Multicultural Night

Last week we attended Multicultural Night at the boys' school. IT WAS A BLAST!! Kristjan's class has been working on a China unit (his teacher went there last summer as some sort of teaching program), so they put together a Museum of Chinese History and Culture. Other families in the school set up tables from their countries, such as Mexico, Bulgaria, etc. Everyone was invited to attend, and to bring a dish from their culture to share, or simply their favorite family dish if they didn't have one. I decided to go with Pete's side, which is Danish. Since we went 2 hours early to help set up for the event, I wanted to bring something that I didn't have to worry about refrigeration or keeping warm. I ended up finding a recipe for Danish Butter Cookies. They turned out pretty tasty. I had Pete taste-test them, and he said they reminded him of the ones his Uncle Mike would have out when he visited as a kid that you buy in the blue tins. So once the event started, the fun began. There were soooo many samples of various foods, many which were oh-so-delicious. And there was also numerous performances from students showing off their culture (whether in song, dance, poem etc). The event was also a wonderful chance to meet other parents whom we wouldn't normally have a chance to talk to. Unfortunately we didn't stay for the entire thing since it went past our bedtime and we were already exhausted to begin with. I really hope the school does this again next year.

Miscellaneous displays made by a few classes


Denmark looks a little lonely. But my cookies were a hit. The dish was empty an hour into the festivities.


Mexico's table rocked!!! The food was AMAZING!


Bulgaria was another favorite. The kids in the second pic were practicing before their stage performance.


Nothing says USA than a side of mac 'n cheese and a slice of apple pie!


Museum of Chinese History and Culture

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Last Sunday was St Patrick's Day. Usually on holidays, even a minor one as this, I like to get in and do a little something fun and special, mainly for the boys. This time around, I did absolutely nothing. No baking, no special meal of corned beef 'n cabbage, no little treat left behind by a leprechaun (yes, some parents are actually doing that, thanks to pinterest! i think it's a little late to start that tradition with my boys). And honestly, it felt great not doing anything. After all, Easter is right around the corner. The sun decided to poke out for a bit that day, so we scrambled to get ourselves ready for the day and went out for a little day hike down to Meadowdale. This hike always seems to be the first one we do as a family every year, probably because it's a good warm up one for all of us. My favorite part of this hike is knowing the beach is at the end. I absolutely love the beach. But sadly, access thru the tunnel to the beach was closed due to flooding. So as quickly as we hiked down, we hiked back up to our car. Clifford and Kristjan weren't happy at all about this, so I made them a deal that if they didn't whine and hiked quickly, we would drive over to Picnic Point so we could have a chance to be on the beach. That got them moving. The tide was low at Picnic Point, so Kristjan and I walked around looking for shells while Pete stayed with Clifford, who was playing in the sand with his army men. We didn't stay long. Everyone but me were getting cold (weinies! lol). But we all agreed that it felt wonderful to get out of the house!

Kristjan's Leprechaun Trap

This year was Kristjan's turn to make a leprechaun trap for a class project. At first, he wanted to replicate exactly what Clifford made last year, but we encouraged him to come up with his own idea. He wrote up a proposal, as part of the homework assignment, and planned out that he would build his out of legos. Last year when Clifford did his, Pete was the main adult who helped. This time around, I'm the one who got in and helped Kristjan. We spent one Sunday morning sifting through the huge lego container for black and green legos. When we had enough collected, the construction of the lego house began. Once the house was complete, I had Kristjan work on the remainder of the trap. He glued down green felt for grass, cut out a few shamrocks, painted/glittered popsicle sticks for the pathway, put gold chocolate coins inside the house, and glued down some Lucky Charms as bait. Pete completed the final touch by adding fishing line to the house as the official trap. The final part of this assignment was Kristjan had to present his trap to the class. Him and I practiced at home on what he would say and to demonstrate how the trap was suppose to work. On the day of his presentation, I was able to come into his classroom and watch. He did really good and his classmates "oooed" and "ahhhed" at his trap.

So how does Kristjan's leprechaun trap work? Basically, the leprechaun would come upon the house and find a rainbow-glittered pathway with Lucky Charms leading to the house. Once at the door, the leprechaun would see the inside of the house full of gold. What the leprechaun doesn't know is that one of the gold pieces is tied with fishing line and the other end is tied to the door. So when the leprechaun picks up that gold piece, it will slam the door shut, causing a bar to drop, locking the leprechaun inside the house.

Kristjan's teacher had all the kids who participated in this project leave their traps out over the weekend, in hopes of maybe one of them actually catching a leprechaun!! Kristjan was so excited to return back to school on Monday to check his trap. When school got out, he informed me that he didn't catch one, but one of the other traps did catch a leprechaun, though the leprechaun was sneaky and able to escape! :)

Kristjan with his Leprechaun Trap



Kristjan presenting his trap to his class

A Small World!

Pete shared this story with me....

Yesterday morning he was talking with his co-worker, Jeff Towne, when for whatever reason during their conversation, Jeff mentioned about how he went to Auburn High School. Something clicked with Pete and he asked Jeff if he knew any of his uncles. Sure enough, he does! He knew Uncle Dale and Uncle Dave (for those who don't know, they're twins). Jeff told Pete that he's even been to Grandpa Nielsen's house, and has pics of him and Dale standing next to the barn. Jeff said he couldn't believe he never put it together in all the years him and Pete have been working together (with the last name Nielsen). And come to find out there's another employee, Rick Hess, who also went to school with them. Craziness!! Jeff said he has pics of them hanging out. I wonder if I could get him to dig 'em up and share them with us. Would love to post them on the blog! :)

Blue & Gold

Last Sunday was Blue & Gold. Somehow I got wrangled in helping with the food planning/preparation for this. I also volunteered to whip up 5lbs of meatballs and frosted/decorated 150 cupcakes. We arrived at the event an hour early to deliver the meatballs and cupcakes, along with helping wherever else was needed. The evening was fun. There was a slideshow of all the boys from various events throughout the year, and skits performed by almost all the dens. Dinner and dessert was tasty. And, of course, there were awards. Both Clifford and Kristjan ranked, as well as received other achievements that they've been working on this past month. We're so proud of both our boys!

Boys enjoying their spaghetti dinner



Kristjan's den getting ready to sing
the song "If You're a Tiger and You It"


Cubmaster Bob, who is a professional photographer, took
pics of all the boys at the Pinewood Derby. He presented each
boy with a special picture keepsake!

Boys receiving their awards!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Last Saturday was my birthday. I turned 30. I wasn't too happy about this. I know it's just a number, but I really, really, really wanted to stay in my 20's longer. Entering my thirties just sounds so old. I know everyone else who is older has told me otherwise, but it didn't make me any happier. However, my birthday has come and gone, and I'm over it (kinda). To celebrate, Pete took me to the Crab Pot in Seattle. We invited family and friends. It ended up being a small crowd who went, which was perfectly fine with me. Our boys ended up going over to spend the night at a friends house. Part of me really wanted them to come with us to celebrate, but the other part was content about not having to watch over them to mind their manners. After dinner we went over to Gordon 'n Michelle's house for a bit before calling it a night :)

On my way out!


Pics from dinner

Party Time at the Arcade!

Since Kristjan's birthday landed on a Thursday this year, we had a party the following Saturday with his friends. As we did with Clifford's, we had it at the arcade. I really like the idea of having parties elsewhere. I miss being able to get creative when having them at home, BUT it's soooooo much nicer to have the mess somewhere else and I don't have to do the clean up! We let Kristjan invite a handful of his friends. They had pizza, cake, played games, win prizes, and jump around in the fun house. All the moms stayed, so it was nice to get some adult conversation in among the controlled chaos. The best part of the party was seeing how much fun Kristjan was having!

Kristjan's Candyland cake. I had this vision of
it turning out better than this (just me being a perfectionist).
But Kristjan absolutely loved it, as did the other kids and parents.


Pictures of the birthday boy before everyone showed up.


Party Time!