A day in Athens

Today we traveled back to the time of Paul in the town of Athens, Greece. 

Backstory: vbs was not held at trinity from 1980-2011. In 2012 a new minister and a new Christian ed director decided we needed to bring vbs back. So a few dedicated members, parents and youth brought 32 kids to Babylon. We had such a great. Week that we immediately reserved time for 2013 and started planning for the lofty goal of 50 kids. 

This morning we had 62 kids, 15 adults and 10 youth dressed in white tshirt or sheet togas learning about Paul's journey and praising God. The piano teacher on the second floor one hall over could hear the kids during music time. 

C is enjoying her last year in a tribe. While i lead the craft tent. Today we made Olympic laurel wreaths and learned the letters Alpha and Omega. Tomorow we learn about voting and make necklaces with jury stones. Wed, scrolls and the rest of the greek alphabet. Thursday, trojan horse boxes and Friday, water bottle maracas. 

Harry Potter part four

The Great Feast:  we came back together after classes for cake and butter beer in Diagon alley. I cleared the table of Gringotts and flourish and Blotts to make room for 18 wizards to stand around the table.  After we sang happy birthday, I sent 2 houses to Honeydukes and served cake to the the others, this gave us a little congestion control. We continued serving cake and sending new houses as kids came out of Honeydukes.

The cake: 

I believe birthday cakes and Halloween costumes should be homemade. I have no formal training in cake decorating, just a lot of episodes of cake boss behind me.  C requested an owl so I did a little web research to get some ideas then headed off to Hobby Lobby for supplies.  I had planned to make several rounds and use the freeze and carve method, but I unexpectedly had to attend a funeral several hours away, so I was one day short in my cake prep.  I purchased a 3d teddy bear cake pan to give me a shape to start with.  I also got a set of Wilton gum paste flower molds.  These came with leaf texture panels that I used to create the feather texture.  I cut the legs off the bear and added them in front of the belly to create the tail and shaved his face down a bit (the front of the teddy bear was the back of the owl). Then I started adding feathers. They are all hand cut ovals that were individually hand pressed onto the leaf mold and then attached with buttercream to the body.  I started with pure white.  When I had half left I added a bit of chocolate coloring to tint and used half of that.  I continued in that fashion adding a bit more color and adding those feathers in to create color around his face and ears.  

I realized early on that the owl would not be enough cake for everyone, so we added a white fun fetti "book" as the base.  This was covered in white buttercream and a dark brown fondant "leather" cover. Pages were light pink and scored with a fork to create the page look.  

At the party I served the backside of the owl first.  At one point it was just me and one other girl in Diagon Alley and the "face" side of the owl tumbled beak first into the book.  The look of horror on my face must have been hilarious because she snorted and shook trying not to spit her butter beer everywhere.  We both started to laugh. 

Butter beer: there are lots of recipes for making butter beer on the Internet. It seems to be a carmally version of root beer.  We instead made root beer floats!  We used clear glasses and filled them halfway with root beer (labels removed and changed with some from OT) and added a scoop of vanilla.  Add a black and white stripe paper straw and we are in business.  Root beer floats are such a novelty to kids today they came back for seconds and thirds.  

Harry Potter Palooza part three

The sorting ceremony: after shopping, the kids assembled in the Leaky Cauldron for the sorting ceremony. C read the poem/song the sorting hat says/sings in the first book.  We then had each child wear the sorting hat (birthday present), close their eyes and say the names of the four houses as they reached into a treasure chest full of Harry Potter house rings. The rings were meant for the tops of cupcakes and were found on amazon. Only one child had professed her loyalty to a certain house so I switched her ring out to be sure she was a ravenclaw.  After the sorting they sat in their house groups and we had a short talk about the importance of going to all their classes ( the teacher in me) and  I sent the Griffyndors and Slitherens to potions and kept the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs in divination upstairs.  

Due to the timeline going wonky so early, I combined the charms and transfiguration classes with my divination class.  The houses switched classes after about 20 minutes. 

Divination:  students were welcomed to divination with a short explanation of what it was and how it works (basically Prof Trelanny's speech in HP3).  Then each child was given a cup of Witch's Truth Serum ( one liter sprite bottles with labels from OT) in a clear glass.  They also took a divining straw (black coffee straws that I had dipped in food coloring and let dry several days ago).  They then waved their wand over their cup(three times clockwise) placed the straw into the cup and stirred with the right hand to the right, took it out and flipped it over into the left hand and stirred three times to the left and magically their truth serum changed colors!  In the potions book I had the breakdown of which colors meant which things (pink meant you would get bit by mosquitoes on the way home, green meant you would find a loose galleon on the ground, etc). Kids were amazed! They totally bought into it.  One kid's truth serum did not change color and his neighbor told him he had the grim which brought on a collective gasp of shock from the others.  But another concerned student suggested they try again and they did the experiment together reading the directions one step at a time and sure enough, he had missed a step and he was going to have a long and happy summer.  

Transfiguration: I purchased some growing spiders and spider eggs from Hendley Market.  When placed in water, they should grow. So I spread some pie plates full of water out and we practiced wand movement and the engorgio spell on the spiders.  Unfortunately they did not grow very fast and even after a half hour I could not see a change in size.  Bummer.  We also created spiders from lollipops during this class.  We covered a dumdum sucker with a piece of felt (brown,black or grey ) and added four short pipe cleaners to create legs and a couple of google eyes for effect.  (All supplies fromHL) I should have known my audience and purchased more eyes.  I had enough for two each with a few spares, but I am the science teacher and I have had several of the kids either in class or in Girl Scouts so when I passed out the google eyes, they put on 8- just to be anatomically correct!  

Charms:  I had planned for a separate charms time, but incorporated it into the other classes instead.  I had the kids look up the charms we used in the other two classes in their books and then they practiced correct wand movement (I totally made this up along the way) for each spell.  Some required a cursive and sign, some a capital cursive s.  the last spell we learned was lummos.  This is a direct flick of your wand to turn on the "flashlight" effect.  This is when I realized I had missed a couple of chopsticks with the yellow paint.  Kids figured out that to do nox (turn off your light) you could flip your chopstick around.  Excellent. 

Potions:  for potions class, I hired two of my ex students to be prefects at the school.  They came over an hour early and ran through their parts and set up all their supplies.  Potions class took place under the house so we could hose it off if needed.  Students were to make remylop (polymer spelled backwards- commonly referred to as goop in kid craft world) and a fizzywhizzer potion. I collected bottles of different shapes and sizes in the months prior and had all the ingredients labeled from the encyclopedia of potions.  We had lots of extra ingredients that we would not be using just for effect.  Beetle eyes (candy red hots), bundium secretions (beef jerky), gillyweed (green tissue paper), dragon toes (wooden scales),  etc.  The actual ingredients were mostly kitchen science- baking soda, vinegar (called witches tears) , lemon juice, water, ground up sweat tarts, yeast (doxy eggs), borax, etc.  The girls gave the Prof Snape speech from HP1 about bottling fame and stopping death and then asked them questions about ingredients and the encyclopedia.  The kids were then set free just like in the book to follow the directions. Both of the potions were in the encyclopedia ( the only two with complete instructions) and came with the incantations needed for each step.  Because I used some classroom supplies, the kids had a morter and pestle to grind their own powders, a balance to mass dry powders on, graduated cylinders to measure liquids and droppers for adding just the tiniest amounts.  The girls had some backup demos if needed due to time, yeast/sugar/warm water, alka seltzer/water, vinegar/baking soda.  

Harry Potter Palooza part two

Schedule: the party was set for two hours.  Kids arrived and made quill pens in the Leaky Cauldron, we then went to Gringotts to get money and Diagon Alley to purchase supplies. We had a sorting ceremony back in the Leaky Cauldron and then split the houses up for classes in transfiguration, divination and potions. They then returned for the Great Feast and a trip to Honeydukes. 

Quill pens:  I originally purchased broomstick pens (Oriental Trading) for everyone to use, but I only received 10.  So, I held those back for the winning house and had the kids make quill pens by attaching large feathers ( bag from Oriental Trading or Hobby Lobby) to stick pens (Office Depot school supply sale) using floral tape (HL).  This actually turned out to be a better idea because it used up some time up front as kids straggled in and floral tape is magic- it appears and feels dry, but magically turns sticky. After the first few, my awesome dad took over this station.

Gringotts, the Wizarding bank:  

  Each child went into Gringotts to get a money pouch (OT) filled with galleons, sickles and knuts. The white stand is a cupcake stand.  I borrowed gold coins from VBS and added a few silver nickels and copper pennies for sickles and knuts.  I researched the conversion rates and posted those and pictures of the money around Diagon Alley.  

Diagon Alley:  

We turned the dining room into a wizard shopping center using my Christmas linens ( gold and maroon) , Halloween decorations and strange things from my classroom.  We even changed the light bulbs to create a dimmer space.  C and i created the signs in powerpoint and printed them at Office Depot.  Each student was given a schedule and a list of supplies they would need and then after taping on the "brick wall" on the door, they entered to start shopping.  They spent a lot more time exploring than I thought they would which was cool.  They brought their purchases to the good witch in the hall ( my lovely mother in law) and paid with their galleons.  

Slug and Jiggers Apothecary:

 Kids purchased a small cauldron and a potions timer here.  Both from OT.  They even got a free sticky slug with purchase.  I used a swordfish light ( like a glowstick but with batteries) in the bowl to give the hourglasses a spooky glow.  

Olivanders:

Kids purchased a practice wand from Olivanders .  There are hundreds of options for making wands on the web. I made mine from chopsticks and paint I found in the craft cupboard.  I painted them all brown then added streaks of dark brown, green and black to make each one different.  I dipped the ends in yellow paint to give them the look of the lummos charm.  As it turns out i missed a few which meant that a few kids had problems during charms class hee hee.   I used the same swordfish lights to illuminate the jar they were in.  

Eyelops Owl Emporium:  

Eyelops was a looking only store as the sign said they had the avian flu and could not make it.  C got the owl for her birthday and wanted it to be on display. The snake is a wooden puzzle ( c loves them) that we painted the same day as the wands.  The other items are from my classroom.  

Flourish and Blotts: 

 Kids spent time looking through the Beetles of Bard, the History of Quiditch, and How to Care for Magical Creatures (all birthday gifts) before purchasing Encyclopedia of Potions (a book I wrote from information on the web and labs from my classroom) and Charms-first year ( a book I found on another blog).  

Harry Potter Palooza part 1

Caroline planned this party for at least six months.  We read blogs and magazine articles.  we combed the Internet and catalogs for supplies.  In the end we had 18 witches and wizards attend in various states of costume and many even brought their own wand. This is how it turned out...

Invitations: sent by email to each child. Parents in my community don't do paper invites very well.

Hogwarts School

Of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

(order of Merlin, First class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards)

Dear Miss Saylor Hark, 

     We are pleased to inform you that you have been invited to attend the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry summer session, where we will be having a special birthday celebration for Caroline N, Head Girl Gryffindor.
     Term begins Saturday July 27 at 1:00 pm and will conclude at 3:00 pm. We will have short classes in Potions, Transfiguration and Divination.  All supplies needed by first year students can be obtained at Diagon Alley at the beginning of the session. 

     Take the Hogwarts Express to the Muggle Address of , Tiki Island.  The House has had protective charms placed on it for this event.  Please feel free to wear Wizard attire as the neighbors will not be able to see you.  If you must travel though Muggle areas, wearing Muggle attire is perfectly acceptable so you blend in with the community. 

      We await your owl post response as we will be borrowing potion supplies from Professor Snape. If you have trouble acquiring an owl, you may respond by Muggle telephony  or by eklectrical mail through the computadora.

Sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress

We had many parents reply in wizard, which was very awesome. 

Dear Headmistress McGonagal, Miss Whitiker would love to attend your school. Please accept this electrical mail response as our owl has been permanently posted to the garden to protect against seagullery 

Life with the Germans

We are at the end of week two of what Hunter called the German invasion. We have had an absolutely great time! Tiring, but great.

We have been to moody gardens aquarium and rainforest, schlitterbahn, the beach, the beach again, fishing from our dock, fishing from the boat, fishing from the boat again, more dock fishing, nasa, an Astros game, the alligator refuge, dickinson bayou wildlife park, bands on the sand and band in the park.

We have eaten the all american/ texan foods of bbq, hotdogs, tamales, enchiladas, pizza, and burgers. And lots and lots of Whataburger!

That doesn't even include the Lund's side trip to sea world, enchanted rock, canyon lake, and floating the Guadalupe river. Whew!

Just a few pictures and tidbits for now.  

Hunter, Philipp and Sydney went out for a big boy fishing trip and left Noah behind. Sydney had an awesome time catching kingfish and a couple of theses Mahdi Mahdi ( also called dolphin or dorado). Noah on the other hand was sad.  So, we loaded up and went to the drive through wildlife park where peanut the lama tried to eat my hat right off my head and a camel got waaaay into the tram to eat the brochure Isabel was holding. no amount of food could dissuade her from her yummy paper. 

Sweet Noah is like the energizer bunny.  He was usually still bouncing off walls at 8:30pm while trying to get the others in bed.  But this day we went to schlitterbahn water park for 6 hours then followed that with a boat ride to find dolphins. He could not fight the rocking of the boat and was down for the count before we were even headed back home. He slept for 13 hours that night.  

After four straight days in the sun, we spent an inside day at NASA. Caroline and Noah went head to head on the rock wall while Sydney climbed the pillars. Sydney and c were delighted to find a "NASA style" gangnam style parody on you tube. Apparently dance crazes also translate. 

I wish this picture was not so blurry, but it is still a funny one. They are all in a shark tank pretending to see a big one.  This was our first adventure and Sydney was pretty jet lagged. He was still very overwhelmed by the amount of English in America and was not sure what to do with the very chatty girl he was assigned to.  This was also our first attempt at keeping our herd together. Thankfully they were all dressed in the same clor so you could just stand back and count heads like a field trip.

Noah thinks fishing at the house is about the most incredible thing ever. He checks the trap constantly and has a line in the water most of the time.  We actually had lines in the water within five minutes of arriving at our house on day 1. This is the first of many cat fish noah caught on bait that he also caught.  Noah had no English upon arriving, but also no inhibitions.  He will run up to me and say "amy, hvjhgfdgfc bhjjhbhv jvjhvhhghvgchhgf uhggvghngc?" And wait for an answer with his angelic face turned up to you.  My response was always " show me" with an extended hand.  By the end of day 2 I had learned bait, fish, net, in German and he had learned those and SHUT THE DOOR in English.  Sydney was slower to come around, but the computer game mine craft and love of all things harry potter have made Sydney and c the best of friends. Sydney is no longer worried about how his English sounds and they talk nonstop. Except when they argue over who is cheating at the Hogwarts lego game.

Wooden cutouts are a staple in Caroline's diet. Noah thought they were a hoot and the two of hem would scope them out everywhere we went. This is a pretty easy task in a tourist town. Even the library has one.  But even better than wooden cutouts for noah?  Water fountains!  He loves them, and does not have them at home.  He has taste tested every water fountain we have come across.

We met the Lund's at the airport car rental location. We knew what time their plane got in but not how long customs might take so Caroline was starting to get a little worried.  But she carried her trusty welcome sign around with her as she explored the terminal.  The Lund's arrived on the floor above us and noah took a double take when he saw the sign, the first of the hilarious "elf" actions he has done.

The zebra room

Hunter and I put the bunk beds together last night and C put all the zebra bedding on. She slept in the top bunk last night with all her stuffies. Right now she is in a tent she created out of the bottom bunk.

Mmmmmm SPAM

I brought a can of spam with jalapeños back for hunter's dad from Minnesota. Caroline was upset because she doesn't like spicy. So, I purchased my first can of Spam ever and we are having Spam cubans for dinner!

GB& PM part 5

St ansgar: on our way home from Austin we drove over to Grace and Norbert's farm to see the water levels in the fields. Unfortunatly it was too wet to climb apple trees or run through the ditch with the power of greyskull ( yes a he-man reference). As we pulled through town ( a one stop light kind of place), we met my grandpa at an intersection!

GB & PM part 4

The birthday party: most summers we are home, my mom puts on a party for caroline. This year the boys (parker is 3 and brayden is 4) picked out a theme and all the supplies. GG grace and G G Norbert came over for lunch and a great time was had by all.

GB & PM part 3

Family picture:  we had to take our annual family picture in front of Mom's bushes.  This time around we of course had more issues to deal with- more kids then laps, nap schedules, hungry kids and redneck tooth (c has a snaggel tooth that refuses to fall out, but sticks out enough to gross you out).   For the most part everyone was really good, but toward the end c got silly and this is the pic we got.  Be on the lookout for good pictures from Holly's camera.  For those of you that knew my sisters when they were little, I bet you can guess who belongs to whom!  

GB & PM part 2

Spam museum:   A trip to Iowa is not complete without a swing through Austin.  We went to the SPAM museum first. Caroline of course wanted to make SPAM and even with Papa Marc coaching and a practice round she still lost to the amazing mommy.  However at the SPAM exam quiz show, Grandma Becky kicked all our buns. C discovered she was old enough to enjoy the humor of MontyPython's  flying circus with the spam, spam, eggs and spam skit.    The spam food truck was parked out front so we taste tested spam curds-batter fried spam and cheese sticks.  Everyone agreed they were awesome. Of course we had to spend a few of Papa's points in the gift shop and I got a tin side spam lunchbox and a new long sleeve spam shirt.  We even found a mike the knight look a like in sir can a lot and purchased Parker a magnet and tattoo.

Of course we had to have lunch at Taco Johns and introduce c to potato oles!  Jeanne Tomlinson met us there before we drove by our houses (there is too much "town" between our house and the corn fields now) and schools (Shaw has been gone for a long time, but it is still disorienting when trying to find Putt's house). 

Summer at Grandma Becky and Papa Marc's lake

Crazy games with auntie Jill: Jill brought 45 glow sticks!  We broke them all and headed to the basement after dark for an hour of craziness.  Parker and Brayden wore their bracelets and swung their arms around to watch the glow.  Brayden rolled hoops down the hall.  Amy and C played ring the gak.  C and Jill pretended they were a circus act and tossed them back and forth until Parker came running through yelling "pause!"

Coffee with the big girls: while mom took the boys to get party supplies c got to have coffee ( ok, hot chocolate) at the chocolate season with the aunties.  She was not impressed that Landon was on the girl team.  She wanted her aunties to herself!

It's just a few blocks: from the coffee shop we walked over to the pet shop and then decided to go to a local park.  It would have been a few blocks to walk back to the cars and then a struggle to get the boys in car seats so Jill and I walked with the boys ( I held L, she skipped with P and B). While everyone else went to move cars (c went with Holly of course). Our walk was a bit further than we expected, but the kids were troopers and we even got to stop at a fire station along the way.

How does Mrs Dugger get anything done:  As we attempted to sit down to our first meal with all kids and grand kids it seemed like a three ring circus of needing more milk, I want to sit there, I don't need a booster seat, where are the napkins and yes you do need to take no thank you bite.  But by the time my sisters left, we were a well oiled machine.

Water balloons: we forgot to blow up the balloons the boys had picked out for c's party, so we decided to let them toss water balloons instead.  Of course they weren't meant for water so we had some close casualties.  Brayden squeezed a little too hard and had one explode all over him.  His face was priceless!  Of course when his mom asked if he needed dry clothes because he was wet, he thought she meant he had had an accident and was adamant that he was not wet and would not be changing.  

Fishing with Uncle Brian:  kids went crappie fishing off the dock and caught close to 20 fish. Brayden caught his first fish and carried it up the hill for us to see.  C had a blast sight casting.

2013 Easter Pics

A Glimpse of the Future

We had a new exeperience this week. Amy and I were half of a "foursome" to see Lord of the Dance at the Galveston Opera House. Oh boy...looks like trouble to me!

More Big Bend pictures

Top of the lost mine trail. 2.5 miles and 1200 feet up. This trail was later renamed the "mommy death march" because I kept growling, " just keep walking" as we were going up hill. I tripped and created a rock-a-lanch coming down and landed in the lap of a very surprised family that was headed up.



Caroline riding Sunny. Her first time riding a horse without someone leading it. She loved it!

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Nebletts in front of Mariscol mountain. This is the southern most point in the American Rocky Mountain chain

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The fam in big bend state park.

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Big Bend has its own species of mutant blue bonnets. They grow to be 3 or 4 feet tall rather than the 18 inches we have around here.

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We hiked in to a hot spring along the Rio Grande one afternoon. Unfortunately our footwear was not exactly beachy.

2,073 miles later...

...we're back from Big Bend National Park. The weather was ideal, and we had a terrific time. Each morning we left in the dark to be on the hiking trails at first light.

We calculated our total hikes and came up with 21.5 miles in 4 days of hiking plus 2 hours on horseback.

Crossing the Pecos river on day 2.

Santa Elena canyon on the Rio Grande. Our first hike of the trip at BBNP. There were tons of people on this trail that afternoon. It seemed like they too had just gotten to the park since many of the kids seemed to be in traveling clothes and flip flops. It got us a little worried but every day after that we were on the trail at dawn and were the first ones on many trails.

Caroline's first trip to Mexico. This is not what you expect for the mighty Texas Mexico border. We followed the law and never touched land on the other side, but we did do a lot of rock chunking from the center of the river.

Caroline and Amy in the last mile of the trip. Caroline was the " scout, speedboat or cheetah" most of the week to encourage her to keep going. Amy was the " anchor or grandma" for most of the trip. At some point along this trail Caroline took off her jacket and tied it on my backpack telling me, " Mom, now you have a cheetah skin on your back. You can go faster. Easy for her to say when we are carrying all her stuff!