11-11-11

Happy PIGWAB everybody! Oh yeah... you don't celebrate PIGWAB. Well, if you aren't familiar with it- you should try it. It's way more awesome than Festivus... read on and find out why! Here is a link to an older post where I explain PIGWAB. And here is another link to pics from last year's festivities.

The Friday that we started our three-day celebration, we were giving a neighbor a ride home. My kids were all chattering excitedly abut PIGWAB festivities and Isaac turned to the neighbor and said, "Andrew, you know what some people do on 11-11-11?" And I said, "Isaac- no one else does that but us."

Our theme for this year was THANKSGIVING! So, one of my jobs for our event was to direct the kids in a play re-telling the story of the first Thanksgiving. We didn't have a whole lot of time to practice, so I just narrated and the kids acted it out. It was pretty stinkin' cute! We recorded it, but didn't really get pics, so this will have to do:

Isaac, Daphne, Abby, Zach and Tori were pilgrims! Corbin, Luke and Lydia were Native Americans, but I didn't get a picture! :(
It was THE cutest Thanksgiving play ever. I wish it were small enough to upload here so that you can all enjoy the awesomeness of it. The were adorable!


Because of the cold weather in the month of November, for our game day, we met at Marsha and Calvin's church building so that we would have room for all the games and activities. That would explain why you see the background of a cultural hall rather than Marsha's party house!


One of our contests this year was Make a Cornucopia!

Here is Jude and Natalie's bread cornucopia:

Paige and John's fruit roll up Cornucopia:

Our Chocolate cornucopia!

Somehow, I did not get a picture of Raegan and David's cornucopia, which was the big winner.

Another tradition at PIGWAB is that everyone brings a game. Raegan usually makes a fabulous pinata to go along with the theme, and this year was no exception. She made a magnificent turkey pinata and the kids beat it to a pulp!

And chaos ensues:

Next up was Nanny and Papa's traditional PIG LOB game. For the past 5 years or so, we have done water balloons through the pig's mouth. But alas, November is too chilly, so we had to use balls.

Here is Jude and Natalie's baby, Savannah taking a shot:

Victoria won the category for the little kids:

Here is her prize!

Next was John and Paige's game; which involved making your own balloon creation. Tori mostly just wanted to dance with the balloons.

Isaac jumped in and went right to work:

Isaac made this dog all by himself. Isn't that awesome?!

Since his was so cool and he did it on his own, he was the winner! Jude and Natalie's game was called "Angry Turkeys" !

Everyone took turns throwing a stuffed turkey at the boxes of pigs... too funny!

Daphne's face upon realizing she was winning: Unfortunately, she was ousted from the top spot by Zach!

Next, we headed over for our game: Frozen Turkey relay race: Everyone formed into teams of four and had to hold the turkey away from their bodies back and forth across the length of the cultural hall. Matt's parents were too cute; they were on a team with Eric and Jill: Here are Matt and I getting ready for our team's turn. We look pretty serious, huh?

Go, Daphne, Go!

We were so fast! But Jude and Natalie's team beat our time by 1/10th of a second. :( And for our final challenge, Eric and Jill planned a pie eating contest! It was all the kids and Jude competing!

We were all keeping a close eye on Isaac and Austin because it looked like one of them would be the fastest>

But Zach surprised us all and finished first!

Tori was only interested in the whipped cream!

So fun!

Sorry there wasn't much time for writing or documentation of the other two days... things were pretty crazy right after we moved and I was right in the middle of Parent Teacher Conferences. But I hope you at least enjoyed the pictures!!

Our Amazing Kitchen Makeover!!

We LOVE our new house. One of the things that we loved about it was the kitchen. I ALWAYS wanted a black and white kitchen. ALWAYS. And to be honest, I love black and white in any room. So, when we found out this was a for sure thing, I told Matt that this was the only project that had to be *mostly* done before we moved in. (Even though there are lots of rooms I want to paint!) I just knew how crazy it is to have your kitchen a mess, and I thought "if we wait and get all unpacked, we'll never do it.) and we might as well do it while it's torn apart from moving, right?
Right?
Well, it ended up being a much bigger nightmare than we had bargained for. Matt even says that he doesn't think he would do it again if we went back and made the decision again. It was a TON of work. And to be perfectly honest, my adoring husband did the lion's share of it. So what exactly did we do?
Here are the before pics: (sorry- Matt thankfully thought to take before pics... it was just after he already started taking it apart)

(there were several doors that wouldn't close, and the vent was broken... Matt replaced the hinges and re-did the vent-- it looks so good now!)

We did 90 % of the work before we moved in, but we still had to finish the top coat, do the bead board, paint, stain and top coat the bead board after the move-in. And as you know, once you move in, there is a ton to do in the house altogether. Plus we both have a lot going on with our kids and jobs this month, so this project that was 90% done before we moved in on October 21st is now, one month later, done!!! Hooray!

The worst phase of the process was the de-glossing. We had to scrub every single surface of every single door (and the rest of the wood) with a scouring pad and the deglosser. It sounds easier than it is. Matt and his sweet sisters, Paige, Raegan and Natalie (his brother's wife) helped with all the doors. I deglossed the other wood, but Matt did most of it. His fingers were numb by the end of that step.
After that was done, you have to rinse everything and let it dry before you start to paint. My visiting teachers, Susan and Rachel, actually came and helped do the first coat. We had to do two to three coats on everything.

So here you can see the doors and vent repaired:

So... I would totally do it again!! Er... I would totally make Matt do it again. It looks amazing, right? Didn't he do a fabulous job!?! Love it babe! I can't get over how beautiful it is! Thank you!!