Are you calling me UGLY??

Saturday, we were invited to an Ugle Sweater party. Garry's work had one last year and he said the winner had really "uglied" up their sweater by making it pretty garish. So Friday, he hit DI and found some ugly stuff.  He wanted to do "Olive the other reindeer" which is a childrens book about a dog named Olive who listened to the song Rudolph and always thought she was the other reindeer.  So he found a dog and some antlers.  I printed out the words on vinyl with my cricut and he garished it up with some garland. 

For our second sweater, Garry thought he'd make some heads to put on the shoulders, that made me thing of the angel and devil concience on one's shoulders which lead to Santa and Mrs. Clause which ended up with Santa and his Naughty and Nice list.  We had a "Grumpy Santa" stuffed toy where you pushed his hand and he said not so nice things.  I didn't really like it, so I encouraged Garry to cut it apart and use it.  I texted Andrea and got the names of all the guests and we made a naughty list with their names on it and a nice list with Garry and Kim on it. We decorated the sleeves with a snowman found at DI and some tinsel wrapped in battery operated lights.  I made a hat by gluing a gingerbread house onto a headband. 

And this is what the backs looked like.

We are officially ready to go!  By the way, Garry had lights around his collar and his hat lit up too.

Here are all the girls that attended the party, I don't know why the men didn't pose?!

Karen, MaryAnne and I were the three that had embelished our sweaters.  We all won a prize!  I won best overall sweater!

Here I am with Andrea, the lovely host and Toni (We called her Shaniqua all night!) who won Ugliest sweater

It was a fun night!  We just ate and visited and posed for pictures all night with good friends.

I had my piano recital Monday night. I had my students gather afterwards for a photo.  I have 24 students.  One had to leave early and some just started so they didn't play in this recital.  I always forget to take a picture of my food spread, it's quite a job getting ready for the recital.  I provide all the food afterwards as my gift back to the families.  This time, I started Friday by making the "gifts" I give to my students and then spent all weekend making the food for that night.  I had two crockpots of Lil Smokies, homemade salsa and chips, cajun snack mix, cheese and crackers, grapes, baby carrots, grape tomatoes and pickles with dip, mini cream puffs, fudge, homemade caramels, sin cake, rice krispie treats, a big bowl of muddy buddies, crystal light/diet 7UP drink and water.  The recital went well and the kids were done playing in an hour.  I am always amazed that I make it through such a busy time of year and that all my students and their families show up and do so well.  I take December off before I start up with lessons again in January. 

These are the treats I gave to my students.  I made a big batch of fudge and poured it into cookie cutters and put some mini M&M's on top and wrapped them in cellophane bags.  It's always hard for me to come up with a new idea to give out for my students, but I saw these and thought they were cute.

Happy Happy Birthday!

My baby turned 11!! Eleven in Eleven, how exciting, sad fun etc.

She wanted to have a crazy party since she's such a crazy girl.  She originally wanted a crazy outfit contest, a crazy dinner and then off to the park to play some group games she'd been dying to play.  But with the weather being crazy windy and rainy, at the last minute Tanner and I came up with some other crazy indoor games and everyone loved them.  Here is the crazy outfit contest. 

Alexa,

Sydney

Bethany

Maggie

Becca!  They all looked, well, CRaZy!!  We had a "spin you dinner" for dinner.  We brought down the spinner from the LIFE game and they had 4 courses.  Depending on which number you spun, you'd either eat:  Pizza, a brownie sundae, ceasar salad or a drink.  When Cynjyn spun her brownie number, that is when we'd sing to the bday girl.  She got candles in hers.

Then they had to pair up and pass the lifesaver between the two of them 3 times. 

They had to get an oreo off their forhead and into their mouth without using their hands.

They had to use a big candy cane to loop a smaller candy cane and then work the small candy cane up to and in their mouth without hands.

They paird up and fed each other pudding with a spoon attached to a big dowel.  They also had to eat 5 crackers for a game.  Have you ever tried to quickly eat 5 crackers before other people?  Try it, it's actually pretty hard and funny to watch.  (I know I have a picture somewhere?!)

They played chubby bunny where you have to put a big marshmellow in your mouth one at a time and then have to say "chubby bunny" after each one.  That was Cynjyn's favorite game.

Then they paired up again and did each other's make up blindfolded!  They all really liked that one.

What do you think?  Are they ready to go out in public?

We ended the evening by playing "body body".   Oh, my, they loved that game.  They played it for an hour straight.  Cards are passed out and someone is the murderer.  The lights go out and it's pitch black.  You wander around and the murder tries to murder everyone by pushing on their  shoulders.  When you're murdered, you drop silently to the ground.  As soon as someone "stumbles" upon you they yell body body and it's a mad dash to the lights.  The lights go on and an accusation is made.  If they are right, the round is over, if they are wrong, the lights go back out and the game continues. 

For Cynjyn's birthday, Tanner's friend Jewel was doing a fundraiser for her church and was painting nails.  Tanner ordered her to come do Cynjyn's.  I decided to get mine done too. 

She does nail art and so Cynjyn got little converse shoe tops on hers.

I just got a fancy design.

She charded three dollars/person and it took her an hour each for our nails.  We love them and had a great time watching her do it.  She's really good.  Cynjyn had a great birthday.  Her actual birthday, Saturday was our ward Christmas party, so we had her party on Friday and then Garry and I took her to Dairy Queen for a treat Saturday afternoon.  She's such a great daughter, we are so happy to have her in our lives. 

We are the champions

 Taz's team won the Super Bowl for their league.  They went in as the #2 ranked team and won the whole tournament.  They were very excited.  It was a fun season for him and he enjoyed playing.  He was one of the top scorers on the team.

Projects here, projects there, projects everywhere

I swear, Taz and Cynjyn have had so many projects due this past month. Taz had 4 due within a two week period. We are tired of projects around here! One night after mutual, Taz stayed up frying wontons to take into a class because he had to bring a food from his background. 

He had to do a Spanish poster describing three people (him Tanner and Cynjyn).

He had to do a health poster...that's him which you can't see very well because of the glare.

He had to do an research an invention.  Plus, he had a suitcase project where he had to fill a suitcase with stuff from China and talk about that country his ancestors originated from. 

Cynjyn's class was doing a Native American unit and for xtra credit, they could make a pair of pants by hand.  We decided to have her do one.

She used yarn and a huge quilting needle since they'd just read Sign of the Beaver and the main character used a bone and twine to sew his pants.

They turned out pretty good and she did it in one night and was the only one in here class to make a pair.

She could also make Johnny Cake and bring it in.  Again, the only one to do that was her.

She signed up to do a primary talent show and was going to sing "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause".  She wanted to be a little girl (like giggle girl from Thriller) and so she decided to make herself some bloomers and a little girl dress.

We got the tutorial off Youtube for the bloomers.

And we took a size 8 dress and improvised a little to make it fit her for the little girl dress.  She chose an Eeyore pattern since she was going to sing with her stuffed Eeyore.

I think it turned out adorable and she did great at the talent show.

Her class was trying to collect 100 cans or boxed food to feed the hungry, so she scrounged up a dozen or so items to donate.

Crazy hat day found her with not one, two or three, but FIVE hats she wore.

And lastly, she had to do an indian shelter project and chose the pueblo.  We whipped it up in one night and it turned out great!

Whew, I think that covers it all.  If I never see another project sheet it will be too soon:)