Spin a Tale or Two

Last night, I went Visiting Teaching. I stayed out late. I visited with ladies.

My husband stayed home with our 3 children. They played games until bedtime. Pretty Pretty Princess. Princess Chutes and Ladders. And Tell Tale. It's a new game we got for Christmas where you have to take turns telling a story based on the pictures that are revealed on your turn.

These are the cards they got:



When I got home, Tyler read me this story that they wrote together.

The King's Throne

Kohl had been at the movie theater since he was new. Since people don't really buy used toilets, he figured he would be there forever. The life of a movie theater toilet isn't very glamorous between the size of the drinks and the quality of the popcorn.

Kohl dreamed of being a palace toilet. Palace toilets were always so clean and shiny. The palace servants would polish them everyday. It was considered the pinnacle of porcelain perfection to be a palace toilet.

One day everything changed. Kohl had just finished helping a group of teenagers with their business when an entirely new customer arrived. He was dressed in plain clothing and appeared rather ordinary. Kohl didn't think much of it, until he noticed his underwear. He was wearing royal underwear. Immediately, Kohl knew who it was. It was the king! He was in disguise! You see, you can disguise your outward appearance but you can't disguise your underwear.

As the king finished, something fell out of his pocket and landed on the floor beside Kohl. It made a funny sound as it hit the tile floor, PING, but the king didn't seem to notice his royal ring fall on to the cold tile floor.

Kohl tried to call out to the king but the king couldn't hear him over the sound of the flushing.

It wasn't long before the bathroom was empty and Kohl was alone with the royal ring. Kohl wasn't quite sure what to do. He guarded the ring with the utmost care but didn't know who to tell as the king had been in disguise. Kohl feared that someone evil would find the ring and take over the kingdom.

It wasn't until the next day that the king realized his mistake. He returned to the movie theater with a royal legion hoping to find his lost ring. The king's servants searched everywhere before finally checking the bathroom.

There it was, second stall on the left, with Kohl proudly standing guard. The king was so impressed that he called for the royal plumber. "This brave toilet must be commended," said the king. "I here by dub thee Sir Kohler."

"Thank you your majesty, but it's just Kohl."

"Well Kohl, I will forever be in your debt," said the king. "You will be brought to the palace to be placed in my royal bathroom."

To this day, Kohl is still the cleanest and shiniest of all the palace toilets.

And I thought I was the writer in the family. I got home to a messy kitchen, with lunches still to be made, and laundry still to fold, but my kids were sleeping happily (on time) and they had had an awesome night with dad. Perfect night.

Disclaimer: Tyler was very concerned that if I posted this on our blog, someone would steal the idea and publish this as a book before we could. So please, to the 3 people who read this blog, don't plagiarize our story. Thank you.

Mmmm-Tastes Good!

Today, we headed back to the sugar shack to collect all the sap that had poured through the week. We were planning to be there much earlier than when we got there, but it turned out our snowsuits were all still soaking wet from our tobogganing last night, so they ended up in the dryer for a while.

I woke up with a possibly dangerous ache in my low back, so I told Tyler that a lot of the work would be up to him. He got all the kids organized with their coats, boots, mittens, and hats. We got out to Lalonde's and he discovered he'd forgotten his own jacket. He'll get this mom thing eventually.

The day looked liked this:

Hanging in the Sugar Shack where the boil was going on:


Collecting sap from the trees and putting them in the collection barrel:

Packing snow around the barrel to keep it cold:

Logan heartbroken, because Dad and Max left on the quad (He called it a tractor) without him:

Being soothed by Hot Chocolate:


When the hot chocolate ran out, he decided to take matters into his own hands, and find the tractor himself. That little dot of a person is him. He would take a few steps and then turn to look at me to see if I was coming. Which I was not, because I knew the tractor was coming right back to get us, and my back ache was convincing ME to wait. HE was not convinced. This is how far I let him get before I followed him.

Making taffy in the snow:

Eating Taffy:



And riding back to the car on sleds behind the tractor:



Max took a tumble at one point:

And decided to ride with dad:

Logan and Lotti's Busy Day

Today I babysat for a friend in our ward. I'm not big into babysitting, so I admit I was a bit unsure of how the day would go, plus I had A LOT of muffins to make. I decided to do freezer muffins for my friend who I visit teach. She's having her first baby any day now. Well, in spite of my nervousness, and my busy day, we had a GREAT time. Logan was so excited to have someone else to play with, and he and Charlotte played so nicely that I was able to make muffins without any trouble. They had moments where they both wanted the same toy at the same time, but there was no love lost between these two friends.


I even had some helpers in the kitchen at one point.

After the muffins were all baked, we headed to the park. It had been snowing like CRAZY all morning, and we just couldn't resist getting bundled up and going outside to play. I found some of Lucy's old winter clothes for Lotti to wear and we headed out. The snow was blowing DIRECTLY in your face, but it was warm and great. They had fun playing at the park and building a mini snowman. We played there for about an hour and then headed back home for lunch.




We turned on Nemo after that so settle down and Logan started to nod, so I took him upstairs for his nap. When I came downstairs, Lotti was asleep on the couch. I guess I know how to wear them out!

When the bigger kids got home from school, we grabbed sleds and headed to the park to take advantage of all the snow. It was so wet and thick that at first it was hard to sled through, until we got it packed down a bit. It had stopped snowing by this point, but instead began to rain. Tobogganing in the rain is something I've never done before. We quickly got soaked through our snowsuits and headed home for some warm soup for dinner and to watch...what else? Star Wars. We're on Episode 6 now. What will we do when we're done?



I made enough muffins to give away and for us to keep...with the idea that I'd freeze them and have them every once in a while. My kids and husband have been eating muffins like they're going out of style, and I finally had to hide the ones I made for my friend to make sure they didn't get into those as well!
I think we've nearly gone through 3 dozen muffins in only a few days. Guess I'll have to make more...

Tapping as a Family

Family Day. What a beautiful invention. I love it. I also love that it just so happened to fall on the weekend when Tyler came home from being away for a week. An extra day together is the best. I ALSO love an extra day to sleep in. To not make lunches. And to not walk to the bus-stop. It's perfect.

Yesterday, we were out at some friends for a "Birth-aversary" party. It's her birthday and their anniversary all in that weekend, so they hosted "Birth-aversary". They were kind enough to include us as it was also Logan's birthday. Plus, one of the other couples that came was celebrating their anniversary too. It was a great party with great food. We had a blast laughing and hanging out with all of our friends here. It warms my heart and makes me so excited that we have such a great group of friends here. We miss our family, but this helps. I truly love living here.

While we were at "Birth-aversary", we were invited to come back out the next day to help our friends tap their maple trees for the season. We were all on board for that plan. Sounds awesome!

So, the next morning we pack up a lunch and bundle up to go and enjoy some time in the woods. It was a perfectly beautiful day. Crisp and clean, no wind. Loved it.


The boys enjoyed having rides on the quad and Tyler, Lucy and I enjoyed tapping the trees. Lucy was so excited to see sap actually pouring.










Logan spent most of his time tapping the rocks.


Next weekend, we'll check the buckets and dump them if they're full. In a few weeks time it will be time to burn the sap to get rid of the gunk and water, so it's pure syrup. Sounds amazing. I can't wait!

We finished with a gourmet lunch of mac & cheese, hot dogs, pasta salad (because of course Max doesn't like Mac & Cheese), and homemade soup. It warmed the belly. Oh, and leftover birthday cake. Of course!