The best pancakes

Best Santa Ever

The kids are always asking to go to Entertrainment Junction. Jenna loves the funhouse and Sarah and Matthew love the trains and play area. This year we also visited Santa there. This Santa was the best Santa we have ever seen. Ever. We've seen a lot of Santas. Jenna asked why his elfs were so tall. He went into this huge dialogue about how there are elf microscopius and elf humongous and different crazy elf species. He was hilarious and Jenna loved it. 

Fun house

 Jenna loves the hall of mirrors and crazy spinny things at the funhouse. It all makes Erik sick so I'm the one who takes her all through the funhouse when we go. I love it too! After Entertrainment Junction we went to Ihop. Jenna said it was the best day ever.

Matthew really loves trains

 Erik has never liked our Christmas tree. It is wide and full and beautiful. It gives us Christmas cheer as we sit by the fire drinking hot cocoa next to our beautiful tree.

Instead, Erik decided to go buy a "pencil tree" that looks more like a toothpick. He can lift it with one hand and just loves it. I'm not a fan.....

He's so proud of our Christmas toothpick

 After going to Ihop we discussed the best type of pancakes. Instead of just discussing we decided to have a pancake taste test. We ordered take out pancakes from Bob Evans and Ihop and we made homemade pancakes. I liked Bob Evans the best, Jenna and Erik liked Ihop and Sarah liked the homemade. Matthew abstained from voting.

Jenna loves pancakes

 Both girl scout troops went caroling at a nursing home. The residents really loved the girls excitement especially in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. In the corner you can see my old boom box. I almost teased my hair and wore leg warmers to fit in. I couldn't get the bluetooth speaker to work with my phone so I had to resort to an old school method of using a boom box. Still worked just fine!

Christmas Carols

I have the flu and most likely double ear infections. It has hit me hard and I've had no energy. I've been laying by our fireplace all day doing nothing. This has been awful!

That one kid

You know how at every Christmas play there is always that one kid who does something really silly. This year that kid was mine.

Tonight we had our annual Christmas Smorgasboard. It is a huge feast and there is always a kids program. This year Sarah and Matthew sang songs with the kids from kidmax and Jenna was in the Christmas play with her club 456 friends.

Before the program started, Matthew was acting out a little while we were waiting in line. I told Matthew he needed to sing or I would take away his blankies..... well apparently that threat worked.

Matthew bent down and sang SO loud in the microphone that everyone in the church cracked up. He stole the show. I was laughing so hard I was crying. One of my friends got this video:
http://youtu.be/CgRTcRjL4YU

Kids singing

Jenna has her back to us - she is an angel

Sarah did a great job singing too. There were motions to "Go Tell it on the Mountain" and she did an amazing job with the motions.  She really knew her parts.

Jenna was an angel in her play and she did a great job with her lines. She loved being in the play.

The kids are so excited for Christmas. Jenna is not excited as much for gifts as to see family. Her prayer tonight was that Nana, Papa, Missy, Dave, and Amanda would be here for Christmas. It's sweet how much they love family!

In other news:

• I mentioned we stopped our small group. This was a big decision but we are excited about going to a small group. We have joined a new small group and are excited to attend a group rather than leading.
• I've LOVED going to the YMCA to workout. I have a routine now. This came at the perfect time since I've been eating an enormous amount of food and making tons of cookies.
• My Thursday morning Bible study has stopped for Christmas break,but a few of the Moms and I have gotten together to drink coffee and talk and pray. I've loved it. 
• Erik and I have been playing Heroes of Might and Magic every night. It has been so fun and helped me take my mind off of all my course developments, messy house because I have a full time job, piles of laundry, and crazy kids. 

Her two front teeth!

All Sarah wants for Christmas is her two front teeth. If only that were true and her list wasn't actually a mile long! Sarah lost both her front teeth within two days. No apples for her now!

What happened to the two front teeth 

 We had our first snow of the year and the girls made an awesome snowman. Matthew did not want to help because it was too cold. The girls, however stayed outside for quite awhile and had a blast. They really do love snow.

Frosty the snowman

 It's been a few weeks since I posted but we have not been idle. We've been enjoying the weather and sitting by the fire drinking hot chocolate in the evenings. That's my favorite part of winter. The toasty warm fire!

I have also been overloaded with work. I'm on two new course developments while still teaching my courses.  Luckily I've been able to take the kids to Grandma's house so she can babysit while I work and do my endless conference calls.

Pink Moon cupcake Bakery - Matthew and I went one day

Kid pile

 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Unfortunately Nana and Papa were sick and Uncle Dave had to work so no one from my side of the family could come. Hopefully Nana and Papa will feel better soon. We had Grandma and Grandpa and our friends Sunshine, Matt, their kids and Sunshine's Mom Pamela here. We ate lots of delicious food and dessert (which is my favorite part!).

Thanksgiving table

I made a chocolate caramel pie that Erik loved so much he requested it as his birthday cake instead of cake. I also made lemon cake that was to die for! It was so moist and delicious and had a bright burst of lemon flavor. Both recipes I found on pinterest. Thank you pinterest!!

Desserts

In other news:

• Jenna and I read The Giver by Lois Lowry. Jenna really loved the book. It is one that makes  you think certainly.
• I finished the Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks. I love his writing and can't wait for the next book to come out in this series.
• I am reading the Matched series by Allie Condie. This is another dystopian young adult series. This seems to be the theme in young adult literature now.
• Jenna is now reading the Belgariad by David Eddings. I read this series many years ago and liked it, not for its thematic elements or intellectual stimulation but because it is a fun read. And I'm all about fun reads! 
•  After 6 1/2 years of leading our small group we have decided to take a break. We are not going to lead and host anymore but we still plan on attending a small group. 
• We have also joined the YMCA. I realized how much I missed fitness classes after not doing them for 2 years. Erik is planning on running outside all winter long. He is crazy. 

No common sense

Halloween was cold and rainy but the kids still had fun. Jenna went as Hermione Granger. Her friend Grace went as Harry Potter on the Quidditch team. Sarah went as a cat and Matthew went as spiderman. I attempted to crochet Jenna a scarf by watching youtube videos. I've realized that I am not good at crocheting.

Ready for Trick or Treating

 The next morning I woke up and started making pancakes for breakfast. I turned around and what did I see??? Matthew had opened 4 suckers and was attempting to eat them all. The candy had been strewn all over the living room and we hadn't put it out of reach of little hands yet. So apparently we need to do that.

4 suckers at once!

 I have discovered one sport in which I am better than Erik. Bowling. My Dad is an excellent bowler. He pretty much always throws a strike and I was on a bowling league when I was younger. I'm not great at it (I throw many non-strikes) but I like bowling. We decided to take the kids for bowling and pizza. It was fun except for Sarah and Matthew running all over the place and lopping the ball down the lane rather than rolling it. Then Jenna getting frustrated that she didn't get a strike. At least they didn't kick us out.

Bowling fun!

The ball will get down the lane at some point

This weekend I went to skyzone with my kids and Sunshine and her two kids. We were all so excited since the last time we went to skyzone we had a blast. Well this was quite the opposite!

Skyzone has a rule that they separate jumpers by size. So smaller kids on one end and adults on the other. Well we assumed we could jump near our little kids, especially since there were so many kids running across multiple trampolines being crazy. The skyzone "floor monitors" (16 year old kids) kept yelling at us and telling us to move. Really??? We are Moms. We are not jumping around like crazy hurting the kids. This ticked me off. I wanted to jump near my kids and have fun. Also, I wanted to protect them from the crazy kids. I talked with the "manager" (another 16 year old kid) and told her the situation and asked if moms could jump near their kids. Nope. This is the rule and they never break it. No common sense. Sometimes blindly following rules without using common sense is not the best solution. Anyway - this skyzone is AWFUL. The one in Cleveland we went to before let us jump near the kids.  What happened to common sense???

In other news:

1. I LOVE Jenna's teacher this year. She took the class on a service project trip to Operation Buckeye to pack candy for the troops. She also goes to our church and took several kids from church to a food pantry last Saturday. She is amazing and she really loves Jenna. This year has been so great for Jenna.
2. I make dinner for our Bible study every week and this past week I made chicken bacon pasta in alfredo sauce. It was SO good and easy. I just cooked up some bacon, then fried the chicken in the bacon fat (super healthy), Put it in some prepared alfredo sauce with some frozen spinach and voila! An easy yummy topping for pasta. 
3. The grocery store has had raspberries really cheap ($1/half pint). So I decided to can raspberry jam and some dill relish. The raspberry jam turned out really great. Now I need to make extra bread to go with it!
4. I am down to running only once or twice a week. Today I ran 4 miles but I probably won't run the rest of the week. It is starting to get cold. However Erik plans on running all winter. He is braver than I am! 
5. I'm reading the Giver by Lois Lowry and the Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks. Both are good and I'm enjoying them.
6. Candi is leaving for Indiana soon. If you know anyone who wants to move two doors down from me I'd love it!!!

Jenna's experiment

Jenna had to do an experiment for school with a variable. She chose to grow crystals (since she loves rocks and crystals!) at different temperatures. She used a mixture of borax and water and then poured it in canning jars. Her variable was temperature so she put one jar in the refrigerator, one in an ice bath, one at room temperature, and one by the fire. After 5 hours we weighed the crystals and found the refrigerator and ice bath grew the largest crystals. She was very excited about her project and created a fantastic powerpoint. Jenna will present her project on Friday. While Jenna was creating her powerpoint, Sarah also wanted to create a powerpoint and spent hours on powerpoint. She then decided she wants to be a computer programmer.

Jenna's results

Growing crystals by the fireplace

This weekend was Girl Scout weekend for me. Friday Jenna had a girl scout meeting and we created scarfs with finger knitting. She likes finger knitting and is so creative. It is similar to her rainbow loom which she also enjoys working on. On Saturday I went to Girl Scout camp training from 9am-6pm. We learned about all about camping, cooking over a fire, building a fire, tying knots, the flag ceremony, chopping wood, and activities to do with the girls outdoors. It was a blast! I'm so excited to take Jenna's troop camping. This is real camping too, we have a water jug with a clothes pin in it to wash our hands. No fancy camper for us! Sarah's troop went on a scavenger hunt hike on Sunday and had a great time. While the Girl Scouts may get some bad press, our troops are a lot of fun and I think they are learning some good skills. 

Sarah's Daisy troop

My close friend and neighbor, Candi is moving to Indiana. She is the person I can borrow paprika from or who can watch my kids in a pinch. Her son Austin gets along really well with Matthew. In fact, if you ask Matthew who his friends are, the first person he will say is Austin. We will really miss them. My close friends in the neighborhood were Lynn and Candi. My two best friends from our church just left too. Lots of people are leaving. This needs to stop!

I'm back to teaching now too. I have three live lectures this semester as well. So I'll be busy at night. The live lectures start at 8:30pm or 9pm though so I still have plenty of time with my family. I wouldn't change it! Last session I worked on course design and development rather than teaching and I loved that too. I may even start working on mobile development so we can design some courses on mobile apps. That will be awesome!

Sarah has started reading Magic Tree House books. She loves them. Jenna loved Little House on the Prairie at this stage and maybe Sarah will be interested in the Little House books as well but she loves Jack and Annie from the Magic Tree House. I left my Blinding Knife book by Brent Weeks on the couch and Jenna started reading that. I have to be careful or she will read whatever she can get her hands on!

51 points on Quiddler today

Camping in the fall

We had our last camping trip of the season this past weekend and it was a great time.  Fall is the perfect time of year to go camping. You sit by the fire to warm yourself, drink hot cocoa, and enjoy the beautiful colors of the trees.

On Friday we went to Lehner's Pumpkin farm.  We love going to pumpkin farms and all the activities they have. Lehner's had a hayride, corn maze, bouncy houses, train ride, giant pumpkin hamster wheels (Jenna loved this), petting zoo, hay tent, barn with kids play area, pumpkins for sale, and putt putt golf. We had a blast!

Jenna and Nicholas  in the blue chair- they are somewhat bigger now

I took some pictures - notice how the Mast kids are sitting nicely on the hay bales and my kids are rolling around on the hay or whatever Sarah is trying to do....

The hayride at Lehner's farm

 The corn maze was really fun and we took just about every turn until we finally arrived at the entrance.

Outside the corn maze

 Jenna's favorite activity was the orange hamster ball. She would ride it and then get right back in line to ride it again. She rode it maybe 15 times or more. She loved it (she is in the middle ball in the picture). I rode in the giant hamster ball too - it was actually really fun!

Jenna loved the giant hamster balls

 I brought back some Bertie Botts every flavor beans from Harry Potter world for everyone to try. Jenna tried many of the less desirable flavors like vomit, earthworm, rotten egg, grass, and dirt. This is her face when eating earthworm:

Jenna really did NOT like the earthworm jellybean

A walk in the woods

This is the last week of my break and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it!

In other news:

1. My Dad had gall bladder surgery last Friday. It went well and he was able to go to football games this weekend so he was feeling much better. We were scared something was terribly wrong with his liver but it was his gall bladder (which is apparently fine to remove).
2. Joel mentioned his favorite restaurant growing up was Sizzler. While we were in Florida we all went to Sizzler. It was subpar. I'm assuming Joel's tastes have changed since then! We also went to the Rainforest Cafe which is much better than Sizzler.
3. Our book club is reading the Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. We are up to chapter 31 in the book, but I may have read a little extra (ie, finished the book and the next one in the series, and am now in the middle of the third book in this series).
4. I am also reading the Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks. Obviously I like this author. 
5. McDonalds now has the monopoly game out. We have been going to McDonalds often to get more monopoly pieces. We pretty much have all the common pieces now - just waiting for boardwalk....
6. Jenna is starting a new independent science project for school testing the best temperature for growing crystals. I'm excited for her!
7. We have moved our small group to Sunday evenings and we still serve dinner. I like this time since it frees up our weeknights, but Sundays can also be busy. 
8. I have become more involved in the We Are Cherished ministry at our church. I even went on outreach to help women learn about Jesus. It was so rewarding!
9. 89 points on quiddler today!

Platform 9 3/4

We flew back yesterday from our trip to Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and Diagon Alley. In preparation for the trip I reread Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire since the theme parks were based off of the 4th book. The parks did not disappoint! Hogwarts and Hogsmeade are at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure park and Diagon Alley is at Universal Studio. We rode the Hogwarts Express between the two parks.  This may sound like a dream come true and the truth is, it was!

Hogsmeade - Jenna was surprised at the fake snow

 We started off at Hogwarts and rode Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Jenna, me, Joel, and Megan rode it. Sarah and Matthew were not tall enough, Erik gets motion sickness from watching rides, and Missy and Dave walked all around the entire park for fun. I LOVED this ride! Megan and I rode it twice. The line started to get longer (yes we were practically the first people in the park) so we didn't ride it more than twice. The ride told a story complete with whomping willow, dementors, floo powder, and quidditch.

Hogwarts castle

 We rode Flight of the Hippogriff next which was a family friendly roller coaster. Matthew loves roller coasters and later in the day when I asked him what his favorite ride was, he said the roller coaster. I foresee me, Sarah, and Matthew riding a lot of roller coasters in the future.
 Jenna, Megan, Joel and I split off from the rest of the group so we could stay at Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. Erik took Sarah and Matthew to Dr. Seuss world and the Spiderman adventure. Matthew actually posed with Spiderman too. Dr. Seuss world was brightly colored and had several characters from Dr. Seuss. Sarah loved it and wanted to stay there all day!

The Hogwarts Express

Outside the Owl Post

Joel and Megan

Another view of Hogsmeade

 After we split, Joel, Megan, Jenna and I went to Ollivander's wand shop. I had read all about the attractions here at Hogsmeade and knew they usually picked one kid to test for a wand. My plan was to keep going through the line until she was picked. However the first time through, Ollivander picked Jenna! He measured her for a wand then had her try three different wands. She was supposed to hold the wand up and make some flowers bloom but they wilted (obviously that wand was wrong). Next she was supposed to light something with the lumos spell and she ended up making it thunder. Finally he pulled out a wand made of a willow tree. When Jenna held the wand music started playing. This was the wand for her!

When we left the shop we were directed to the gift shop where we could purchase wands and other Harry Potter trinkets. The wand Jenna had was $47. Erik and I agreed that the max they could spend was $30. So she would owe us $17. She was willing to owe us money that's how bad she wanted the wand. Of course, we didn't realize how cool the wand actually was!

Ollivander's wand shop

Jenna performing magic with her wand!

 Jenna's wand was interactive. It came with a map and throughout the Wizarding World she could stand at different spots and move her wand and say magic words and something exciting would happen. She had so much fun with the wand that it was definitely worth it. In fact, she wanted to walk around to all of the magic spots several times. The best one was in Knockturn Alley off of Diagon alley. Here she could use her wand to make a skeleton dance. It wasn't just kids using the wands either. We saw many adults with their magic wands. Next time I might buy one....

Jenna and her wand made of willow

 After the wand shop we went to Honeydukes Sweet shop. We bought pumpkin juice, a chocolate cauldron cake, and a pumpkin tart. Yum! The pumpkin juice was delicious but too sweet to drink the entire bottle. After our snack we met Erik and the little ones at the Three Broomsticks for lunch. They had regular English food like fish and chips and shepherd's pie along with butterbeer! We tried both frozen and regular butterbeer. I liked the frozen butterbeer best.

Honeydukes Sweet shop

Joel and Megan drinking butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks

Butterbeer at Hogsmeade

The outside of Honeydukes

After lunch, Joel, Megan, Jenna and I ventured on the Hogwarts Express to Diagon Alley. The train ride was fantastic! Outside the window you could see Hagrid, Buckbeak, the Knight bus, and other fun sites. When we arrived at Kings Crossing, the area looked like London. Behind a wall (with a graying Leaky Cauldron sign) we traveled to Diagon Alley. Here were many shops straight out of the books including Gringotts with a fire breathing dragon on top. You could feel the heat from the dragon when you were standing near Gringotts.

Jenna and Joel on the Hogwarts Express - no she never let go of that wand, and she is holding a bottle of pumpkin juice

Diagon Alley

 Our favorite store was Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. This is most likely exactly how Fred and George would have designed the joke shop. Megan, who is obviously in house Slytherin really liked Borgin and Burkes. Jenna and I decided we would most likely be in Ravenclaw (she is smart and I like blue).

Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes

The dragon on top of Gringotts

 We had butterbeer ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. Yum!

Butterbeer ice cream!

 We rode the Hogwarts Express back to Hogsmeade to finish our day. We walked through platform 9 and 10 and with tricks of mirrors you could see people disappearing right where platform 9 3/4 would be. Once we got to Hogsmeade, the line was short at Ollivander's wand shop so Jenna and I went back in for a second trip. Guess who was picked again!!?!! Jenna was picked twice at Ollivander's wand shop AND he picked the same wand for her. She was jumping for joy - that was certainly the best part of her day.

Erik sent me some pictures of the Spiderman adventure and Dr. Seuss world. They had a blast while we were in our magical land.

Matthew and Spiderman - Matthew wanted to pose too!

Sarah and Matthew with Thing 1 and Thing 2

Dr. Seuss World

Missy and Dave walked all through both parks and rode on many rides. Everyone was tired on the ride back home but only Erik fell asleep ;).

Orlando was sunny and beautiful. We flew back to gray and dreary Ohio. Why do we live here again? If it were up to Jenna we would live near Universal and go to the Wizarding World every day!

Our new kitchen!

We have finished our kitchen remodeling project and I'm so pleased with the results. We came under budget yet the kitchen looks fantastic! We went from the cheapest laminate countertops to beautiful granite. We chose Venetian gold granite countertops and they are so beautiful. C&C Granite put our new countertops in. Then we hired a contractor to put in a tile backsplash. The backsplash is just as beautiful as the countertops! We bought the tile at Floor and Decor which had a lot of options (more than Lowes or Home Depot). We also replaced the secretary (who uses a desk in the kitchen?) with more cabinets.

Our kitchen before

 Then Erik sanded and stained all of the cabinets. ALL of the cabinets! It took him about 6 weeks and it looks amazing. He used Brown Mahogany Gel Stain and I'm so impressed with his work. Then we had it painted Interactive Cream from Sherwin Williams. Apparently yellow is not a hip color to paint  your walls - who knew? Instead our colors are black and tan. Erik kind of picked this (I wonder why?).

The secretary in our kitchen before

Our kitchen after

Our sink

 Our kitchen looks updated and I'm happy with the way it turned out. The one thing that everyone notices when they come to our house is the sink. The picture doesn't do it justice. We splurged on a  composite sink that is just one big tub. I had thought about getting the side by side sink but sometimes it is hard to fit a 9x13 pan in it. This sink is so deep - seriously I could take a bath in it! And it is beautiful. I really love our sink!

The non-secretary in our kitchen after

I'm so excited about our new kitchen. We have moved our small group to Sunday nights and now we are meeting every Sunday night. I still make dinner for everyone but now I can make dinner in our fancy new kitchen ;). Last week we had 11 adults and 7 kids at our study. It was a lot to fit in our house. Luckily my 3 quiches lasted for everyone.

I have lots of other projects for our house but one step at a time.