Enrichment of Oz

Last night our ward held a Visiting Teaching Workshop that was Wizard of Oz themed. We had Wizard of Oz decorations and food and had women speak in our ward about having the Wisdom for Visiting Teaching (wisdom of the Spirit), Heart for Visiting Teaching (charity), and the Courage for Visiting Teaching. (I hope I don't have to explain the connection to the Wizard of Oz.)

The decorations were a ton of work, and I wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of my mom, my sister-in-law Brooke, my neighbor Jess, and talented Enrichment Committee members. I have included some pictures for your enjoyment. We had posters of quotes from the Wizard of Oz movie around the room and tables decorated in honor of different characters from the Wizard of Oz.

Dorothy table: rainbow, ruby slippers, blue gingham, Toto, "There is no place like home" sign, and skittles (Taste the Rainbow!)

Tin Man table: hearts, oil can, tin foil, Tin Man's hat, and Hershey kisses

Lion table: crown, stuffed lions, medal of courage, animal crackers ("lions and tigers and bears--oh my!")

Scarecrow table: scarecrow, crows, diploma, candy corn

Wicked Witch table: Witch on broomstick, witch hat, Wicked CD case, quotes by the witch, black licorice

Glinda table: Glinda hat, star wand, bubbles, pink candy

Munckinland talble : certificate of death for the Wicked Witch of the East, lollipops, mini oreos, mini muffins, mini candy

Emerald City table: the Emerald City "towers" (jars with green scrapbook paper), green sunglasses, green candy

Table with random Wizard of Oz paraphernelia. Notice the Yellow Brick Road!

Our menu included the following: Wicked Witch's Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole, Over the Rainbow Jello Salad, Munchkin Muffins, and Winged Monkey Banana Pudding for dessert. I think the whole thing went really well, but I am sooooo glad that it is over! If any of you ever want to throw a Wizard of Oz themed birthday party or activity, just let me know!

Fantasy Day

Last night before we went to bed, Alan and I were discussing what the best "Fantasy Day" would be like. Like, if we could do anything we wanted to for one day and have everything our way, what would we do?
I decided that it would be fun to go to Disneyland for a day, but not have it be crowded at all and not have it be too hot. (At first I wanted to be the only guests in the park, but then I decided that would be just weird. Just us and all the employees of Disneyland--gross.) Of course we wouldn't actually have to pay to go. Also, we would eat in the Blue Bayou Restaurant (an unfulfilled dream of mine) and watch all the people entering the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The food would be free, too, of course. And while I am dreaming, all the refreshments at the park would be free and also calorie/fat-free.
Of course, taking some kind of trip for a day on some kind of tropical beach would be a fun getaway, too. But it couldn't be too sunny or hot, and the water would have to be warm. And I would probably change the way that seawater tastes, too. Gross. Maybe sugary instead of salty? I often picture myself sitting in a hammock between two palm trees on a white-sand beach, watching the sunset. I would have a tropical drink melting in my hand, and I would be falling in love to the rhythm of a steel-drum band. I would perfect my chemistry (with Alan), and by and by I'd defy a little bit of gravity. :)

Then I started feeling guilty that the two above mentioned Fantasy Days excluded little Jared. Why should my Perfect Day exclude someone I love so much? So I started to make up a wonderful day that would include him. Of course, he wouldn't have any diapers to change that day and would only play with things he was supposed to play with! And he wouldn't be a picky/messy eater and he wouldn't get tired or cranky. I guess if I eliminated those factors about Jared, then we could do pretty much anything that day! Picnic somewhere? Tropical beach? Or even just a lovely, leisurely dinner at an extremely fancy restaurant where Jared wasn't acting high-maintenance. Of course there would be lots of (free) chocolate desserts with no fat or calories.

I guess in any fantasy of mine, I would be able to eat as much chocolate as I wanted without any consequences. :)

Milk Woes

Jared doesn't like milk. I was so excited to get him going on whole milk once I stopped nursing him at a year old, but I gave up after dozens and dozens of failed attempts. I even tried chocolate milk. Recently I have tried to convert Jared to eating cereal with milk for breakfast, but he still hates the milk. In fact, I noticed some red rashes on his chin/neck that he was rubbing, which makes me think he has a slight milk allergy.

This week I bought a carton of vanilla soymilk. Jared has tried it three times and hates it. He sticks out his tongue and makes a "sour" face. (I actually like it. I think it tastes sort of like horchata.)

So now I don't know what to do. I have been paranoid about Jared not getting enough calcium (although he does eat some cheese and yogurt), and then to top it all off, today I read an article in a magazine about children getting rickets when they don't get enough Vitamin D. Now I am even more paranoid.

Any suggestions? The only thing I can think of is to buy those infant vitamin drops again and give them to Jared daily.

(image from http://school.discoveryeducation.com/clipart/images/milk.gif)

Pantless

Here's what we have been seeing a lot of lately at our house. Yes, Jared loves to take off his pants. Does that mean he's ready for potty training? I wish.



In fact, Jared is obsessed with knees--his own and everyone else's. We have a Winnie the Pooh storybook that he calls "Rah knee" (Christopher Robin's knees), and while we read it he points to Christopher Robin's knees in every single picture. We also have a BYU boardbook that he calls "chih knee" (cheerleader's knees).

Jared just learned to say "I love you" in the past couple of days. Sorry this video is sideways.

Beautiful

Yesterday Jared and I went with my parents to the Draper Temple open house. It was so beautiful and I enjoyed feeling the peace and quietude there. The chandeliers, carpets, and ceilings were especially beautiful. I am so excited for it to be dedicated so that Alan and I can go there frequently.

(photo from ldsphilanthropies.org)

Oh, Dear...

A couple days ago Jared figured out how to open doors even with the childproof doorknobs on them. Hello again to playing with toilets, toilet brushes, and toilet plungers.

There are some drawbacks to having a genius child.

Valentine's Day Naivete

I really don't know if I spelled that word correctly, but I'm too lazy to check for sure. Oh, well. It is the perfect word to describe our Valentine's Day dinner adventure, though. We were going to go to the Olive Garden since we had a gift card, and since we knew that Olive Garden doesn't take reservations, we planned to get there "early." We dropped of Jared at Grandma and Grandpa's house around 4:30 and arrived at Olive Garden at 4:50. I got in line as Alan searched for a parking spot. As I got to the front of the line, I was told that there was an hour and a half wait and to come back in 45 minutes so that I could pick up a pager! Well, we couldn't wait that long since we had a movie to catch, so we called Macaroni Grill across the street to see how long their wait was. It was also an hour and a half wait, but they could make us a reservation as early as 9:30. Yeah, right.

Well, to make an already long story shorter, we ended up going to Cafe Rio for dinner. There was no line! In fact, we were one of about five couples in the entire restaurant. Maybe no one shared our opinion that Cafe Rio was about the most romantic place in town. :) The moral of this story is "Go to a restaurant on Valentine's Day where you can make reservations well in advance." Or maybe celebrate Valentine's Day early or late. We were so naive.

We finally saw the Twilight movie (at the dollar theater since we are cheapskates--by the way, since when did the dollar theater become the $1.75 theater?). I liked it well enough, but I feel that I was adequately warned about the cheesy special effects, poorly done make-up, and awkward moments. But I thought it was fun and a cute way to end our Valentine's Day.