A Roundy Thanksgiving

Almost ever year since we've been married, we've spent Thanksgiving with Ryan's family. This year Ryan & I decided to spend it with my family. I couldn't be happier. Thanks Ry.

Right before dinner, Nicole passed out a piece of paper to everyone and announced that after dinner we were going to have a turkey drawing contest. Thanks everyone for participating. You made her day and she felt very special.

My dad planned some crafts for the kids too. They made teepee's & log cabins in honor of the first Thanksgiving. Then there was some knitting. For some reason a Roundy Family get-together never seems to be complete without it!Then we topped off the night with a good solid 4 1/2 hours of Rock Band. Everyone had a chance to play. Mom really got into it. See her getting into the groove? There was even some swaying & snapping involved. Happy Thankgiving!

Finding Joy in My Journey (Through the Zoo)

Free Zoo Day! Oh the joys! In the past these words have made you squeal with delight, but they've made me cringe. You think, "The fun, the excitement, the wonderful things to see." I think, "The lines, the parking, the millions of children fighting to get a peek."

This past Wednesday I made it my goal to live more in the moment, to try and see life through your eyes. The absolute thrill of seeing a giraffe and a giant turtle isn't going to last forever. We may as well enjoy every step of the way. I had it in mind that I was going to be uber chill. No rushing through all the exhibits and back out to the car in an hour or less. You want to sit and watch the penguins stand around for 20 minutes? Let's do it! You want to drive all the way to the zoo just to play on the playground? Why not? Today was a different sort of day. I put the mountains of laundry and the dirty house out of my mind. Today I had no worries. No places to go. Today was all yours.

The first thing you wanted to do was hit the playground. In the past this would have frustrated me immensely, and you would have heard me say something like, "No. We're here to see the animals. You can play at one of the playgrounds in our neighborhood." That wasn't the case today. We found a bench smack dab in the middle of the park and settled in for some fun.

Khursten, you loved watching the pelicans that were swimming just a few feet away. My favorite quote of the day came from one of the Beebe boys, "Pelicans are really nice. They like to give fish a ride." (Thanks Nemo for being so informative. )

Nicole, you had to try out everything. You ran back and forth between the slide, the caterpillar, the spiderweb, the seesaw... and back again. I'm always in awe when I watch you. How one little girl has so much energy, I will never know.

Audrey, you spent the entire time going down the slides. You stayed with the little elephant slide for a long time, but eventually you got really brave and ventured out toward the big slide. You were so proud of yourself! That was a big step! I was proud of you too.

You two are so cute together. Are arranged marriages still legal?

It could be a great set-up!Finally it was time to go and see the animals. We let you lead the way. You each had your favorites, and it was fun to sit and watch you watch them.

But we couldn't go home before heading back to the playground for a little while longer.

Khursten spent the whole time trying to climb up the big, padded pole.

I just sat on my little bench and watched. This was a big step for me. Usually I'm be the mom running over and trying to stop you from being a hoodlum. Not today. You go ahead and have fun. I'm just proud you finally made it!

And how nice of you to help your sister up too.

You guys are lucky to have each other.

Thanks girls for the fun day. Who knew I could have fun at the zoo for 3 1/2 hours? I would never have believed it before today. Thanks for helping me slow down and enjoy life just a little bit more. I really love being your mom!

Turkey Cookies

Today my cutest friend Audrey invited us over for some good ol' fashioned cookie-makin' fun! She had the funnest idea to make cookies with the kids hand-prints and decorate them like turkeys for Thanksgiving. I'm so glad I have friend who think of these fun things to do. My poor kids would suffer greatly if I was left to be creative on my own.

We all took turns tracing the kids hands and cutting out hand-shaped cookies. The older kids thought it was pretty cool that older kids = bigger hands = bigger cookies!

All off the kids were sooo excited they could hardly stand it. (well... minus the sweet baby girl who really needed a nap) The all stood around watching as their cookies were baking in the oven. They couldn't believe it when their already-giant cookies kept getting bigger and bigger as they cooked. It was truly fascinating for them!

When they were finally done they got to decorate their turkeys. Gobble, Gobble.

Ta-Da!!!!

Thanks Audrey & Kristen for the fun morning. And thanks to Audrey for using your brain and being all creative and what not. (And for letting us all destroy your house again!)

Audrey's Own Little World

Last night the Clark Planetarium came to the girls' school for a night of science & math. The girls really wanted to go. Ryan was a good daddy and took Nicole & Khursten, but we didn't think Audrey would fully appreciate the experience so I opted to stay home with her. She was devastated and very insulted to be left behind. In an effort to make her feel special I let her play with Khursten's Sweet Streets (something that is normally forbidden) I had so much fun sitting and playing with her for almost an hour while she set up her own little world. She had all the sweet streets set up as well as the Little People. Everyone had their purpose and every bulding was placed just so.

She had it in her mind that she wanted to set up all the people on couches and chairs so that they could watch a movie. Her little chubby fingers made the job a little more difficult than she predicted. Every time she would get one person on the couch, she would knock off the ones she already got seated. I couldn't believe how patient she was with herself. It took her a full 20 minutes to get everyone in their seats, but she did it. Notice the dogs & cats even had a place to sit and watch?

She finally finished and was so proud of herself! I was very impressed too. Then it came time to watch the movie and we couldn't find the TV anywhere. I thought this was going to cause some major problems, but Audrey immediately worked out a solution. Who needs a TV? The little people can surely watch a movie on the side of the ice cream truck! Tonight's movie was "Pinsess Auwowa" and I hear they all thoroughly enjoyed it.

What Am I Doing Wrong?

It's time for this to stop! I am completely laundry inept. I have no idea why! Every time I do laundry I end up bleaching something. This time it was my brand-new shirt! Why is this happening? Right away Ryan learned of my laundry handicap when I somehow tie-died his favorite pair of jeans. He immediately asked for a solemn promise from me never to use bleach again. I haven't even bought a bottle of bleach in about nine years, but yet I keep somehow bleaching all my stuff. I always use color-safe detergent, I put the detergent in way before I put my clothes in so that there's plenty of time for it to start dissolving. I always use cold water so that I can keep my colors safe. I don't dry my stuff in the dryer! What is going on?!?!? I am seriously desperate to figure this thing out! I really can't afford any more bleaching mishaps! :(

Why School, Why?

I'm going to go off on a really quick little rant. My girls are constantly coming home all excited about something they got at school. It's usually a ticket for a kids' meal or a flyer about a fabulous prize they can win. In the past two or three weeks we have had four such experiences. On Monday my girls ran through the door yelling, "Mom! Mom! We can get a free Scooby Doo T-Shirt and a pair of sunglasses! All we have to do is mail these out to our grandmas." They were soooo stoked! I took the packet from them and read the fine print. Yes, they will get these prizes if they can get two or more relatives to subscribe to a magazine! Then I'm left to break their hearts and try to explain to them how things that sound too good to be true usually are. They were devastated and I felt so bad for them. I don't think it's fair.

Then yesterday they each brought home a ticket for a free kidsmeal begging Ryan & I to take them out for dinner. Again, I read the fine print... First of all the restaurant is clear up in Layton! Second of all, it's with the purchase of an adult meal and drink and when I looked online, the meals at this place are $20 a plate! Again dashed hopes and broken hearts. Why, oh why must they be so sneaky and do this to my little babies?

Cake Decorating May Not Be Our Cup of Tea (But we sure had fun!)

If any of you are avid readers of my blog, you know that when my sisters & I get together things always get a little bit crazy. Recently my mom came up with the idea to all get together once a month and have a girls' night. Last Friday was our first! Mom decided it would be fun to teach us all how to decorate cakes since it's something she is interested in and has taken classes to do.

Here she is being the cutest mom and making five little cakes for us all to decorate. Isn't she sweet?

For some reason we all thought it would be fun to pose with our cakes and pretend we were in a really cheesy commercial.

Here's Jill. Doesn't she look like she's right out of an Orbit commercial? I was tempted to add a little white sparkle to her teeth. This cracks me up!

Here's me trying really hard to get a good pose, but by this time we were all laughing a little too hard.

Here's my fav. This is Lauri. She gave us a good valiant effort, but that darn morning sickness left her feeling pretty crappy. This looks like an ad right out of Good Housekeeping. All you need are the little ones running around in the background.

And let us not forget our dear, sweet Kristy.

Oops I kind of cut out the cake. But this would have been the winner for sure!

Spoon Eyes!!!!!

Here we all are lookin' so cute and having some good ol' fashioned cake-decorating fun!Some of us had better luck than others....

Luckily Dad stepped in to save the day! Thanks mom for going to all the work to make this happen. And thanks to my sisters for always being willing to let loose and be fun and crazy! I'm looking forward to next month!