Everything since Nov. 8th

I have a lot of pictures - most from a few specific days - from the past month. These are some (lots) of my favorites: Pictures on Google Albums

So it's been a long time. Just over three weeks. I've meant to blog. I've thought about blogging. But honestly, i just didn't have the heart to do it after the election. But life goes on, and things keep happening, and now it's December and Christmas is coming, and so.

(A quick aside. I am really quite heartbroken about the election. Not because i loved Hillary so much, but because i'm just so incredibly disappointed in people. I realize that people don't like Hillary, and that's fine. And in any other election in my lifetime, i'd say, "I'm bummed that my guy didn't win, but i'm sure the other guy will be able to do the job too." But Trump? He's just so offensive and unqualified. And so many of his followers are far too happy about being given leave to be openly racist and offensive now. And so far, since the election, nothing has lessened my fears. So. There. There's that for posterity.)

Anyhow. Things that we've been doing in November:

• Family Drawing night. It's always a favorite activity and really something we don't do often enough. Everyone has a special sketch book used specifically for family drawing night - the kids are all nearly finished with their second books (theirs are quite thin books...) - so there are drawings going back several years at the beginning of their books. They all started looking at what they'd drawn 4-5 years ago, and it really is fun to see how much better they are at drawing!
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The movie came out on the 18th, and so we got a big group together and had everyone over for a pre-movie party and then all went to see the movie together. Beth and Juanito and Keren and i made party favors - bookmarks and cookies and origami rats and suitcases (for where the beasts lived) and passports and little tiny beasts. Everyone brought food, and we had cupcakes to sort people into their American Magic school houses. Brooke even got to come, having just returned from New Zealand. Yay!
• We went to Meijer Gardens for the Tree Lighting. It was a members only event (fun!), and it was quite packed. The tree lighting itself was quite lame, but we got to see all of the trees and decorations at night, which was really pretty and totally worth it. My mom came with us, which was extra fun. It's been several years since we've gotten to all go, and i'm happy we got to see it again! Plus there were carolers and cookies, so it was extra awesome.
• Thanksgiving! We went to my parents' house for Thanksgiving this year, and we had lots and lots of people to celebrate with us. My aunt and uncle and cousins who we always do Thanksgiving with were there, along with my cousin Cindy and her family and my mom's cousin and her husband. We ended up with two long tables full of people. And i remembered again that i really like my whole extended family.
• The kids and i decorated the house for Christmas while Juanito was sleeping. He's not actually a fan of the decorating, and we all are, so we figured that there was no reason to wait for Juanito for us to get started. Katrina and Zane woke up early and brought up all of the decorations from the basement. (If i'd known this ahead of time, i'd have been extremely worried about all of the very fragile things they were maybe going to drop and break, but they didn't break anything at all! Woohoo!) We set up the fake tree (but didn't decorate it). We hung up the stockings and the advent calendars and the mistletoe and all of the other decorations that we put on walls. We found places for the snow globes and snowmen and nativity scenes and all of the other stuff that goes on random shelves. And the kids were actually helpful! Like...actually helpful! This is a wonderful new phase!
• We went to get a real Christmas tree. We met my parents at the same tree farm we've been going to for years. We fully planned to get a "pretty tree," but then we just happened along a really cute wonky-ish tree. The past several years we've looked for wonky trees and haven't found any that were remotely cute, so when we saw this one, we were like, "Huh. We kind of can't pass this up, can we?" Katrina was a little bit devastated - we'd just been looking at pictures that very morning of the year that she thought we were joking about getting a silly tree and then was completely crushed when she realized that we actually were getting a silly tree instead of a pretty one - but she was placated by my mom's kind offer to let her borrow a little fake tree for her own bedroom. Juanito got the tree all set up and the kids put their ornaments in the most ridiculously random pattern ever, and once it was decorated it's really quite adorable.
• We went to Meijer Gardens again. This time we went with my sister Chellie and her kids. Going with different people always makes it a whole different experience. It was fun to see the trees when it wasn't so completely mobbed. Katrina and Zane had fun getting to show their cousins around. Juanito and Houston came later to meet us so Chellie could take family pictures for our Christmas cards. Yay!
• Advent started, so we got to light our first candle on Sunday. My goal this year is to actually get all the way to the last candle. Every year we do the first 2-3, and then by the end we're all busy and we just forget. 
• I got to babysit my friends' kids today. They're between 4-8, and they're all adorable, and i was reminded of just how short kids' attention spans are at this age. And also how much little kids like to touch All! The! Things! They were all very disappointed in me for not having more toys around for them to play with, but my kids weren't home, and i didn't want to offer their toys without their permission. I did teach them "Guess Who," and that continues to be a game that every single kid ever loves to play. We played lots of other games too, but Guess Who was the hands-down favorite. And they spent half of their time here holding the guinea pig and only stopped when i insisted that the poor little thing needed some quiet alone time. (Me: "Y'know how, when you're really tired and you just want to be quiet and alone for a little while?" All of them: "I never want to be quiet! Or alone!")

Zane's 10th birthday party!

When our kids turn ten, they get a big birthday party. ("Big" being relative. Usually they just get to invite one friend over for the night.) Zane's tenth birthday is tomorrow, and so yesterday was his big birthday party. He's been looking forward to this party for literally months - he was already trying to hammer out details with me back before Christmas.

He decided that he'd like to have a Lego party ("But not everything needs to be Legos, Mom. I want to just have some normal games too!") He and i went to the party store to search for any actual Lego plates or napkins or anything, but there was no Lego anything anywhere. And so we got creative. We decided to just go with Lego colors - red and yellow and blue and green being the primary Lego colors - and got tablecloths and plates and napkins and silverware in those colors. And then we bought yellow plastic cups and yellow balloons, and Beth helped me turn both of those things into awesome Lego faces that turned out way cuter than i'd actually anticipated. And, just to make sure that the Lego theme was obvious, i had the kids build some silverware and napkin holders out of Legos. (They were all, "Can we give them eyes?" and i was all, "YES! Make them look awesome!" And they did!)

As people arrived, they guessed how many Legos were in a jar (most of the kids were hilariously far off, and my dad ultimately won, so we declared an adult AND a child winner) and made Lego cars to race. Juanito built a huge, amazing track for the cars to race down. We were originally supposed to be racing outside, but it had been raining and was threatening more rain, so we moved the track inside instead.

And then we ate lunch, with a menu specifically chosen by Zane: Hot dogs and macaroni and cheese and baby carrots and green apples and cantaloupe and wavy potato chips. He was especially excited about the wavy potato chips.

And then more games! We tossed legos at a target that kind of looked like skeeball. We played Pin-the-head-on-the-Lego-Man. We gave everyone an ice cube with a Lego inside of it, and they had to melt the ice cube to free the Lego.

And then we brought out the dart board. When i originally had this idea, i told Juanito, "So...i want to have a dart board where kids can throw darts at balloons and pop them. What can we use for darts?" and he went outside and made four of the deadliest-looking darts i have ever seen. Compared to these darts, lawn darts look like fluffy marshmallows. They're basically nails that he's sharpened into points and then added a handle to. But they worked!

So anyone who knows Zane knows that he loves candy. He does NOT, however, love pinatas, because of the whole "rush forward and fight over the candy on the ground" aspect. So instead, we stuffed a whole ton of balloons with candy, and then let everyone pop one balloon and collect whatever was inside. It actually worked really, really well.

And then the obstacle course, where they had to walk up a pallet and leap off, shoot some ping pong balls off pop bottles with a squirt gun, run through tires, climb through hula hoops while walking a balance beam, throw a beach ball through another hula hoop, crawl under and jump over some boards, walk a Z-shaped balance beam, and then hop and walk backwards to the finish line. It was awesome, except that some people had a really hard time with the ping pong ball shooting.

And then cake - which Beth helped me make, and which we were both pretty proud of  - and presents, and we ended almost exactly at the time we were supposed to end. Yay!!!

Zane totally had fun, and i think everyone else did too, so i declare it a roaring success! 

The Cursed Child

Last night was the midnight release of the new Harry Potter book, "The Cursed Child." Beth and i have gone to the midnight release of at least 3 of the Harry Potter books before, so of course we wanted to go to this one too! And this time, we could take Houston and Katrina, who have also finished the series! (We didn't want to take Zane and expose him to spoilers, but his best friend was sleeping over, so he wasn't upset at all!)

Beth made us awesome little bags of swag - cauldron cakes and floo powder and Butter Beer and chocolate-covered wands and a little bottle of Felix Felicis! They were SO cute!

The release was at Barnes and Noble, and they had games and fun stuff to do, and it was really fun.

I didn't actually read the book last night, as i did with the other books, because i was just too, too tired, but i did totally read it this morning and finished it in about 4-5 hours. And ... i'm pretty sure i liked it. I'll have to think about it a bit more, but i think i did. 

Keren's 40th birthday!

Keren's birthday is actually at the end of December, but what with Christmas and New Year's, she decided to go ahead and wait until mid-January to have her 40th birthday party. Star Wars themed, of course.

Beth and i were Ewoks. Zane was Luke Skywalker. Juanito was Darth Vader - the bobblehead version. Stephanie was Yoda. Keren was Princess Leia, of course. There were lots of other people, but we were the cutest. :)

I love that my friends are fun. Beth's 40th birthday party was Harry Potter themed, with costumes encouraged. This was Keren's, with costumes encouraged. Most people did wear costumes, and everyone seemed to think it was really fun. "We" played Star Wars trivial pursuit. (Which basically means that we divided into teams, and then Keren and Alex played while we cheered for our person. Seriously, i think i knew the answer to maybe two of the questions.)

Afterwards, i asked Zane if he had fun. He said, "Yes! It was really unhealthy!" There were plenty of sweet things to eat, and Zane took full advantage.

Sunday

The plan was that Beth would come to us at 10:20, and then we drive to pick up Stephanie and all ride to church together. And so, when it was 10:10 and Houston was calmly eating breakfast and STILL had to take a shower, i was all, "Houston! Beth will be here in 5 or 10 minutes!" And he was all, "Okay." And then continued eating at a leisurely pace. And somehow managed to get out of the shower and dressed by the time Beth showed up. He had wet hair, but he made it. (I was totally the same way when i was his age. I went to school and church many, many times with wet hair, having gotten out of bed at the last possible second. So i can't be too irritated with him.)

After church, Beth and i drove up to visit Keren, who is closer to town at her parents' house for the weekend. We talked about our up-coming trip to Florida and looked at maps of Harry Potter World and got all excited about all of the Harry Potter-y things that we'll get to do. I like my friends.

And then Beth came over again tonight to make our costumes for Keren's birthday party (Star Wars themed, with costumes strongly encouraged) and to watch Downton Abbey. The costumes (we're going to be Ewoks) are hilarious and ridiculous and will hopefully be cute enough. 

Doctor Who!

Approximately a year and a half ago, i started watching Doctor Who - the reboot, not the old seasons. I fell in love almost immediately and zoomed through the entire series, mostly by staying up WAY too late most nights. Except...then i was finished, and there was no more, and i was sad. So eventually i started watching some of the episodes again. My kids were all, "Can we watch?" I picked out a couple of episodes that i thought were not too scary - one with the Oods (I love the Oods), and ... i don't remember. Katrina and Zane, while they really liked it, found it too scary. They had nightmares and couldn't fall asleep and generally just couldn't quite handle it yet.

Houston, on the other hand, LOVED it. So i started from the beginning with him. It took many months, and we had to do a couple of mini-marathons by the end, but we watched the last episode of season 7 on Monday night, because on Tuesday, our friends were coming over to watch the first episode of season 8.

A month or so ago, Beth and i were talking about ... something to do with one of the things we get totally geeky about, and i mentioned that i'd have a much easier time doing a Doctor Who themed party than, say, The Hunger Games. That immediately led Beth and Houston to "suggest" that we have a party for the first episode of the new season.

The kids were at least excited as i was. Katrina and Zane know who most of the characters and aliens ARE, even if they haven't seen the episodes with, say, the Weeping Angels or the Silence, because they're TERRIFYING. Juanito helped out, even though he doesn't really care about Doctor Who. And Beth made awesome things too, so altogether, we had so much great stuff.

Juanito made the crack in space and time for our wall. I think that's going to be up for a while. It's awesome.

My favorite thing might be the Weeping Angel we made for the bathroom wall. We didn't warn anyone that it was there, and the reactions were AMAZING. Keren and Beth both screamed and jumped. I am a meanie, so i just laughed and laughed at them. I'm still giggling a little bit.

Everyone came. We made little Doctor Who characters out of paper crafts, which was both incredibly frustrating and completely awesome. I love my little Tardis, and i'm still finishing my Weeping Angel, because it's totally worth it. We made pizzas, which were DELICIOUS, and took pictures, and then the youngest two were exhausted and headed up to bed. And the rest of us watched the new Doctor. And lo, he was fantastic.