Rounding up

Alisha has been begging me to measure her at least twice a week for the past 6 months.  She has been waiting until she hit 4'9".  That's the height she needed to be to not need a booster seat in the car.  The law here used to be 6 years old or 60 lbs didn't need a booster, but was just changed to be 8 years old or 4'9".  I've always felt that was safest anyway.  The smallest adult they make the seat belts for is 4'9".  So anything shorter than that just doesn't fit the kids right.  So Alisha just turned 8, and was disappointed that she wasn't quite 4'9".  She would even stretch and stand really straight and tall to try to make it.  Yesterday, we were getting in the car, and I told her to sit without the booster so I could see where the seat belt fit on her.  She again sat up really straight and tall, and the seat belt was fine across her shoulder, where it should be.  I told her she was okay, and she did a fist pump and said, "YES!!"  When we got home, I measured her, and found she was 4'8 1/2".  She told that to Chris, and he said, "So we're rounding up?"  Sure, I guess we are.

Brave girl

Last week was Spring Break, and we went to a couple of theme parks.  Alisha didn't go the first day to Great America, since I knew she wouldn't ride anything.  The rides seem to be geared for really little kids and adults, there's not a lot in the middle.  The second day, the park was geared for smaller kids, and she came with us.  She was scared to ride everything, including very lame rides that just went around in a circle.  Finally, she got up the courage to ride the big swings.  After it took off, she screamed a little, but then stopped.  I looked over at her, and she had the biggest smile on her face.  Then she said, "Mom!  This is AWESOME!!"  She said it over and over.  I was having so much fun just watching her.  Since there wasn't a line, the kids were able to ride it again and again.  It was hard to get them off.  Then later, she decided to brave the Big Banana, a ride that went back and forth pretty high.  She made me sit in the middle with her, so she wouldn't go as high.  She clenched my hand with all her strength.  Again, they just let the kids stay on the ride, so we went on it over and over.  I was getting a little motion sick, but she really wanted to stay on it.  After a few times, I convinced her to move back a row, one ride at a time.  Finally, after 9 times in a row, I convinced her to go on the back row, where it would go the highest.  She was so proud of herself for going on the back row.  I was nauseous and had a headache from riding it 10 times in a row.  Later that day, she told me she was "having the best day ever!"  I smiled and was proud of her for trying something new.

Alisha and I were walking to school this morning, and she asked out of the blue when we could go to Great America again.  I said I didn't know.  Then she said, "Because that Flight Deck ride sounds really cool!"  I said, "Really?  Because I think you might get a little scared on it."  Then she said, "I know, but it sounds cool."  And then after a minute, she said, "Have you noticed I'm getting braver these days?"  Yes, yes I have.

Next chore, churning butter

Megan and I have an ongoing "discussion" about the chores she has to do.  This was our encounter yesterday:

M:  Why doesn't anyone rinse out their dishes?
J:  Welcome to my world, Megan.
M:  What are you talking about?  You don't do dishes.  You leave them all for us to do.
J: (Picking my jaw off the ground)  Whatever.  I do them a lot.  I have done them for years before you were ever assigned to do chores.  And I just did them yesterday because you didn't.  You have no idea how much I do while you're at school.
M:  Why should we have to do chores?
J:  So you can learn how.  You're going to have to take care of yourself after you move away to college.
M:  Then why do we have to start so early?  I'm only 12, it's not like I'm moving out next week.  And besides, it's not like it's that hard to figure out.  (Refer to incident below regarding wiping off the table.)
J:  You're going to need a lot of practice, more than just a week.  And besides, you are part of this family, and we all work together to take care of the house.
M:  Why do we have to do such a large percentage of the work?
J:  (Again, picking my jaw up off the floor)  You have your bedroom to do, and one other big chore to do every day.  It really isn't that much.  It wouldn't actually take you more than 20 minutes if you just DID IT instead of griping about it the whole time.  Chris, why don't you tell her about all the chores you had to do at her age.
M:  I'm not talking about the olden days!  This is different!
 J:  (Laughing) The olden days??  Megan, it really wasn't that long ago.
M:  I'm already 12!  That's a long time!

Her argument pretty much fell apart after that, especially since Chris and I were laughing too hard for her to make a point.  Don't you just love how she used her age as evidence of both being too young, and being so experienced in the world?  She's going to have to up her game if she's going to get anywhere with her dad being a lawyer.

Later she was wiping off the table with a paper towel, and I asked her to please get a dishcloth and warm soapy water.  She stood there blinking at me in confusion.  I showed her to the linen closet where we keep the dishcloths, escorted her to the sink, and filled it up with warm water and dishwashing soap.  I gave her the dishcloth, and she still looked confused.  I put the dishcloth in the water, squeezed out the excess, and told her to go wipe off the table.  She pinched the wet dishcloth and kind of swirled it at arms length.  I shook my head at her and showed her how.  A few minutes later, I realized she hadn't wiped off the counters.  So I asked her to wipe off the counters.  She said she needed a new dishcloth.  I asked her what happened to the other one she just had.  She said, "It's dirty.  I used it already to wipe off the table.  It's in the laundry."  I said, "Megan, all you have to do is rinse out the cloth in the soapy water, and you can use it again to wipe off the counters."  She looked very confused.  So she wiped off the counters, and said, "How do you get the water out of the sink?"  It astounded me that she had no idea how to pull out the plug.  I put her hand in the water and said, feel that?  That's the plug.  Pull it out.

I apologize to her future roommates, husband, and children.  I really did try.

Alisha's Harry Potter Party

I can't believe Alisha is already 8!  We moved to California 3 weeks after she was born, and it doesn't seem like we have been here that long.  For her birthday, she really wanted a Harry Potter themed birthday party.  With me not working yet, I said okay and dived in.  I surfed the net looking for ideas, and couldn't believe how some just got way over the top.  So I was really determined not to go overboard.  I tried, but it kind of took on a life of its own.

Here she is, wearing her Slytherin shirt she got in Florida at HP Land.  She was our "head girl."  We wrote the invitations, and printed them in green ink on nice resume paper, which looked like parchment.  We sealed them shut with candle wax, and since we were "Ogwarts," we took a cap from a marker and imprinted a nice "O" in the wax.  The invitations read:

Dear Lindsey,

          We are pleased to invite you to attend a celebration at Ogwarts School of Witchcraft &Wizardry.  We are celebrating the 8th birthday of Slytherin Head Girl, Alisha Ogden.

          The celebration commences on Saturday the 7th of April at 4:00 pm.  You will attend classes and celebrate with your fellow classmates until 7:00 in the evening.  You are welcome to wear either wizarding robes or ordinary Muggle outfits.  Please bring your own broomsticks for playing Quidditch. 

          The address of the school is *** Street Name in Town. Please respond to confirm your attendance by email at email@comcast.net or telephone 408-555-4545.

          We look forward to having you join us!

Sincerely,

Professor Julie Ogden, Headmistress

Ogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry

We delivered some of the invitations at school, since we didn't know most of the kids' addresses.  Alisha tried to be super sneaky and deliver them when the other kids weren't looking.  We hand delivered at home to some from other schools.  We took them to their house with her Owl webkinz on her arm so it looked like the Owl was delivering it.  

I made a sign for our front door, which was Platform 9 3/4, which transported the kids to the school.  

I made wands for the kids, and I really thought it was going to be simple.  In theory, yes.  I bought yard length 1/2" dowels from Michael's and cut them to various lengths between 12-14".  I whittled down one end with a utility knife to make it more tapered.  I sanded them smooth, then took a hot glue gun and made different designs down the wand with the glue.  I let them dry, then I spray painted them dark brown.  The problem was with the wands being round, the paint didn't dry smoothly on the top, it kind of ran down the sides.  I had to keep rotating them and painting more coats to try to get it even.  Then I added a final coat of clear spray so the paint wouldn't get on the kids' hands.  I thought they turned out okay, but the kids really liked them.  I put them in a tall vase, and had them close their eyes and the wand would "pick" them.  We bought some stick on jewels and letters for them to decorate their wands, but the jewels didn't stick too well.  Oh well, it was a good thought.

We even dressed up Molly for the occasion.  We turned her into Fluffy, the three-headed dog.  I had some Webkinz I was going to give away, so I found some and cut their heads off.  I sewed them onto a scrap of cotton fabric and sewed it into a circle for a collar.  It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but I thought it was hilarious.  

Next, we had a ceremony with a witch's hat as our sorting hat, and divided the kids up evenly between the houses.  We put Slytherin and Ravenclaw on one team, and Gryffindor and Hufflepuff on the other team for Quidditch.  We explained the game, and had them draw out slips of paper with their team positions on them, and had them grab the brooms they brought.  We took the kids to the park around the corner.  Chris had taken some old hula hoops from the garage and attached them to stakes for our goals.  I didn't want the kids actually beating on each other, so I gave them some small soft balls to try to tag the Chasers.  If they were tagged, they had to drop the ball and freeze for 5 seconds.  Megan was our snitch.  I put her in a gold t-shirt, gave her some gold pom poms to hold, and spray painted a face mask gold.  She ran around trying to dodge the Seekers.  They were all carrying their brooms like they were riding them, so that helped to slow them down.  Anytime they tagged the Snitch they got 50 points.  The first team to 100 won.  A lot of people stopped to watch our game.  It was pretty cute.  It took the kids about 20 minutes to win, and they were pretty worn out.  We walked back to the house and had a few classes.

The first class was Charms by Megan, or Professor Snitch.  She taught them simple charms to do with their wands and how to swish their wands and say the names of the Charms.  They loved it.  She had Alisha go into the bathroom and lock the door while she said, "Alohomora."  It magically unlocked.  They liked it a lot.

Then we had a potions class by Chris, who dressed up as Snape.  We found an old Snow White wig in our costume box.  It was pretty funny. He also wore a black cape, black shirt, black trousers, and found my snake necklace from Halloween.    He had put food dye on black plastic spoons and let it dry.  When the kids stirred their various ingredients, it would change color.  They were pretty impressed by his potion.  It turned out to be glittery goop, but they liked it.  He found a potion online which used various household ingredients, and gave them names like Bicorn Horn and Essence of Murlap. 

Next up was Divination by Madame Jenn.  She had dressed up in a gypsy outfit and talked to the kids about forseeing the future, such as the weather.  She also read their palms while we waited for Chris to come back with the pizza.  

Next we had a feast in the Dining Hall.  I put 2 long tables next to each other and covered them with black tablecloths.  I sprinkled gold star confetti everywhere.  I was going to hang star garland from the ceiling, like the enchanted ceiling, but ran out of time.

We ate pizza, breadsticks, salad, grapes, and drank Butter Beer and Pumpkin Juice.  I found a few recipes online, but ended up just winging it with the drinks.  They turned out pretty well.  For the Butter Beer, I mixed equal parts Butterscotch ice cream topping and coffee creamer.  I poured a little of that into the bottom of the cup, and filled up the rest with cream soda.  I probably added a little too much of the syrup mixture, because it was very sweet, but the kids liked it.  For the pumpkin juice, I took canned pumpkin pie mixture that already has the spices in it, mixed about 1/2 can into a pitcher, and filled up the rest with apple cider and pineapple juice, and stirred it all together.  It was quite tasty, like cold wassail.

Then we had the cake, which Jenn made.  It was a Monster Book of Monsters cake, and it was awesome. It was chocolate cake with vanilla custard filling.  We had soooo much cake leftover, that we shared with our friends for Easter.

Finally, we were going to do a Scavenger Hunt, which was their Final Quest.  I put up a big spider and web from Halloween, and that was our Aragog.

One of the clues were there, but we didn't have time for all the clues.  So I gave them the last clue, which referred them to the place where Fluffy sleeps.  They looked behind the dog's crate and found a large golden egg.  I had found large plastic egg that split apart in the Easter aisle at the store, and spray painted it gold.  Inside, I put the party favors, which were Every Flavor Beans I found at the Jelly Belly store, and I also did some chocolate frogs.  I found the molds online, melted the chocolate, poured it into the molds, and put them in the refrigerator.  I put the frogs in small plastic bags and tied them with a ribbon.  Easy peasy.

It all turned out pretty great, thanks to all of my awesome helpers.  After the party, everyone was worn out.  Even Megan wanted to go to bed early.  It's a good thing birthdays only come once a year!

Florida!

The girls had the week of President's Day off from school, so we decided to make the most of it.  I think we did the absolute most possible.  Megan had a swim meet in Phoenix on Friday-Monday.  We all flew down there to watch her swim.  She did really well, getting a Personal Best in each event she swam.  She DQ'd (disqualified) twice, due to one false start and once twitching on the blocks.  Apparently you can't even move a millimeter before the start.  We watched the film clip of it, and we didn't see any movement.  You gotta love subjective judging. 

On Monday, we flew straight from Phoenix to Orlando, Florida.  Between the time zone difference and the long flight, we were exhausted and fell into bed.  The next day, we got up and got breakfast at the hotel.  We stayed pretty close to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.  We took the shuttle over, and spent the day there.  Inside that park, they have an area dedicated to Harry Potter World.  They have replicas of several buildings, including Hogwarts School.  It was amazing the amount of detail that went into them.  Inside Hogwarts was a simulation ride that made you feel you were riding on a broomstick throughout England and the school.  Afterwards, Alisha looked a little out of breath.  I asked if she was okay, and she said, "That.  Was.  AWESOME!!!!!!!"  I was so relieved, since she was a scared mess throughout the entire 90 minutes of waiting in line. 

The girls both really wanted to get a wand as their souvenir, so we headed to Ollivander's Wand Shop.  There was a line outside the store, and we asked the worker at the front what was happening inside.  He only said that it was a "presentation."  Not excited about the line, but determined to get a wand, we waited.  The girls got really cranky in line, and wanted to leave.  I found up an app on my phone with Harry Potter Trivia.  So that distracted them long enough until we got inside.  They let about 10 people inside at a time.  Once we got in, it looked just like the shop in the movie where Harry first gets his wand.  The old man (can't remember his name) looked at all of us, and singled out Megan and brought her to the front.  He proceeded to try to find a wand for her.  She tried a couple with spells, and several things fell apart in the store.  He was able to "repair" the damage with his wand.  The next wand "chose" her, as there was a light over her head and triumphant music played.  It was pretty funny.  Of course, that was the wand she wanted to buy, and they led us into the rest of the store where wands were available to buy.  Genius marketing for all of us suckers.  We got their wands, and went to lunch at The Three Broomsticks.  They had traditional English food inside, along with Butter Beer.  It tasted like cream soda with a thick layer of buttery cream on top.  It was good, but not anything too amazing.  But again, marketing genius for us suckers. 

We also went into the sweet shop where the girls bought chocolate frogs and Every Flavor jellybeans, with flavors like vomit and boogers, along with traditional flavors like cherry.  They had the joke shop with gag gifts inside, and the girls had fun trying them out.    There were a few more Harry Potter rides there, but Alisha was too chicken to go on them.  So Chris took Megan on some rides, and I took Alisha over to Dr. Seuss land, the area for the littler kids.  I loved all of the decorations, and we rode the Seuss themed Carousel, the Caro-Seuss-al.  It was really cute.  After, we all met up to go on a rapids ride, where we got completely soaked.  We spent the rest of the day sloshing around in our wet shoes.  After we couldn't walk any more, we decided we had enough for the day and went back to the hotel.

The next day, we went to Sea World.  It was pretty fun seeing all of the animal shows and the exhibits.  Megan liked feeding the stingrays and the sea lions.  In the middle of one of the shows, it started raining with thunder and lightning.  Luckily we were under a big awning, so we didn't get wet.  They postponed the show initially, but when it kept raining, they cancelled the rest of the show.  Luckily, the thunder and lightning had passed, so the final Shamu show was still going on.  So we sloshed through the lakes on the sidewalk and made it over to the Shamu show just in time.  It was amazing to see not one killer whale, but 6 doing the jumps and tricks throughout the show.

The next day was Epcot/Magic Kingdom.  My friend Lisa lives in Florida with her husband, Rusty, and they drove over to meet us.  My mom and Ross were able to get us all in for free, due to Ross working for the AAU, which has offices at Epcot.  Thanks, Ross!  After we saw Captain EO, I decided to check my RN status with my phone.  I didn't expect any news, since I had already been waiting for 3 weeks.  Suddenly, I saw my name posted, and I squealed and made everyone hug me.  I thought, this IS the happiest place on Earth!  We saw all of the areas at Epcot, and the girls were getting antsy to go on some rides that weren't too intense.  So we took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom, where we went on Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, and we finally convinced Megan to go on Space Mountain, which she loved.  We headed back to Epcot to Japan for some sushi and to watch the final laser light show.  We got some yummy chocolates in Germany, and watched the show.  After, we drove to Lisa's house, which was about 1 1/2 hours away. 

The next day, we spent the afternoon on the beach, where the girls buried each other and played in the waves.  It was nice to just sit on the beach in the warm sun.  Rusty made us a fabulous dinner, and Lisa and I got some good girl talk in.  We had to leave the next day, and it was way too short of a trip.  We finally made it home after the long flights, and we were so thankful to be in our own beds again.