11/28/15 Lauren's Electric Light Parade

     Tonight the Roche family invited us to see Lauren dance in a light up parade. It was a little dark for photos but a few turned out. 

     Heather kindly got some glow sticks to make the kids easier to spot in the dark. Once the parade started Peter sat on my shoulders for most of the time. He wanted to roam free and get close to the floats. 

     

     TJ reported that the trains were his favorite. There were multiple trains tonight. Heidi got these two shots above. 

     Heidi also captured this fun Lego themed float. 

     By the end Joseph was pooped. We failed to talk him out of wearing shorts tonight. Heidi did convince him to wear the long socks. He didn't complain about being cold but he did let us put a jacket over him to keep him warmer. 

     In the morning we did Dino and Christmas themed pancakes with our pancake pen. The kids had to guess what I tried to draw. It was fun to hear their imaginatative guesses. Heidi went to the temple for initiatory. We all stopped by the church to see if they needed help cleaning. Turns out they had a good crew and were done before we got there. 

     Next up we took the kids to the store and let them choose gifts for each other for Christmas. Heidi, David, Joseph and Sarah chose gifts for Ganon, Rebecca, TJ and Peter and vice versa. We had a budget to work in. It was a challenge at times reminding the kids that we weren't there for them to pick gifts for themselves. It was good when they started catching on and really found things that the other kids would enjoy. 

    Another fun thing happened early this morning. TJ was up before the other kids so he and I did the Star Wars hour of code. It was a series of puzzles designed to teach kids some principles behind computer programming. I think TJ enjoyed the one on one time.