Ice Cold

 On Monday Tyler took the day off so he could spend time with his parents before they headed out Tuesday. We thought we'd take them to Cherry Republic because it has such tasty things and then we could stroll the cute town. It all ended up being a bit of a bust. It was terribly cold oustide so the walk from the parking garage to the store felt brutal. Then his parents ended up not buying anything at the store because they weren't interested in packing any of it onto the airplane. And then appparently none of the shops opened for another half hour so we ended up just walking back to the car. Boo.

Our next stop was Hell, Michigan- his mom was real excited about being able to say she went to Hell. On our way there we ended up coming across a park full of ice sculptures so we had to stop and see them. The kids were freezing and mostly kept asking if we could get back in the car and then Penny slipped in snow and became even more cold but the sculptures were really, really awesome and I am glad we stumbled upon them.

Then we drove the rest of the way to Hell and I think his parents enjoyed the shop with all its super fun souvenirs. We were all hungry by this time so we headed next door to the Hell Hole Diner for some lunch. It was alright for food from Hell.

That night Tyler and his dad got a bunch of junk food and we all watched "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark." This may have been a poor movie choice- it was a little much for the girls- especially when the guys face melted off. That night Penny insisted we read a book because she couldn't stop seeing the melted face. We traumatized her.

Tyler's parents left early Tuesday, before we even came downstairs for Seminary. Also Tuesday the kids all went back to school and that was so nice. I finally had a chance to really clean up the house, with nobody coming behind me and messing everything up. As much as I love my children, I think the breaks from eachother are much needed. 

Tuesday after school Ben and Jacob shoveled some driveways in the neighborhood for money. Jacob is always looking for way to make money and I appreciate that he included Ben in his latest scheme. It was nice to see Ben working hard. After all his shoveling he had a meeting with a Bishopric Member where he was called at Deacon's Secretary. I think he will be good at this once he learns the ropes.

Wednesday morning for seminary I asked the teens to bring a bowl and spoon without telling them why. The lesson was "role of the learner" and I wanted to teach them that they if they are active learners (bring a bowl&spoon/reading ahead of time) they can better feast off the lesson (eat the cereal I provided/learn). Only 2 out of the 12 kids brought bowls and spoons. It was such a flop but maybe they learned something? 

Thursday morning we had a party for our seminary students to celebrate them reaching their class scripture reading goal. We were going to have it on a Saturday but we just couldn't align schedules so we decided to do it during class instead. It totally stressed me out. Tyler went to pick up bagels but it didn't open when we thought it was going to so he waited for it to open. Meanwhile I cooked bacon, waffles, and eggs...and while I was baking the smoke detector went off (despite a lack of smoke) which woke up the kids and upped my anxiety. Then the teens started to arrive and needed help with getting controlers to work (video games was part of the deal for reaching thier goal). Oh man was I releived when Tyler finally got back with the bagels and I wasn't alone with all the chaos. Then I was able to relax and play a racing game with the teens. I think they needed this fun morning and I am happy with how it all panned out.

Friday after the kids finished thier schoolwork we went on a little outing to the Henry Ford Museum. Steven stayed behind because he had planned to play online with a friend. The rest of us had a good time. We hadn't been in forever so it was fun to be there again- although all the fun building toys had been put away because of Covid. We watched a really cool video about race car drivers and then we had a really awkward time with a museum worker who told us the Rosa Park's story and then ran up as we were leaving to apologize for calling Lucy a girl. Um, she is a girl so now you just made things weird. Lucy was wearing pink and red and had a cat mask but I guess in this modern world you can't make gender assumptions.

Friday night I threw a belated birthday party for my friends Caroline and Melissa. They have thier birthday on the same day and Melissa had said we should throw a suprise party for Caroline but since they have the same birthday I felt like basically she was telling me I needed to throw them both a party. Whatever. I made it a 90s theme and it ended up being a lot of fun, I just ended up spending more money than I would have liked to spend at this time. Between the traveling to Arizona, and Tyler's parents being here and Steven's birthday coming and having to pay to get some things done on my car....I just need to not have so many extra expenses for once. But like I said it was a good time with lots of laughs. We rocked the 90's look, ate 90's candy, played a 90's trivia game, did a puzzle of 90's tv shows and listened to 90's music. I just failed to document it. All I have is a pic I took of myself and a pic of Caroline holding some chip dip she had brought that I want to buy. Fail.