Life has been busy, hence the lack of blogging.  However, D did note that this year was record-breaking in terms of number of posts, so that is an accomplishment. 

Last Saturday we hosted a Hello Kitty-themed birthday party for k, along with 11 of her friends from church and school.  It was fun, but tiring.  Our house is just starting to recover from all of the merriment.  Ah, the joys of having a birthday in December!

One of the activities was to have the girls decorate graham cracker gingerbread houses.  I pre-assembled the houses beforehand.  (Hint: microwave the graham crackers for about 12 seconds to soften up before cutting.  One more hint: make a few extra because there are bound to be cave-ins/accidents). 

We also made bracelets and HK tattoos:

For lunch we had Chick Fil A nuggets and tater tots.  My mom made cupcakes with HK lip gloss rings I found at Party City.

On k’s actual birthday we took a few pictures before she went to school.

On another note, every year I try to plan advent activities for every day of December leading up to Christmas.  Every year I inevitably run out of steam/creativity and do not fill up the entire month.  Tonight, I promised the kids that I would try to do better next year, and k said, “You mean when I’m 7?”  That comment made D and me so sad, because although true, it seems impossible…we really do need to cherish these passing years. 

One of the reasons I wanted to get the Discovery Science Museum pass is because I have always wanted to see the Science of Gingerbread exhibit.  Usually there is a giant inflatable gingerbread man on top of the museum during the exhibit, but it is not there this year.  However, the exhibit is still going on, so we went on Sunday to check it out. 

There is a gingerbread house contest and I was surprised at how many entries were displayed.

Where does the science come in?  One of the friendly employees guided k and n through a quiz about ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.  They glued some of each spice.  When you smell them all together it was supposed to smell like gingerbread.

Of course, they were more interested in decorating a cookie.

There was also a visit with Santa…

…and Bob the Builder.

There is an interactive grocery store on the second floor, which I don’t think I’ve documented before.

And no trip to the DSC would be complete without lying on the bed of nails!

Happy 12.12.12!  Last weekend was busy.  k had a Daisy event in the morning.  Then she had a birthday party for one of her classmates.

Then we drove straight to our church’s Christmas dinner/program.

n kept his shirt down this time.  Good thing, since he was front and center.

Electric candles for the kids…

Real candles for the adults.  (Photo: GT)

So I signed up for the L.A. Marathon! I decided to pay for the race by skipping eating out for all of December and January. In order to do that I wanted to make sure I ate good tasty food. So I told L that I would make soup. I saw a Smoky Black Bean Stew in Runner’s World that I was going to make. L being an awesome wife, bought the ingredients and made the soup. It was INSANE! It was spicy and I loved the tomatoes! Yum!! Here is what it looks like.

Runners World: Easy, One-Pot Postrun Meal

Sometimes less is more, and that is how I feel about my new sports list. Here I just focus on Cal and IU football and basketball post season results e.g. bowl games and NCAA tournaments. — Rose Bowl or the 2nd place team bowls. — NCAA Tournament Championship, Final Four or Sweet Sixteen. In additon, the best alumni in NFL and NBA — Passing, Rushing, Receiving. — Points, Assists, Rebounds.

Every year I try to plan activities to go along with our advent calendar.  However, sometimes it is difficult to think of things for weeknights when we don’t really go out.  Tonight’s activity was “giant coloring page”, which I downloaded and printed out from Mr. Printables.  It took longer than expected to put together, but the kids had a lot of fun with it.  I think it will keep them busy for a good while!

Last night we went to the Christmas program held by a local church.  It consisted of instrumental and choral music, a play, and devotion.  There was an amazing piano player that was unreal—I would go back just to hear him play again.  It was almost two hours, but the kids sat through it all.  What a wonderful way to start off the Christmas season.   

k received an award at school today and I was able to attend the assembly.  She received the “Character Counts” award; this month’s focus was “respect”.  It was nice because the teachers prepared a short explanation of why each child received his/her award. 

At the end of the clip, when k is receiving her award, you can hear some of the girls in her girl scout troop cheering for her—aww, how encouraging.

Now we just have to make sure that “character counts” at home, too!  It is a good reminder for all of us. 

We opted out of fighting the crowds for Black Friday and went to the LA Zoo.  Beforehand we stopped in Silver Lake, aka hipster central, and checked out Intelligentsia.

We ordered a hot chocolate for the kids and a macchiato.

I thought the macchiato had a sour aftertaste, but what do I know?  I do not claim to be a coffee/espresso expert.  The hot chocolate was good—not too sweet, but again, it was a tad sour.  We added some of the hot chocolate to our macchiato and made our own mocha.

D was lamenting that he forgot to bring his beanie for the hipster photo op.  We figured out that all of his clothes are way too baggy for him to ever look like a hipster anyway. 

It’s all about the name/branding.  That’s why they can charge $7+ for our two drinks and we’ll willingly pay for the experience.