Vegas Holiday Activities 2013

We've been able to do a lot of fun holiday activities while Ti's been here. I'm grateful for that! On our annual Family Day we went to Town Square to watch Frozen with the kids. Afterwards, we gathered around the giant Christmas tree in the Square for their evening snowfall. We drove home to Christmas music and made hot cocoa at home to end the night. I'm so glad the kids started this family tradition. Didn't do any Black Friday shopping, but had a special day with my family instead.

This weekend we went to Ethel M Chocolate Factory for the first time. It was awesome!!! They have a cactus garden out back that was completely decorated in Christmas lights. I have been complaining about Vegas not having a worthy display of Christmas lights since we've moved here and I finally found a spot that's amazing!!! And it's free! Before leaving we went to look around inside the factory and were pleasantly surprised to find a walk through of the factory. We got to see how the chocolate was made and received free samples as well. The kids loved it. I loved it!

Yesterday we spent the day at home. We had pizza for lunch and listened to Christmas music while we hung up the stockings and decorated the tree.

Although we have to say goodbye to Ti Tonga today I am grateful for the holiday memories we were able to build with him. This is so much more time than we had with him last year. For that I am grateful.

-kiki

Ries Elementary Field Day 2013

The boys have been looking forward to Field Day for quite some time. Siope and Nic had their turn earlier on in the day so I wasn't able to make theirs, but I got there just in time for Mote's. It was so fun to watch them compete. They had a blast!

Bowling

Whenever we go out to Utah we try do an activity as a family. After Fatu & Brittainy's wedding we all went bowling. My mom was feeling sick, so her and my dad stayed home, but everyone else was there. We ended up at a little bowling alley right by my Mom's house and had the entire place to ourselves.

Dr. Seuss Day

The boys celebrated Nevada Reading Week at school and on Friday they had a morning activity for parents to participate in with their kids. I was sooooo tired... but this is the reason why I wanted this shift - to spend time with the boys. So I sacrificed a little dream time and me and Ti went the Elementary with Siope, Nici, and Mote. They had cupcakes for everyone and Dr. Seuss books available to read. After the read-a-thon we all played Dr. Seuss BINGO and Mote was the first winner! He won a Dr. Seuss book to take home. I'm so glad we went. The kids were so happy to have us there and they had tons of fun.

Gingerbread Builders

Does anyone else love World Market as much as I do?! They are running specials every day for the holiday season. Last week their gingerbread house kits were 50% off and I had a 15% off coupon that I got to use on top of that! I should've known that they would go quick. Me and Ti got there at around 1pm and we got the last 2 kits. When we picked up the boys from school they were so excited to find out we would be making gingerbread houses. We've made them before in Salt Lake, but never here in Vegas. The cashier at World Market said that she learned from experience that if you glue the house parts together and let them dry overnight, then it's easier to decorate the next day. So we followed her advice. The kids weren't too happy about that part, because they were antsy to decorate their homes with colorful sweets. But our patience paid off. The home was sturdy enough the next day to where we could focus on embellishing without shingles or walls sliding off. Instead of us spending more money on extra candy for the homes, we whipped out the Halloween candy that hadn't been eaten and used those treats for added detail on our homes. We split up into 2 teams. Ti was in charge of Siope and Nic's house and I was in charge of Mote's house. We let the kids choose exactly how they wanted to decorate them. We mainly did all the piping and they put all the candy in place. It was so much fun to spend time with the boys and continue another holiday tradition. Merry Christmas!

 

October Haps: Pumpkin Picks 2011

Samiu and Toakesa slept over and we let them all pick out pumpkins. We can't carve our pumpkins early out here because they won't last in the heat. We will normally carve our pumpkins the day before or the actual day of Halloween. I wanted to spruce them up in some way so I decided to add some spook to them while they sat on the porch waiting to be carved. I let each of the kids pick out a design and we decorated each of the individual pumpkins. Here's some pictures of the kids with their pumpkins they chose...

The entire group with their picks of the patch

And here's what the pumpkins looked like after we decorated them with vinyl

Pumpkins L-R: Mote, Siope, Nic, Toakesa, Samiu

Here's our Halloween House

October 2011... Happy Halloween!