gag-gle noun \ˈga-gəl\ : a group, aggregation, or cluster lacking organization, which is exactly how I feel about my family every day.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Reese's Birthday Party

Reese had a party a week and a half early this year so she could have it before school starts. It was Harry Potter themed.




We started out by getting everyone a wand. If you know Harry Potter, you know that the wand chooses the wizard. We had five questions that each represented a feature of a wand (such as long/short, thin handle/chunky, natural wood/ colored accents, etc). Each girl was asked 3 of the 5 questions (chosen randomly) and the wand chose each girl. 


In the end we admitted that the wand and the witch needed to choose each other, and gave the girls the option to trade their wand with the ones left over.


Next, we led the girls into an escape room experience!

" Professor Aesop Dollos is a new Hogwarts teacher this year, though he did attend as a Hufflepuff student many years ago. He teaches the subject of Magical Mendacity, (the study of riddles and deceptions) An optional upper-division course for students interested in careers as Aurors, certain Ministry jobs, or jobs with lots Muggle contact.

Unfortunately, he is rather strict, and he confiscated a huge amount of Bertie Botts Every Flavor beans from one of your classmates during class. You’ve come up with a clever solution: you created a spell that bewitches this hourglass to tell you when he will return, so you know exactly how long you have to search his office.  Right now, it shows that he will not return for a whole hour.

When you get into Professor Dollos’ office, you will discover that he has set riddles and puzzles to prevent anyone from recovering the stolen candies, but you are clever enough to figure them all out!" 




There were puzzles and clues


That led to opening of locks


That led to more puzzles and clues


That led to more puzzles, locks, and rune translations


Shout out to Aunt Shelly who decorated the room and helped me plan the puzzles and riddles!


Some of the puzzles led to using spells to summon keys for locks.



This included ciphers, invisible ink, magic mirrors, secret codes and more!






In the end, they found the stash of Every Flavor Beans with about 6 minutes to spare!
We then dared the girls to try the beans, some of which had terrible taste! We used the Jelly Belly Beanboozled game for this part. 


Then we had cake and butterbeer (thanks for helping, mom!)



And opened gifts


And then the girls went back into the Professor's office to play Harry Potter until it was time to go



Happy Birthday, Reese!

Reese turns TEN YEARS OLD today!  I can't believe it. How did this happen? I sure love this girl! Here are some things about her:


Loves cats . practices her piano . reads all the time - some books, like Harry Potter, many times . likes Minecraft . rides the bus to school this year . still gets bloody noses and ear infections a lot . loves to draw and be creative . kind to others . silly . shy . started attending Fox Hills advanced learner program this year . sets goals . likes to write letters . likes Pokemon . picky eater . likes church Activity Days . likes to play soccer and is a pretty smart player . generally cheerful . find things chores to do around the house without being reminded. Thoughtful and purposeful in the choices she makes

Happy Birthday, Reese!

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Liam's Birthday

We had Liam's birthday part on his birthday, but unfortunately I didn't get many pictures.  I was too busy running around trying to get a gaggle of boys to pay attention enough to tell them the rules of each game.

We had bunches of targets. Everyone got a small Nerf Jolt gun and a few bullets

We played games like Capture the Flag and tried to shoot balloons across the other team's line.

We let the kids build forts out of boxes to be their base



He had doughnuts instead of cake and we served ice cream sandwiches n stuff.

Earlier that day, Liam opened gifts







And later that day we went to Liam' favorite restaurant, McDonald's, for dinner, where all the kids feet became black as soot on the play place.
(also, it was the worst experience at McDonald's we've had. Three different families with us and they got every single one of our orders wrong, some multiple times, and some major things. Then they have this new thing where you have to go to the counter to ask for the bathrooms to be unlocked, which was a nightmare with so many kids, and poor Adam got his finger slammed in the bathroom door so I quickly walked over to the Walmart to get him some pain medicine.  At least I think Liam had fun!)

Happy birthday to my big eight-year-old boy!

Liam's Baptism

Last month, Liam was able to be baptized while his out-of-state cousins were in town. We are proud of him for wanting to do what we believe God wants him to do.