Birthdays, Suckling Pigs, Chinese New Year and Monster Jam!

 Noelle turned six on January 9th! I've never meant anyone like her, and I can't believe she's mine!

 She had a princess party and invited all the girls in her kindergarten and primary class because "she just loves everyone so much she could never choose." I totally get that, so we had 16 little girls inside our very small townhouse. We decorated cupcakes like Tiana, made wands like Tinkerbelle, read books like Belle, and hunted for treasure (a pinata) like Ariel.

 We also wrapped each other in Rapunzel's hair and shot arrows like Merida, at Robert.

 Then I used my trumpet to beckon the princesses to the Royal Ball, where we all danced to the Frozen soundtrack. I got a little carried away spinning in circles and singing "Let it go." Since  I wasn't quite hitting the high notes, and I couldn't tell if the girls thought I was cool or weird, I went back to the servants quarters and prepared for the royal feast. It was crazy chaos, but so much fun, and my little princess (who admittedly can rescue herself) had the time of her life!

 The next weekend we went to the Couer d'Alene Symphony's Family Night. It was sports themed, so the conductor got sent to the penalty box, a violinist got thrown out of the song and one cello player tackled another one to the ground in the middle of Beethoven's Fifth.
And now my children officially think the symphony is awesome!

 Stanton was the VIP of his class, which made him so happy! He carried their classes stuffed monkey "Mango" everywhere all weekend, and we fed him mangoes cause we thought it was funny.

 It's been pretty cold and dark/rainy/snowy lately, and since we're not used to winter, we we were glad to find some fun indoor activities at the library...soccer inside!

And of course, building blocks is the after party of library story time! We built New York.

 We also went to a heart themed story and craft evening where we made more than the maximum number of popsicle stick heart animals and ate more than our fair share of the candy hearts they provided. I don't think the librarian minds though cause we thank her and compliment her to the point of awkwardness. She is just so nice. She needs to hear it!

The library also asked our club to make the January display case, so we filled it with pictures from all of the Arizona and Spokane Big Hearts, Little Hands projects.

We went to an RV show. It was us and a bunch of retirees climbing in and out of motor homes, pretty fun. Then we made a quick trip to Idaho to visit Cabella's. Noelle thought it was funny she caught a big Daddy fish. It was a good day!

 Winston started his art class. Parents can either drop off kids or stay, and Winston asked me over and over to drop him off like a big boy, but then when we got there, he asked me to stay, which MADE ME SO HAPPY, I asked him to repeat it! It was so wonderful doing the class together, and I didn't even micromanage his robot masterpiece one bit! I thought it was so adorable that he colored with all of the crayons at once!

 I went to a girl's night dinner for a friend's birthday, and the table of strangers next to has a giant whole pig, teeth and all, in the middle of the table. I couldn't even believe it, so I had to get a picture of their dinner. My suckling pig selfie did make me realize though that I have an odd amount of pictures of myself with barnyard animals (dead and alive.) I should probably put on some make-up and take a picture of myself all dolled up making a kissy face in the mirror every now and then.

We celebrated Chinese New Year in style! We went to Chinese festival to ring in the year of the horse, and we stocked up on authentic delicacies at the Chinese market.

 We also had a chopstick race, fortune envelopes and cookies and wrote the words "choo-choo train, lady bug and football" in Mandarin, all while listening to Chinese tranquility music, which we got totally hooked on, or maybe we were just too relaxed to change the cd.

 And for the grand finale we made paper plate pandas and dragon masks. I can already tell the year of the horse is gonna be a wild ride! (I'm hoping to sell that slogan to China before the year is out.)

 

The next weekend we went to Monster Jam! It's so entertaining! I think it should be an Olympic sport. I've already made my case for it, almost everyone there has an American flag tattoo so the US could totally represent, and Grave Digger would beat every country, every time. He is like the Liam Neeson of motor sports. It's guaranteed Olympic gold. Mitt Romney needs to hear my idea.

 Stanton loves watching the motorcycles do flips. That's my favorite part too.

 And Winston just loves life (and also Grave Digger.)

 And as an end to a great week, we licked icicles like popsicles and built our first official snowman! Some say he looks like a creeper, but we were pretty proud of him!

Welcome 2014!

The day after Christmas we went to the children's museum, one of our favorite hang outs! Noelle was thrilled to be their "Artist of the Week!" She said people were extra friendly to her, and every time she saw anyone smiling she would say, "I bet it's cause they liked my picture, and they know I'm the artist who made it."
It made me so happy to see her so happy, and I was very glad I gave them the anonymous tip about a snowman of the highest caliber, drawn by a young aspiring artist who would undoubtedly value the title "artist of the week" more than all of her Christmas presents combined. And it was true, she did!

We also made our city out of lincoln logs, which got destroyed by a Godzilla baby the second we walked away from it.

 So we headed over to the other side of the museum to help make a giant fort. Since the day after Christmas is Boxing Day, they told everyone to bring all of their present boxes to make huge houses out of. We used about 3 rolls of the museum's tape, but we ended up with a three bedroom box condo, complete with a chimney, mailbox and tons of windows.
Then Noelle, being the artist of the week, drew a picture of a dog and brought it to Stanton excitedly and said, "Look, we don't have to pretend we have a dog anymore because I just made us one!"
To which Stanton replied, "Okay, but that's still pretending."

 For New Year's Eve we went to First Night. It's Spokane's HUGE family celebration. There were tons of fun activities, shows, crafts, etc. We were there with our friends for 7 hours!

 We got to be in the New Year's Parade downtown. It was freezing, but we marched between a band and a giant dragon balloon float, so it was worth the chattering teeth.

 We also got to roast marshmallows in the middle of the street. For some reason making smores outside in the middle of downtown made it extra fun.
Then we went on another horse drawn carriage ride with our friends and our 6 kids total, and completely ruined a guy's marriage proposal on accident, not the kids...me.
We were all packed in pretty tight, so when he knelt down, his bum was on my knee, and when I figured out what he was doing, I was just so excited so I started screaming, before he even asked her. I screamed so loud she had to ask him what he said, twice. She finally figured it out and said yes, and I started tearing up and then asking them a bunch of questions, such as "Can I come to your wedding?" and "Don't you think our rings look exactly alike?" I'm ashamed to say I totally invaded their moment, until I finally realized how obnoxious I was being and stopped talking all together. I'm so embarrassed, but I was so caught up in it all.
I do have to say though, after getting to know them both briefly, I'm thinking the proposal may have been too sudden for her, and that she was most definitely not the type of girl to prefer a public proposal. I'm just saying.

Then the clock struck kid midnight (10pm) and Robert and I showed our kids how to really party! We saw a crazy ice sculpture!

 We stuck our heads in weird wooden cut-outs!

 And we dressed up like funny people!

 Then we met a make-up wearing, Jewish, rope spinning cowboy. His unicycle tricks were impressive, but he lost control and almost hung us with his rope a couple of times, which was a little frightening.

 Then Ronald McDonald solicited us for a picture. It was a slow night at his booth. I told him he should hand out free Big Macs instead of candy canes next time if he wants to draw a crowd.
He kept asking Noelle to switch shoes with him. She didn't like that too much. 

Winston fell asleep around eleven during the sound effects/comedy/magic show. The last thing he did in 2013 was drool all over my pants, which is fine by me because even his drool is adorable!

On New Year's Day we went to the historic Campbell House for a tour, which made me talk with a British accent for much longer than anyone wanted me to.

While we were there we learned how to make cookies with Helga. She made the kids "Viggle" (which i think meant wiggle) before they put the cookies in the oven.
She said Noelle was such a good helper that she could have live there and have a job. Noelle gave her a concerned/dirty look and turned her down. That's my girl, never leaving Mommy!

After that we went next door to the art museum. Noelle liked the Indian display best. She thinks their purses are very fancy.

A few days later we went on a big outing with lots of friends! Winston did not want his picture taken!

The Science Center was so much fun, and the boys had a blast creating stuff!

And the day wouldn't be complete without a little art.

That weekend we went on a day trip to the Gold Mine in Kellog, Idaho. We were the only ones there, and got a private tour 500 feet under the earth! It was fascinating!

They gave us little flashlights to examine the mine walls. They said to look,not to touch, but some of us may have.We also couldn't help but making up all sorts of "mine" jokes while we were there. So whenever he asked to borrow our light or told us to follow him we said things like, "What's "MINE" is yours" or "Don't MINE if I do." I thought it was funny and he pretended to nicely.

Before Christmas break ended, I took the kids to the gymnastics place for the open gym, and they thought it was the coolest place ever! Stanton climbed so high and jumped right into the foam blocks. It's kind of scary cause you sink right in. I felt like I was in quicksand when I tried.

Winston loves the trampoline and the bars.

Noelle's favorites are the balance beam and the bars.

We were sad that Stanton and Noelle had to go back to school, but Winston and I have been doing some learning of our own. When he matches a gumball to the right color, he gets to eat it. It was easier than I thought so he got to eat 8 gumballs right off the bat, and then go brush his teeth.

We've also started Learning Group back up again after the break. Winston loves having all of his little friends over to his house! After the lesson a few of them headed out to play in the snow.

And when the snow cleared up we went to the church ball field to launch Stanton's model rocket that he and Daddy built.

It went so, so high! It drew a crowd. We were all impressed!

Christmas time!

December started out with our church Christmas party! Our ward had an ugly sweater contest, and that is something that I can not NOT enter!
Stanton was really worried for me. He didn't think I should wear my homemade ugly sweater smock, and he definitely didn't think I should have been running around jingling the bells on the bottom of it for people. However, once he realized I WON the contest (ok, 3rd place) he was proud and impressed!
I was also the party's emcee, and Stanton was also worried that no one would laugh at the Christmas jokes I prepared. He had cause to worry about that one. 

The party was so much fun, good times, good food, good friends!

The primary kids sang a couple songs for everyone, and Noelle was very excited to play the chime for it. She nailed it!

The kids got to visit with Santa, and then the 3 wise men payed a visit to the children afterwards.

The next night Noelle and I kept up our Christmas tradition by going to the Nutcracker Ballet, and this year in matching dresses. Our friends came with us,and all of us girls went to dinner before and dessert after and had the time of our lives!

 The next night we went to a live nativity at the Presbyterian Church down the street from us. It was so beautiful, and it really felt just like they called it, "A Journey to Bethlehem."

The next day, my new friend Maria (who I met in the drive thru cause she liked making  fun of my 2/3 Diet Coke with 1/3 regular Coke on top mixed drink order) invited us on a private tour of the chocolate factory that she works at, Not only did we get to see how everything is made, but we got to use the chocolate covered cherry shaker, AND EAT AS MANY OF ANY KIND OF CHOCOLATE WE WANTED! She just let us have our pick of it all! We were so full, and to top it all off, she gave us a bag to fill up and take home.
It was one of the funnest thing we've ever done, and now the kids are obsessed with Maria and wanna visit her all the time at her other job at McDonalds...perhaps another tour is in our future (:

A few days later after school we made giant gingerbread men. Our favorite stories to read are different variations of the Gingerbread Man (the one made out of fry bread, the one made out of latkes, the one made out of tortillas/gorditas/churros.) They're all so good, so we made our own.

We also went sledding for our first time ever! It was unbelievably fun!

We went to three different hills! On the last one Stanton flew off of a big giant boulder that we didn't see and Robert smacked into a tree. They were both totally fine, and felt cooler and braver for having done so!

A few days later we had our 11th Annual Curry Christmas party! The theme this year was Christmas around the world.The friends were fun (and some were costumed.)! The food was ethnic and tasty, and the white elephant game was intense! It was like the Hunger Games of gift giving, but somehow I managed to win the Home Depot nutcracker that I desperately wanted. I was happy!

We took the kids on the free horse and carriage rides downtown. It was so magical clippety clopping down the streets, with all the lights and decorations! So magical, that I decided to start singing Jingle Bells from the beginning, thinking that at least a few of the 20 people on the carriage would join in, not a single one. My family's mouths were moving, but I'm pretty sure they were lip syncing because it felt to me like my solo performance was never going to end.

The kids really loved it. They kept waving at all the cars passing us.

And it's official now, drinking hot chocolate and being pulled by a horse are mine and Noelle's new favorite hobby!

Then we went inside and listened to carolers sing. (Where were they on the carriage ride when I needed them for Jingle Bells?)

The next night we went to the Davenport Hotel to see their humungus Christmas tree display. Each tree is decorated with a different theme. This one was camping, the boys' favorite!

We also made igloos out of sugar cubes and frosting. Then I gave the kids penguins and polar bears to stick inside when they were done, but they informed me that neither penguins or polar bears live in igloos. I googled it and found out they were right, that only Inuit Eskimoes live in igloos.
I admitted to them I was wrong, and they reminded me that it wasn't the first time. Then I reminded them what a super fun mom I am who comes up with all sorts of enriching activities for them, and we all agreed to use our imaginations and pretend the polar bears were eskimoes.

We also colored some pictures to get free pizza kits and made our own delicious creations. We liked it so  much we did it again on Christmas Eve-eve too!

Winston and I went to a Christmasy story time at the library and made a wintery bear craft, built a block city and checked out hundreds of books that we will never remember to return on time. It was such a sweet time together, and I know Winston enjoyed himself because whenever he is extra excited about something, he does somersaults. It's one of my favorite things about him! We will be walking, and he will just spontaneously run and do a somersault. It's the cutest thing in the whole world, and I don't ever wanna forget it!

 We colored all sorts of pictures and gathered up our friends and went to the nursing home down the street to sing carols and hand out pictures and sugar free goodies.

We met so many sweet Grandmas and Grandpas, sang lots of songs and gave out lots of hugs. It was a perfect activity, and the kids are all truly excited to go back!

Then we took our family Christmas card picture...I couldn't find a donkey to do the Christmas picture I'd envisioned, so I decided to wrap up our family.
First was Noelle, but she kept wiggling and ripping her paper. Then, I wrapped Stanton, but he complained of an itchy nose and no arms. Next I wrapped Winston, and he was doing great, until I gave them all a mint to eat while I wrapped Robert. Winston started choking on his mint while I was calling our neighbor to tell her we were ready for her to come take the picture. Robert busted out of his wrapping paper to help Winston, just as he barfs all over the place and I cry because I'm a bad mom for wrapping up my children, and how nothing I plan ever turns out right....
However, after everything was cleaned up, we re-wrapped ourselves. Our neighbor came back to take our picture at 9:00pm on a school night, and we gave each other armless wrapping paper hugs and laughed at our crazy new Christmas memory.

 On Christmas Eve we went to the free showing of Elf (our favorite) at the Imax theater, and then we continued our family tradition of Mexican food for Christmas Eve dinner. Winston fell asleep, so we put a sombrero on him.

Then we had a great time talking in Spanish to the waiter and listening to him tell us about his mariachi band in Guadalajara. He even showed it to us on a map.
After that we went home,and Robert and I played a Feliz Navidad trumpet/piano duet, which the kids guessed was Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Then we sang all of our own favorite Christmas songs together, read Christmas books and acted out a family Christmas nativity. It was a perfect night for a perfect holiday!