May the Force Be With You

We had the funnest birthday party for the twins last weekend. Since we've had Disneyworld passes this year, in one of our last trips to Disneyworld we watched them do their Jedi Training Academy that they let a certain amount of kids sign up for each day. It was such a great idea I knew we had to do it for the twins birthday party, so I suggested a Star Wars birthday party to them and they heartily agreed. We've been on so many Star Wars rides at Disneyworld and have started letting them watch the movies that they are definitely into it. And it was a theme I could get into and be a little more excited about than some other kid-themed parties, because hey, Star Wars is cool.

My pictures are terrible because we had someone film with our camera, but didn't get any still shots. So yes, these pictures are me playing the movie back on our tv and taking pictures of it with my iPhone. But hey, you get the idea.

Ryan and I tried to get into character - he was Obi-Wan-Kenobi, and I was, well, his assistant. Another Padowan? I'm not sure what I would be, that's just how they did it at Disneyworld, although the night before I realized I was mad I wasn't being Princess Leia.  Who doesn't want a shot at wearing those side buns??  Ahh, next time. Anyhow, we got our Star Wars theme music playing and marched the kids out to the training platform. Surprisingly, they very dutifully stayed on their marked Xs.

The Jedi master then had them repeat a Jedi oath, explained a little about Jedis and demonstrated how the force can even help you do cool things like make a card float in mid-air (if any of you know Ryan and his awesome magic tricks, you know those have to be thrown in there somewhere)!

Then he talked about how Jedis wear the Jedi robe - believe it or not, in my first sewing experiment ever I actually made three of these - one for Ryan and two I figured the twins could wear and then could be passed around.  The craftsmanship would make any of my sewing friends die of embarrassment, but hey, the overall shape was there. After the robes, of course what does any worthwile Jedi have??  Light sabers of course. But oh, surprise, surprise. Just like every birthday party I've ever worked my tail off to throw for them, my very own kids are always the only ones who throw a fit and won't get into it!

Refusing the Jedi robe and light saber. Seriously?  Well, everyone else was stoked with their light sabers, although I didn't realize it would be so bright outside that you couldn't see how cool they looked all blue and lit up, but whatever, they didn't seem to care.  Everyone was taught how to activate their light sabers with a quick flick of the wrist and we were off on our training. Cash was a very dutiful student.

  

He taught them their training sequence - go for the right shoulder, left shoulder, duck, spin attack, right leg, left leg, and go for the head. It was great. Some were very serious.  And some were a little clueless. :)

But then suddenly Obi-Wan Kenobi felt a disturbance in the force...the music changed, and the kids were rushed over to the side... as DARTH VADER appeared.

Then to defeat him they each had to take a turn fighting Darth Vader using the training sequence they'd just learned (or not, in many cases. :)   Cash was brave enough to be the first one to fight.

Some were very brave:

  

Some seemed a little confused. :)

Some were a bit intimidated!

Some were GRUMPY!

  

And some just had total meltdowns.

But were finally somewhat coerced. :)

Some never did it, but truthfully when I was down at their level and looked up at Darth Vader I was like - ok, yeah, that could freak me out too if I was your size!  I was bummed you couldn't see his red lit up light saber, but then realized it was probably a good thing - that could have been even more intimidating!

Then Obi-Wan had to face off with Darth Vader. Seriously, check out the form.  :)

 

But then things went downhill...

And the younglings all had to come to the rescue.

The kids were all awarded certificates for completing their Jedi training and Phoenix and Ashton were presented with a double light saber.

Then we celebrated with cupcakes.

That magically seemed to fix everything.

But really, I can't think of a more perfect little boy party - adventure, a bit of adrenaline, light sabers, fighting, and an open field to run around and have light saber battles in after.

 

And thanks to our friend James who is such a dang good sport!  Seriously, watch out who you're friends with cause you may get friends who ask some pretty crazy favors!  This is the same guy that took a twin as a lap-rider on a cross-country flight for me (I chalk that up to the fact that he doesn't have kids - had he known what it was like he would have never said yes!), he's watched our kids while we've gone out of town, and he was the one a few weeks ago who watched our kids all day while Ryan was in conference and I had to run a garage sale for the young women, and then came back to the rescue that night when our babysitter went into labor.  He now can add Darth Vader to his list of credentials!

All in all it was a great birthday for my two crazy 4 year-olds!

Young Women New Beginnings

I thought I would post what we did for New Beginnings in case anyone wants any ideas since that season is coming up and I'm constantly searching blogs for something that hits me as the right idea for our group at a particular time.  When I got put in as the Young Women President I felt very strongly that I needed to focus on family relationships, parent-daughter relationships.  We really had the goal of drawing the children to their parents and the parents to us - since parental support for the YW program is minimal at best here. (We live in Miami and so the needs and types of families may be different from the norm).  Anyhow, we were trying to think of how to channel that idea into a nice and meaningful New Beginnings.

So we came up with the theme of "In the Beginning...."  leaving it somewhat open as to peak interest.

With sort of the subtitle that "Every good story started somewhere,"  meaning the story of them. So to prepare for the evening, we had secretly contacted all the parents and asked them for a few pictures of each of their girls - a few from each covering a span of years - baby, child... up to a current photo of each of them.  We had also asked each parent to write a letter to their daughters - starting with thoughts back from when they were born - their hopes and dreams for each of them, the excitement they had for them to be born - along with any other feelings they wanted to share and expressing their love for them - but to keep it strictly positive and uplifting (not I wish you would.... kind of stuff - we had quite a few having some big battles with their parents at the time).  We collected those all ahead of time without the girls knowing.

The night of the program we had everyone start by taking a questionnaire as they came in to be working on with their parents while everyone was arriving.

We did the usual stuff at the beginning of the program, and then when we got to our presentation, we started off with the slide show of the pictures of each of them from baby-teenager set to some great music.  It was a huge hit.  We had their photos go from their earliest to the most current and told them they could try to guess out loud who each girl was as her pictures came up.  We also threw pictures of the leaders in there from their childhood, which was fun for them to get to know us too since our presidency was all new. They all loved seeing themselves and seeing each other.  It was really fun.

When it was over, I started off my talk telling that our theme was "In the Beginning," and as they could see, we really wanted to go back to the beginning... to the beginning of them.  And even before that, (with the questionnaire) to their parents who raised them (couldn't say gave birth to them in our ward since some don't live with their mothers and fathers). Because every good story started somewhere. 

Then I talked about how much their parents must have loved them, sang them to sleep, rocked them, held them when they cried.  Then we told them we had something for each of them from their parents, and we gave them their letters that each of their parents had written for them.  We played some soft music while we gave them a few minutes to read through them.  

Then I talked a lot about parent-child relationships, how we all have the need for emotional connection but how sometimes it's hard to let parents in, and sometimes parents are too busy or preoccupied to let the children in.  It's hard for us to risk feelings and emotions if they're not well-received or if we're brushed off.  I talked about the challenges of teenage years and how it's easy to want to push parents away.  Then I told in detail about my relationship with my dad growing up.  I showed slides as I told about how I was the baby of the family, a real daddy's girl, but as a teenager I pushed away more, was a typical somewhat cranky and sullen teenager, and tried to be more distant the more he tried to be there. Even though he was always there and so supportive, I never appreciated it. When I graduated and went away to college, that strained relationship from the teen years finally started to lighten up - and then in an instant, he passed away.  I tried to really draw them into the story and kind of hit them with the shock that as an 18 year-old girl - not too far off for many of them, my dad was suddenly gone.  I wanted them to realize the time I'd wasted giving stink-face to my dad when we could have been laughing together and making happy memories.  I wanted to get across the point that we shouldn't waste the time we have with our parents and we should try to let them into our lives.  I also tried to get across to the parents that they should go easy on the kids as well, respect the things that are important to them rather than trivializing them, that sometimes they need to suspend judgement and accusations and just be a listening ear to protect their child from clamming up and not being willing to go to them the next time.  I also read a quote from Maya Angelou that says, "We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty," trying to remind parents of how tough the teenage years can be. 

After that we had some fun games just to get the parents and kids to have some fun together - we did something like the dating game where we had a few parent-child couples come up at a time and they all had to answer questions about each other like, "If your daughter were to steal one item from your closet what would it be?" and see if the parent and child put the same answers.  It was fun.  I think we had a few more fun games prepared, maybe even some minute-to-win-it type games?  But I think we felt time was up and we just did the one.  

At the end we had cupcakes for everyone and had made some little butterflies - relating to the earlier Maya Angelou quote, and also tying into a poem we stuck on each of them. (The butterflies were painted clothes pins pinned around the small snack size ziplock bags full of candy.)

We decorated everything in pink and black, had some cute black and white polka-dot paper we used to cover tables for our games or as a table runner down the food table over a pink tablecloth.  We used pink and black balloons across the ceiling as decorations and we had a little backdrop for them to take pictures together with their parents.

All in all we felt it was a really meaningful evening, a little change of pace from trying to get creative with re-introducing the values over and over again (although one of the early talks did hit those basics of the YW program more to introduce it to all the new girls), and a valuable way to try to just get positive feelings between the parents and their daughters and about the YW program in general and from the parents to us - also emphasizing that all those dreams and goals the parents had for their little girls are exactly what we have for them and what the YW program is here to help make a reality.

I'm sure others could make way more professional handouts, but I'd be happy to pass on files if anyone is interested.  But email, don't comment (comments don't come to my email) jen_isom@hotmail.com .

1Year!

Poor blog

Poor neglected little blog.  Life has been crazy. After getting back from Christmas I got called as the Young Women President in our ward here at church. I'm pretty sure I spent more time on that than sleeping the first few weeks.

In the last week alone, I herniated or re-injured a herniated disc and would have to take Cash into school with tears streaming down my face, so I've dealt with that, got some injections and been heavily medicated.  Coinciding with that, within a 10-day period of time I had seen Ryan twice for a couple hours in the evening due to call, travel and conferences.

Last Friday night I had to call him out of a conference to come home and give Cash stitches. (It really went down like this - Cash crying. Me, not really paying attention: You get hurt? Ok, it'll get better. Because seriously, someone is hurt like 30 times a day in this house and that's about all the sympathy they get. I get on the phone, busy, busy. Get off, he starts crying again. What now??? I say.  My head hurts, he says. Cash, seriously that was like 20 minutes ago. At which point I actually look and see his shirt is soaked in blood, the couch is covered in blood, the floor, his hand and arms and legs.... Oh I am such a good mom!) So Ryan takes him in and sews him up.  Check.

Up late that night and then have to get up at 5am Saturday  to run a Super Saturday yard sale, car wash and bake sale to help the young women raise money for camp. We had realized last minute that Ryan would be in conference all that day too and had to call our good friend to the rescue to come watch the kids all day. Ryan and the neighbor have to get up early that morning too and completely disassemble the minivan to get in a couch and all this other stuff going to the garage sale.  Run that whole thing, get home exhausted late that day, just in time to try to pretty-up for a Bascom Palmer Eye Institute 50th Anniversary celebration at the Biltmore Hotel that night.

30 minutes in to the party our babysitter goes into labor.  Spend some time on the phone coordinating to make sure we get someone to come watch our kids and that her's are taken care of, and we have to call our trusty friend to the rescue at the last minute once again.  Get home from that and Ryan goes over to stay with the neighbor's kids and relieve the interim babysitter while they are off having their baby.  (I have seriously been waiting with baited breath and checking in every day for that I'm-going-into-labor phone call and of course it happens the night we're busy and I make it way more complicated for her!)

Sunday morning we wake up and try to get the six kids under age 5 (ours and the neighbor's) fed, dressed and ready for church, then realize the van is still completely dismantled from the yard sale the day before. Ryan hauls all the seats back out to the car, loads 5 car seats back in on top of those and we take off for church - where the baby cries the entire time and Ashton throws multiple tantrums on the floor in the middle of the hallway while I try to take care of young women and Ryan has to do clerk business. We have to stay after to take care of more details that seem to keep dragging on while trying to keep track of the 6 kids, and we're dying to get out of there. Finally make the drive home and then try to get everyone fed again. No one wants the drink they've been given, this person wants a different cup, this one doesn't like this sandwich, everyone is in and out of their chairs, this one won't eat, this one is crying.... at which point Ryan declares he's getting a vasectomy and hides himself in our room to take a nap.

You get the idea.  :)   It's been a wild ride.

Reason #567 why I have learned not to be critical of other people's parenting

We (especially Ryan) used to spend a good deal of time making fun of my sister's kids for running around in pajamas that were far too small.  (Ok, seriously though people, these kids were in footed pajamas hunched over because they couldn't stand up straight.)

Anyhow, I have eaten my words. We seem to go from bad....

....to worse around here....

I think at this point in life you realize you're just happy if they have clothes on.

Christmas

Such a photogenic bunch.

I'm getting pretty good at making a mean-looking Christmas pie.

Here we are having a little fun with Siri (the virtual assistant you can talk to on my new iPhone). If you happen to get a random and inexplicable call from me I'll just apologize ahead of time. The boys are always trying to say stuff to her on my phone and apparently she doesn't speak 3 year-old. (Me either, Siri.)  I'm usually across the room when I hear her mistakenly repeat that she's going to call Dr. so-and-so or whoever and I'm trying to run over to stop her.