and we have more than four people in our family, our “free” trip is definitely not free. But it is fun!

When I scheduled this trip, I wanted to be sure that it wouldn’t be crowded. We’ve taken too many trips over spring or fall break and seen half of Utah in the park. This time, while we will be there over a holiday, only Monday is the holiday, and we are hoping that Tuesday and Wednesday we can have the park to ourselves. But I didn’t consult with the kids about when they thought we should go, since this trip is kind of a Christmas gift to them. When I told them about it, a certain son of mine was very concerned with how many days of school we would be gone. After figuring it out and after a lot of thought, he decided that he would rather not miss 3 or 4 days of school. I gave him the option to stay home, and he took that option. Can you imagine? A child who would rather go to school than go to Disneyland?! He decided it would be too hard to make up the missed work in calculus and AP physics, among other classes. So, we left him home.

Before you think I just left him home all by himself, let me explain. He’s not totally on his own. He’ll be spending a couple of days with Ryan’s sister and her husband. They planned to take him out and show him a good time, since he willingly stayed home from Disneyland and all. He’s also going to spend the holiday with one of his friends. He’s even going to stay for dinner. Speaking of dinner, I’ve lined up dinner appointments for Cole for every night we’ll be gone. I just called up some friends and asked if Cole could come to dinner. One of my friends was all, “what’s his favorite food?” and I’m sure she’ll put on a lovely spread for him. Another friend likened it to feeding the missionaries, only he’s just one. I’m sure he will eat well.

Yes, he’s capable of making his own dinner, but I wanted him to know that people are expecting him, and care about him. I don’t want him to just stay holed up in the house doing homework all night, but enjoy a nice dinner with friends, and then go home and do his homework. I’m very thankful that my neighbors were all so willing to feed him. I really have wonderful neighbors and friends.

When I called to check on him the first night, he was watching a movie, had gone to dinner at a cool restaurant, went bowling, and had already had a fun day. It sounds like he had a lot more fun than we did driving all day. But the drive wasn’t all that bad.

Now, on to Disneyland!
(be prepared for lots of pictures when we get around to that)

Now I have to wait 364 days until my birthday

December 30, 2010 / / 4 Comments

Birthdays are Great. Really! Even if you have a often forgotten right after Christmas birthday, it’s still a wonderful “make you feel special” day.

Ryan showed me this comic a few days before my birthday, and I had to laugh because it’s so true.

So often the birthday just gets forgotten in the Christmas hype, or people give one present that is for both Christmas and Birthday.

So I’ve learned to lower my expectations. I threw myself a big bash for my 40th birthday, and now that we’ve done that, I’m ok if I don’t have parties. But I woke to breakfast made by the family! Even Ryan, who hates waking up early, set an alarm and got up at the crack of 7:30 to make me breakfast. He even bought bacon and pancake mix the night before, so that we would have some! That’s going above and beyond the call of duty, if you ask me. Megan made me an omelet, and it was a beautiful breakfast!

The kids painted or made presents or coupons for me, which is cute. I love coupons, really. Megan brought me a handful of candy and a coupon for a free smoothie that her friend had given her for Christmas. Blatant regifting? Really? Fine. At least she thought enough to share stuff that she knew she was probably not going to use.

Then I got on the computer to find over 40 emails of birthday greetings! Say what you want about the evils of Facebook, but there’s nothing better for birthday reminders! It meant so much that so many people would take even a small minute to write a birthday greeting on my wall. And it really isn’t hard or doesn’t take much time at all, but it was wonderful. All throughout the day, there were more and more greetings. I felt VERY much loved!

Even though it was snowy and yucky weather, I took the kids out to lunch at Iceberg. We used gift cards they had gotten for Christmas and I got a free shake for my birthday! Woot! We also stopped and picked up two movies from Redbox using my codes I got when Groupon was doing a three movies for $1 deal. Score! So, after our lunch, we came home and watched the Sorcerers Apprentice. The kids were a little ticked that we had to keep stopping it so mom could answer the phone for her birthday greetings, but since it was my birthday, they couldn’t complain.

The best surprise was the package that came to the door. The box was from Hollywood Mega Store, addressed to me. Inside was a note that said “Happy Birthday Paige”, and there was sucha fun surprise!

megaphone clapboard

My own “director” megaphone and clapboard! Such a great thing, since I’m now knee deep in Road Show preparations (I’ll tell you all about that in a future post). Who could have sent this, I wondered? I called Ryan, but he claimed to know nothing about it. Who else would be so thoughtful and cute? There on the box, it was addressed to Paige Erickson and Scott Coleman right under it. My brother? My brother isn’t cute and original like that (no offense, Scott), is he? When I emailed to ask him if that was really from him, he said, “Yep that was from us. I had a flash of creativity.” Well, I’m impressed!

And I LOVE it!! I’m going to take that to rehearsals and yell at the kids! So Excited!

When Ryan came home from work, he was bearing gifts. An Ice Cream cake from ColdStone Creamery, for one. Yummers! He was also a little put out because he went all the way to a certain store only to find out they were closed until Jan 3. Sorry about that, dear. But there were presents, and not just the ladle I bought for myself the day before from Ikea. New breadpans, a cooking thermometer even (I have been wanting one of those!) And he planned to take me out to dinner, since it was my birthday. I made Ramen noodles for the kids, and even though I said I was fine to stay home (HUGE BLIZZARD going on!), he insisted, so we drove the one mile to Blue Lemon for dinner. I had a coupon, too, so that was even better. And Hooray for Blue Lemon. They took my buy one get one free coupon, so my dinner was free, AND, when I asked what they would do for birthdays, he said I could pick any treat from the counter. I chose the carrot cake! Most places would let you chose to use either the coupon or get the free birthday dessert, but they let me do both!! Hooray! Because even if it’s my birthday, I’m still cheap, you know.

When we came home, we were too full to even eat the special cake he brought home, so we’ll save it for later. The kids were all watching Lord of the Rings, but I slipped upstairs with my other free redbox movie and watched Eat, Pray Love in my room, in my bed.

So, it was a great birthday! People remembered me, I got cards from a friend and my mom (thanks, Mom! Mom always remembers, even before there was facebook to remind her), and I got many, many birthday greetings. I felt loved and special on my special day! And isn’t that what it’s all about?

Today I ordered a couple cute things from Coldwater Creek. Right now everything on their entire site is 50% off, even clearance. So, I picked out some things from the clearance, then it’s half off of that, and I used my groupon deal from a few weeks back where I paid $25 for a $50 gift certificate, and, since I have a Coldwater creek Visa, they always send me a $15 gift card for my birthday. So, after using all those, I ended up paying $14 (plus the $25 for the groupon deal) for a skirt, a jacket, a dress and a scarf. Not bad for $39 out of pocket, I would say. So that will just extend the presents into the dreary January!

Yes, there was too much snow, and there’s STILL too much snow, but we’ll try to make the best of it. And bundle up ’cause it’s COLD out there.

Now, if we could just get out of our neighborhood, one of our children REALLY wants to go ice skating.

It’s time for giving

December 23, 2010 / / 4 Comments

This year for Christmas I wanted to GIVE more. I organized Ryan’s family party and hosted so that I could have the whole family participate in the Sub for Santa program. Instead of giving gifts to the cousins, we would give our gifts to families in need. I asked for 6 children, so that each family could give to one child. The united way asked us to provide two clothing items, a toy and a book for each child. We were assigned two families, one with four kids, and one with two kids. We chose the 3 year old from the Brazilian family, since Ryan could call and talk to them on the phone better than us English speakers. When we had the family party, everyone brought their presents for their assigned child. Originally the mom of the four kids had asked that the presents not be wrapped, but then after everyone had already dropped off the presents, changed her mind. So Natalie and I had a little wrapping fest.

Yesterday was delivery day. We packed all the presents into big black garbage bags and hauled them to the car. Both families were in Provo, so we set out to deliver. We went to the first family. Not wanting to overwhelm them with all of us going in, Ryan and Cole took the gifts. Without giving away too much information, it was a family of 6, with two tween kids and two teenagers, one of whom is autistic. The dad is disabled. They live in a small dingy condo in Provo. This was maybe the only Christmas they were going to get. I am sure they are going to enjoy the skateboards, clothes, and microscope sets, among other things.

When they delivered the gifts, the family was oh so appreciative, and gave us a wonderful thank you card and a plate of yummy sugar cookies. It made us feel so great. Really, I wished the whole family could experience the joy with us, but when I asked if any of them wanted to deliver the gifts, no one wanted to. I wished we could have done more, actually. We didn’t get anything for the parents–that was not required, but we kind of felt like they should get something, too. Before we went to the second family, Ryan suggested we go and pick up a ham. So the whole family traipsed through Maceys grocery store and picked out a ham for the next family. It was quite weird shopping with the whole family, let me tell you. We also got an extra coloring book and crayons, for our little 3 year old. Then we went to Wymount to find this family. As the kids came up the steps, they invited us all in. “‘Come, sit down,” they asked us, and so we did. We ended up talking to this family for about 1/2 an hour. They had sent their little girl with a friend, and their baby was sleeping, so we didn’t get to meet the kids. They are a little family from Brazil who are here while Dad completes the MBA program at BYU. He is here on scholarship and a generous grant, which as long as he serves in the LDS church and goes back to Brazil when he is finished with his degree, he won’t have to pay back the loan. He speaks English very well, but his wife only understands a little bit of English. Ryan did quite well keeping up. His Portugese is still quite good (much better than my German skills). They were so gracious and thankful, and it was a wonderful experience. They also gave us some treats and a picture that the girls had colored.

As we were leaving, the kids were talking about how fun that was, and that we FOR SURE had to do this again next year! I’m sure we will do this again. If the extended family does not want to do it, maybe we’ll sponsor a family with only one or two kids by ourselves next year.

It’s such a great reminder that Christmas isn’t about receiving. It’s about the giving. It’s about remembering and celebrating the birth of our Savior, in Bethlehem in a stable so many years ago.


Grateful

November 25, 2010 / / 1 Comment

I hope you are all having a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and those who you love! I can’t even list all that I am grateful for, but I’d like to start with my wonderful husband, my fabulous and talented children, my awesome parents and my brother and sisters, as well as the incredible family that I married into. I love them like my own family. I’ve been blessed way more than I deserve, and I am so thankful for all those who have sacrificed so that I can have the life I do. I have a warm place to live, food enough to feed my family and share with others, and the freedom to practice the religion I believe in. Truly blessed and truly grateful.

I’d like to share one of my favorite songs on gratitude.

I have a wonderful family, and I loved spending time with them today. Thanksgiving was truly a party, with volleyball and basketball before and after the big meal. The food was plentiful and delicious, and we all had a fabulous time.

We even made these turkeys yesterday.

They took forever, and I should have used my own frosting instead of frosting from a can. Now I know! But it was a fun project to do with my kids.

I also made mountains of mashed potatoes, a huge jello salad, and this easy pumpkin crumble. I didn’t cook a turkey, but I do have one in the freezer that I’ll have to cook up in the next month or so, just so we can have leftovers.

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday!

Halloween Happenings

November 4, 2010 / / 2 Comments

Before the holiday is Completely past and we are halfway to Christmas, I must post some pictures of our Halloweening.

I had bought a pair of scrubs at a garage sale earlier this year. I think I paid 50 cents or something great like that. I was so excited. Instant costume! And it’s comfy!

So when the kids and I went to our ward Halloween party on Tuesday night, I was set. Instant costume! John decided to be a parrot and Jenna is all sweet in her Hershey bar costume.

On Thursday evening we took our exchange student, Kazuki, to Gardner Village to see the witches, and to have dinner.

So, now Halloween is over and I need to pack everything away. I’ve discovered I either need to get ride of some of those costumes, or I need more boxes!

In one shop, all the Halloween stuff was 50% off. I saw the Medusa hat that I had coveted when I saw it in Cedar City.
But this time it was ON SALE!! I had to have it. I had wanted that hat, but didn’t want to plunk down $30 for it, so when I could get it for $14, I jumped at the chance!
See, it looks good on everyone!

When we came home, we had to do some finishing touches on Megan’s costume. She designed her own digs this year, and wanted to be a Control 4 remote control. Check it out. Here’s her design for the costume.
She made all the buttons.

I sewed the costume part, after we figured out the details of the top and all that. Here she is trying it on.

Well, Friday was the day of celebrations at school. I woke up and put on my scrubs, then drove my carpool of Japanese boys to BYU. But when I got home, I realized I couldn’t just NOT wear that awesome Medusa hat to John’s school party. So I threw together a costume.

John had decided to be Harry Potter for his school celebrations. (This is the problem with having a great big box of costumes. The kids tend to change their minds at the last minute)

Blonde Harry Potter? Sure. Whatever.

Jenna stuck with her original Hershey Bar costume, and Natalie was a french maid.

After school, we went to dad’s work to trick-or-treat through the cubicles. This is one of our favorite activities. The kids like it because they can get a lot of candy in a short amount of time. I like it because we don’t have to deal with the weather, and I usually end up seeing my friend Kimberly, whose husband works with Ryan (and decided to be Rick Astley).

John decided for this event he was going to be a dolphin.

Megan was the big hit of the event, there at Contol 4. She had many people want to take her picture in her remote costume.

The actual trick-or-treating at night was a little bit of a let down. It was cold and POURING rain when we were all set to go out. I mean SHEETS of rain. But we braved it and made our way around the neighborhood for a little while at least. Notice that John wore yet another costume, his ninja outfit that I thought he was planning on wearing all along. Kazuki was a good sport and threw on a cape and came with us. Cole did not don a single costume this year. He went to a party. Costumeless. He’s such a disappointment to his costume loving mother. Sigh. I guess he takes after his dad.

We may have been dressed like this, but in reality, we looked more like this.

Goodbye. Or shall we say Sayonara?

November 2, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Hosting an exchange student for a week is a whirlwind experience. On the one hand, you only have a week to show him or her all that you can of your home town. On the other hand, it’s only a week.

This is our second time hosting a Japanese student, and it’s been a good experience both times. Although last year our student ended up getting sick with the swine flu right after he left us. The poor kid was sick for their Disneyland trip, and our family had a few people down from sickness as well. Out of 240 boys, I think 70 of them got sick. This year we didn’t have those annoying swine flu issues, which was nice.

Kazuki came on a Tuesday, which was also the night of our ward Halloween party, so Ryan ended up picking him up alone. By the time everyone got home, it was bedtime, so we basically said hello, here’s your room, welcome to our home. The next day we sent him off to BYU. Even though it had snowed that night, they took the kids to a farm for some farm type activities. He said he rode a horse, but that’ about all I know about that day. I had to take John to a basketball game and then go to rehearsal myself, so the rest of the family had dinner with him, and then played that great ice breaker, the Wii. He started to warm up to the kids and had a good time.

Thursday he was done with school earlier, since he didn’t have to go all the way to BYU. That day our students went to a local junior high and went to classes there. They had buddies who spent the day with them, and he said it was fun. We decided to go to Gardner Village for dinner that night. The place was all decked out for Halloween, and we thought it would be fun.

The whole concept of Halloween is strange to him, since they have no such holiday in Japan, but Kazuki was a good sport, and I think he enjoyed dinner, at least. He ordered pasta and finished it all.

Friday morning I drove the carpool of 7 boys to BYU, and it was fun to listen to them chatter in Japanese. I felt like a taxi driver. By the time he got home, we were just getting home from our Halloween activities for the day, so we had a dinner of pizza, and then got down to the business of carving our pumpkins. Again, a new thing for him, and he must wonder what in the world we are doing, but we want to show all the aspects of American life at Halloween time, so we dived right in.

Saturday we had a fun day. We all went to John’s basketball game in the morning, and then had McDonald’s for lunch. Kazuki had written in his letter to us that he wanted to eat a really big hamburger at McDonald’s, so we wanted to grant his request. Then we went off to have some serious fun. The weather, while not raining, was overcast and cloudy, but still warm enough for outdoor activities. We went to Trafalga in Lehi and spent a few hour in the pursuit of having fun.


We played mini golf, rode go carts, rode the merry go round and even the bumper boats. Well, I didn’t ride the bumper boats, because someone had to take pictures, right? And I couldn’t get my family to promise not to squirt each other. They did not promise, and they ended up doing quite a lot of squirting.

So you can see why I didn’t want to be involved in all THAT, right?

We timed it just right so that we were leaving in the afternoon just as it started to rain.
After dinner, we dressed Kazuki in a “costume”, or actually, he just put on a cape, and we geared up to go trick-or-treating. Unfortunately, it was POURING rain about then.

Trick-or-treating was less than fun. I’m afraid he didn’t get the whole FUN idea of it. We made it around 1/2 of our neighborhood, then stopped in for donuts at our neighbors, and came back home. Just as we got home, the raining subsided. Ugh. The girls, after changing shoes, wanted to go back out, but Kazuki and John were done. They decided to stay home and hand out candy and watch tv instead.

On Sunday, we got up nice and early to attend the live broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word.

We did a little Temple Square sightseeing while we were there. We couldn’t stay long, though, because we had to make sure we were back in time for primary. So, it was a long day for all of us. The afternoon was spent in naps, playing games, and doing puzzles. We had a nice steak dinner and the kids even played outside.

Monday the boys went to BYU for more activities/lessons, and then we met them there at 5:30 for a closing social. The banquet was yummy, the program was too long. When we came back home, we gave Kazuki some American gifts.

Tuesday we had an early morning, waking everyone up by 5:45 to say goodbye. Thankfully Ryan drove him to Provo, so I could get the kids ready for school.

It was a good experience! The kids are already sad that he’s gone, but hopefully they will have a pen-pal in Japan, and some fond memories.

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