Our friends, the Crossley's wanted to go on a temple trip to Indianapolis and invited us to come. I told them I would stay home with Brooklyn and their two girls who weren't old enough and the rest of them could go. I was worried about how the day would go because I would basically be babysitting for 12 hours starting at 5 am! Luckily they are very good and get along with Brooklyn great. They decided to have a tea party and spent hours in the morning planning and making everything for the party. They decided all of the food, decorated the table and made signs and banners and paper flowers. They did a great job and it was super fun! Everyone else had a great experience at the temple and Richard even took the kids to a pet store and let the Crossley adults do a session since it had been so long since they had been able to go.
That night, the ward hosted a Primary talent show. Some kids brought things they had done and others performed live. Brooklyn was a little nervous to do it by herself so she got together with her friend Abby and made up this gymnastics routine. They did an amazing job and I was very proud of them for working hard on it and being brave to do it in front of everyone.
The next day we to a city event called We Are Hilliard. People from all different countries and backgrounds put together tables to represent them. It was really fun to learn about all the different cultures we have represented here and thought it was well done.
That night, Kaylee had her birthday party and decided to do another late night. We got Chick-Fil-A nuggets and fries again and she had a lot of fun with her friends.
We celebrated her real birthday early because on her actual birthday she had track practice and then by the time she got home, I had to leave to get Brooklyn to gymnastics and before we get home, Richard would leave to teach his class! Mondays got a little crazy for us this semester!
I found this idea for an FHE lesson online and thought it was such a cute idea. I changed it a little bit to make it more personal and it ended up meaning so much to me. We have been doing lessons on baptism or the Holy Ghost to get Brooklyn ready for her baptism. I took a picture of Brooklyn and put it into a clear plastic folder. We talked about how after getting baptized, Brooklyn will be perfect and clean. But then she will come home and yell at her sister and we would make a mark with a dry erase marker on her. We kept coming up with things that Brooklyn might do to mess up and then we would draw on her face. The girls had a lot of fun drawing a mustache and horns, etc. on Brooklyn's face. Then we talked about how now Brooklyn has all these marks on her that she can't get rid of. But if she will turn to Christ and repent, he can erase all of those mistakes and sins and leave her clean and pure again. As we wiped off the picture, I got emotional seeing her little face under there smiling so happy! It was a good lesson for me, whether or not the kids ever remember it.
Kaylee got nominated by one of her teachers for a Panther Pride award. This is an award that each teacher gives to one student each quarter who they think are representing good qualities and working hard. They invited each kid and their parents to come before school for donuts and coffee and chat with the teacher who nominated them. We are so proud of how hard she works!
Brooklyn wanted a Harry Potter party for her birthday which I was not going to complain about! I made a brick wall for platform 9 3/4, Monster Book of Monsters to hand out and decorated the house with floating candles and all of our HP gear. Brooklyn made signs for each section of the house where we were going to do the different classes. When the kids first got to our house, we did a photo booth with the brick wall and whatever accessories they wanted. Then we had a sorting ceremony. We put a walkie-talkie into a witch hat and Kaylee was on the other end. We would loudly say that the next person was ready for their sorting and then she would tell them what house they were in. Then we played a game where they had one person in the middle blindfolded and everyone else would switch spots. Then we would pass around Hedwig until the person in the middle said stop. Then, the person holding Hedwig would make an owl sound and the person in the middle had to guess who it was. The kids were a little crazy and energetic so we changed some plans and decided to do a scavenger hunt outside so they could run around. We gathered up everything we had in the house that could be considered a magical creature and Richard and Kaylee hid them in the back yard and the kids had to find them. We bought brown clay and cut out green paper leaves and had them create Mandrakes for Herbology. They did a Harry Potter workout video to try to get more energy out and then we made slime for Potions class. We also did Divination with food coloring in their drinks and gave them all a fortune to match the color of drink they got. Unfortunately, Brooklyn's one friend who loves Harry Potter couldn't come and most of the other kids didn't know anything about it. So it was probably way more fun for me than it was for them but Brooklyn had a blast so that's all that matters!
It was hard to find time to celebrate Brooklyn's birthday as well since almost every night is busy now. But we found time to work in her presents and a birthday treat at least and I took her out to dinner after her gymnastics class. Since she had a big bday party and we had people coming out for her baptism in two weeks, I didn't feel too bad. We love our cute 8 year old!
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