Jenna is 10

I can't believe my baby is 10. Time has gone by way too fast. I'll blink again and she'll be 20. Jenna turned 10 on January 20th. For her birthday she had a Harry Potter themed sleepover. So we had 8 10 year old girls at our house for a sleepover. Yikes! They got moustaches and Harry Potter glasses and Bertie Botts every flavor beans. We did some crafts and watched Harry Potter. I attempted to make a castle cake that didn't quite look like a castle. The girls ate it anyway. 

crafts at Jenna's party

 Jenna had a great birthday however I don't think we will have that many girls over in the future. It was crowded. Erik went to the neighbors house. I think he needed to escape.

The castle cake: Marissa, Jenna, Ashley, Grace, Abigail, and Paige (Saatvika, Leah, Lauren are not in the picture)

Geocaching

 I've done a lot of girl scout activities. As the leader for both troops I've been involved with and organized many activities. Last weekend we did a geocaching through the snow activity with the Girl Scouts. It was my favorite of any GS activity. The girls loved it too. There were many troops competing and we won! This is a picture of my team searching for our cache in the woods. This was such a fun time!  Maybe we can do this as a family now!

Grandpa and Jenna celebrate with a much yummier chocolate cake made by Grandma

 My friend Jen invited me over for a tea party with her china! We watched Downton Abbey and ate goodies and drank tea. I thought it was fantastic! And so pretty. Unfortunately DA is on Sunday nights. My student's labs are due on Sunday night and they ALWAYS wait until the last minute. I had 3 students call me during Downton Abbey. Really??? Do you have to wait until the very last minute to do your lab and bug your teacher during my very important TV show?

Fancy tea!

 We have played several games together as a family but Transamerica has become our favorite. Matthew can play too which is a big hit. He loves the little tracks and makes his own game while the four of us play. Hopefully he will be able to play the game for real soon. Although it does say 8 and up (technically Sarah has been playing since she was 6).

Transamerica and hot cocoa

 We met my parents at Bob Evans in Mansfield to celebrate Jenna's birthday. Yes - she had 3 cakes!! It was fun to see them and on the way home Jenna wished we could see my family more. The good thing is that we have lots of trips planned soon to visit them!

Birthday celebration with my family

In other news:

• All the books I'm reading now are interesting. Sometimes our book club books are less than stellar or I'm reading something from the library that is meh. Now I like everything. I'm reading: City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennet, Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness (book 2 in Discovery of Witches), Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan, and Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney. Yet for some reason I can't get my work done? 
• I'm two weeks behind on my course development (see bullet 1) but I'm muddling through. Next session I'm going to be teaching onsite. This will be interesting since I haven't taught onsite in a year and a half.
• 82 on quiddler today

I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny, but we can have lots of good fun that is funny.

"Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!" How cute is that??? Sarah had her birthday party with friends last Saturday. There were 13 6 year old girls at our house. Yikes! We had a Dr. Seuss theme and decorated with the cat in the hat plates and napkins. Sarah has really liked Dr. Seuss ever since our trip to Universal in October.

Lots of little girls!

 For the party we had hop on popcorn, blue jello with swedish fish in it, pink yink ink (pink lemonade) and cat in the hat kabobs (marshmallows and strawberries). We also had pizza but the little girls didn't eat it. They filled up on popcorn and cake.

The table

 We had a green eggs and ham egg hunt and played a fishing game. The girls also made their own truffala trees from the book the Lorax. It was a packed party and we all had a blast. I think Sarah had a great time!

Sarah next to her cake

A really cute cake!

Sarah decided to quit gymnastics and start Tae Kwon Do. It has been great for her especially since she is doing something different from Jenna. She really likes tae kwon do as well. She has also gotten into pokemon. I think she will be a little gamer. Matthew started gymnastics too. They both love their new classes. Matthew asks all the time if it is Tuesday for him to go to gymnastics.

Sarah is a white belt!

In other news:

• The Buckeyes are National Champions in college football. Yipee!The game was fantastic and all of Columbus is on a high now. I was so excited we won!
• The kids have been back in school all week. I'm glad to be back in a routine. It was nice for the break and them to be home a few more days, but I really needed to get to the Y and do my workout classes. I miss it when I can't work out!
• On that note, I am not making any New Years resolutions to eat healthy or go on any cleanses. I've discovered from doing these cleanses the past two years that I can starve myself for two weeks and lose a few pounds. Or I can eat whatever I want and look like this. I'm getting close to 40 and starting to care less...
• I'm reading A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness I'm liking the book and ordered the second and third from the library. 
• I also ordered Joseph Delaney's book: The Last Apprentice from the library. There is a movie coming out called the Seventh Son based on this book. Not that I would actually go to a movie, but I thought I'd read it anyway.
• Our book club is reading City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. We have just started reading so we haven't gotten into it much yet.
• I started a new Bible study called Breathe by Priscilla Shirer. It is about the Sabbath and taking rest. We all need this study and I think it will be great. 
• 82 points on quiddler today

My three week break

We had a fabulous Christmas and New Years. I haven't posted in awhile since I had the flu which knocked me out for three weeks. Everyone said the flu was bad this year, they weren't kidding! So I have a lot to post about!

Don't look so happy Matthew

For Christmas my parents, Missy, Dave and Amanda came to stay with us. We all went to Christmas Eve service at our church where Jenna was one of two kids asked to read a Bible verse. She was a little nervous standing in front of everyone at first but she is a jokester at heart and soon had everyone laughing.

Christmas morning was magical for the kids. I love seeing how excited they get. We gave them 3 presents this year (since Jesus got 3 presents) and stocking presents. It cut down on the excess and they seemed to like it. Sarah got her Elsa doll, Jenna got her friendship bracelet kit, and Matthew got a ton of train tracks!

We had planned on making a gingerbread house like we normally do every year, however the gingerbread house I bought was all in pieces when I opened the box. So this year we made a train. Each kid could decorate their own train which actually prevented some arguments. I think we will go with this in future years.

Our gingerbread train

 Sarah turned 7 on Dec.23. Her only birthday present request was poo pourri. This I blame on Amanda for showing her videos like this that Sarah loved. So she got her poo pourri for her birthday. I made her a lemon cake (her request) and we had popcorn shrimp for dinner (her favorite food).

Happy Birthday Sarah

Her gift: Poo pourri

 On Dec. 28th Dave, Becca and Charlotte came to visit. We had a great time with them except that Dave had the flu and sat on the couch for two days. He was sick pretty much the entire time he was here. Which was a bummer and just means we need to take a trip out to Sacramento to see them. Preferably when it is cold here!

Becca and Charlotte jumping at Buckeye Bounce

 We took Becca and Charlotte to Buckeye Bounce, the Anthony Thomas chocolate factory tour, and the mall. Charlotte really seemed to like bouncing. Sarah said her favorite memory of everyone being here was taking a bath with Charlotte. I guess that was more fun than bouncing and chocolate.

Charlotte playing at the mall

 Then Joel and Megan came to visit on the 31st and stayed until the 3rd. For the time we were all together we maximized our gaming. I think Erik was in heaven.
Megan had this great dark lords T-shirt with Darth Vader, Sauron and Voldemort. Very cool. We also had to show off our matching Marauder's map t-shirts. 

The coolest dark lords shirt

 While we were eating dinner one night, Erik mentioned that white corn is better than yellow corn. Of course this led to a debate resulting in a corn taste test. Everyone was blind folded and had to try both types of corn. From this taste test we determined that white corn is in fact, the winner.

Our corn taste test

The Marauders map t-shirts

Jenna reading scripture on Christmas Eve

Another closeup

It has been a great couple of weeks and now I'm ready to be back in a routine. Christmas time for us is always a wonderful break where we can spend time with family and relax. It certainly was that for me!

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!