Halloween 2016: Star Wars

Once my brain got over the chaos of trying to unpack and clean up from a 10-day road trip compounded by an immediate birthday, it was time to finish Halloween costumes. Most of the pieces we need were already obtained from garage sales and thrift store, but a few things needed to be sewn and handcrafted.

I finished the BB8 costume just a few hours before it was time to use it.

Star Wars! Han and (Endor) Leia with Chewie and BB8, Rey, Darth Maul, and the Ewok who ventured to Africa and hunted a tiger.

Oh, for blurry pictures! Tommy as Darth Maul.

Dancy as Ewok #76, minus the tiger coat.

Katie as Rey.

Trying to give us a mean face.

Star Wars hair!

Shad and Samson as Han Solo and BB8.

Thora and Megan as Chewie and Leia. Braid credit: Jamie McCracken. I'm inept with hair.

Yep, Thora made a good Wookiee.

Han and Chewie!

The Force Awakens trio.

My big three knew the trick-or-treating routine. Thora wasn't on board at first, but quickly learned that "Trick or treat!" got her a piece of candy for her bag. She happily said it at every door, multiple times, and sincerely said, "Tay tyou!" And she didn't throw any fits until we were almost done when she started to feel gypped that she was putting all this candy into her bag and none into her mouth. Hahaha! We let her have one.

Happy Birthday, Miss Kates!

Remember how we were gone for half of October, and how. after the insanely exhausting weekend of Protospiel, we drove 11 hours with five kids in our mini van, arriving home at 10 pm? Well it was Katie's birthday the next day.

Her birthday started off as a disappointment. She ran downstairs, all excited to see what streamers would be on the ceiling and what structure of cardboard bricks would be encasing her birthday balloons, waiting for her to crash it to the ground and release the hostage balloons. But they weren't there. That would be my fault. After arriving home and getting all kids transferred to their beds, I intended to set an alarm on my phone so I'd wake up to prep Katie's birthday. But I fell in bed, exhausted, and that was that. So I woke up Monday morning at 8:00 to the sound of footsteps running downstairs, and cursed.

While Katie justifiably sulked in her room, Tommy and I worked hard to get everything put together. I mixed up her blueberry muffins and put them in the oven. Tommy used our air mattress pump to blow up balloons, running them to me to tie. Then I got the banner and streamers up while he built the brick structure and loaded the balloons. It still took Katie a while to warm up. During breakfast we planned out her day: Totinos for lunch, smoothies and peanuts for dinner with a movie night, makeovers for her daytime activity. I took her to Dollar General for a little shopping spree in the cosmetics aisle to make sure we had plenty of supplies. We got frilly hair ties, glitter eye shadow, lipstick, and nail polish and stickers.

Katie was thrilled with everything!

Don't let her face fool you--she was ecstatic about all the prettiness, too!

Toe nails!

Thora got a makeover too, but refused the paparazzi.

And then dress up!

Tommy, Katie and Dancy went to Lego Club at the library, so that gave me time to breathe for a few minutes before Shad got home. I made dinner while he wrapped the one present we got her--a super awesome Lego set! (That's also why I let her have the shopping spree.)

And because she got Legos for her birthday, she changed her evening plans to be a Lego party instead of a movie night.

Thora is sad because she likes Legos too much. Not a good sharer...

Dancy, Thora, Momma, Tommy and Katie

Shad and Katie built the Cinderella castle together.

Crazy faces! Get a load of Katie's eyes! She's been practicing that. I'm so proud of her!

And some time later in the week when I remembered...we had birthday brownies! Katie didn't mind that I forgot.

Shad kept relighting the candles, trying to get her to blow out more than one at a time.

Miss Katie, Facebook keeps sharing memories with me of 5 years ago when you were born. My thoughts and emotions of that time. You came when you wanted to and didn't care what anyone said about it. At 8 months and 1 week, you broke my water. None of my four other kids did that. But you made sure your arrival was duly noted and no one could stop it. And those 10 days in the NICU? You showed those doctors and nurses what you thought of it. They had never seen such a tiny, four-pound baby pull a 6-inch nasal-gastral tube out her nose. Twice. You weren't going to be passively fed with a tube to your stomach. Oh, and you slept curled up with your middle finger up.

Katrina Aliece, we love all the spunk your tiny body holds. Your love for glitter and mud. Princesses and motorcycles. Your determination to keep trying to beat your brother in running races. Grit. You are stubborn and strong willed. You could just give a s### about learning your letters. Seriously, no Lindsay Sterling or artist, no bribe or threat I can come up with will motivate you. I give in. We'll do it in your time. You are definitely my child. You are my artist. You love art, dance and violin. You want to be Lindsay Sterling when you grow up. I'm sorry none of her concerts were near us this year. We'll try another year.

Protospiel Madison 2016

Shad spent all day Friday at the Protospiel convention at the Sheraton in Madison. I dropped him off in the morning so that I'd have the van to go places with the kids and get an oil change. I joined him in the evening after I put the kids to bed. It was exciting just walking in the room! Such a positive, excited energy! I only took time to play one game that night, Science!, but it left me eager to return in the morning to play more and meet more gamers.

Aaron and Emily (my uncle and aunt) were soooo awesome to watch our kids for us all day Saturday so that I could attend Protospiel with Shad. I came back to Waunakee for bed time and then returned to Madison to finish the night. We were there until midnight, didn't get to sleep until past 1:00, then woke up at 8:00 to leave at 9:00 to drive 11 hours home. Shad was wiped out the whole week after. 

 Saturday at Protospiel had nearly three times the attendance! Shad was busy all day with people play testing Make a Killing. He made so many modifications to test out suggestions that when he needed me to sit in and play once, I had to be retaught much of it! It was mind blowing. We're still not sure how many of those suggestions to take or leave. Some people were really nice and pleasant to play with, others were arrogant, condescending game designers who thought they would tell Shad everything that was wrong with the game before even starting, and then quit in the middle because that was enough for them and they weren't going to spend any more time on it. Like this woman in the picture. Rude!

I playtested Culinary Clash, which is a restaurateur game of picking up food supplies at farmer's markets and cooking it to win the most prestige. You can serve anything you like to customers, or serve specific requests to critics. The cooking has to be carefully timed to ensure the food is ready at the time it's needed and doesn't get overcooked. That gets tricky when working with multiple entrees that need different cooking times and all have to be ready to serve together for the critic. Really fantastic game.

(Yet it's a little unfortunate that Culinary Clash has been slightly tainted for me because of a couple encounters with the designer later on during the day. He happened to have the same personality as the woman described above...who happened to be his wife. Rude, negative and condescending while playing other peoples' games. "Well, I looked around and didn't find anything better, so I guess I might as well play your game." Yeah, he said that to another designer whose game I sat down to play.)

But moving past the negativity, we met many people who were just so positive and upbeat. This is Jay, the painted thumb guy. He always paints his thumb nails any time he travels. It started as a newlywed thing, missing his wife's blue eyes, but continued because it's saved his life twice. Once he got in an accident and was in a coma for several weeks. The nurses paid extra attention to him because they all remembered and liked his thumbs. A couple years later he returned, conscious this time, and a nurse recognized him because his thumbs were painted. On a second occasion, he was kidnapped in Arizona. The abductors noticed his blue nails and thought he must surely be a musician or artist or something, and people would be looking for him. So they dumped him on the side of the road. I took this picture not just to remember Jay and all his really constructive help he counseled Shad with, but to also teach Tommy that he can make his own choices and not be influenced by what his friends and society tell him is not for boys. 

Jay, who is also a professional game design teacher, was one of the most helpful people we met. He gave several suggestions and ideas to apply to Make a Killing to make it easier, more functional, and marketable. However, he did stop at one point and said, "I'm giving you these ideas but remember this is your game. Make it however the hell you want." That was probably the best advice we got.

Some of our feedback ranged everywhere from "I loved the game, just make it about anything else but killing," to "I love the theme of the game, but just change all the functions." Several enjoyed the game as it was and just gave a few ideas that might help. Having had time to reflect on the feedback we got from everyone the realization came that people's backgrounds, personal preferences, bias, and perspective all played a roll in what they were telling us. A publisher, for example, would likely have a harder time selling a game about assassination to distributors than a game about taking in homeless puppies and kittens (trademark). 

Overall, Protospiel was stressful, fun, exhausting and educational. We would definitely go again.

Village Park and Parfrey's Glen

After picking up our taste of Wisconsin at Mousehouse Cheesehaus, we stopped at Village Park in Waunakee to eat our food and then play.

Samson suddenly decided that he was ready to sit up, and did so himself. All the better to eat the sticks and leaves, my dear!

Willow in the background, happy baby on the grass ground.

Tommy offered to take a picture of me with my baby. He's looking at the picture with me now and laughing, "Ooops! I accidentally got my finger in front of the camera!"

 And now, because he is learning to read, he read what I wrote and is laughing hysterically. It's actually nice that my kid can now read over my shoulder!

Momma and her boys!

This park had several willows. As previously stated in my Quarry Hill post, I love willows! I've honestly never seen so many before.

I found a willow branch on the ground and Tommy was thrilled to pretend to fish with it.

Seriously, such a gorgeous park!

There were several bridges crossing the meandering stream.

I love it when Samson grabs our faces! That means love!

I seriously never get enough of this boy's face!

On Wednesday morning we set out for Parfrey's Glen. It was a luscious drive of rolling green hills, autumn leaves, red barns and silos, and many twists and turns in the roads. All very different from what we're used to.

The glen floor was a maze of intertwined tree roots.

So many trees!

We were able to take the double stroller until a stream crossing. Thora did a great job walking when she had to abandon her stroller!

Samson is always a good cuddle buddy.

I love how my kids love to help each other.

We saw fun rock formations at the end of the trail. 

"Give her the finger!" --Shad

And a booty shot, of course...

Continuing the path to Mordor...

This was where the trail ended with a sign saying to feel free to proceed and enjoy the rest of the glen, but at your own risk upon leaving the maintained trail. This would be a great spot for a date, or for Shad and I to take the big two...if only we lived nearby! Hmmm...

Some other hikers offered to take a picture of us.

Water running down the rocks.

Shad took Katie and Tommy out onto the rocks a little way.

Best friends!

Seriously, we'd love to come back and explore this more.

When my aunt Emily got home from work that day, we told her we had gone to Parfrey's Glen. She was shocked and wondered why my uncle Aaron hadn't told us to go to Devil's Lake. All the good stuff at the glen is off the trail; until then you're walking in just a forest. I told her that may be true, and to her it may be just a forest, but to us, coming from Kansas, it was a forest! Perspective.