Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Grandkid Game night for March

Grandkid Game night!  This was our third try at this…and I just love it.  We have them all come for 4 hours on a Friday night and we do a lot of things.  This Month we focused on St. Patricks day and Green.   We were sad that Sophia couldn’t join us… she had a rehearsal, but our other 7 came!   

  We gathered and had rainbow pages to color, while I made little hot glue pom-pom Leprechauns for the kids and talked about Lucky vs. Blessed…and what that means.  We decided that we are both lucky and blessed.



We had chicken nuggets and papa’s sour dough bread - as per usual- the kids all love these. Then  we played bingo for candy.  I ran the bingo game with a giant leprechaun hat on and then passed this on when Alfie ran it. 


We went outside for roasted marshmallows around the pit.  It's kind of a dangerous prospect to do this. Fire and kids aren't a great mix, but they are getting safer every time we try it. Alfie likes his marshmallows burned-- I think he likes blowing out the fire. George likes his marshmallows raw-- but he wants you to put them on a stick and then hand them back to him. Everyone else likes the golden brown melty marshmallow. Poppy got marshmallow all over Papa's pants.



Then back inside for the hot and cold game hiding gold coins around the living room. They are so funny hiding and then finding the coins for each other.


We also did the upside-down person where you draw eyes on your chin and cover nose and hair with clothing - and we sang and laugh a ton. 






We had Lucky Charms cereal for a dessert break– it’s the kind where you add milk and it turns green.  It was magical.  







George was kept busy with papa’s remote car and playing with marbles.     The rest of us played card games- Sleeping queens, Trash and Cards & Marbles… and then we put the Wonka movie on for those who were sleepy.  It was a good time.  I love spending time with my grandkids.


Thursday, March 7, 2024

We got FROGGED!

We got "frogged" this week!
We came home from our New York trip and discovered little green frogs hidden all over our house.  Our kids and grandkids had a riot hiding 200+ frogs.

We found the obvious ones easily... and counted up to 80 frogs, then the search had to really begin.  We looked inside cupboards, under beds, in our bed, in pockets, in fridge and freezer,  in plants, on top of shelves, picture and door frames. 

So many FROGS! We found 100 more frogs after two days of searching, but we still had over 20 to find and we couldn't see any more. 

Then one by one they would come into view in places we had already searched.  It was wild to notice another frog on the chandelier four days after I had taken a frog off of the chandelier, or a frog still snuggled on top of the Chinese dragon on our travel shelf after 3 other frogs had been found there. 

We love our kids and grandkids and the fun, crazy things they do.  Elsie went around and told us exactly where she hid all of her frogs.  She's a hoot.

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

NYC and BelWels

Wayne and I  just got back from NYC for a teaching conference with Laura and Eric Belnap.  We love these friends of ours so much.  We have traveled a lot together, but this is the first for all of us in this city. Laura and I had an Innovative Shools Summit at the Marriott Marquis on Times Square that our school paid for so we invited our boyfriends to tag along.  


Here is a rundown of what we did:

We got there Wednesday went to Joe’s Pizza for a late night snack, then to sleep for the Thursday conference. Thursday morning we went to the Edge which is a tall building with a view and an outdoor deck with a glass floor on some of it.  Perfect view of the Hudson River and The Empire State Building.  Plus there was a Magnolia Bakery right there-- so we got our Banana Pudding.






Then we Uber’d down to Chinatown. We had massages at Kimberly Spa. They were delightful.  My Chinese grandpa worked me over GOOD!  We ate lunch at Joe’s Shanghai- it was a recommendation and it was only fair food- so not going back.  But then we had ice cream at the Chinese ice cream shop - so fun! The flavors are Asian…. Taro, black sesame, kochi, green seaweed, red bean, durian fruit etc..…. All really, surprisingly tasty– we would go back here.  We walked the streets of Chinatown and went to see the start of the Manhattan Bridge. 




Thursday night we saw The Notebook the Musical — it was really good. This is such a sweet story that had me sobbing by the end. Alzheimer's is a cruel fate. Interesting casting too –they play Noah and Ali as teens, in their late twenties, and then in 70’s— none of these couples looked alike in size, shape, or race.  Fascinating. 

Got me some milk cake and a german chocolate brownie from the Cake Boss. Both incredible
The Naked cowboy is still in Times Square....weird

Friday we had our teacher conference all day. The boys went to the 911 museum then they went to Chelsea Market for lunch at Los Tacos. They rented bikes and went on the bike lane expressway along the Hudson River up to 72nd St., and they walked their bikes in towards Central Park and stopped at Levaine Cookies and bought a big thing of cookies.  Then they biked back down Broadway to our hotel. We met them and had a delicious dinner at Carmine's a ton of Italian food - huge family-size portions. Then we played games in our hotel Suite.  


Saturday: Such a rainy day. We attended more of the conference. We were done by 12:15. The boys went walking up to Central Park and back in the rain with umbrellas, and then we decided to get show tickets because it was so rainy.  We couldn’t do anything else so we went to the Neil Diamond- A Beautiful NOise show at 2 o’clock. We loved it.  There were times when the entire audience was singing along– I love these moments of community connection. Sweet Caroline was a riot. The head actor sounded just like Neil Diamond. Such an interesting story and the price of fame on family and mental health.




We went to Shake Shack for dinner - burgers and shakes then back to our hotel for games. (The boys keep beating the girls at Skipbo.  We also play Yahtzee, and 10, 2, Oh Crap!) At 8 o’clock we walked across the street to see Kimberly Akimbo.   A story about a 16-year-old girl who has an aging disease so she looks 64 (and is played on stage by a 64-year-old woman)…. and her dysfunctional family.  We saw Victoria Clark play this part… she was amazing, and all of the original cast members.   Then New York cheesecake from Juniors.  


Sunday. Breakfast and a big walk to St Patrick’s Cathedral for Mass and a walk through Central Park. Laura’s body is killing her so she’s moving very slowly. She stayed at the hotel with her bad back and hips.  She really is a trooper and never complains, but we know she is hurting. We spent the rest of the day traveling back home.



Monday, February 26, 2024

Temple Extravaganza

 Saturday was a full day at the Temple.  We call it our Temple Extravaganza day..and we did this twice in our YSA ward in 2019, and we loved it so much that we did it with some of our old YSA’s- the Edgars.  We went to Jordan River temple for baptisms, Oquirrh Mountain for Initiatories, Saratoga Springs for an endowment session and Mt Timpanogos for Sealings.  We had 6 of us and finished 140 ordinances.   In between all of the temples we had good food and discussions.  We tried to walk around a bit too at the temples to get our steps in. We left our house at 7 am and got back home at 8:30pm.  I was exhausted but in a good way.  I really like my temple time because it’s really the only time in my life where I’m disconnected.  No phone, no media, just me and my thoughts and God.  I go through each of my people and think on them, and pray over them, I breathe in peace and out love, I ask for guidance in different areas of my life, family, siblings, work, and primary.  It’s a really good mental, emotional and spiritual time for me. 

End of the night, Mt. Timp temple.  Lora and Sammi Edgar joined us.


Saratoga Springs..... for Endowments.

Oquirrh Mountain for Initiatories.

Lunch at Seven Brothers.

I got everyone temple rings to celebrate.

Add and Bre family


 Addison and Bre's family are in a bunch of commercials.  This is one for a special egg.  These kids are so cute!  

Friday, February 23, 2024

Alphabet dating - A

Friday night we went to see a movie with Tim and Linda Wangsgaard… Ordinary Angels– it’s a faith-based film and was really sweet. A true story from 1993 about a family who lost their mom and now the 5-year-old daughter is dying and a stranger steps in to help with bills and gets them to a hospital 6 hours away via helicopter and airplane.  
This was the kick-off of our Alphabet dating that Wayne and I are doing this year to spice up our date nights.  This was the letter "A" date– so we saw an Angles movie, we went out with A+ friends,  had pitA’s- greek food for dinner, and brought Apples for snacks during the movie.   It’s going to be fun and we are going to have to be creative.