Youth Roadshows

Roadshows.  Unless you are a Mormon, you probably have no idea what a roadshow is.  I'm not sure if I can explain properly.  Roadshows are an interesting phenomenon.  I've never been in a roadshow, my first experience was as an adult audience member.  Let's just say I left shaking my head, thinking, "wow, what was that?"

Roadshows vary by location, but in our little corner of Mormondom, roadshows are basically short skits or one-act plays written, produced, and performed by the youth.  This is done in a very short time frame with no given resources.  Each ward prepares their own show and obviously adults are asked to help organize and supervise the kids.  Here is where Dave and I come in.  We along with two other adult couples were asked to help with roadshows this year.

All I'm going to say about roadshows is that they are a lot of work, take a lot of organizing and coordinating, are VERY cheesy and silly, but are worth it because most the kids love doing it and for "older" people like Dave and I, it is fun to work with the Young Men and Women in the ward.

We spent about month preparing with the youth.  We have some great performers in our ward.  All the kids came through and did a really good job.  They wrote the script, were responsible for their own costumes, learned all their lines, and even danced in a grand finale.  What good sports!  Their roadshow was based on the theme "Bedtime Stories" and they did a medley of Disney stories including Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast and Finding Nemo.

During all the practices and performances, I was SUPER busy so I didn't get any pictures.  I didn't even get to see the actual performance because I was backstage--thank goodness for video. 

This is Ashey's sheep costume, sort of.  We took the picture after the show, so it's
a little worse for the wear, but I wanted to have at least one picture.



The Melting Pot

Oooo, fondue!  Who doesn't want to go to a fancy restaurant and pay exorbitant prices for some fondue?  We do!  And apparently so do lots of other people as there is a whole restaurant chain dedicated exclusively to fondue.

The name of the aforementioned restaurant is called, The Melting Pot.  Dave and I went there a few years ago for our anniversary.  It is definitely more of a special occasion place.  We have always talked about taking the girls, especially because we know that Paige would flip for chocolate fondue, but honestly, it's really not a "kids" type of restaurant.  Add the fact it is "pricey" to eat there and basically you have a couple good reasons not to go.

That's why when the Melting Pot offered a "Little Chefs" fondue dinner for kids for only $13 (more for adults), we decided if we all wanted to go, this was going to be the best deal.

The girls were very excited and we did have lots of fun.  On the fixed menu, we had:
-macaroni and cheddar cheese fondue with apples, veggies and bread to dip
-yummy side salads
-main dish variety plate including beef, chicken, shrimp, ravoli and assorted veggies
-chocolate/peanut butter and jelly fondue with fruit, marshmallows, cake, cheesecake and rice krispies


Cheesy!



This is good stuff

 



Dessert time




Chocolate and strawberries...yum!

We had plenty of food and the girls loved the whole experience.  As part of the "Little Chefs" experience, the girls got to add ingredients and mix each of our fondue courses.  They also go some adorable chef hats and certificates.

Paige has now resorted to eating chocolate fondue by the spoonful

Columbus Day

This is the only place we have ever lived where Columbus Day is an observed school holiday.  Our district does not observe Veterans Day, but we get Columbus Day--not something I particularly agree with considering Christopher Columbus' legacy is somewhat controversial, but oh well.

Anyway, we usually use Columbus Day as an opportunity to go to a pumpkin patch or apple orchard, but this year, the girls and I just needed a day off.  I feel like we have barely had time to catch our breath since school started.  We have had lots of nights later than I would have liked.  Many days the girls get home from school and then it is a rush to get homework done, eat dinner, and then go out the door for one activity or another.  They don't have as much down time as I would like them to have.  It is certainly a challenge as a parent to balance worthy and enriching activities.

So back to Columbus Day.  Nothing planned.  We slept in, hung around the house for a while, then decided to take a walking tour of three nearby parks.  The weather was great and we compared the features of each park as we completed our 3.5 mile roundtrip walk.  During our walk, we decided we should do something for dinner to acknowledge Columbus Day, but since we had not planned ahead we had to improvise.  This is when I suggested we have "weiner boats" for dinner.  Or more specifically the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. 

I don't know about you but growing up eating school lunch in Utah, both Dave and I know exactly what "weiner boats" are.  My girls, however, had no idea what a "weiner boat" was.  I was sort of torn about letting them eat weiner boats, I mean I felt like I was seriously compromising my culinary standards.  I kinda felt that it was big step to serve weiner boats after having avoided it for 12 years, but it was a special occasion. 

SO we had weiner boats for dinner.  Paige made the flags.  The girls thought it was so strange to eat mash potatoes and hot dogs together.  At first, Ashley was scraping the mashed potatoes off the hot dog and eating them separately, until Paige convinced her to try them together in one bite.  In the end, the girls didn't mind weiner boats.  Who knows if we will eat them again???

DuPage Children's Museum

Last Spring, I bought a Groupon to our local children's museum, thinking it would be a great thing to do during the summer.  Then we decided to go to Utah for a month and before I knew it, my Groupon was going to expire and we had not used it.

Children's museums can be crowded especially on weekends and holidays, so to avoid the crowds we went on a day that the girls had early release from school.  This meant that besides a few toddlers with their moms, we basically had the museum to ourselves. 


Playing in the wind garden

 

We took along our neighbor, who is Paige's friend, and had a pretty good time.  Even better our visit happened to be on a day that the cast from the stage musical Pinkalicious was there to do a free preview performance.  We didn't even know about it until we got there.  Paige and her friend got front row seats.

Paige and her friend got front row seats

General Conference and the Puzzle

Here was the puzzle:

This one was pretty hard, cobblestone and blue sky are tough.

It was a good weekend, Ashley took lots of great notes and made a nice booklet of all the talks.  We also enjoyed the company of friends, some dutch oven cooking, and even a birthday cake.

decorating the birthday cake



puzzling




Drama

I mean "drama" in a good way.  Ashley auditioned for and was cast in her school play!  The play is "Finn McCool and His Fearless Wife."  It's based on an Irish folktale.  Ashley had to practice her Irish accent for the audition and was cast as Mrs. Rafferty.  Way to go Ashley!

Lovely Fall Weather

So the weather here has been fabulous lately.  The past week has been in the high 70's low 80's.  It's like we are living in California!  Where's the beach?

Maybe that's why I haven't been blogging much, I'm outside enjoying the sunshine---okay that is only partially the reason.  The other part may have to do with church Road Shows, planning for Halloween parties, planning birthday parties, home improvement projects and being head room mother for Paige's class.  This is a pretty busy month for the Smith's.  It has also coincided with some changes at work for Dave.  He is much busier now...I'm pretty sure that the low key pace of last year is long gone.

Anyways, who isn't busy?  And why worry when it's gorgeous outside?  I got a suntan at a soccer game this weekend and every day I get to walk among the beautiful trees as they change color.

A few weeks ago, Paige had to do a community project for school, so we drove around to take pictures for the report she had to write.  One of our stops was the Phillip's Park Zoo. 

Again the weather was great and after our tour of the community, we stopped for a Slurpee.  Can't get better than that!

On a grim and somewhat odd note, we had our first bird feeder tragedy.  Apparently, a bird stuck it's head too far into the feeder, got stuck, and broke it's neck.  Not sure exactly how this could happen, but it did.  Dislodging the bird was definitely a Dave job.  Yuck!