The 2nd half of February did not go how I thought it would. On President's Day I woke up with a sore throat and not feeling good. I had to reschedule my dentist appointment that was scheduled for that morning. Thankfully, the kids did not have school, so I didn't have to wake up early for that and was able to do a lot of resting. The next day I was feeling fine, until the end of the day when my throat started to hurt again. Then it turned into a cold by Wednesday. I was tired, stuffy and had a dull pain in my throat for several days. Sometimes I would feel better and then I didn't feel good again. I was sick for about 2 weeks total. I can't complain though, because I have been much sicker than this before and I was just counting my blessings that I wasn't terribly sick. That Saturday was Charlotte's last basketball game and I'm glad I felt good enough to go see her play again. I honestly don't remember now if they won that game, but overall, I believe they won 4 out of 6 games, which is pretty good. Charlotte loved playing and didn't want the season to end, so I think that means she'll play for her school next year. She might even do both. I came to find out that the 7th grader on their team was playing for their team and her school. She was able to do that because she was still 12 years old when signing up and that's the cut off age for the city league. 

I decided that during the time I was sick, and trying not to do too much, that I would work on the owl puzzle I started on Feb 13th. It was a 1000-piece puzzle but had lots of colors. I was able to do this one without looking at the letters on the back of each piece. I may have looked at a handful of them, but that was it. 

The girls came in to put the last two pieces in for me.

It sure is handy to have this puzzle board with drawers that my dad gave me.

I'm thinking that A.I. must have been used to make this picture because sometimes you get weird things that don't make sense when using A.I.

Just when we thought we weren't going to get even one snowflake this fall or winter, we woke up to a light layer on the 20th. Alice went out and played with it as much as she could before going to school because she knew it would be gone by the time she got home.

I like to call this a Frosted Mini Wheats type of snow because that's what the grass looks like to me.

We also had our 2nd annual ward "No Holds Pinewood Derby" on the 20th. There are basically no rules, except no combustion and your car must stay on the track (last year there was a bungee cord involved for somebody's car). This year we actually did some planning on our car and came up with a Harry Potter themed car.  Charlotte donated her Buckbeak and Harry Lego characters to ride on top of the car. Curtis bought a motorized fan to attach to the back. Each time our car was up on the track, I would play Buckbeak's flight music from the 3rd movie on a small portable speaker that I brought.  It was fun. Our car won 2nd place for fastest car, although it would have won 1st place had Buckbeak not fallen off on the very last race. 

We named our car "Buckbeak's Flight"

Working on the car. Charlotte helped with sanding and painting. Curtis took pictures of her but never sent them to me.

The very next week, Charlotte came home with a fever and cough on Tuesday. She missed school on Wednesday but was able to go back on Thursday. Then Thursday night (early Friday morning), Alice woke me up in the middle of the night with an upset stomach and a mess to clean. After that she developed a fever and cough. The fever lasted for 4 days, and I was beginning to wonder if I should take her in. I called the doctor's office, and the nurse was gone that day and there weren't any openings either. I decided to wait another day before deciding if I should take her to a quick care. Thankfully, her fever broke the next morning. She only missed one day of school because there wasn't any school on that Friday (the first day she got sick). I also had to reschedule Alice's dentist appointment. The girls both had coughs and they slowly got better over time, as coughs usually do. Jack started to get sick not long after all of the girls but thankfully he never had a fever and chills like the girls did. He basically had the same type of cold I did. Now everyone is feeling better. There were a few days where it was warm, and I opened the windows for several hours to air out our house. Then it got cold again. It will be nice when we can do it again and more regularly. Bring on Spring and warmer weather!

We are down to one child who does Valentine's parties at school still. I honestly get so tired of going to look for cheap cards and candy to hand out. Well, last month for an activity day activity the girls made clay hearts and other shapes. After that activity, Alice said she wanted to make clay hearts for her class this year. I loved that idea! We kept thinking we were going to make them early and kept putting it off, until about 1 week before I had Curtis help Alice make one batch of clay. We were originally going to leave the clay white and then add in some food coloring when kneading so that it would create a marble effect. Well, my husband was just trying to follow the directions on the video (I was gone that evening to take Charlotte to basketball practice). They went ahead and added food coloring while it was in liquid form, trying to get a purple color. It actually turned out blue. We put it in the fridge to keep it until we were ready to roll it out (almost a week later). I bought some more baking soda so we could make another batch. This time Alice went for pink. So, we came out with blue and pink hearts. Blue for the boys and pink for the girls. I thought I had heart shaped cookie cutters, but I guess I don't and had to borrow some from Glenna.

Instead of decorating the hearts while it was still soft, we just left them as plain hearts. It was a lot of work to knead the dough back together and roll it out without it breaking, so I was happy just to get the hearts cut out. The next day after they had dried all the way, Charlotte, Alice and I took turns writing with a pen on each heart.

This is the design we did for each heart. Alice wrote this one.

On the back we wrote who it was going to and the year and "from Alice".

Alice working on the hearts. We used the cookie can to carry them in. Unfortunately, two kids told Alice that theirs had broken. Kind of a bummer, but it was still fun to do something different.

Alice with her school Valentine's box. Charlotte gave her the dragon because Charlotte was given several 3D printed things for Valentine's from friends, so she didn't want her sister to feel disappointed if she didn't get any from friends at school (which she didn't).

On Valentine's Day, we started out with Charlotte and I going to her basketball game while the rest of the family helped clean the church. Early games on Saturdays (8am) are almost brutal for these kids. They are still so sleepy. This particular game for Charlotte's team was particularly difficult to watch. It was their worst game so far. Our team normally has 8 players and they were down 1 because of sickness. The other team had 11 girls! I don't understand how they could let that happen to have so many more players than our team. That meant less rest time for our girls. Our girls were just not making their shots, making poor passes, and not rebounding. They also started making more calls by the referees. I think they do that towards the end of the season. Anyway, it was hard to watch that game, but we got through it. And one of the teammates brought a treat bag for each player, so that was nice. Their last game is this Saturday and this time it will be at 9am, thankfully. I think all of their games were either 8am or 9am. It would have been nice to have a 10am at least once.

After we got home and Curtis with Alice and Garrett (Jack went to Fusion practice), we started planning out our family derby car for our ward derby car race that will be this coming Friday evening. It's a "no holds" race again, so basically anything goes as long as the car stays on the track. Last year we had some bungie cords flinging cars and that got a little scary. Nothing like that this year. We decided that our car will be Harry Potter themed with Charlotte's little Lego Buckbeak and Harry riding on top. Curtis also ordered a little power fan to attach on top. This is going to be a lot more fun this year! We're actually putting some planning into it. (To be fair, Curtis was really sick last year and not up to making a car)

In the afternoon, Alice went with a friend to a baptism, then to their house and then to her friend's basketball game, while the rest of us went to the temple to do baptisms as a family. I wasn't able to get in the water this time, but they let Charlotte do mine for me. We each had 5 names. I did the confirmations for my names. It was great to be there with the boys and Charlotte and Curtis. We did not get a picture because I left my phone in the van. Maybe next time. Originally, we were going to do the baptisms the Saturday before, but because we had so much going on with Jack's birthday and Curtis being out of town, we rescheduled it for Valentine's Day. I'm glad we did. Charlotte even saw her friend's family there after we finished our session. 

Curtis and I didn't really plan anything for Valentine's Day other than the temple. I went to go watch Alice's friend, Laila, play her basketball game (which was at 4:00pm). Then Alice came home with me, and we finally started talking about it. There is a new movie out in theaters that I really wanted to see called "Solo Mio" that stars Kevin James and Jonathan Roumie (the actor who plays Jesus on The Chosen). It was put out by Angel Studios. We had also been thinking about signing up for Angel Studios streaming service and we finally did. Curtis cancelled YouTube TV and signed up for Angel. The cool thing about the premium package they have is that you can get two free tickets to every show put out by Angel in theaters. So, that's exactly what we did. He signed us up and then we got our tickets to see "Solo Mio". 

We decided to eat somewhere that wouldn't be busy because we didn't want to be late to our movie. Curtis mentioned a sandwich shop called the Graze, so we went there and there wasn't anybody in line. My sandwich was called the "Jack", and it was really good. Costco was right across the street, so we drove over there afterwards to grab some ribs for our Sunday dinner the next day and to get one of their chocolate chip cookies at the food court. I had been craving one of those. I love that they serve them warm. We split the cookie in half, and we ate it on the way to the AMC theater. We both really enjoyed that movie and would definitely recommend. It's a good romantic comedy. So, while we didn't buy each other any chocolates, or flowers, or anything, it was still a good Valentine's Day. We don't need all that other stuff.

Originally, we weren't going to have a friend's party for Jack this year. He was just going to invite a few friends over to hang out. Well, while talking with Jennifer Horne at our girls' basketball game we discovered that Jack and their oldest daughter, Harper, have birthdays close together. Jack and Harper are friends from church and Choral Fusion. Then later that day Jack tells me that Harper messages him and wants to see if he would like to do a combined birthday party because she was already planning on doing a murder mystery party for her birthday and inviting most of their Fusion friends. Of course, Jack said yes and I was fine with it too. How often do you get to go to a murder mystery party? Jack, Harper and her mom pretty much planned everything. I ended up bringing veggie and fruit trays. 

They also asked if we would like to bring a cake for Jack because they are getting an ice cream cake for Harper. Those are smaller and Jack wouldn't be able to eat it anyway because of his allergies. When asking Jack what flavor of cake he would like, he responded that he would either want a German chocolate or a white Costco cake. So, I said, okay, which cake do you want for your friends' party, and which one do you want for the family party? He decided to get the white cake for the friends' party and do the German chocolate cake for family. 

I was hoping that Costco made German chocolate cakes, but they didn't have any. I didn't see any at Walmart either. I wasn't sure I wanted to do a cake mix and cheap frosting like last year. I did some looking online and found a highly rated recipe. It had over 4 thousand reviews and 4.9 stars out of 5. It did require making 3 different parts of the cake, so I was a little hesitant at first. There was the cake itself, the coconut pecan frosting and the chocolate buttercream frosting. I have never made either of those frostings.

Jack's birthday was on a Thursday this year, but because of Curtis being gone on a business trip and Jack having Fusion practice, he decided we would celebrate with the family on Sunday. Curtis wouldn't be back until Saturday morning and then Saturday evening was the friend party. I didn't want to stress about making a cake on Sunday, so I decided to make the cake after Charlotte's basketball game that morning (which by the way, she made her first regular shot in a game, and their team made a great come back to win). I started with the cake and while it was baking, I made the coconut pecan frosting. Both of those needed time to cool before applying frosting. I made the chocolate frosting and put it in the fridge. This was my first time making buttercream frosting and I was just worried about how easy it would be to spread, because of past problems spreading store bought frosting on cakes and having it rip pieces off the cake before. So, I added extra evaporated milk, but it ended up being a little too much, as my frosting started to droop when I was spreading it and piping it on. Other than that, it turned out great and I would make it again!

I invited the Gale's to come to the girl's game and they came! They are like our adopted parents/grandparents over here.

Frosting the cake and proof that I made it. I actually enjoyed making this cake. I even bought us a round cake platter with lid to make it easier to store and carry around. It will come in handy later on for pies too. It even came with two round cake pans.

After finishing the cake, it was time to get over to the church to decorate and prep. Jack and I were in charge of music. He created a 50's list on Spotify and I added a few songs as well. We managed to get the music playing in the gym, but it sounded like background music and I thought I had it turned up all the way. Maybe I didn't turn up the correct volume setting on my phone, but we couldn't figure it out. We had also plugged in a microphone and whenever they turned it on to use, the music got loud. We'd have to pause the music so they could talk. For the most part it was fine to have background music volume but he would have liked to have it louder. I should have called Curtis and asked him about it. He later said that when he went earlier to test it for us that the music was blaring. And by testing, I mean he had to bring our cd player so I could connect my phone to it via bluetooth and connect to the gym sound system using a headphone jack. 

Anyway, Jack and Harper had spent time working on this party for a couple of weeks. They got together and typed up special letters for each person that was coming and it let them know which character they would play. Jack also told his best friend from Nampa, Porter Ballantyne, about it and he ended up driving down here by himself to be able to join the party. He didn't have school on Friday and so he drove up Friday afternoon and then drove home Sunday morning. I would have been terrified to have my child drive that far being so inexperienced, but I guess he's been driving himself to ski team up at Bogus Basin, so he's had some good practice. Fortunately, there wasn't any snow he needed to worry about on the Blues that weekend. It may have rained a little bit on Sunday, but that was it. It was great to have him here. As soon as he arrived on Friday, I took him over to where Jack was doing some dance lessons with friends up the street at the Taylor's, so he got to do some dancing. Then Saturday morning he went to Fusion practice with Jack. However, about halfway through practice he said he would like to leave, so I picked him up and had him run errands with me. First to Costco to get the cake, then to the church to leave it in the fridge since we did not have space at home. Then we went to the dollar store to pick out some wrapping paper and a balloon (as is tradition). The line at the dollar tree was super long and they weren't expecting more employees to come in until 30 minutes later. We ended up getting home just before Jack got home from practice. Good timing! They relaxed and played videogames while I baked the German chocolate cake.

Party time!

Harper drew the silhouettes herself. She did a great job.

The Horne's provided all of the decorations. I loved the color scheme.

They wanted pigs in a blanket, pinwheel wraps, and another tasty appetizer they made. Then there was my veggie and fruit trays.

They also had some chips and dips. And stuff to make Italian sodas or just drink regular sodas.

Mingling and playing games at the tables.

Jack and Harper didn't tell her mom that they would be setting up round tables and so she didn't buy round tablecloths. Otherwise, she would have.

It helped a lot to have a microphone when trying to let everyone know what was going on at certain times.

Jack's cake. His favorite color is still purple. I got lucky and found a premade one with purple writing because I forgot to have one ordered.

Harper's ice cream cake. Chocolate with chocolate brownie pieces inside and on top. She's lactose intolerant and has to take pills to be able to have that much dairy. They dubbed it the "death by chocolate" cake. If she dies, she'll die happy, ha ha.

Singing the birthday song along with everyone else. Such a cute picture.

Opening gifts

Deliberating who could have done it.

Such a great group of kids and I love that nearly all of them dressed up!

Porter and Jack

Saying goodbye before Porter left for Nampa Sunday morning.

Looking good for "71"! (Silly Jack)

Oh, we mean "17"

He got a tie/belt holder for his closet that he's been wanting. He also finally got a blue and orange tie to represent BSU. I was trying to avoid sweet for the snack this time and got him jerky. He liked that. Charlotte picked out the squeeze cheese block and a Panda Express gift card for $15 and Alice picked out a globe wooden puzzle. It actually lights up as well. He got the new shirt that he's wearing in this picture. I also took him shopping the next day for several pairs of different colors of pants and several pairs of shoes. He said he likes getting new clothes for birthdays now.

On Friday, January 23rd, Curtis and I took the girls to a hockey game at the Toyota Center here in Kennewick to watch the Tri-City Americans take on the Portland Winterhawks. It was the first time for Alice since Charlotte came with a friend in December. We were able to get discounted tickets because Alice's school was having a special school night. And even though it was discounted, we still paid $25 a ticket. It's crazy how expensive everything has gotten! This was the first time going to a hockey game here. We did go in Boise to watch the Steelheads years ago, but it seemed to me like we only spent around $12 a ticket or something like that. 

It took a little bit to get into it but after a while we were enjoying watching the game. Alice especially liked that she found some of her friends to go hang out with. And the 4th and 5th graders that play the marimbas from Alice's school were there in the hallway during period breaks to play their music. They do such a good job, and I hope Alice does it next year! The girls were able to talk their dad into buying them a helmet bucket of popcorn (their bowl is a helmet). Unfortunately, our team did not win but it was still fun to be there with the girls doing something other than watching movies on a Friday night.

Because I loved watching "The Little Mermaid" so much the previous weekend for my birthday, I decided to take the girls to see the last showing of it. I tried to get the boys to come but they didn't want to. I think they would have loved it also. We made plans to meet our friends, the Horne's, there and sat by them. We also saw some of the Chandler family there to support their sister.

The two on the left are sisters of the one who played Atrina. The other ones with us are the Horne's.

The girls really enjoyed the show, even though some parts of the story were changed from the movie. You kind of have to change stuff sometimes. I can't wait to watch their next big show, which will be "The Prince of Egypt", and I heard today at church that the Chandler's daughter will be playing one of the lead roles, as Zipporah. I guess I'm hooked to watching musicals now, ha ha!  Again, it was fun to do something on a Saturday night other than watching a movie.