Idaho Farm, Temples, and Family Relations

Earlier this month I had the precious opportunity to visit my family in Idaho. 

My youngest sister is leaving to volunteer for over a year on a mission for our church, so all my siblings gathered together to celebrate her choice and attend the temple with her on her first time. Going through the temple for the first time is such a big deal in our religion. You can read why HERE and learn more HERE

Going through the temple is the most beautiful experience on earth and the Spirit is so incredibly strong. I frequently say temples of God are my very favorite places, and I really treasured this chance to be with my family in the holy temple. It's so humbling and electrifying to glimpse heaven and see what our divine potential is- I never feel more beautiful and cherished as a woman than I do in the temple! It's so empowering and I always leave on a spiritual high. 

My family spent the weekend together on my parent's farm in the Idaho countryside. I don't see my siblings very often since we all live on the far corners the continent (me to the South, a brother on the East coast, a brother in North Dakota, a sister on the West coast, and others scattered in-between). This was a special weekend to talk, create memories, laugh, and talk some more. It was just heavenly!

The weekend was delightfully full with shopping (picking out clothing for Rachael's mission), ice cream parlors, late-night talks, touring the town of my happy childhood, visiting more relatives

My mother made the weekend so welcoming and positive for everyone! (Thanks so much, Mom, for making it a beautiful weekend!) We really appreciated her service in creating such wonderful memories! I love spending time around her and feeling strengthened and inspired. She is such a great example of intelligence and hard work, and this always motivates me to improve myself.  

It was fun to help my dad work on the farm for a bit, walking fence lines and riding the tractor. He's such a wonderfully sincere person! It's always nice to spend time around him because he is truly without guile and is always concerned about everyone around him. His eyes have a magical way of radiating love when he converses with me, I just love it! 

I was so caught up in the wonderful conversations that I didn't take many pictures, but here are the glimpses I snatched on film of the rare moment I remembered to pull out my camera:

Two of my sisters, Lisa and Rachael. What lovely women they are!

My Kingsley-sister Betsy spent a day with us as well. We kidnapped her from college to join the fun.

One of the new livestock babies on the farm. Isn't he gorgeous?!
We had such fun watching  the new colts play in the fields. 

Mom, Rachael, Lisa, and Philip during Sunday lunch.

My brother owns a sweet house nearby and hosted the family for a special lunch after the temple visit. His house is perfectly situated with several nice basement apartments to rent out. What a smart place to live!  I was so happy for him!

My younger (but taller!) brother, Robert. He's such a great person! His future wife will be lucky for sure!

A selfie of me and Betsy in the pasture. 

My older brother Philip and me.
Seriously, everyone should have a brother like him!
He's so full of love and concern for everyone, and never criticizes!

A small glimpse of the relatives who gathered to enjoy a lunch to celebrate Rachael. 

My siblings and I also spent the weekend visiting places from our childhood.  We were all squeezed into my mom's Suburban...the same one we drove on family summer vacations when I was a child. Boy! The memories that flooded back were so fun! It felt like we were all kids again, heading out on a grand adventure!

We drove through our childhood neighborhood and visited our old house. We also spent time on the BYU-I campus, where I attended college and met my sweetheart. So many things are changing in town- my old (really old, as in they were built in the 1920's) college apartments were razed to make way for a new park. It was sad to see the College Avenue of my youth be so empty without all the snug little brick houses I regarded so fondly. I have so many rich memories from that street, and a special kinship was forged between the students who lived there. I'll have to console my heart with old photographs. I have to admit though, it did look much better with a beautiful park rather than beensy house rubbing shoulders.

It's a bit funny, but one highlight of the trip for me was actually the thrift store, can you believe it? I have to explain why- the Mormon thrift stores are so exciting because they have a gold mine of old religious books. I love books, and I particularly love to read scholarly discourses or textbooks on the scriptures, Jewish history, lives of modern-day prophets, etc. In Texas it's a rare thing to find a Mormon book at the used-book stores (Although it does happen occasionally. I scored a leather-bound, gold-leafed edition of the beautifully-written masterpiece, Jesus The Christ.). My sister had pointed out that thrift stores in this area were well-stocked with interesting books since there is such a high Mormon population. We were all interested in collecting more books to add to our home libraries.

My siblings all laughingly agreed to a friendly race to the bookshelves in the store, where we found lots of great treasures. I really love to study my scriptures with the accompaniment of my old university study guides from religion courses, but I had given my textbooks away to friends several years ago. These textbooks were so wonderful, rich with descriptions of ancient Jewish customs to help enlighten Biblical scriptures, or quotes from respected scriptorians add insight to particular passages. I love to copy notes from the textbook into my scriptures, and it really adds depth to my scripture study experience.

Anyway- I found textbooks from every religion course offered at the university. Evidently the college students all dumped their books here before leaving for the summer. Score! I have several years-worth of study material now! I was totally doing my happy-dance over this find, and didn't mind purchasing another piece of luggage at the thrift store so I could bring my treasures home on the plane. (Thank goodness Southwest Airlines doesn't charge for a second checked bag! Whew!)

The weekend was wonderfully-fun and carefree. I felt like a little sponge, soaking up all the positive energy and joy to store away in my memory for a rainy day. My heart was so full of gratitude for this experience, and overflowing with love for my family. I'm so thankful to belong to a good family, that is truly priceless!

Messy Birthday Party

Here are some glimpses of Matthew's Messy Birthday Party...and a super short summary. I'm too busy lately to spend much time on blog posts. So. Here's quick the run-down:

We invited his entire class at school and church, so we were swarmed with 25 guests. I've never had this many kids at a party, but it worked out well since we have plenty of space for them to spread out and play. Only half of the children participated in the games because so many children just wanted to pet goats in the pasture, play with chickens, or climb trees. I was content to let the kids play wherever their hearts desired, since most of them don't live on farms. I think it's so nourishing to the soul to play with animals or climb trees, and the kids had a great time.

Instead of birthday cake, we have cupcakes and let the kids decorate the frosting however they wished, encouraging messy artistry with a variety of sprinkles and toppings.  We also served Worms'N Dirt cups, which I think I could eat all day if given the chance. I have a serious weak spot for Oreos!  Nathan cooked spiral-sliced hot dogs for lunch, which look pretty crazy and are super fun to eat.

We had several games and stations for kids to experience.

Our giant pan of Ooblek Slime was a huge hit. Just mix cornstarch, water, and food coloring (and I'm seriously too lazy today to look up the actual recipe right now....) until it makes a slimy mess. It's so fun to play with since the ooblek is both a solid and a liquid. I think we used 3 or 4 boxes of cornstarch, and the kids just loved playing all afternoon at this station.

The most popular activity was shaving cream on the trampoline. The kids were laughing the whole time. They had so much fun getting messy, and they were surprisingly silly with this activity. Everyone had a good time, and this activity is definitely a keeper for future parties. The kids entertained themselves for ages, which let me off the hostessing hook a bit! 

We also had silly relay races with cooked (and heavily-oiled) spaghetti noodles. I had two giant pans of noodles at the starting line, and teams had to pass the slimy noodles from person to person to reach the finish line. A large pot waited at the finish line to see which team collected the most noodles at the end. It was an absolute mess, and the chickens were very happy to help 'clean up' any stray noodles on the ground. 

I also had a three-person slip'n slide set up on the lawn. When guests were too sticky or messy, they'd take a dive down the slip'n slide ride to clean off a bit before heading back to the messy fun. 

Canvases were lined up outside for kids to create messy abstract art. Children dipped cooked noodles into paint and threw the colored noodles onto the canvas to create designs. 

We also staged a flour fight. We filled large socks with flour and tied a knot on the end. Children would run around swinging theses socks and blast opponents with clouds of white flour. We also armed kids with spray bottles filled with water-based paint to spray on each other. (Don't worry, the guests all wore old clothing to the party and the parents knew we'd be getting paint on everything!)

The toddlers really loved the spray bottles as well. They were so cute, spraying the plants, the balloons, and the sidewalks. 

Nathan pushed kids really high on the tire swing while some guests tried to hit the riders with flour socks. It was a great way to end the party as guests slowly disappeared to head home with goody bags.

Glimpses of our country egg hunt

I just love these little blue galoshes! Diego wears them everywhere! 

(Old news alert! I'm playing catch-up this week!)

This year I organized an Easter egg hunt that would help the children be unified, rather than competing against each other for eggs. I hate the competitiveness and greediness of normal egg hunts, so I made a way to encourage them to work together. It all has to do with the gold eggs (more at the end of the post).

Here are glimpses of our Easter egg hunt this year. I spread 100 eggs around our property while the children were at school. The school bus pulled up and dozens of noses were pressed against the bus windows, looking at the colorful eggs scattered in the yard. Our Littles were so eager to hop off the bus and begin the hunt. 

The children had a wonderful time and did a great job working together to help each other find eggs. 

At first Diego thought the eggs were just pretty toys to collect, which he dutifully did. He giggled each time he discovered another colorful treasure.

Then he finally opened one. And discovered the sugary goodness inside. 

He lost interest in any other eggs and the world paused for him while he licked out every last speck from the sugar-coated marshmallow chick inside. From then on, he 'got it' and ran laughing from one patch of grass to another, searching for more treats.

 Cutest thing ever.

Matthew found several golden eggs this year, and generously gave a gold egg to each sibling. 

At one point Daniel was disappointed that he didn't have as many eggs as everyone else. Matthew quietly went around the corner, removed several eggs from his own bag and hid them. Then he came running back with excitement and yelled, "Daniel! Look over there! No one found those eggs yet!" 

Daniel was SO excited and Matthew watched with a small smile on his face while Daniel scooped up each egg. Matt didn't see me watching from across the yard. Oh, my heart melted!

I wanted the children to work together as a team this year, so I made a puzzle with clues to lead the children to the baskets. Each large egg had pieces of the puzzle. The gold eggs held the most important parts of the puzzle with the key words of the clues. 

It was neat to watch the children pool their pieces and work together to solve the mystery. Each child contributed to the solution, then they read the clues together and ran away to fetch the prizes. 

It was a delightful day! I hope your day today is full of joy!

Little Things and weekend plans

This post is just about life's little things. The little things that make me happy. The little things that make life interesting. 

Daniel loves his bike! He rides it everyday (as long as it's not raining). He REALLY loves to ride bikes with Daddy on the quiet, scenic country roads in our neighborhood  The bike is too small for him and it's made from pieces of different bikes. See the front tire? It's spray painted black to cover the previously pink paint....we reused the wheel from a thrift-store princess bike. Daniel doesn't care. He's just happy to have a bike, and -boy!- does he ride it everywhere! He takes his trusty bike all over the property, racing with Matthew to see who can off-road across the yard the fastest.  His birthday is next week....maybe it's time to upgrade his bike to a brand-spanking new one? 

I LOVE how colorful our farm eggs are! I feel a little blush of joy each time I glimpse these rainbow eggs perched on our counter. The wire basket they sit in is shaped like a rooster, isn't that perfect? It was a gift from a dear friend and I think of her every time I see it. I started selling our pastured eggs this month in town. Our chickens are happy to forage all over the pasture in the dappled shade under our oak trees. They don't even respect fencelines, so they head over to our neighbors regularly until the neighbor's dog chases them home. 

Look at the gorgeous colors the eggs are naturally made each day! I feel like it's Easter with those green eggs smiling at me. It's almost a shame to crack them open. My favorite eggs are the dark brown ones. We call them 'chocolate eggs'. Who wouldn't want a chocolate omelet for breakfast? Mmmm.

This shot was taken at the Dinosaur Pit in Austin's Nature and Science Center. Daniel is such a kind big brother. He's often found doing creative things to help Diego explore the world or enjoy life. I love moments like this.

And I just love this picture. This scene totally warms my heart. There's something magical to me when an innocent baby explores part of their world. It reminds me how wondrous life is every day.

Sarah and Matthew are heading to the regional competition for Destination Imagination tomorrow morning. 

We'll be gone before the sunrise and returning home hours after sunset. They've worked hard for four months preparing for this competition. 

Earlier this week our team was very chaotic at our team practices, especially when our scenery kept falling apart any time it was touched. Frustrations! I'm not allowed to solve any of their problems, so it was really neat to see them pull together and work as a team to fix their unexpected mishaps on stage. 

I've been amazed at the personal growth they've each shown this year! They've learned some amazing life skills, made wonderful friendships, and had a good time creating their presentations for the Challenge. Sarah and Matthew are already talking about doing it again next year. 

Now we're off to bed so we can rise bright and early for the competition. 

They are competing against 14 other teams. Yikes! That's so many!

Wish us luck!

We joined in a new delightful tradition this year.

It's called:

Run, Run as Fast as You Can, I'll Blow up Your House, Little Gingerbread Man!

It's a holiday to creatively dispose of old stale gingerbread houses...with explosives.

Several families gathered to enjoy the cold weather and sip hot apple cider while we watched the spectacle unfold.

Here is part of the lineup waiting to be demolished:

The boys and men carefully filled each house with explosives.

Some people chose to use M80's, others opted for bigger explosives with more spectacular effects.

Check it out:

The spectators kept a safe distance away while waiting in excitement for each new explosion.

After each demolition, the kids would squeal and swarm to the ruined house, eager to see the rubble. 

During the festivities, children played all over the property and roasted marshmallows.

Nathan and I tried to sneak a picture together, but it turned out totally blurry. I kept it anyway, since we have so few pictures together.

To end the day of fun, there was a polar dip in the frigid swimming pool. 

True, we may live in Texas, but it was COLD that day. 

The water must have been in the 30's. (Okay, you Alaskan relatives- mock me all you want. Our 'polar dip' is probably a steamy hot tub compared to your arctic dips midst ice-filled water. It's all relative.)

It made me shiver just watching people jump in the cold water and gasp in shock. 

Most people dipped in once, squealed in astonishment, and ran for a towel.

Not Sarah. She LOVED the cold water.

She relishes cold weather.

Today was her favorite day of the year.

While almost everyone else gasped and spluttered in the cold water, she laughed and luxuriously swam laps.

She climbed out into the brisk air and dove into the pool over and over again with delight.

She stayed in the pool way longer than anyone else, not even shivering when other kids lips turned blue.

Christmas Traditions

This year we started a new fun tradition- the Elf on the Shelf. Our children named her Lexie, and she's a girl with a sweet tooth.

It's been really fun to hide her in strange places all over the house. Our kids are so excited to seek her out each morning!

Other traditions we practice include making gingerbread houses, baking and sharing holiday treats, filling a manger with straw to represent secret acts of service (although we haven't done that this year- the miniature manger broke when we moved!), cutting out dozens of snowflakes (yes, the mess is horrendous- a blizzard of paper scraps visits my table each time we do this!), reading dozens of Christmas storybooks together, celebrating Hanukkah by making latkes and playing dreidel (our kids LOVE this tradition), and enjoying a candlelit dinner of biblical foods while we tell the story of Christ's birth.

This year we're starting an extra-special tradition for Christmas Eve. I am so excited about it! I'll hopefully type up an entry describing what I have in mind, then post it on here in time for you to use the idea in your own family.

What fun traditions do you celebrate for the Christmas season?

A Day at Hogwarts

Magic wands, wizard cloaks, and spell books- oh my! 

We had a lot of fun preparing for everything for Sarah's Harry Potter themed birthday party!

Earlier we had made magic wands for all the children. The wands were really easy to made and they looked pretty convincing. 

Invitations were printed on card stock in an old-fashioned calligraphy style. They read:

Dear Student,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been invited to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to participate in special mid-term classes in Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, and Care of Magical Creatures.

This special celebration is in honor of Gryfindor's newest head girl, Sarah Kingsley, International Confederation of Prefects. Classes will begin at the stroke of 2:00 on November-----.

Please come to our secret location, currently disguised as a Muggle (non-wizard) residence at -----. There you will find the magical door visible only to Hogwarts students and friends. The secret password is "Flibbertigibbet". The surrounding area is well-protected with Memory charms, so it will be safe to practice magic indoors and outdoors.

Feel free to dress in either wizard robes or Muggle clothing.

If you are unable to respond by Owl Post, please use the Muggle telephony system and dial ----.

We look forward to your arrival at Hogwarts!

Sincerely, 

Mrs. Renae Kingsley, Headmistress of Frolic and Feasts, Hogwarts Academy

The invitations were folded and sealed with red sealing wax. The name of each guest was written in calligraphy on the envelope. I also put a couple small feathers sticking out to make it look like an owl delivered it.

Our Secret Door to Hogwarts

I created a magic brick wall for the guests to run through as they entered the magical setting of Hogwarts.

Luckily I found a perfect brown canvas curtain at the thrift store, so I used that as my backdrop. 

I purchased a fat sponge from the hardware store and used 4 different colors of brown craft acrylic paint to create the bricks. I added shading and highlights in an attempt to create an old 'industrial' look so common in British railways. 

We simply suspended a curtain rod across our doorway and hung the curtain. 

The guests all giggled when they said "Flibbertigibbet!" and ran through the wall. 

They even remembered to say the magic password each time we went outside to play outdoor games.

The inside of the house felt magical as soon as they entered and saw the decorations and heard the magical soundtrack from the Harry Potter movies. It felt so delightfully festive!

As guests arrived, we provided their school supplies in the entryway. 

A table draped in black served as our 'store'. It held our black wizard cloaks (which I snagged for $2 each at the thrift store during Halloween) and spell books on one end. The children tried on the cloaks until they found one they liked. The spell books were simply made by cutting printer paper into halves, then folding those in half again. The cover is a half-sheet of black construction paper. We stapled the binding and wrote 'Spell Book' on the cover with a white crayon in scrolling letters.

Earlier that week I had made feather quill pens for the guests to use during 'classes'.

My children collected pretty feathers on our property (with 35 chickens, there's a lot of pretty feathers laying around!) and I trimmed them to accommodate a pen. We stripped ball point pens of their cases and taped the pen securely to a feather with silver duct tape. 

The children LOVED their quill pens and thought they were such a cool party favor. They really enjoyed taking notes during potions class with these pens.The nice part is I only spent around $3 to make 15 pens! 

Quills for class

The next station was the wand shop. I told a story that Ollivander (the wand craftsman in the books) couldn't make it to the party, so he left me a box of wands to use.

I had the children come up one at a time to find the right wand. (In the book the wands pick their owners rather than the other way around).

 I'd let them pick a wand to try out and I'd describe what magical item was in the core of each wand. (For example: Oh you picked a wand with a Pegasus feather core! Good pick! Now give it a swish in the air and see if it likes you! No? Let's try the pixie dust wand over here....)

The kids were SO excited to see which wand they had. I told them that the magical essence in the wand core was one of the following: a dragon heart-string, a Griffin feather, a strand of unicorn hair, a Pegasus feather, pixie dust, or a Phoenix feather. 

They were so delighted with their wands!

We used them to play games in the party, as you'll see later on.

Ollivanders Wand Shop

We also had a chest of 'wizard gold'. (It's actually Nathan's large coin collection. He collects coins from around the world. It was a perfect prop for the party!). After each game, I rewarded winning teams with coins to spend later at Honeydukes store. 

The kids marveled over the foreign coins and exclaimed how neat they looked. They were definitely better than using plastic pirate gold from the party store. 

In the kitchen I had set up the Potions Class with this decor:

Potions Class is ready to begin!

I collected apothecary jars from the thrift store and made potions labels to glue on them. The labels were printed on heavy card stock  I picked labels that looked a bit spooky so I use reuse these bottles as Halloween decor next year. (Won't that look so cool on the mantle?) 

Up-close view of an aged potion label: Dragon Scales

I painted the labels with thin washes of watercolor in an attempt to artificially age them so they wouldn't look unnaturally white and new. 

I applied labels with Mod Podge. Some bottles I wanted to reuse for other things, so I didn't glue labels on them. Instead I tied them to the bottle with string.

We also set up Honeydukes Candy Shop in our dining room hutch. 

We served pumpkin pasties, licorice wands, lemon drops, pixie dust (made with real Cornish pixies!), cockroach clusters, cauldron cakes, pretzel wands in two flavors, and Bernie Botts Beans. 

Sarah peruses Honeydukes to pick a treat

I'll write the details of our class activities and games (and potion recipes) in my next post.

Until then, here are some glimpses of our guests after the party ended. They had a lovely time playing with kittens, riding tree swings, and pretending to shoot spells at each other with their wands.

The following week lots of parents came to me and told me their children had a most wonderful time at our party. Sounds like it was a success!