We'll Laugh About This Later... Ok, why wait?

So, in recent weeks, Alicia has complained of stomach pains.  And, it didn’t occur to me that we’ve been down that path before until her pediatrician declared constipation as the culprit and prescribed more fiber to regulate her system. 

Yes! It’s all coming back to me now…  The cycle: Alicia eats nothing but junk for about 6 months.  Her tummy starts to hurt.  Then her tummy hurts daily.  Then her tummy hurts at the mere mention of food.  Then we figure out she hasn’t had a bowel movement in 3 days…  We let her eat some Fiber One bars (one a day), and PRESTO! Like magic, she’s cured! The gears start churning again, and we start the cycle all over again.  Easy peasy.

The problem is, too much of a good thing (i.e., the magic Fiber One bars), is DEFINITELY too much.  At some point, we will hopefully figure out where we cross over from the magic to the tragic well ahead of the actual crossing.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case this time around….

Pan to:  THE LUAU.

About 50-60 mom hours of preparation went into throwing the most awesome Luau birthday party on the planet!  We held it at our church yesterday (Sunday) afternoon. For the most part, everything went according to plan.  I had lists to coordinate my lists on how each little Nutter Butter Flip Flop and flower lei was going to happen.  Origami flowers were made.  The 3-tier cake was stacked.  Fruit was filleted and pierced with bamboo skewers. Virgin piña coladas were poured. Hula music was downloaded and playing festively throughout the church-turned-beachfront.  Ahhh, this is going well! 

<<<<sound of scratching record being ripped from turntable>>>

Pan to:  THE BATHROOM SCENE

We have now come to the moment in our story where we cross from the magic to the tragic.

That’s right.  The “too much of a good thing” prophecy has now joined the party.  Literally.

Without getting into the gory details, suffice to say Alicia and I spent a good (ok, not good) half hour doing some mother/daughter bonding in the bathroom… The sort of bonding only a mother is willing to endure.  Tess suddenly found herself corralling 15 girls into playing 25 rounds of “Pass the Coconut” and “Hula Hoop 4-Square” while the girls kept asking “where’s Alicia?”.  And, Stephen made a mad dash to Walmart for a hasty wardrobe change for the birthday girl.

Crisis averted.  Okay, if not averted, then at least overcome.  Alicia rejoins the party.  Gifts are opened, cake is consumed.  Party guests depart with armloads of loot, leis, and cocoa butter.  All’s well that ends well!

The moral of the story: Eat more broccoli!

If you’d like to see additional photos from the best luau birthday party EVER, please follow this link.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150542876663159.389221.523908158&type=3&l=707c9b004d

Far Off Broadway

Every year, the Anchorage Concert Association manages to convince a Broadway show to do a run at the Alaska Performing Arts Center.  A couple years ago, it was The Lion King.  The tickets were pricy, so the shows didn’t sell out until after the run began.  The production was AMAZING, beginning to end.  And once people started hearing the reviews, all the remaining shows were sold out immediately!  I was lucky enough to see it twice…  The family went together initially.  Then, as my mom was going to visit us in the coming week, I bought a pair of tickets for one of the last showings before they were all snapped up.  It was just a great the second time around.

This past weekend, I took Alicia to see Beauty and the Beast.  The music, costuming, and sets were, once again, fantastic.  It had a considerably shorter run than The Lion King, only showing for about a week.  We’d bought our tickets months ago and went with our other little friends and their mom.

During the first couple days of the production, the star of the show had an unpleasant run-in with a local fella.  You can read more about that here:   http://www.adn.com/2012/01/14/2264215/with-a-little-help-beauty-apprehends.html .  Thankfully, that ended well and she was able to “go on with the show”!

It’s really wonderful to have the opportunity to experience this level of production being so far from NYC and the bright lights of Broadway.  It took several years for the PAC to finally be able to entice a major production to come to Alaska.  I imagine the logistics are rather daunting.  But, The Lion King was the ice breaker.  And, it was a great success.  So, hopefully, these wonderful shows will continue to grace our stage here in Anchorage.

Party Planners

Alicia is very fond of birthday parties.  Particularly her own!  She plans her birthday parties years in advance.  When she discovers a new party theme she likes, we just tack it on to the end of the list.  I think we’re up to her 11^th birthday at this point, at least on paper.  If you ask her, she’ll tell you she is 6 ¾ right now.

Lucky for Alicia, I also have a fondness for birthday parties…  I’ve often said one of the best reasons to have kids at all is to be able to plan birthday parties for them!  (That, and for those times when you can’t find the remote…)

Throughout the years, Alicia has helped me plan and execute her birthday soirees.  There was the Princess Party when she turned 4.  Everyone was dressed up as a prince or princess.  The cake was a pink castle.  This was back in the day when we still claimed to like both pink and princesses.  We’ve moved on.  To the point of selling all of our dress up gowns on craigslist to finance a Build-a-Bear shopping spree for our best friend, Rosabelle, the kitty.  Anyway, I digress.

Our 5^th birthday party was a Little Mermaid themed pool party held at the local indoor waterpark.  One might think living in Alaska and having a January birthday would limit the “pool party” options.  Not so!  There’s a large indoor waterpark in Anchorage which is a balmy 84 degrees year round.  They’ve got waterslides, a wave pool, a giant pirate’s ship, and a lazy river.  The perfect setting for our Ariel fan to celebrate with her friends.

Last year, we went the polar opposite with a snowy penguin themed party for our 6^th birthday.  As I was solidly engrossed in the cake business, I felt like I didn’t put as much effort into last year’s party as I would’ve liked.  I don’t think Alicia really noticed.  She had her friends over.  They played penguin themed games at which they won tickets to spend at the prize booth.  There were also sled races around our circular drive.  We even got a bunch of great photos.  But, only because one of the guests’ moms commandeered my camera and went to town snapping photos of all the girls.  Overall, I just felt frazzled and less organized than I normally am at a party event.

So, this year… It’s going to be even better.  This year’s theme: Luau.  We’ve already begun our preparations.  The cake has been designed and partially baked.  We’ve tested out the virgin pina colada recipe.  Delish.  I’ve started making origami flowers and silk flower hair clips to serve as part of the goody bags.  Stephen’s putting together a limbo game.  We even bought a giant tub full of luau gear this past summer at a yard sale in anticipation of this year’s birthday party.  See!  It can be pretty handy to know your themes FAR in advance!

The party isn’t for another couple of weeks.  But, if all goes according to plan, it should be a doozy!

Here We Snow Again!

We’ve had more than our share of snow these past few days. We woke up Sunday morning to another lovely, thick blanket of snow. I know, from past experience, that I cannot back out of the garage with the minivan if the snow tops 6” in the driveway. A few weeks back, I spent an hour trying to get out of the driveway, only to get stuck in our unplowed road. Stephen ended up towing me to the main road so I could go to work!



On Sunday, the road was once again, unplowed. And, not just our little road, but every road in the neighborhood, and even the highway appeared to have been plowed by use not snowplows. Stephen snowblowed the driveway and then it was tantamount to sledding in the van to make it down our hill and out to the highway so we could drive to church in Eagle River. If there weren’t so many pesky hills, driving in this stuff would be a little easier.

After church, I stopped for some groceries, then returned to church to pick up Tess who works the 2-3 year-old room for both Sunday morning services. The drive home was an even bigger adventure than the drive out had been. The snow had continued falling heavily all the while. And, much of our neighborhood had still not been plowed. Tidal waves of snow covered my windshield as I plunged through nearly a foot of snow on the roads. Visibility was reduced to zero for a few tense moments at a time.



We eventually made it home just as the snowplows started clearing the roads. We were content to stay put and while away the rest of the day snug in front of the woodstove.



The forecast for this week is full of doom and gloom with another storm heading our way. In our neck of the woods, I’m just preparing for a very difficult commute in the coming days.

On the plus side, at least we don’t live in Cordova! The folks down there and in other little towns around Prince William Sound are getting snow by the foot… or I should say “feet”! Cordova, Valdez, Whittier, and Seward are expecting another couple feet in the next few days. Cordova has declared a state of emergency as they rush to clear 5’ of snow off roofs before the coming snow/rain arrives. When the temps warm a little and add rain on top of snow, it makes everything very heavy with ice formation. Not good!

Christmas Break... Come and Gone!

We’ve been on Christmas Break for the past 10 days or so. Alicia and Tess were both off from school. And I’ve been off from work since the 23rd of December. Tomorrow, both Alicia and I return to our work and school lives. Tess will still be off from school till mid-January. She received notice on the last day of 2011 that she's been officially accepted into the Nursing Program at the University of Alaska-Anchorage.  Her projected graduation date will be May 2015.  Hooray!

Over the course of the Break, we’ve had a really nice time. We went ice skating at both our regular rink in Eagle River and at the Dimond Ice Chalet in Anchorage. The latter is a rink in the middle of a mall.

We wanted to keep our ice skating skills fresh between lesson sessions. Alicia will begin her session at the Alpha level next Saturday. She’s still enjoying the ice. As a matter of fact, Alicia is all about the winter time. This works out well, as we live in a place where winter is the longest season, by far!

As we watched the Rose Parade on TV this morning, I mentioned that we might go to southern California to watch the parade in person one year… Admiring how sunny and green it looked there. Alicia asked if it ever snowed there. I said no… She said she didn’t want to live there!

Some of our other Break activities included a visit to the Anchorage Museum, some bowling, and a movie. Alicia and I went to see "We Bought a Zoo". We both loved it! If you haven’t seen it, you should…

Later in the week, I took the girls and one of Alicia’s friends to H2Oasis, the indoor waterpark in Anchorage. I think the temps outside were hovering close to zero. But inside the waterpark, it’s kept at 84 degrees yearround! The girls had a great time. Then we blow dried our hair completely before heading back outdoors and up the road to the Alaska Zoo.

We met Stephen and some of our friends to view the Zoo Lights. The Alaska Zoo sets up lots of cool light displays which are viewed by walking through the zoo trails. I think we probably would’ve enjoyed the Zoo Lights more had we not been half frozen, despite our numerous layers of long underwear and snowpants. We followed up the rapid tour of the Zoo Lights with a tummy-warming trip to the Arctic Roadrunner for delicious burgers.

On the last day of 2011, Alicia and I tried our hand at making homemade marshmallows. We are hooked! They are super yummy! We brought some of them to a New Year’s Day Sledding Party to add to our hot cocoa and just to munch straight out of the bag. We’ve put them through a round of tests including roasting, cocoa dunking, and raw consumption. We still need to test them as chocolate-dipped, in s’more creation, and inside rice cereal treats. I’m sure they won’t disappoint!
Over the Christmas Break we accumulated a bunch of snow and lost a bunch of degrees on the thermometer. We’re still in the negative degrees as we head into the New Year. But, if there’s one thing living in Alaska has taught us, it’s that you can’t let the weather outdoors get in the way of you living your life. We just roll with the punches and take a glance at the thermometer and precipitation situation before deciding how many layers are necessary as we head out the door…