Mommy Olympics

In the spirit of cooperation and love and all that, I'm going to blog the Young Women's activity we did last night because it was total awesomesauce.  We got the initial idea from one of our YW who had done something similar in her ward in Utah, and then we crafted it into a very casual and laid-back Wisconsin version.  

Mommy Olympics!

Shockingly, I didn't get any pictures, but I was too busy with the stopwatch.  We picked some mom-type things we do every day and turned them into some minute-to-win-it-ish games.  We put the girl's names up on the chalkboard along with times and let healthy competitive aggression take over.  After we finished, the Young Men had finished up their scouting activity and wanted to join in, so we let them try to beat our times.  Mostly, they didn't :)  Go girls!  So here were the games we came up with:

1.  Diaper Dash

 Items needed:  2 newborn-sized diapers, one doll

We put one diaper on the doll and put the other one next to it.  Then we timed the girls taking the diaper off the doll and putting the other one on.  To add to the excitement, we used a mouse doll and cut a slit in the back of the diapers for the mouse's tail.  It took a few extra aggravating seconds to get the tail in and out.

2.Vacuum Race

Items needed: vacuum, 5 lb sack of flour or sugar, obstacles

Holding the 5 lb. sack, the girls had to race from one side of the room to the other, while pushing a plugged-in but not on) vacuum around an obstacle course of chairs.  The tangling of the cord led to some hilarious rain wrecks.

3. Om Nom Nom

Items needed:  dry breakfast cereal (we used Rice Chex), baby spoon, blindfold, chairs

Because the leaders were inflicting this on the girls, we participated in this one.  We sat across from one of the girls, who was blindfolded and handed her a bowl of 5 Rice Chex with a small baby spoon.  When we said "go," they had to try and feed the leader as fast as they could.  We had an extra helper who put an extra piece of cereal in the bowl if they dropped one so everyone did 5.  This one was fantastic!  Although people started cheating in very creative ways - it was all in good fun so no one minded :)

4. Dress-up Disaster

Items needed:  Polly Pockets with full outfits

We gave the girls a Polly Pocket doll and a Polly pocket shirt, pants and shoes.  Have you ever tried to dress those things??  SO annoying!  It took the most time of any activity and produced the most anger.

5.  Dishes

Items needed: dinner plate, dark colored crayon

We didn't actually get around to this one, but we tested it and it worked.  We took a dark colored crayon and drew fool-y scribbles on the plate, and then the girls were supposed to wash it ALL off as fast as possible.  We didn't do the drawing in advance because we were afraid the crayon could stain the dishes, but when we drew then washed, it came off.  And drawing didn't take much time at all.

We tallied up the numbers and had a quick award ceremony where Jenna handed the girls medals and made them stand on chairs while I played the WORST renditions of Pomp and Circumstance and the Star-Spangled Banner ever heard.  Then we ate sweets.  Easy peasy.  Let me know if you try these!

Easterly.

When I was a kid, every Easter my brothers got outfitted for new Sunday clothes - ties, suits, shirts, the works.  And as the only girl, she went all out searching for an Easter dress with accessories to math.  Hats, shoes, I was certainly a vision at least once a year.  And then after church, before the egg hunt, there was the posing.  The picture of my mom's hard work.  It's really neat to have those pictures to look back on, and as a mom now - I am in even more awe of her.  That was NOT an easy task, and not a cheap one either, but she made it happen.

I would love to carry on the tradition.  But my kiddos are still so young that the outfits don't always last through church, and they are not the most camera-friendly. So this year's attempt was.. well, at least it was better than last year when they ended up rolling around the driveway.  I think Forster was crying.  Also, I still haven't bought an Easter dress on my own for Solei, since my wonderful mom has dress-hunting skills.  And dresses with SLEEVES.  Do you know how hard it is to find dresses for little girls with sleeves on them??  In fact, last year she found a whole bunch in one place and bought up a ton for the next few years as well.  But there weren't any in her current size with sleeves, so she got one with a lovely black jacket to go over it.

Then last week, I lost my head and decided to add sleeves onto it.  It was a mad, crazy idea given my poor sewing skills, but I had to try.  If it turned out too terrible, there was always the jacket!

Not too bad, right?  As long as you stand a few feet away.  Maybe there's hope for dresses yet!  I'm lucky that no matter how crazy my projects look, Solei is always willing to wear them :)

Now, to the pictures.

Due to a misunderstanding and me being insane, I sewed baskets for them this year AGAIN.  The contents were the important part, right?  Kudos to Jared who stayed up late on Saturday night with me, sewing snaps onto them.  Yes, I'm insane.

Forster.  Nothing fancy, what with him being rough on clothes.  He also got blood on his shirt during church (nose AGAIN, blah!) so I wasn't too heartbroken about not getting him a fancy Gucci suit or something for the occasion.

Solei requested I curl her hair.  Having a girl rocks.

Here are all my attempts at a memorable Easter picture.

Here was the winner - no shoes, pacifier in - whatever, I can see both their wonderful faces.  Besides, if they looked perfect I wouldn't recognize them :)

And here's Solei showing off the reason for the day.  Just kidding - although they GORGED themselves on sweets and loved it.  The real reason lies in a talk Solei gave yesterday in Primary.  Jared was wonderful enough to record her doing it later and added pictures.  When she wrote the talk, she had the Gospel Art book on her lap and used it as a guide - and Jared added those to it.  Awesome!  Hope you were able to enjoy a wonderful Easter!  Enjoy!!!