All About Eggs

Saturday was all about eggs. Egg hunt. Egg Decorating. Eggs.

Caton and Kerri arrived for egg decorating with at least a couple dozen plastic eggs for Aubrey to hunt for in the lawn. They headed out to hide the eggs as I was getting shoes on Aubrey and putting Sylvia in her backpack.

Me: Aubrey isn't really that great at this, so don't hide them too well. Really just get them scattered around the lawn.

I look out the sliding glass door as I'm putting Aubrey's shoes on to see Kerri politely walking around the yard and softly placing eggs on the ground - one by the slide, one by the pile of wood, one by the tree. Caton, on the other hand, is standing in the middle of the lawn and throwing eggs in every direction.

Aubrey found four of the dozens of eggs and walked back to us proclaiming she had found all the eggs!

No Aubrey, I can see at least eight just from where I'm standing! (I'm a really encouraging parent) Keep looking!

She did eventually find all the eggs without much guidance, just a lot of sending her back out to find more (with every egg she found she was convinced she had found them all)

Then we started decorating eggs. This picture makes it look like we really knew what we were doing - those eggs look pretty awesome. And, yeah, when you group them together and turn them at the right angle for a picture - it looks like a success. But when you're in the trenches of egg decorating all you can think is - These look so awesome on the internet and I have no idea how people get them to look so good! And look at the giant goose eggs! So cool!

Happy....

An evening spent at the McKenna household most certainly always involves some game playing. Friday evening, the girls and I headed stopped in for dinner and catching up and obviously ended up playing Taboo. Every time I play games with the McKenna family I wonder why I don't do make time for this daily, or at the very least, weekly, because I always end up laughing until my sides hurt. On this particular night, Mr. McKenna had me busting at the seams.

Mr. McKenna: Ok, we're down by ten. The only way we can catch up is to play defense. Use that buzzer!
(the round immediately following Mr. McKenna is giving clues to his team, it is at this time that Aubrey decides she is going to "help" Caton work the buzzer. She then proceeds to buzz it fairly consistently through all of Mr. McKenna's clues.)
Caton: (laughing about Aubrey's buzzing antics)
Mr. McKenna: It's okay, she's just playing defense.

...

Mr. Mckenna: (His word is anniversary) HapPYYYYYYY......(silence while he waits for his team to guess the (apparently) obvious word which should follow happy.)

Mr. McKenna: (His word is Easter) HapPYYYYY..... (silence while he waits for his team to guess the (apparently) obvious word which should follow happy.)

See a trend?

Recommended for Ages Four and Up

The other day, the girls and I visited with my mom for lunch. After the meal, my mom exitedly pulled out a game that used to be my youngest brother's....a long, long time ago. The gist of the game was each player attempts to flick tiny dog bones into a dogs mouth which is rotating around and his mouth is also opening and closing (it's actually fairly difficult). The box is labeled for ages four and up, and as soon as I saw the game I knew it was going to be way more than Aubrey could handle. But, my mom, being a grandmother, has an inflated sense of Aubrey's intelligence. An inflated sense that only a grandparent can have.

As soon as the pieces were pulled out and the game turned on, Aubrey began attempting to get the bones into the dogs mouth. But she wasn't going to mess around with shooting them in one at a time off of some paw; she went straight for grabbing handfuls of bones and shoving them into the dogs mouth, knocking his head off almost every time. The attempts by my mom and me to show her the correct way to play the game were quickly brushed away and replaced with her clearly more efficient method.

Mom: I guess now I know why it's four and up. I thought it was just because they were afraid of toddlers eating the pieces.

We eventually settled for coaxing her to get the bones in the dogs mouth without knocking the dog's head off and without her fingers getting bitten by his mouth. That proved to be a much more age appropriate game.

I'm Just As Scared As You Are

As I've mentioned, Martin and I have been the proud owners of a pool table since Christmas morning. I'm not really sure where my fascination with pool tables or with having one in my home stems from since I can barely hit the white ball let alone get the white ball to hit another ball into a pocket. Pool for me is a lot if coaxing of the balls under my breath and hoping to at least get a few in before my opponent eventually wins.

But now that we own a pool table we really need to get down to business. No one will think I'm anything more than a poser if I put a pool table in my house and then can't even properly set up the triangle ( is that the proper name for that?) Last night, Martin and I decided we both needed to hone up our skills and also we wanted to do something together that didn't involve washing dishes or falling asleep to the Office (although we did do at least one of those activities together last night). Martin isn't great at pool either, but he's better than I am and managed to beat me both games we played. Even Aubrey cheering relentlessly every time I shot at anything wasn't enough to pull for a win. There was one point where I had a very small gleam of hope for my future in the game. I got three of the right color balls ( solids) into the pockets IN A ROW. I looked up at Martin, completely flabbergasted by my sudden stream of luck and quickly replied to my glance.

Martin: Don't worry. I'm just as scared as you are.

Hide and Seek

Aubrey loves Hide and Seek.....

She is also absolutely terrible at Hide and Seek.

A typical game of Hide and Seek with Aubrey goes something like this...

Aubrey: Mommy, play Hide and Seek?
Me: Okay, you go hide. I'm going to close my eyes and count to ten.
Aubrey: (immediately starts running away and you wonder through your closed eyes how a toddler can possibly make so much noise)
Me: One, two, three, (footsteps headed away from me, that's a good sign)
Me: Eight, Nine, Ten

By the time you reach ten she will be directly in front of you shouting come find me! with her best smile.

Coaching doesn't work.

Trying to get her to hide with someone else doesn't work.

The girl just wants to be found!

Sometime last week my brother, Garrett, was over and attempting to teach Aubrey how to properly play Hide and Seek. Martin starting counting and Garrett led Aubrey over to the piano and instructed her to hide behind it and be very quiet so daddy wouldn't find her.

By the time Martin got to ten Aubrey was barrelling out from behind the piano to tell everyone that she Hide behind piano!

Martin: She is just like you, honey.
Me: What do you mean? I'm awesome at Hide and Seek (I know -  comparing my skills to those of my two year old daughter is probably not a very good parenting technique)
Martin: I just picture that you were probably just like this as a child.
Me: Oh....probably.

Tennis!

For some reason or other, tennis is a sport that I didn't really know that much about. I never really knew the rules or how to keep score ( I knew there was some love in there.....but if love equals zero that seems a little counterintuitive) and I pretty much just play under the "hit the ball over the net whereever it lands" type of rules. But.....we played a lot of tennis in Florida and now I'm pretty familiar with all the rules.

And knowing the rules is really a curse. I used to think I knew how to serve because I could consistently get the ball over the net. Then I learned that you have to not only get the ball over the net but also get it in the first half of the court on a certain side -  forget about it! With rules like that I'd like to play it a little more like ping pong, you only score when you're serving (I know, I know, that wouldn't work because only one team would have an opportunity to serve each game...trust me..I learned the rules. I just think that rule would really help to alleviate my poor aiming problem. A LOT.)

Martin and I have basically decided we need to get really good at tennis this summer so on return trips to Florida we can conquer the court, something we most certainly did not do this time around.

Hurtles

Our babysitter, Elizabeth, is in eighth grade and going to try track this year.

Me: Well, let me give you a tip. If you do hurtles - don't do what I did. I did track my sophomore year of high school and I ran hurtles. My very first race I accidentally knocked over the last hurtle. And, because I thought I would be disqualified if I didn't jump over every hurtle, I turned around, picked up the hurtle, jumped over it and then finished the race. Needless to say - I didn't win. And, by the way, you don't get disqualified if you knock over a hurtle.

Sea Turtle

On Saturday night we went to a charity bowling tournament. Martin's mood improved a lot when he learned that a "no tap tournament" does not imply that the tournament is dry and he has since declared that he is going to start going to a lot more charity bowling tournaments. My bowling skills are seriously lacking and I regrettfully report that I didn't even break 100. Martin managed to break 100 in two out of the three games despite his first four rolls going straight for the gutter and a few wasted rolls on tricks between the legs that also, headed to the gutter.

Aubrey came with us and spent the majority of the evening trying to walk down the track. So I spent the majority of the evening chasing after Aubrey and scooping her up before she could get onto the bowling area. Martin said she was like a sea turtle who just keeps going back to the sea no matter how often you pull her away. As we were leaving, a band was just starting to play and Aubrey was mesmerized. She stood inches away from the players, not losing concentration and clapping her hands and shaking her body to the rhythm.

Superbowl

The superbowl this year was fairly anticlimatic. I don't really know much about football, but until the last three minutes of the game I thought it was a pretty boring game. Things really started the pick up when the Patriots let the Giants score a touchdown and the Giants were really trying all they could do to not score but fell into the endzone.

For the most part, I just really enjoy the company and the food. My sister-in-law Megan came over with her to adorable daughters. My brothers, Alex and Garrett, joined us. Gabe stopped by to cheer against me. Matt Fry stopped in and Kerri Mckenna. A nice full living room, which is all I really wanted anyway. Aubrey and I both wore our Buffalo Bills jerseys to show our support for the home team.

And the food.....gaucamole.....chicken wing dip....buffalo chicken fingers....salsa.....chips with a hint of lime....and shocktop.

Boom Bamity Boom Boom

Martin has been really into floor hockey lately. Well, Martin and all of his friends. They play every Monday night.....and Martin has the bruises on his legs to prove it (including one serious welt that is dangerously close to making future children out of the question) Last week he broke a blade and then shattered a stick. Needless to say, a new stick is a crucial purchase for tonight's game.

Martin: I think I'll just go to Dick's on Sunday and get a stick
Me: Well. I don't know if you're going to have time. There's that meeting after church and then our superbowl party.
Martin: It's....what...forty minutes from here. I think I could make the whole trip in an hour and a half.
Me: (looks at Martin with skeptism)
Martin: What! I'll be in and out of the store like boom bamity boom boom.
Me: (continues to look with skeptism)
Martin: I know you don't think I can move quickly, but I can do it.

Words With Friends

I recently discovered Words with Friends. I say discovered in a very loose sense because it's basically scrabble on a phone so its been around for centuries. Anyway, I had never heard of it until I heard about Alec Baldwin refusing to stop playing it at the airport. My interest was slightly peaked by a game that was clearly so good it couldn't even be put down to fly through the air but I still didn't bite the bullet and seek it out.

Then, a couple weeks ago, I was watching the Giants beat the Packers and I decided to look it up. And then I decided to start a game with Caton. And then I was apparently supposed to make the first move but the game had given me all consonants and I couldn't form a single word. So I had to pass. On my first move.

To say that Caton crushed me in this game is a huge understatement but I felt like I really learned a lot about strategy from her and when my sister-in-law, Jenn, started a game with me - I felt like I was much more equipped to play.

The great thing about Words with Friends is it really doesn't require any time -  I mean, other than the massive vocabulary that is in a constant swirl around my head now (hmm. what words do I know that end with x? What about q? Is there anything I can add to the end of that word other than an s to elongate it as I am typing another word? I feel smarter already and I haven't even typed anything) but time commitment wise - it's not there. You play when you have a minute. If you don't have a minute until 24 hours after your opponent last played NO BIG DEAL. It's pretty amazing. It took Caton and I almost two weeks to complete our first game. Which sort of leads me to wonder why was it such a huge deal for Alex Baldwin to shut it off? but that's a whole other question.

The other amazing thing about Words with Friends is I feel like I'm really communicating with these people that I, otherwise, don't talk to enough. If someone were to ask me if I'd talked to Caton lately my gut reaction would be to say yes, even though the most interaction we have had during the entire month of January is placing letter tiles back and forth, and virtually at that.

So....Words with Friends....Yipee!

Other Highlights From Game Night

During a game called Telepathy. In the game each person has a theme word and everyone else needs to write five words they associate with that particular word. The point is to get as many matches as possible.

Alex: Ok. I had lake
Me: Oh yay! I had lake too!
Martin: You had lake for banana??
Me: The word was hammock.
Martin: Oh. I guess banana hammock was the first thing that came to mind and I got on a tangent.

......

During Taboo

Gabe: People stood in lines of these during the great depression
Amanda: Bread
Gabe: What else?
Amanda: Soup?
Gabe: Yes. And what was the most popular brand?
Caton: Campbell's?
Gabe: Yes!

Tim: It's a really happy erect penis
Alex: Boner
Tim: Ok. But just part of it
Martin: Bone
Tim: Yeah. A laughing one of those.
Caton: Funny Bone!

The Story Game

On Friday night we hosted a game night at our apartment. I really love game nights. One game we always play on game nights is the story game. We played this game at a game night we had over a month ago and I never posted about it and then we played it again on Friday night.

Here's the basic premise: One person goes in another room  and everyone else in the room makes up a story. Then the person comes back and they have to try to guess the story by asking yes or no questions. I know it sort of sounds like a wild goose chase, but hearing all the guesses and leading to figuring out the actual story is an insanely fun time.

Here's just a few of the guesses from previous story games.

Martin: Wait, is my brother having sex with my wife????

Martin: Is Caton sleeping with Shane?
Everyone: Yes!
Martin: Isn't that your cousin?? You guys are sick

Martin: When they were done did Alex make Kerri walk home?
Everyone: Yes.
Martin: Oh, man - you're an asshole, Alex.

Jake: So, it's perverted and it involves someone younger than me. Hmm. Well the first thing that comes to mind.....Do I become a priest and molest little boys?

Jake: Does it involve a fetish of mine?
Everyone: Yes!
Amanda: Oh god, Jake. No!
Jake: Does it involve animals?
Martin: You really need to think about the order of your questions.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day is a really hectic day. We started our day opening presents at our home. Aubrey got a little rocking chair and bubbles!

Then we went to my mom's house for brunch. Homemade cinnamon rolls, fruit salad, chicken wing dip, english muffins, breakfast egg salad, creme puffs, bacon, and sausage. Mmmm.

While Aubrey was in bed we attempted a family game hour; and tried to play Taboo which Martin, Aubrey and I received from Santa Claus that morning. It was somewhat of a failure. My dad made one guess the entire time and then spent the remainder of the game basking in the glory of one good guess. Jessica spent the entire length of a timer flipping through cards trying to decide which one to describe. Alex would give descriptions and then ignore every answer until someone made the same guess for the third time. And Martin just didn't even try and slept through the entire thing, perking up halfway through to guess Jekyll and Hyde during one of my descriptions.

Then, at two we went up to Mary and Carlton's for another Christmas.

Mary: Here you go Martin, I thought you would like this.
Martin: Oh, thank you, honey.

Everyone starts laughing.

Martin: I mean, thanks mom.

a few hours later

Megan: My favorite part of the day was when Martin called mom Honey
Martin: Oh boy, you had to bring that up again.
Megan: I just wanted to reiterate it so Jenna would remember to put it on her blog.

This picture was probably taken right after Martin's phone conversation with Kendyll's principle. It went something like this,

Kendyll: (with a fake phone) Martin - the phone is for you. It's Jenna's mom.
Martin: Hello. Oh hi. O yeah? Kendyll's principle called you too? She isn't doing any homework? O yeah, that is bad!

Kendyll:(starts crying almost immediately) Let me see the phone. .....Yeah. But no one does homework in preschool!

Then on the way home we stopped and listened and watched the lights that are set up to music.

His and Hers

On Sunday night Katie and Ryan had a his and hers party in honor of Valentine's day. I'd be lying if I said I had any idea what this meant before actually attending this party. But the theme of the party was so much fun. It was a bunch of couples. Well, mostly couples and a few singles thrown in the mix too. And there was dinner involved.

The girls table was decorated with a centerpiece, a tablecloth, cloth napkins and fine china.

The boys got paper plates and a picnic table.

The girls food was served on one half of the buffet table in glassware and on a linen tablecloth.

The boys half was covered in newspaper and served out of wicker baskets.

The theme was absolutely divine!

I really loved it. It was so funny.

After dinner the boys and girls came together in the living room and we played a game. The name of the game was What Is Your's Like? The basic premise is you choose a card and read the word. The word could be something like....legs. Everyone gets to see the card except for one person. Then each person goes around and says what their legs are like. So you might say hairy. or long. or chicken-like. or dry. or smooth. or bruised. And the person who didn't get to see the card would have to guess what everyone was describing.

Because we're all perverted human beings. It doesn't take long to realize that almost every phrase can be an innuendo.

One word was Valentine's Day.

When it got to be my turn to describe it Martin was ready for me to say something sassy.

Martin: Go ahead. Throw me under the bus. It's fine. I know you're gonna do it. Just throw me under the bus.
Me: No. I wasn't going to do that. I was going to say I'm having shrimp

at this point everyone who knows the word is Valentine's Day immediately burst out laughing.

Martin: That is so much worse. That's the worst thing you can say.

It took me a minute or so to catch on to everyone's interpretation of my having shrimp on Valentine's Day.

Martin: Yeah. Well I'm having Frozen Clams.

But, all innuendos aside. This really was a charming party and I almost can't wait until next Valentine's Day.

Competitive

On Friday night we went over to our friends, Matt and Jenny Powell, for a game night. We started out playing Last Word which is basically a game where everyone has a subject card like "Things Found in the Subway" and then there are Letter Cards which are flipped over each round. When a letter card is flipped over, whomever thinks they have a subject that starts with that letter puts their subject card down and starts the round off with their word and by hitting the timer. The last person to say a word matching the subject gets to move ahead one space.

Gabe got really competitive during this game....
Gabe and Jenny: (both shout word at almost same time, Jenny just slightly after Gabe)
*Buzzer goes off*
Gabe: That's me. Move me ahead.
Jenny: No, that's me.
Gabe: Ok, fine. We'll just scratch the whole round.
Katie: Gabe, Jenny isn't even on the board yet. You've almost won.
Gabe: Yeah. We'll just scratch the whole round.

And there were a few rounds where we sort forgot how to play.

Katie: Words with Double Letters - Nipple (presses timer)
Martin: Tittle!
Matt: Pennies!
Martin: Tittle!
Matt Pennies!
Katie: Those don't count. They have to be double letter words that start with N.
Matt: O yeah. I was thinking double Ns.
Martin: Yeah. That's what I was thinking too.
Me: You said tittle. That doesn't even have an N in it. And its not a word.

Dealbreaker

So I've discovered a new game that I love. I love it almost as much as Never Have I Ever and I think its an easier (and less uncomfortable) game for people to play. Caton introduced me to this game last Wednesday night when I met her and Martha in Rochester.

Here's the basic premise:

You go around the table and say something like a certain quality, habit, etc. that a significant other could possess. If this particular trait is a dealbreaker for you to date/marry/be in a relationship with that person, you drink. If, on the rare occasion this is a dealmaker for you, you finish your entire drink (I sort of added that part right now, but I think its a fun twist). If it is neither a dealbreaker or dealmaker for you you don't have to drink.

Let me give you some examples:

He subscribes to a weekly porn subscription.

He smokes regularly.

He weighs less than you.

He has kids. (that aren't yours)

He is a used car salesman.

you get the idea....

The sky is the limit on the questions you can ask and it leads to very interesting and fun conversation!

Game Night!

I really love a good game night! Playing group games are just so much fun and they bring laughs and laughs and laughs. So, I never really turn down a game night.

My other half, however (not the baby because that's becoming more like 60-75% of myself rather than just half) doesn't run to a game night quite like I do. Actually, he always thinks he isn't going to like them.

But I always drag him along anyway and he ends up having a great time and saying things to me the next day like,  You know, that game night was really fun.

So I never feel bad for dragging him against his will. It's one of the things I'm good at.

On Sunday night last weekend my dear friend Caton was up for labor day weekend visiting from Nashville and she hosted a game night at her house. So, of course, Martin and I attended.

We really ran the gamete of games that night, starting out with a game called ImagineIf. It was a good icebreaker type game because it didn't really require any thinking or moving. When planning a game night its best to ease non-gamesters into more physically and mentally active games. Most notably during this game, Martin said that (of a list of choices) my ideal roommate would be Cheewbaka. When I questioned him as to why he would ever say that  his reply was Well, he's the most like me.

We then moved on to running charades. If you don't know what this is, you're seriously missing out! It's the same basic concept as charades, only you have two teams and each team competes in a seperate room. The overseer? judge? ref? whatever you want to call this person, comes up with a list of words that each team is going to be acting out. Note: there is only one list. Each team acts out the same list. You get your word from the ref and then run back to act it out for your team. Whomever on your team guesses correctly runs back to the ref and gets the next word (or phrase). The first team through the whole list wins!

Sound amazing? That's because it is!

And, because we're all perverted and terrible people, this inevitably turned into dirty running charades. It was at this point that I realized, I am completely out of touch with dirty terminology. And when I say completely, I mean, absolutely and utterly know nothing. In this round, my dearest husband (who obviously is not quite as out of touch as myself) was the ref, therefore compiled the list of terms and phrases. Of the three people on my team, myself, our friend Kylie, and our friend Andrew, Andrew was the only person who had even the slightest clue what was going on. He kept trying to act out different "terms" and Kylie and I would just stare at him wide-eyed. Poor Andrew. He kept saying things like

You girls are killing me!

and

I thought at least the pregnant lady would know something!

On a bright note, I'm much more knowledgable after that night!

Playing Church

With all the calling hours, and funeral services, and burial in the last few days - I have been thinking about my grandma a lot which, in turn, has caused me to think about my childhood a lot.

This story needs to start with a little background on my family. My grandma is definitely the most faithful person I have ever met. She completely trusted in God for all matters and relied on prayer to get her through much of her life. She faithfully went to church every week until her death and sang in the church choir her entire life also. She instilled the same faithfullness in all around her.

So, when we were little kids we used to also play "make-believe" in the hay mow. A lot of times we would be olden days which was probably due to watching too many episodes of Little House on the Prairie , most other times we would just dare each other to jump giant distances between hay stacks (this second one resulted in a few close calls including one particular instance where my brother, Mitchell was holding on for dear life between two stacks, praying he would not fall the remaining 25 feet to the ground). Finally, we often times played church . Which is sort of an exagerration of what we would do, because we never really took the time to do the entire mass, but instead would do communion. over and over again. We would set up bales as pews and an altar and get communion from my grandma. (either cookies or crackers or whatever she would let us eat that day) and I had the entire eucharistic ceremony memorized word for word so I would be the priest. And when it got to the part where the priest holds up the eucharist and says a chant, I would sing the lion king song.....you know, a-simbetina- namaneishama- kubaya.Or something like that.

So, one day we are playing church in our house and we're scouring the house looking for something to use for communion when we stumble across a pack of big red gum. Which would be an absolutely delicious choice for communion. So we're getting all exciting about having gum, especially spicy, firey gum like big red, when my brother Alex exclaims, We can't use that gum. Red is the color of the devil!

That Was A Crazy Huge Canoe Trip

On the 4th of July we embarked once again on our Crazy Huge Canoe Trip. It was amazing.

And when I say crazy huge, I mean crazy huge. Like, over 70 people huge.

Insanity would be an understatement to describe this trip.

But. Because I wasn't drinking with everyone else, I decided this year I could be responsible enough to be trusted with a camera. Also, my camera is not that great so I reasoned - worth the risk, AND I have a watertight compartment in our canoe. Therefore, for the first time ever I have pictures of our canoe trip!.
Caton: Look at Jenna, she's snapping pictures like a crazy person.
Me: Well, I'm not drinking so I figured I could take more of a "mom" role on this trip.

The trip was marked by frequent stops partly to use the bathroom. Mostly for group shotguns, more often then not lead by my fearless husband as you can see him trying to rally the troops in the photo above.

Because really, what is a canoe trip with a group shotgun to bring everyone together.

And really, isn't everyone always ready for someone to play mom and take their picture???? Especially when copious amounts of  alcohol are involved.