Pop, Pepper, and Potter

As the youngest of my siblings, my sister Esther knows exactly what it is like to have all your siblings grow up, move out, and abandon you to a quiet life living with just your aged and senile parents. (At least, elderly is how most young teens view their middle-aged parents. WACKY SMILEY) As such, she knew Malia would have a tough time when Matthew left on his mission and she wanted to do something special for Malia. She decided to take Malia, and Kate since every expedition taken with your favorite cousin is even better, to the Harry Potter Exhibition which has been open in our area for the past several months. Malia and Kate have been wanting to schedule a sleepover and as all the dates seemed to line up, a multi-day plan was born.

After our stained-glass extravaganza on Saturday, Malia went home with Rachael, went to church with them on Sunday, slept over again on Sunday night and spent several days watching movies and drinking Dr. Pepper with Kate. This afternoon Esther picked both of them up from Rachael’s house and took them to the Harry Potter exhibit, after which both girls were shuttled to their own homes and crashed for a good night’s sleep. Malia said that the half of the exhibit that was focused on Harry Potter (and not the Magical Beasts portion of the franchise or the Cursed Child, which she hasn’t read) was fun.

I’m so grateful for my sisters and their willingness to spend time with Malia. And I’m so grateful that Malia has a cousin who is one of her best friends and who will happily watch “K-Pop Demon Hunters” with her seven times in the space of two days. 😂

Kev Might Need to Hide His Soldering Iron…

Malia is, by her own admission, a “screen-ager,” meaning that she has a tendency to focus on the tiny little handheld screen that seems to have become everyone’s non-optional high-tech appendage. We have parental controls in place and all that, which she only rails against on occasion, so for the most part, her screen time is spent mainly communicating with her social circle via text, phone call, Facetime, etc. But she does like to spend some time on other apps, like YouTube, the keeper of all music videos, crafting tutorials, etc. And every once in a while, she discovers something interesting. 

Earlier this month, she discovered a nearby stained-glass studio that offers a beginners make and take class for those who want to dip a toe into making stained glass. She was instantly intrigued and asked (repeatedly) about the possibility of signing up for one of the classes. I thought it sounded super fun as well so after some consultation with all the interested parties, Rachael, Kate, Malia, and I found a date that worked for all of us, and we signed up to learn a new skill.

This evening was our class, and it was so fun! It was definitely designed for beginners as all the glass was cut and prepped prior to our arrival. We simply chose our preferred design and colors and then our teacher walked us through the process of applying the copper tape and soldering our design together. While there are definitely some tips and tricks that lead to a nicer finished product, the assembly process was simpler than I expected and very satisfying! I think we were all pleased with how our pieces turned out, and as for me, I find myself considering the idea of delving a bit deeper into making stained glass.

I suspect the cutting and prepping of the glass is a much more difficult skill to acquire, and the whole thing could possibly be quite pricey, so I’m still just pondering. Plus, it’s not like I have time right now anyway. Daniel’s wedding is in less than three weeks, I’m deeply involved in figuring out how to feed Matthew once he gets to Arkansas, I’m half of a co-parenting team that is working to motivate Malia to do enough to pass her summer class, and trying at the same time to give my body a break so I don’t lose three full days in a row to migraine like I did last week. All those things mean that my interest in starting a new hobby is going to remain hypothetical right now, but it might be something I come back to later on. We’ll see. In the meantime, it makes me ridiculously happy to stare at my little glass creation as the sun streams through the window!

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch…

Malia and Kate painted for like two hours. Malia was mightily pleased with the results of her efforts.

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch…

Malia did not have school today, so Rachael, amazing sister that she is, picked her up after school yesterday so she could spend the weekend with Rachael and her crew. Matthew’s schedule is such that Malia would have been home by herself for the bulk of the long weekend, and that is definitely not something she likes. She was alone for a lot of the evenings when Kevin and I were in Texas earlier this year, and none of us wanted a repeat performance of that solitude, so I am very grateful that Rachael was willing and able to take her for a few days. And that means she will get some serious Kate time as well!

This evening’s entertainment was a monster truck rally. Malia had never been before and was suitably impressed. She sent videos of a guy on a motorcycle making some crazy impressive jumps. I have to remember that she was not around when Evil Knievel was super popular. And yes, I know I just dated myself by admitting that I was around when he was super popular. 😂 Anyway, she was totally wowed by this guy’s death-defying cycle acrobatics and although she was unsure about the whole thing beforehand, she ended up having a really great time! 

A Painting Party

For the past several years, Malia has hosted a sleepover with Kate right around the time of her birthday. This year, the slumber party was scheduled a few weeks early because we discovered a neat event that Malia was super excited to attend. There is a nearby art studio that is the primary retail location for a variety of local artists, many of whom paint religious paintings. Every other month or so, the studio hosts a “paint with the artist” event where you can not only meet the artists and see them work, but you can try your hand at recreating one of their paintings. When asked if she was interested, Malia responded enthusiastically in the affirmative. These things are always more fun with a friend, so the sleepover was scheduled to coincide with the event.

The girls got to meet Dan Wilson, tried out some of his techniques, and came away with a recreation of his painting of Abraham Lincoln. Her heavy use of cool colors made Malia’s version look a bit like zombie Lincoln, but they had fun. Malia said she would definitely go again. 😃

After their artistic endeavors, the girls stayed up almost all night. Malia said it was somewhere around 4 a.m. when they finally went to sleep. They were awakened at a normal hour as they were sleeping in the family room and our household got up and moving at regular time this morning, but they were both pretty darn tired. Rachael told us that Kate had a great time and went to bed at 7 p.m. this evening. 😂

I’m so glad these cousins are such good friends. Sometimes teens get so busy with school, extracurriculars and friends that they don’t have much time for family, but I hope these get togethers continue as they get older. Because Malia has no sisters, she has to get in her girl time with cousins.

Disappointing Clean Boredom

Last week Rachael asked me if Malia was interested in doing a mud run with Kate. Rachael’s men folk were going to do a terrain run which is basically a 5k mashed up with an obstacle course and liberally coated in mud. There was a shorter kids’ version for kids up to age 10 and Kate really wanted to do it but wanted someone to do it with her. I asked Malia if she was interested expecting her to say no due to the running and mud and general outdoors in the blazing heat elements, but she surprised me by saying yes. I suspect the lure of time spent with Kate outweighed any reservations. So we got her all registered, figured out what she could wear that could be thrown out if it never came clean and she was psyched to go.

The run was this morning and unfortunately, it was a huge let down. The scaled down version was more appropriate for 3–4-year-olds…and there was no mud. At all. Malia described it as a lot of standing around with a little running. She was actually really disappointed. I made sure to tell her that I was really proud of her for trying something new and I hope that she will continue to be willing to try new things.

The full terrain run had mud, and more mud, and then a little mud. Rachael and her older crew got completely filthy and had a fantastic time. I don’t think Malia would be able to actually do the full 5k at this point, but perhaps in the future we can find another opportunity for her to expand her experiences and get really, really dirty.

Memorable

Over the past year or so, Malia has begun to really enjoy the current pop music. One of her favorite bands is OneRepublic. Earlier this year while listening to the radio, she learned that they would be coming in concert this month. She got really excited about that, and when she mentioned it to Kevin and I we thought it would make a great experience gift. The concert happened to be about a week before her birthday, so we decided tickets to the concert for her and a guest of her choice would make a fantastic birthday present. A third ticket was purchased as well since she is a little too young to go to a rock concert without adult supervision. Since the venue was outdoors and August is hot, Kevin was the parent tagged to act as chaperone.

Malia was extremely excited when we told her she would be going to the concert and her first job was to choose who to invite. She thought through her options and decided to invite her cousin Kate. Due to the late night associated with the concert, plans were made for Kate to sleep over afterwards. We would feed her waffles on Sunday morning and take her to church with us. Family dinner with my folks and sibs happened to be the day after the concert, so all parties involved thought it would be fun for her to spend Sunday with us and meet back up with her parents at dinner. 

The plan in place, the waiting began. And six weeks is a long time when you are ten. But Malia survived the wait and as the big day approached, she got more and more excited. Daniel was down for a couple of nights a week before the concert and when he heard about it, he was actually a little jealous. That got Malia thinking and the possibility of Daniel taking the two girls to the concert instead of Kevin taking them arose. We left the decision in Malia’s hands, assuring her that whatever she decided was fine. She decided she wanted Daniel to take them, and he was most definitely happy to do so. Jacob and Drew, Kate’s two older brothers, were pretty jealous when they found out she was going to see OneRepublic, so they ended up buying tickets as well.

Last night was the big event, and all the kids were hyped up. Jacob drove Kate up to our house in time for her to join us for dinner (An invite to eat with us was extended to Jacob and Drew as well, but Kate nixed that idea as she didn’t want them horning in on her adventure. I don’t blame her one bit, but I do think it is funny!) and we headed off to the Olive Garden which was where Malia had chosen to eat. We hit a bit of a snag though, as the wait time was too long to allow us to eat and still get the kids to the concert on time. Malia was really disappointed, and I think that feeling was magnified by how often she has dealt with disappointments over the past few years, but we switched gears, ate at Raising Cane’s, and had her on the way to the concert in good time. Daniel was the designated driver for all five cousins. Although Kate didn’t want her brothers to join us for dinner, she was ok with them traveling to the concert in the same car. WINKY SMILIE

From what I hear, the concert was amazing. But since I wasn’t there, Malia has agreed to be my guest blogger:

When we got there, we got out of the car. Naturally. We climbed a short fence… crossed a couple of roads… We got to the actual amphitheater and sat down. I got thirsty so we got water. I finished it before the concert started. :l (I seriously regretted it.) We stopped by the merch place, and I got a hoodie. *SHOCKER SHOCKER* The first opener was an artist named Brynn Cartelli. She sang a few songs, and then left. Then the whole artist transition happened. Needtobreathe came on next. Their music kind of gave off the vibe of country rock. It was really loud. Really really loud. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. REALLY. loud. When OneRepublic really came out, and it was actually their turn, everyone stood up and started waving phone cameras. Everybody stayed up too. Ryan Tedder, the lead singer, has a pretty good sense of humor. “Get the internet. Get it. Download it on whatever you have!” That is just one example. “I need water. It’s not humid here.” It still wasn’t, even though it was raining. (Hence me putting on my new hoodie and putting the hood up.) “I wish we could airdrop you all awards! Turn on bluetooth. Drain some battery.” They opened with Kids, then sung in this order following kids, Good life, Stop and stare, Rescue me, Secrets, Wherever I go, Love runs out, (He sung snippets of these songs because he helped write them) Bleeding love, Burn, Rumor has it by Adele Maps and Love somebody by Maroon 5, and That’s what I want by Lil Nas X. He also helped write Sucker, by the Jonus Brothers. Instead of just a snippet of that song, he sang the whole thing. Afterwards he sang West coast, I ain’t worried, Apologize, to which he made us a 20,000 person choir. At the end he made us sing the line :”It’s too late to apologi-ize, it’s too late!” It was really cool. He said it was a miracle that he was there because he had lost his voice two days prior. His singing was still really good for losing his voice that close to the concert. After Apologize, he sang I lived, Counting stars, and the finale was If I lose myself. Most of the songs had really long intros, so nobody knew what song they would play. Once you found out, everyone started singing along. Daniel said he felt bad for the cellist because the weather wasn’t really ideal. But he still did great. Daniel said Kate and I screamed our heads off. I’m not even surprised. My head hurt after. Again, I’m not even surprised. It probably took us 30 minutes to an hour to get out of the parking lot. We had just barely gotten out of a OneRepublic concert, and yet we listened to OneRepublic on the way home anyway. Mwahaha. We got home and I built a nest to sleep in downstairs. Kate slept on the couch. We only got roughly 7 hours of sleep. We probably fell asleep around 1:15, or 1:20. We woke up at 8:15. I do very much plan to wear my hoodie on the first day of school. I think my favorite of all the songs they sang was…oh… how do I narrow it down… were probably If I lose myself, and Apologize, and Counting stars, and and and… AND ALL OF THEM. I could never decide on just one. There was someone behind us that’s scream sounded like HayHay on the boat in the ocean from Moana. It was kind of entertaining. Also, they did things in the songs that weren't in the actual recording. In Good Life, they replace L.A. with Salt Lake. It’s originally “Well my friends in New York, I say hello. My friends in L.A they don't know where I’ve been for the past few years or so.” Instead it was “My friends in Salt Lake, they don't know where I've been for the past few years or so.” It was really fun. There was an interesting solo section in counting stars. Ryan said that he gave his song to his boss or something and they said it wasn’t very good, and that he could just keep it. Pretty soon after, that song became like number one or something like that. Then he said with a chuckle that he got fired soon after it went from not even charted to the at very least top 10. I don’t think the rain ruined a thing about the concert. If anything, it made it even a little better. Lots of people just sat there and enjoyed the concert and the rain. Wait. Stood there. As far as I know not very many people were sitting down. “There're probably 13 or 14 people that thought that they were going to a OneDirection concert, but we’ll welcome you anyway.”-Ryan tedder, August 13, 2022. Some people probably had to miss the finale of If I lose myself just to get out of the parking lot. How very sad. We stayed the whole time. Even with the price of being one of the last ones out. We got to listen to more OneRepublic, so I think I would have chosen to be the last one out that miss the finale. In conclusion, I really enjoyed it. Mwahaha.  

I love that Kate was Malia’s first choice as a companion. I love that Malia wanted her big brother to take her. I love that Daniel felt like watching the girls have an amazing experience was just as fun as the concert itself. I love that my kids love their family, immediate and extended. And I love that Malia felt like this adventure totally made up for missing our Cedar City trip. I think this is one of those experiences that Malia and Daniel will remember for years to come.

A Passion for Poultry

Remember a few days ago when I said that Malia wants to make chickens for everyone she knows because she loooooves the chicken she sewed in her sewing camp? She started with her cousin Kate, of course, because Kate is one of her most important people. Malia asked me to text my sister Rachael to get a picture of Kate’s favorite chicken (because they keep chickens and consider Kate to be the “chicken whisperer” of the family) as well as that chicken’s name. The yellow Buff Orpington, named Orpy, is Kate’s favorite because it is so fat and fluffy. Malia made a mini Orpy, packed it up very nicely in a gift bag, and gave it to Kate when we had dinner at my parents’ house on Sunday. This evening Rachael sent me a picture.

Kate loooooves the chicken!

Hippity Hoppity, Easter’s On Its Way

Malia is the only one of my kiddos that is young enough to do an Easter egg hunt this year. My sister Rachael also has only one egg hunter this year. As such, we decided it would be more fun for the two to hunt eggs together. Malia and Kate were in complete agreement.

We’ve done our egg hunt the Saturday before Easter for years, so today was the day. All the older kids helped hide the eggs and were quite creative in finding unique hiding spots, especially since our yard doesn’t have all that many bushes or other foliage in which to hide eggs. It took the two hunters at least three laps around the house to find them all.

After all the eggs were found and some of the fillings were inspected, (Candy! Coins! Yay!) we provided lunch as well. The festive additions to our repast were some lovely bunny buns (which I forgot to take a picture of) and the tasty bunny hug cookies we created yesterday (which I also forgot to take a picture of). We had such a good time celebrating with family. I’m so glad that my kids have cousins that they consider friends, not just family obligations!

Wait As Long As Time

Malia’s experience gift last Christmas was tickets to see “Beauty and the Beast” at Hale Center Theatre. She has been looking forward to it all year and the wait seemed endless. (I guess for a 4-yr-old, eight months really is almost forever.) Due to the extreme goodness of Danna, one of my sisters-in-law, we got our tickets free and the day was today. My sisters, Rachael and Esther, and Rachael’s daughters, Kate and Sabrina got to see the show as well. Malia loved it and told us afterward that the part where Gaston was beating up the Beast was not her favorite part.

FYI-the girls are holding up pieces of confetti that were used in the show and gathered up by little hands afterward

Part of the excitement of the day was going out to lunch after the show. Since developing her peanut allergy in February, the number of places where Malia can safely eat out has diminished significantly so eating out has become kind of a big deal. I’ve done research and made phone calls and luckily for us, I discovered that Red Robin is great with handling allergies. Malia was thrilled to be able to eat her favorite swirly twirly pasta again.

As always, when it was time to go home, Malia was not ready to leave Kate. A show, lunch out, and her favorite cousin made today a winner in Malia’s book!

A Couple of Cutie Pies

Today was pie day and by that I mean the annual baking of a million pies so we can all eat way more than we really should. In my family it is as big an event as the actual Thanksgiving dinner. It is a lot of work for the big folks, but for the kids it is just a chance to play with their cousins. It was warm enough that Malia and Kate spent a couple of hours in the sand box and on the swings. I don’t know about Kate, but that made Malia super duper happy. And then they got to make their very own tiny pies which they loved.

Malia fell asleep on the way home and was sooo tired that she didn’t wake up when we got home. I got her out of the car, carried her inside, handed her off to Kev and she snoozed through the whole thing. That is extremely unusual for her. Even when she was a baby I couldn’t get her out of the car without waking her up. She must have played really hard. :-)

Birthday Play

Today is Malia’s birthday. She has turned three and in about five minutes she’ll head off to preschool. It all seems a bit sudden to me, but that is what happens to kids born at the very end of August. And honestly, I think she’s ready for the whole school thing. But I’m not sure that I’m ready. However, kids grow up no matter how much we want them to stay young just a little longer.

Here are a few tidbits about Malia:

~I’ll ask her how she wants her hair before I comb it in the morning and if she wants “Elsa hair” it means one braid and “Anna hair” means two. “Juuuuust one” means a ponytail.

~She loves shoes. Her latest pair is pink and has sparkles and bows. They are just about as girly as you can get.

~In spite of her love for shoes, she prefers to be barefoot. Every week when we pick her up from nursery, she has to put her shoes and socks back on before we can leave.

~She has become fascinated with paper and writing utensils. Not only is she starting to color in the lines, but when she doodles it is beginning to look a lot like letters and numbers. I really think she is ready for preschool.

~She loves books. :-)

~She loves to sing…except in nursery as I’m currently doing nursery music and having mommy in nursery means she acts like a spaz the entire time I’m there. Her teachers tell me she was great and sang all the time with the previous nursery music leader. Sigh…

~She loves to be outside.

~Some of her favorite foods are blueberries, strawberries and spaghetti.

~Her favorite color seems to be yellow with purple coming in second.
~She can go from crying to laughing in under a second. I just have to find the right thing to say to move her past the tears.
~She is stubborn. So, so stubborn. Tries my patience.

We are having Malia’s birthday celebration tomorrow since both Daniel and Nathan will be gone tonight, but today we invited her cousin Kate to play with us at the splash park and have lunch at McDonald’s. Malia has been super excited about this since we made the plans about two weeks ago. She was so jazzied up this morning that she had to spread out her beach towel and eat breakfast on it.

It was still kind of chilly at the appointed hour so we started at the playground.

While she was playing, she paused long enough to take a call from Papa (my dad).

When it warmed up a tad, Malia and Kate dressed to be wet and played in the water.

(pondering the meaning of all water)

(turning on the water)

(jumping in a puddle)

(making wet footprints)

(just hanging around)

(happy Kate)

It was still kind of brisk so after a while they got cold and called it quits. 

(two cold girls)

(Malia gets crazy)

(Kate joins in)

(laughing at themselves)

After lunch at McDonald’s and another hour playing at the playland, we headed home. She must have worn herself out because Malia actually told me she wanted a rest today when she normally resists taking a nap. I guess playing hard all morning with her favorite cousin was a great way to spend her birthday.

Crazy About Her Cousin

When Malia was younger, she was pretty shy around people she didn’t know. She was really standoffish with my family for quite a while. I think that she got overwhelmed by the crowd of folks that she didn’t know all that well. We live just far enough away that unless we make special plans, we usually only see everyone a couple of times a month. And there are a lot of us so that can be daunting for even adults who don’t know us well.

About six months ago she suddenly outgrew that tendency. And in that time, she has decided that her cousin Kate (who is only a couple of months older than she is) is just about the best person ever. She tells me all the time that Kate is her friend and she needs to go to Kate’s house. If we show up at my parents’ house and Kate isn’t there, Malia is always disappointed and asks where she is. These two have become friends and I’m really glad. Malia doesn’t have any sisters and doesn’t get much girl time, so girl cousins are great!