Dawna turned 12! Oh. My. Goodness! I had a hard time sleeping the night before her birthday as I contemplated how much she had grown and changed since she was born... and how much I've changed since she was born (not a super flattering thought...)
Then...
And Now...
Don't blink! Babies grow fast!
Dawna celebrated her birthday on Friday by taking Sara, Hope, and Lizzy to the Peak to go climbing.
Then we went out to ZenSen sushi. Sara and Hope were not taken with the food... As the girls watched the little plates go by on the conveyor belt, Dawna voraciously grabbed and devoured piece after piece... all while her friends looked on and one commented, "I'm just looking for something edible." It was a cultural experience, to put it mildly.
After sushi, we returned to the Whitfield house for watermelon cake, requested by Dawna.
The best part of Dawna's birthday celebration was Saturday morning. Sara and Mandy joined us for a trip to the Sacramento Temple for Dawna's first experience with baptisms for the dead. Incidentally, Sacramento is the only temple Dawna has been in before... as a baby, she came with me in a front pack to the open house!
Elder Grandpa Koberstein shared 7 family names with us for the day. Among them were 3 Korsch sisters from Germany and two Koberstein girls: Anne and Mary.
And after all that, I nearly blew it... I was so sure my recommend was in my wallet... but it was not! Between all our moving hustle and bustle, I must have packed it with my temple clothes. Shoot!! Temple workers saved the day by calling in to our bishop or stake clerk or someone... whew!!
It was very special to me as a mom to be with my daughter in the temple. To me, the temple is heaven on Earth, so peaceful and beautiful, the place I feel most centered and confident in understanding who I am. It is God's house. Witnessing Dawna's desire to go to the temple grow over the past year and seeing how she sacrificed climbing time this week to make sure she had time to get her recommend was very uplifting to me as a mom. Maybe I'm doing something right... or maybe (more likely) she just came that way. Dawna has always been an angel baby and continues to be an angel baby... or angel child... but now a tween... soon a teen!!
And as a final bit of growing-up fun on Sunday... Dawna and I shaved our legs together!
Welcome to young women's!
"It's not every day your young [lady] turns eleven..." -Hagrid
...and for that reason, there's nothing else I could possibly do but create a Harry Potter escape room birthday party!
First off, many humble thanks to Angela Ringlein for helping me see this project through to the end and bringing the sparkle and shine to everything there! And many thanks to Miss Hannah Reeves, whose beta testing of the puzzles, riddles, and codes was vital to the success of our escape room! And thank you to the Lock, Paper, Scissors site, which provided an excellent escape room blueprint! It was a lot of work, but WOW! what a fun and awesome way to spend a couple weeks! (especially if you have an angel of a daughter who's turning 11 and loves Harry Potter :)
(she said we could match...I must still be a cool mom!)
The other secret to our success was the folding/expanding accordion walls in most LDS chapels (not to mention the foyer furniture there also...). Perfect place to put a few bike locks... and a great way to have a progressive room!
I'll do my best to not include any spoilers in my description, in case you want to try our escape room some day... it does require a fair amount of Harry Potter knowledge, as per design, but one HP guru per group is sufficient to succeed.
So, according to "Lock, Paper, Scissors," to make a good escape room, one must "sketch out a story line" for your room to follow... so here's mine:
"It's an ordinary school night in the Gryffindor common room. Among the students reading, studying, and chatting, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are playing wizard's chess! Now, we all know that Ron is the superior chess player, but we also know that he's the six of seven kids, and his chess set is a hand-me-down that has seen many many games of chess. As such, just as Ron is about to win, his queen misses Hermione's king... and smashes instead... her time turner! In a whirl of magic and hourglass sand, everyone in the Gryffindor common room is transported one week into the future!
"You now find Hogwarts School of Wichcraft and Wizardry in an uproar, on the verge of closure, because 6-9 Gryffindor students (depending on the size of your escape room group...) have seemingly vanished for a week! Albus Dumbledore will be announcing the closure just before dinner in the great hall in exactly ONE HOUR! You must get out of the common room, complete all of your missing homework, and make it to the great hall before the announcement is made if you are to save the school!" READY??? GO!!!
The Common Room:
Announcement board...
Arm chairs...
Basket of S.P.E.W socks, bookshelf, and chess game...
Curiosity piqued?? :) So was theirs...
This is Dawna's birthday escape crew... (we actually ended up running the room four times over the weekend, but this is the only one I took pictures of)
(I loved that many of the kids came in costume!)
But that's not all... because remember that part about missing a week's worth of classes and having to make up the homework?? Well, enter the...
Hogwart's Classrooms!
(ok, so it's like 4 classrooms smashed into one little space... deal with it...)
Looking to the right... (notice the 5 additional locks on the second accordion wall)
Looking to the left... interesting...
The design of this space turned out to be really fun as the chairs served as a kind of maze they all had to maneuver around as they worked... now for a few close-ups...
Transfiguation (also a mysterious locked chest below the board)
Potions... (actually had a cooler setup later, but missed getting a picture)
Ancient Runes
Divination (it's a crystal ball, ok?)
And... I didn't get any pictures at all of my kids working on this section... lame... note to self: bring a designated photographer next time...
The birthday kids made it through the room in a respectable 1 hour and 10 min., which wasn't enough to save Hogwarts, but plenty for having a great time! I did catch the moment of final escape into the Great Hall (it's not a great video, but I love the excitement of the kids!)
Once they made it through, the kids got to enjoy a lovely Hogwart's dinner, complete with chocolate frogs and heaps of fried chicken :)
(on a side note... the other groups made it through the escape room in 1 hr. 27 min., 58 min., and 1 hr. 6 min. All the other groups besides the birthday party kids were a mix of kids and adults. All in all, for my first escape room, I think my timing was pretty good!)
A very happy birthday to my lovely intelligent daring and darling daughter Dawna! Thanks for lighting up my life always, and especially around your 11th birthday! I may have a new obsession now...
Tomorrow school starts again... spring break is over... A week-long teaser of summer break makes it all the harder to return for six more weeks of school, state testing, and projects.
But it was a fabulous break. We left last Friday for Oregon to visit Aaron and Em. On the way to Central Point, we stopped by Sacramento to see baby Ada, all of two weeks old! And I admit, I did chuckle a little as Weston was describing how Ada was so much different "when she was younger..." How much younger can she get there, Daddy?!? But it is true that our little ones change so quickly, even before our very eyes...
Anyway, after dinner and baby cuddling, we got on the road again and arrived at 2:30am at Rabun Way and plopped our kids--and ourselves--into bed.
And no more than 5 hours later, a parade of Pokemon loving cousins were running laps around the house having battles, trading posts, and quizzing each other on HP and EX's and etc. And a couple hours after that, we all hit the ground running to our first adventure: and... I can't remember the name of the place--will update later... A little drive, a short hike to the right, and we arrived at a beautiful huge waterfall!
And then back to the left, was the Valley of giant boulders (or something like that--update to real name later...) Lots of fun climbing, exploring, and even sliding to do!
The boulders surrounded a little beach by a raging river of death! ... or some beautiful rapids :) There's something about rivers and rocks and sticks that can keep kids entertained for hours!
And on the same day as that beautiful sunny hike through the woods, we continued up the mountain until we hit SNOW!! Lots of snow! Crater Lake was our lunch destination!
Ever since I saw Emily's post on Instragram, I wanted to do this!! I got to roast hot links in the snow!! I LOVE their little portable fire pit! Dream come true!!!!
Something fun for everyone at Crater Lake! Dawna and Adele busied themselves building a snow fort/palace/mansion:
Jade found plenty of snow to taste (one of my favorite pictures of the day):
Apparently, snow comes in many delightful flavors... much like ice cream!
Jon, Adele, and I raced little snowballs down the slope and over the ridge overlooking the lake! Super intense racing...
And to top it all off, we harvested the largest icicles we could get off the roof of the resort! Jon won.
And Jade and Malachi will tell you that icicles also come in many delightful flavors...much like Popsicles!
And after all this, we weren't even done with our first full day of vacation! Once we returned home from Crater Lake, Aaron and Jon went off to indoor soccer and long distance running, respectively, and Emily and I ate more food :)
Sunday we slowed down... a little... but still stuffed in as many Easter delights as we could. I got to play in a trio with Adele and Emily at church. Adele and Dawna dyed eggs with the kids while we hid plastic eggs in the house. Then we had a delicious lamb dinner. After that, we did the Easter story in eggs and the kids followed clues to find their Easter presents... yeah, that was our "slow" Easter Sunday...In the midst of all that, Dawna and Adele found a few minutes to serenade us on their instruments:
...a more grown up reprise of their original hit:
LOVE THOSE GIRLS!!! Then and Now...
Anyway, back to spring break...
Monday dawned bright and early once more for the big kids. Aaron and Jon, who had originally planned on taking the older kids backpacking but changed plans when rain came, took each of their older three kids on a caving adventure. They had a wonderful day, and hopefully my other contributor to this blog will fill in the details of their adventure... Emily and I had a very relaxing day at home with our little ones. It was a little nostalgic of our Lansing Court days, when all we had was little ones. We almost forgot what to do with them... but they reminded us of what they love to do. So we went to the park, read stories, played music... all the little kid things we miss sometimes with the hustle and bustle of active older kids.
Tuesday was a celebration our our seven-year-old Xochitl! (Even though she wasn't officially 7 until Wednesday... but really, what kind of birthday is driving home from vacation??) We caught an early matinee of Beauty and the Beast starring Hermione Granger... I mean... Emma Watson :) then headed straight over to the Rrrink for some exciting ice skating! Xochitl is a quick study with anything involving balance, so with a little guidance from Aunt Emily, she was swooshing around the ice in no time! Jade and Larry made good use of the plastic "helpers" and Dawna did quite well after having roller bladed a lot this year. And it's always fun to see what Adele has been working on in her ice skating lessons... and try to copy her... mostly Aunt Deeb just ends up looking foolish... but having fun!
On the way home from ice skating, Xochitl picked out two ice cream cakes from Cold Stone. Yum!
And we all know the Koberstein tradition of car trouble when traveling I-5... running over the moving dolly with the Quest, tire blow out, car being backed into, hitting a deer... so when Wednesday came and our vacation was almost over, Fate had to hurry and squeeze some car trouble in. Eva's battery was quite dead and decrepit on Wednesday morning. We weren't going nowheres. The car wouldn't start at all! So I called roadside assistance and they offered to tow us to a garage... but I thought it would be easier to just have them replace the battery on the spot. Only problem was... we had to get the battery. My manly main man Jon got on a bike and rode to the auto parts store with a backpack, bought a car battery, and biked home again! This is not an activity for the feint of heart. Those batteries are HEAVY!! He made it back to Rabun way just in time for the mechanic to get to work! And with only minor damage to clothing and sidewalks...All in all, it's one of the kinder car trouble experiences we've had. All the kids were happily playing with cousins, safely parked in front of Aaron and Em's house :)( ALMOST something to smile about...
So we got home. And on Friday to finish off our spring break fun, we all enjoyed Larry's "field trip" to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium! Paul and Becca et.al joined us and now we all have annual passes to the aquarium! Many thanks to the thoughtful people there who made the "Family Pass" include two adults and ALL their children! All too often a "family pass" is for two adults and two children, which is pretty much useless for us...
Maybe the Jellyfish are cousins too!
Squids will be squids... We loved the "Tentacles" exhibit!
Playing with light settings on my Pixel XL. I liked this picture of Zyna!
Our 12th anniversary was spent in the company of our favorite people: Dawna, Lawrence, Xochitl, and Jade. Traditionally, Jon and I have ditched the kids for anniversary fun, but we were feeling generous this year.
On Christmas, Santa left a suitcase full of new snow clothes, a little toboggan, and a giant card explaining that we'd be spending 3 days in beautiful snowy Yosemite! Day One was really just an evening tour of the valley, with one short stop to touch the snow and admire the view and the previously assembled snowman (see above...).
Day Two dawned beautiful and icy! We even got to use the snow chains we've been storing for a decade! Nice that they felt useful! We drove up Glacier Point Road and found a little turn-off where we could get some sledding in! We were out in the snow for over four hours running up, sliding down, throwing snowballs, playing games... lots of people came and went in the time we were there, but one particularly memorable person came sliding down the hill, stood up, looked at my oldest daughter, and said, "Hey there!" in a somewhat alluring tone. I was about to punch the kid in the face for flirting with a 10-year-old... but then, to my surprise, Dawna said, "Oh, hi Jonathan!" Wait, what?? Turns out that this kid is on the climbing team at The Peak with Dawna. How incredibly random that we ran into him and his family on an unmarked turnout up Glacier Point Road in Yosemite...
On the way out that night, we enjoyed pizza at Half Dome village (who knew you could get pizza at 8pm in the middle of a national park??) and went to bed dreaming of our next-day's adventure...
Day Three dawned bright and early as we headed back up Glacier Point Road to the ski and snowboard area. While the downhill slopes were still closed, the cross country and snowshoeing trails were open and groomed and ready for adventure!
I could write a book about our day out there, but I'll spare you the length and just give you the table of contents:
The Kobersteins Go Cross Country Skiing!
Chapter 1: In which there is much giggling and excitement in renting cool equipment!
Chapter 2: In which it takes a REALLY long time to get ready (snow clothes and bathrooms don't mix...)
Chapter 3: In which Mom and Dad set a way-too-ambitious distance goal
Chapter 4: In which the skis go on and it takes half an hour to get to the trail...
Chapter 5: In which we find ruts to put the skis in and actually start moving!
Chapter 6: In which most of the snow clothes go into mom's backpack
Chapter 7: In which we stop for lunch
Chapter 8: In which we go downhill for a while... NOW it's fun!
Chapter 9: In which we have to turn around... and go back uphill
Chapter 10: In which Jade can run faster uphill than the kids skiing uphill
Chapter 11: In which is shouted "I Quit!"
Chapter 12: In which skis are removed and carried over shoulder back to rental office.
Chapter 13: In which mom and dad decide to come alone next time...
Epilogue: In which, on the drive home, all the kids decide it was fun after all :)
Our darling daughter Dawna is a full decade old now! As a mom, it feels almost surreal to have a kid so big! She is an incredible girl, as anybody who has met her knows--far more than I could ever have imagined she would be!
Dawna is always so aware of having healthy, yet still special and fancy, treats for her birthday. This year, she wanted to make apple swans for her class. Jon and I made these a month ago for the Mormon prom dinner based on this YouTube Video. We were all up late Tuesday night carving 18 of these babies (I insisted that the kids in her class could share them...).
All the kids in Mrs. Chapman's class were impressed and enjoyed their swans! Especially when they dipped the wing slices in caramel and peanut butter! Mmmmm....
Dawna also loves naturally beautiful things! She asked for fresh flowers and an exotic fruit--so we found this Santa Claus melon! It was quite delicious! Very light green flesh with a good sweet taste--though I couldn't tell you if it was ripe or not...but we loved it!
And since Dawna's mom couldn't get her head on straight enough to figure out a birthday party, the primary presidency did it for her :) Sis. Ringlein invited the activity day girls plus a couple extra to come over after school to escape the heat in her pool!
I made this watermelon "cake." It's literally a cylinder of watermelon frosted with heavy whipping cream--whipped almost to butter status to make it thick enough to stay on the wet melon--and then topped with fruit and coconut cookies.
Just for proof--once it was cut through, you can see that it's just solid watermelon! (you can tell that I didn't exactly get a straight cut... so I filled it in with some whipping cream...) It was refreshing and delicious on a hot summery afternoon! And MAYBE healthier than cake... definitely
Hard to keep a candle lit in the afternoon breeze...
Happy Birthday, my dearest Dawna! Lover of good books, fruits and vegetables, and all things musical! I can hardly believe she's TEN!!!
Dawna, being inspired by the American Girl Kit Kittredge, has enjoyed writing a "Kobersteinville Newspaper" from time to time. Here's today's issue (some of which has been covered on previous posts, some of which is covered exclusively in the newspaper):
Rain has been pouring down on Kobersteinville these past few days. The wonderful rain will hopefully continue next Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Thankfully, Mom purchased two new umbrellas at Costco and Liz Tuitama brought us two fine rain jackets to use. Larry passed down his shark boots to Xochitl and uses his new snow boots in the rain. The duck puddle on the west side of the house is full and ready for some stompin’, splashin’ fun! Get on those rain boots and coats and open up those umbrellas to enjoy the rain!
Kobersteins Sweep Young Authors’ Contest!
Dawna Koberstein, Naomi Koberstein, and Lawrence Koberstein all placed in the Lincoln Elementary Young Authors Contest! Dawna won 1st place in the fourth grade category. Naomi won 1st place in the kindergarten age group, and Lawrence took home 2nd place for the second graders. These winners worked hard and we would like to congratulate them for their hard work. Their books are available for checkout at the Lincoln Elementary School Library or the Newark public library. Or, write in to the editor to schedule an in-person reading from the award-winning authors of Kobersteinville!
Snow is Falling
Dawna, Larry, and Dad went snow camping last Friday and came back on Saturday.They had so much fun! They made a snowman together after sleeping in a well made snow cave. Snow angels were abundant in the morning. They also got very cold and wet. Luckily, Dad thought ahead and had them bring extra dry clothes to stay warm. It was a long drive and a long night of snowfall, which made for some long lasting memories of love.
Scripture Reading
Kobersteinville has begun a new tradition for scripture reading. Each morning at precisely 7:45, one lucky Kobersteinville kid chooses a picture from the newly completed Gospel Art Kit. All enjoy a reading of the scripture story and talking about the picture. So far Kobersteinville has read scriptures each day in the month of March. We have been doing a pretty good job. Keep it up!
Dawna and Lawrence have recently embarked on a new adventure: they have joined the recreational rock climbing team at The Peak (City Beach recently changed ownership).
As you can imagine, daddy is super excited and proud of both of them. On the first night on the team, Jon left work early to come watch... unfortunately, his bus driver was... creative, and somehow took a detour past Stanford Campus from Mountain View in order to get to Newark (trust me, that doesn't make sense...) and poor Jon ended up spending 2 1/2 hours on the bus and missed all the climbing.
Fortunately, I was there with them and took a couple pictures to send him:
Lawrence has really stepped up to the challenge and completes top rope routes and boulder problems every week.
Dawna is always sore and tired after practice and proudly sports calloused and torn up hands! She recently became belay certified also.
I love that their coaches teach the kids the importance of being responsible for their own safety and the safety of their friends. Of course they have a great time, but all the kids know when to be serious and safe. All the kids on the team are confident and empowered
The climbing fun has overflowed into other aspects of our daily life, like building with Legos. Here, Kai Lan is belaying her friend up the treacherous Duplo route. It's at least a 5.11. :) Though I'm not sure that dental floss is rated for their weight ;)
