Happy Thanksgiving!!

The Power of Kids team wants to share a few things to do on Thanksgiving.

The Perry Kids made some turkey hats.

Materials:

Brown Paper Bag
Permanent Marker
Scissors
Brown, Red/Orange, & Yellow Paper
Glue Stick/Tape
2 White Pom-poms (optional)

Step 1: Cut the paper bag to make 2 strips that can be put together to make a band for your head. Trace the bottom of a cup on the remaining paper bag (this will be the head).
Step 2: Cut feathers out of the yellow and orange (or red--you choose). Make them an oval and cut little nicks into them to make them look like real feathers.
Step 3: Cut a beak and gobble out of the red and yellow paper.
Step 4: Trace your hands twice on brown or red paper, these will be the wings
Step 5: If you want to make the head stick out a bit, get a little bit of cardboard and fold it accordion style.
Step 6: Glue the facial features on and draw eyes. Glue the bands together to fit on your head. Glue the feathers, wings and head on the body. There you have it---a turkey hat.

Today, Alia did a post about Thanksgiving. To see it, go to aliasideas.blogspot.com

To customize your own turkey, click HERE.

Cool videos

Hey guys,

My mom and I have been making some POM (Power of Moms) videos on YouTube. My mom films, and I edit. Here's one of them:



See the rest at my mom's channel.

Making Chores Fun

Chores are boring, and games are fun. If you put them together, they are both fun. Let's say you do not want to do your chore. You could pretend you're on a spaceship or on Mars, or you could set the timer. My favorite way is to set the timer so you can finish faster. You could try these ways to make work more fun.

By Eliza

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies :D

Here is an interesting chocolate chip cookie recipe! I hope you enjoy it!


Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup tahini (see bottom of page)
4 Tb. butter (I did half applesauce half butter)
2/3 cup white sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
1 Tb. vanilla extract
1 cup of chocolate chips
1/2 cup of walnuts (optional)

Directions:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Step 2: In a medium sized bowl, mix oats, wheat flour, white flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. (Set aside)
Step 3: In a mixer, combine tahini and butter until they make a paste. Add in brown and white sugar. Make sure that they are well combined. Beat in egg, egg white, and vanilla.
Step 4: Mix in the oat/flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.
Step 5: This recipe makes approximately 45 cookies--you may want to save some batter or cook them in separate batches. Get about a tablespoon of batter and press it onto a cookie sheet.
Step 6: Bake the cookies for 16 minutes or until they are golden brown. Let them cool before eating. :D

Tahini is a MUST. It is a sesame seed paste and smells like peanut butter. It can be found at natural food stores and in some grocery stores. It may need to be stirred when you first open it, but it makes the cookies taste amazing.

I found the recipe HERE.

Creativity the Perrys are Having

By: Grace Perry

Through the summer and new school year, the Perry kids have gotten into some creativity. First off, here is Ethan, Spencer, and I being the "cooks" at our house. (We just served plastic food.) At our cousins house, we dressed up like Halloween-weird-awkward people. The only problem was that the basement was cold and the costumes were WAY to tight. (It was so much fun.)
I guess Ethan found a way to play with Spiderman...

Alia always makes these. Here is my favorite one of all. Here is how you make them:

1. Wash your hands.

2. Get the right amount of strawberries you want to serve.
3. Cut a hole at the top and place a gummy worm inside.

4. Put 2 chocolate chips on for the eyes.

Bonus: Put a handful of cheese in the middle!!

Enjoy Power of Kids!!

It Has Been a LONG Time....

Yes, we have not written anything in over a month. The reason-we all have our own separate blogs that we are trying to work on. That is the main reason of this post today.

First, Ashton's blog. You can visit it HERE.
Now my blog (Alia's blog), HERE. It has all my recipes and crafts.

And last but not least, Grace's blog HERE.

Not all the members have blogs but if you were WAITING for a new post-you can guess that we are working on our own blogs.

We got a new member!!!

How I get money for stuff I want

by Eliza

Every summer I see an awesome toy I want or some classes I want to take. I don’t always have the money to buy the toy or take the classes I want. I am going to show you how I earn money. First I make a chart of jobs and responsibilities I will do each day and have my mom and dad tell me what they will pay me for the jobs.  Then I hang up my chart. Then I work on all of the jobs until I finish. The chart has the days of the week and the jobs I have to do every day. It also has bonus jobs. A bonus job is an extra job that aren’t on my chart (like vacuum the stairs or sweep the floor or fold the laundry).  It’s good to do some bonus jobs to make up for if I missed something on my regular chart.    

When I accomplish the goals on my chart, I get money and put it in the family bank.  Then when I want to spend the money, I take it out of the bank and spend it on the toy or the class I want.

I like it because if I earn my own money, the toy or the class is more special to me.  

Saving up for stuff part II

A few days ago, I went to an amusement park called Lagoon. We've been wanting to go there for ages, and we were SO happy when our church said that we were going to have a Lagoon day. They gave us a coupon so that it would be $29 instead of $40! We saved up our money and had a BLAST!

The best ride we went on was Wicked. Here's a picture:


Another awesome one is Colossus:


But I'm not here to advertise Lagoon

You guys know that there's another reason for this post.

Check out this sentence from above: "We saved up our money and had a BLAST!"


Now let me shorten it for you, so you can finally see the point of this post: "and had a BLAST!"


Nah, I'm just kidding. The REAL reason for this post is...: "We saved up our money".

Yep, that's it. If you just get anything you want just by asking, not earning, you will become spoiled.

VERY spoiled.

By the way, I used to have this blog called Welcome To My Life. I never really used it, but I'm gonna start putting some posts on there. If you wanna go check it out, the link will be hidden somewhere in this post. I'll give you a hint: It's on my favorite roller coaster.

My book!

Hey guys,
I've been writing up a book in Google Docs. It's an adventure book about three kids (Jon, Jessica, and Juan), and a talking car (SINT) It isn't done yet, and I'm gonna paste it below here. If you want to see the entire unfinished book and get updates on it, sometimes even real-time updates, you need to have a Google account. Send an email to loosliashton@gmail.com with your Gmail address so you can see my book. Here is the first part of it:

The

Cave

By Ashton Loosli

Chapter 1

A Hidden Cave

I've always dreamed about fighting crime. To be a super hero.
To have a super car, patrol the streets looking for trouble.
I'd shoot at the bad guys, put handcuffs on them, throw 'em in jail.
All that was before I would actually get a chance to do it.

***

My name is Jon Bowler. I live in Utah. School just got out for summer break. I'm inside on a rainy day playing “Star Destroyer II” on my Game Boy. I played for a while, and when I looked out the window, it wasn't raining anymore.
“Mom , can I go outside for a walk?” I asked.
“Sure, but stay close. It's almost dinner time.”
I ran outside and breathed in the nice, fresh summer air. As I walked, I saw a strange pile of rocks leaning against a giant boulder, one of the many creating a huge mountain of boulders. I'll come and check that out later, I thought.
Then I continued on my walk, but there was something wrong. I had a strange feeling that I should go back to the rocks right now. As I came near, I had that strange feeling again. I leaned against the rocks, but as soon as I touched them, I jumped away from them. They had made a sound almost as if they were... hollow. I knocked on one of them, and heard the same sound. I grabbed one of the rocks and pulled hard. To my surprise, it came loose and I pulled it out. Suddenly, there was a low rumbling sound. I quickly stepped back. All of the rocks collapsed! I ducked just as one almost hit me on the head. Another came, and it hit me on the stomach, but I didn't feel any pain. I picked it up, and it was fake!
“Whoa,” I muttered. Then I looked up. The rocks had been covering a door. I heard a high buzzing noise and the door slid open. It was covering a cave! I stepped into it.
It was pitch black. As I stepped forward, I stepped on something. It rolled forward, sending me flying back. As I hit the wall, something coming out of it hit my back. “Ow!!” I yelled. I turned around and felt it. I couldn't believe it! I rubbed my eyes, realized that that wouldn't do me any good, and rubbed my hands. It was a light switch! In a cave!
I turned it on, but nothing happened. Light must be burned out, I thought. As I stepped out the door, it closed and the rocks stacked themselves like magic. I quickly ran home and sneaked in the back door. I grabbed a flashlight before Mom could see me. I also got a light bulb from my lamp and on my way out, I grabbed my dad's ladder and dragged it back to the cave. I knocked down the rocks and entered the door. I stepped into the cave, but when the light from the door fell on a gray panel on the wall I realized that it was a power box. I ran over to it, opened it, and fliped on the one switch that was in it. The light flickered on.
There were TONS of tools, electronics, and other things that I didn't even recognize all over the main room. There was a huge computer screen by the corner with a keyboard, mouse and tons of multicolored buttons. I saw a door leading to another room in the back. I started toward it, but when I looked at my watch, I saw that I had been gone for half an hour!
I quickly ran home, but as soon as I got there, Mom saw me.
“Jonathon Reeves Bowler.” Not the middle name! “You've been gone for more than half an hour. Quickly wash up and sit down at the table.”
Dinner was the same as always. Tommy, my three-year-old brother, was eating his mashed potatoes like a pig. Mom was trying to teach him not to slam his face down in the food. Me? I was just pushing my steak around my plate. “Is something wrong?” asked my mom. “No,” I mumbled. I almost told her everything, but I decided that she would just think that I was making it up.

***

I went back the next day, knocked down the rocks, and entered the cave. The door closed behind me and I could hear the rocks stack up against it. I ran toward the door at the back of the room and felt like I was flying -- then I slammed into it.
I pushed really hard, but the door was locked from the inside. I looked at all of the power tools surrounding me.
Then I got a great idea.
A dangerous idea.

***

BZZZZ!!! The chainsaw roared to life. I walked toward the door and realized that I couldn't use the chainsaw unless I wanted to completely destroy the door. I turned it off and found a small tool that looked like a jigsaw. Bzzzz... Not as impressive as the chainsaw, but still effective. I brought it to the door and it sliced through the lock like hot butter.
I pushed open the door and looked inside. I could see a dark shape in the middle of the room.
I flipped the light switch and couldn't believe what I saw.

Chapter 2

The Car

I walked over to it. This wasn't just any car. This was an ebony black GT 500 Ford Mustang.

I tried the door and luckily it was unlocked. I climbed inside and sat down. The seats felt really comfortable. There was a cool dashboard with tons of buttons and lights, but none of them were on. Just then, I heard a high buzz. I gasped. That was the noise that the door made each time it opened!
I quickly ducked down. The door slid open, and I heard two voices.
“But... Agent Cortèz--”
“You know why we can't do this anymore,” the deeper voice, Cortèz, said.
They walked through the door to the garage, and I quickly got in the back of the car. Cortèz opened the car door and said “Well, come on.” When nothing happened, he said, “Jacob, you have to.”
Jacob said, “Well... all right,” and threw something in the front seat and said, “Goodbye, SINT.” He opened the jockey box and pulled something small out of it and placed it by the windshield.
Cortèz pushed down the lock, and Jacob hesitated for a moment, then closed the door. I risked peeking through the windshield and saw them walk out and shut the door.
I slowly grabbed what he'd thrown. It was a key chain, but there weren't any keys that fit in the strange keyhole. The last thing I saw was something you plug into a computer... what was it called? Oh, yeah. It was a USB storage device. I knew that people usually put stuff from a computer on these, and I was about to go home to find out what was on it, but I noticed something strange. The keyhole wasn't for a key. It was a USB port!
I stuck it in and the car revved to life. All of the lights on the dashboard suddenly lit up, and I might have been imagining it, but the car seemed to be rising. I also noticed that the speedometer went up to 500 MPH. I quickly turned off the car.
I really needed some help with this. And I knew just who could help me.

***

“So, what do you want to do?” asked Jessica.
I had invited my two best friends, Jessica and Juan to come over.
“Let's go exploring in the woods,” I said. They both agreed without hesitating.
When we were really far out in the woods, I told them everything.
“So where is it?” Juan asked excitedly.
“Follow me.”
We walked for about five minutes until we got there.
“This is it?” Juan asked.
“Yep.”
I had to admit, it did look pretty normal. I ran over and knocked down the rocks, the door buzzed and slid open, and we all walked in.
“This is amazing!” cried Jessica.
“You ain't seen nothing yet,” I said and opened the door to the garage.
“Wow! Is that a Mustang!?” Juan yelled.
“Sure is,” I said. “Let me show you something.

***

After I'd shown them all of the rooms that I'd found earlier (the office, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom... they were all in a different boulder, each one separated by a door), we came back to the garage.
“Can you start the car? Like, with the USB thingy?” asked Jessica.
“Well... okay,” I said.
We climbed into to car, me in the driver's seat, Juan in shotgun, and Jessica in the back. I said, “Well... here goes,” and started the car.
VROOM!  The dashboard lit up, the car started rising, and Juan said, “Whoa.”
That was when I noticed the other USB storage device. It was by the windshield. I picked it up and looked around until I found another USB port, inside the jockey box. I plugged it in, and it suddenly disappeared inside the box.
A GPS screen lit up, only it didn't look like a GPS. It had a red line going across the middle. Everyone was looking at it.
“Ssssysstemm reeeeebooot compleeet,” came a voice from the speak-
ers. While it was saying it, the red line on the screen was dancing to the voice.
Suddenly, the locks on all the doors went down.

Chapter 3

We go on a little joyride

We frantically tried to open the doors, but they wouldn't budge. Suddenly, the wall opened up to reveal the forest. The car started backing up through tho hole in the wall.
Then I thought about what Jacob had said. "Goodbye SINT." What if that were the car's name?
The GPS screen had all sorts of strange buttons by it. I pushed one of them that looked like a pistol.
“Weapon load activated,” said SINT. “Listing weapons; grappling hook... complete. Laser... complete. Guided rockets... complete. Chain guns... complete. All weapons ready.”
By then, we were almost to the road. We were driving on an old trail. I pushed a button by the GPS screen that had an arrow pointing up, hoping that it would stop us.
“Turbo jump initiated,” said SINT.
Suddenly, we were flying through the air instead of the dirt, and we were screaming our heads off.
BANG! We hit the ground hard, but we weren't on dirt anymore. We were on asphalt.
We were going 94 MPH. As I said, this baby could do 500.
That was when I noticed that a police car was following us.
As if that wasn't bad enough, they were shooting at us.
“Activating chain guns... complete. Tinting windows... complete,” said SINT.
SCREECH!  We spun around in a circle, now going in reverse. Two huge, circular guns came out of the hood.
CLICNGCLINGCLINGCLINGCLINGCLING! The chain guns started shooting at speeds no ordinary machine gun could do. They were aimed perfectly so that it would take out the front wheels, but not kill anybody or completely destroy the car. It spun around again so that we were going forward.
I felt the pedal at my feet move to the floor.
VVVRRRRRROOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!! The needle on the speedometer went to 300 MPH! We were going so fast, it made me feel weird just looking out the window!
I looked up and saw an army helicopter flying above us with it's guns pointed at us.
Pew! Pew! Two missiles came flying at us, but SINT somehow sped up and dodged them.
Suddenly, the helicopter dropped so that it was right behind us. I looked at all of the buttons and pushed the one with a steering wheel on it.
"Manual disengaged," said SINT. He immediately slowed dawn. The helicopter nearly crashed into us, but I floored the gas pedal just in time.
Then I thought of something. When you put something in manual, it goes by itself. When you disengage manual, it doesn't go by itself. That meant that I was in control of the car!
I yanked the steering wheel to the left. SCREECH! We spun around in a circle. I threw it into reverse and floored the petal. I had driven a car with my dad tons of times on the beach. I could see the driver of the helicopter aim his guns at me. I sped up so that there was about 100 meters between me and the helicopter.
"Juan! Push the button with the arrow pointing up! Now!" Juan pushed the button just as I put it in drive again.
VROOOOM! We flew up in the air, barely missing the helicopter's rotating blades.
I started back in the direction that I came from. Before long, I saw the forest trail and turned onto it. As we approached the boulder, the hidden door opened by itself.
I stopped the car in the middle of the cave.
"All right, SINT. What is going on here?"
"Who are you, intruder?"
"My name is Jon Bowler. These are my friends Juan Riveras and Jessica Gusman. Now tell us: Who are you?"

Chapter Four

We have a conversation with a car

"I am the Scythe Industries Nine Thousand. I have the latest version of Scythe Artificial Intelligence, or SAI. My creators apparently thought that I was to dangerous to continue. Giovanni Cortez, the leader of the SINT operation, attempted to shut me down. I had seconds to make a backup of my system before he did. If I hadn't done that, I would not be alive."

We all stared at him for about five minutes. Then I said "So... what do we do now?"

"I hacked into their computer and they have detected that I have been online. They should be coming to get me in about five minutes."

"Well, let's get going then!" said Juan.

"We cannot. I need gas. We can arm the outside with the hidden weapons so that they cannot come in."

“You run on gas? Couldn’t you run on something cool, like liquid nitrogen?” I asked.

“Can we just arm this place?” asked Juan.

"Let's do it," said Jessica.

"Push the red button in the main room,” said SINT

Jessica went the main room and came back a minute later. We heard some motors grinding above us.

"All of the outside weapons have been activated."

BANG BANG BANG!!! We heard something hitting the wall from outside. Hard.

"They're shooting at us!" I exclaimed.

A huge hit shook the entire cave.

"Don't you have any emergency gas tanks or something?" Juan asked.

"Yes... I think I have a few in the trunk." SINT opened his trunk and Juan lugged a five gallon gas tank out of it and poured all of the gas into the tank.

"Jon, Jessica, Juan. You must make the decision now. Would you rather give up school, family, everything and come with me, or leave me and continue with your lives?"

Oh man. Why do we have to make this decision right now?

"Well... I'll have to go with you," I said.

"Me, too," said Juan.

"I'll go with you also... but can we tell our families?”

“Do not worry. I will contact them as soon as we set off,” he said.

After SINT was filled up, we revved up the engine and went out the door. We shot past some SWAT vans and police cars. They immediately started following us.

“SINT, how do we get them off our tail?” Juan asked.

“Push the button that says EMP,” said SINT.

Juan pushed it, and we saw the air ripple around the car. Suddenly, all the SWAT vans’ and police cars’ engines died, and they all pulled over to the side of the road. SINT sped up and said, “You should go to sleep. This will be a long trip.”

“I don’t think I can,” I replied.

“Allow me to help,” he said.

A plume of smoke came from the steering wheel, and in three seconds I was asleep.

***

My dream was the weirdest one I’ve ever had.

It started out with me waking up in a car that was not SINT. It was a minivan. I was in the back seat laying down. I sat up and looked at the drive. He looked about 20 and had brown hair that went to his shoulders.

He turned around and gave me an evil smile. I saw that his eyes were red. Not pepper-spray-red-eyes, but seriously creepy GLOWING red eyes. He turned back around and kept driving. I noticed red smoke coming from the ceiling. I started holding my breath, but it was to late. I was already asleep.

Adventures with your family

 Today, I went hiking with my family at Antelope Island. It's an island in the Great Salt Lake. There are deer, bison, and of course antelopes. We saw some mule deer grazing.

We climbed around on rocks and ran on the beach. The whole beach was covered in foam! I had an awesome time, and guess what was the best part?

I got to have some AWESOME fun and bond with my family at the same time!!!


Challenge: Do something fun and bonding with your family!

The 7 Habits of Happy Kids Book Review

Are you a kid who wants to be more happy? Well, if you are, you should read The 7 Habits of Happy Kids by Sean Covey. There are seven habits that help you be more happy. Do you want to know what they are?

1. Be Proactive. That means you’re in charge.
2. Begin with the End in Mind. That means have a plan.
3. Put First Things First. That means work first, then play.
4. Think Win-Win. That means everybody can win.
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood. That means listen before you talk.
6. Synergize. That means together is better.
7. Sharpen the Saw. That means balance feels best.

Instead of a long boring book that explains all these habits, this book is fun for kids. It is full of exciting stories that teach kids about the seven habits. My favorite one is called “Jumper and the Lost Butterfly Net.” It is funny because a mouse called Tagalong Allie can’t talk very well and it’s hard to understand what she says. She tries to explain to a rabbit named Jumper that her sweater is on backwards but he is not paying attention. Jumper learns to listen with his eyes and heart, not just with his ears. That means he learned to seek first to understand, then be understood. That’s habit number 5. The author, Sean Covey, also has activities that you can try to understand the habits more. Here is one of the activities: “Try to go one whole hour without talking even once. Instead, just watch the people around and listen to what they are saying.” Do you feel happy already? Well you should read this book and learn more
about these habits. I think you’ll have a lot of fun!

Thanks Abby! Now I want to read this book!

Click HERE to see Sean Covey's book! :)

Pancake Rolls

Don't these look good? Our friend Abby Jones wanted us to write a post about this AWESOME recipe. Scroll down for the recipe!


4 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups milk
3 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
2 tsp salt
a bit of lemon juice
1/2 of a butter stick

Mix everything together in a large bowl. Drop spoonfuls onto a greased pan (like a cookie). Bake for 8-9 minutes at 350 degrees.

After we tasted them, it kind of tasted like a pancake but in a roll so I called it a Pancake Roll. I gave some to my neighbors on the other side of my fence and my friend really liked them! My family did too and we ate them with our dinner.

-Abby Jones

Fun stuff to do with your family part II

The Power of Moms

How the youtube channel will work

General Conference

In our church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), we have this thing called General Conference.  It's kind of like church but it's on TV and it's two days - on Saturday and Sunday - and four hours each day.  They just have it two times a year and we get to stay home from regular church and watch it on our TV.  Our prophet and the other leaders of our church speak and tell us what Jesus wants us to know and what we should do.  They say a lot of good stories.

Conference can be a really fun thing if you know some good things to do while you're listening.  Here are some things that I like to do:

• A really fun thing to do so you can focus on what they're talking about is that you can get a paper and write down some words that have to do with church stuff - like temple, Jesus, love, family, Heavenly Father, helping others.  Then you put a tally mark by each word when someone says it in Conference.
• Another thing is that you can draw a picture of the person that's talking and you can write a few notes right by the picture of what he or she was talking about.  Here's a picture of the notes I did like this for conference last week (sorry it won't turn the right way):

Conference is more interesting when you take notes.  The speakers really do say some good stuff!  And I like being able to just watch church in my pajamas sometimes!

Alia's Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I wanted to make a treat for my family and I wanted to make it healthy. I hope you enjoy making it! :-) Ingredients: 1 ½ cups of brown sugar 2 egg whites 2 teaspoons of vanilla 2 cups of flour (I prefer wheat flour) 1 teaspoon of baking soda 1 teaspoon of salt 1 or 2 cups of chocolate chips (you choose). APPLESAUCE!! (there is NO oil to hold the cookies together!) Directions: Preheat oven to 350° (have a parent help you!). Mix the brown sugar and egg whites until they are very well mixed in. Add the vanilla and the flour as well. Then put the baking soda and salt in the mixture. Put the chocolate chips in—as much as you desire. If the mixture does not stick together, I would suggest putting applesauce in until it all forms together. Grease the pan VERY well --there isn’t any oil or butter in this recipe to help it not stick. Put it in the oven (again--let an adult help you). Cook it for 8 to 10 minutes. I use convect bake and it usually takes 4 to 6. Let them cool before you eat them (with a parent's help)!

New video on the channel!

Hey guys! We made an awesome commercial for The Power of Kids on our YouTube channel!




CHALLENGE:  With a parent's help, make a video response to this with your own commercial for a website, game, etc.

Creativity Is SO Awesome!

Creativity is very important in life. Here are some pictures that might give you ideas on how to be creative.

First, you can make many different snacks by using items you have around your house. These are Tic-Tac-Toe Crackers, using chopped celery, peanut butter, sliced carrots, and crackers.



Next is a Panda-Turkey Masterpiece. I got a slice of turkey, cut the panda's facial features out of it, and then sliced apples and put them on the outside of the plate. We have an apple slicer that makes it simple to cut the apple into wedges. You might want to ask a parent to help you.




Drawing is also a creative thing to do. I asked my family members what they like, their two favorite colors, and about other interesting things they would like included on the picture. It was a true work of art when it was finished.






My brother had a smoothie umbrella, and he decided to have his action figures relax under it. You can turn ordinary things into fun adventures when you're creative.

Going on a family bike ride is an exciting opportunity for your family to get creative. You can pack a picnic lunch, play "I Spy" while you're riding bikes, and stop every once in awhile to look around and enjoy the scenery.

CHALLENGE: Think of something you can do in your family with your own creativity. Then come and tell us all about it in the Comments section here. Good luck!

How to handle a bully

When anyone is picking on you or hurting you they are being a bully.

Here are some ways to stop a bully:

• Say "sorry you feel that way" when they say something mean about you.
• Say "thanks for sharing that with me" instead of getting mad when they say something you don't really want to hear.
• Tell an adult if they keep bothering you.
• Use your cool look.[Your cool look is when you look cool so a bully thinks "she's cool I should not pick on her".]
• Give a complement.
• Try to make friends with the bully. Be nice to the bully.
• Sometimes a bully is picking on you because they are jealous of what you have.
• If you say nice things to a bully they might feel good about themselves and stop picking on you.

How to get over a bad mood

Eliza (Isaac and Ashton's little sister) just turned eight so she's now an official member of our Power of Kids Team!  Welcome Eliza!  Here's her first post.

Sometimes I wake up in a bad mood.  Do you ever wake up in a bad mood?  I think everyone does sometimes. Or if you didn't wake up in a bad mood, you might get in a bad mood from something bad happening.  Then everything seems bad all day.

So how do you get out of a bad mood?

Here are some things that help me when I'm in a bad mood:

• Give someone a hug or get a hug from someone.
• Sing or hum a happy tune.
• Think about the good things in your life.
• Smile - even if you really don't feel like it.
• Read a happy book.
• Just be by yourself for a little while - sort like a time out but you just choose to do it.
• Go to sleep on time so you don't get more grumpy.
• Think of happy things.
• Realize it's just a mood and change it.  My grammie says "there's lots of things you can't change but you can always change your mind."

If none of these things work, just get your homework done and do what you're supposed to be doing and ignore the bad mood and it'll usually just go away.  

I'm going to work on this stuff a lot myself!

Honesty is Great!

What does honesty mean to you? To me it means telling the truth even if you think it won't matter that much, to not cheat, and not to steal anything.

In our Church, we have a magazine with different articles that relate to church. Some of them are submitted by people who want to share their experiences. I think this one goes really well with this topic. Since I'm not very good at retelling things, I am going to include it here so you can read it.


Unwavering Honesty
Jordan P., California,

Each day at the beginning of my film class the teacher gave us a writing prompt. After letting us write for about 10 minutes he randomly picked five people, who could choose whether to share what they had written. Whenever he picked me, I’d decline.

One day the prompt was “Are there certain kinds of stealing or borrowing without permission that are OK? What’s the difference? When was the last time you stole something?”

I wrote an answer to the prompt and didn’t think much of it. After a few minutes the teacher started calling on people to share. I noticed that the first four people each had a story of what they had stolen and how they stole it. Then he called my name. Even though I usually said no, I got a feeling to share what I wrote. I started talking about how I didn’t think there was any good kind of stealing. Then I answered the part about the last time you stole something: I’ve never stolen anything in my life. Right away my teacher didn’t believe me and everyone in the class thought I was lying. I insisted that I was telling the truth. After about five minutes of my being called a liar, the teacher said, “I’m going to call your mom and ask if you’ve ever been caught stealing.” I told him to go ahead and do it. Then he left the classroom to call my mom. While he was out of the room, most of the kids in the class kept saying I was lying, and I didn’t understand what the big deal was.

The teacher came back into the class and everyone asked him what my mom had said. He announced to the class that my mom had verified that I had never stolen anything. Some of the kids weren’t convinced, but most of them were just shocked. My teacher was impressed and actually said, “You’re a better human than I am.”

I’m grateful to my mom for teaching me the importance of being honest. Until that day in film class I never thought that honesty was that rare. I’m glad that I took the opportunity to share with the class what I wrote and that my mom was there to back me up. With the help of my mother, I’ve become a trustworthy person.

The original link is here.

I hope that you enjoy it!

This post is by me (Alia), and I'm helping Ashton with the post because he will be on vacation next week.

Happiness

A lot of things can make you happy, but not for a long time. Here are some of the things I am talking about:

Toys

Shoes

"Cool" Clothes

Phone

All of these items are fun to have, but they really don't make you that happy as THESE things in life:

FAMILY (The most important thing in life)

Good books /scriptures (Great things to read and learn out of)

True Friends (Who help you to be a good person)


Think about which of these lists makes your life happier.

If you chose family, good books, and true friends, then we agree.



A few examples that can make you happy:

1. Going to a nearby beach or park to ride bikes with your family.

2. Having a family member visit you and your family at your house. Our two aunts, Trisha and Jodi came to visit us. We had a great time going to Knott's Berry Farm, sleeping by each other, and just getting to know each other better!

3. Going to the library together and checking out books that you can't wait to read.


What are some things that make YOU really happy?

More Valentine's Day Ideas

Ashton included SO MANY great ideas! I wanted to say that the Heart Attack was great idea. I've done that to other houses and I've even had that happen to me!

The "Operation: Luv" Stuff sounds like a good idea and I want to try that sometime.



I also LOVE the pop-up-card! I made one when all of my siblings were making cards for their church teachers. (my teacher thought it was so cute!)



I wanted to write about more ideas that I made up. Here they are!

Drawer of Love

The Drawer of Love is just an empty desk drawer (you could use a filing cabinet or anything that holds a lot of things). I got tissue paper (red, pink, or white works best) and lined (or stuffed) it with the paper. I made some drawings such as hearts, teddy bears, and anything cute I could think of. Then I made little notes and I put them in the Drawer of Love. My sister cut out a heart and gave my mom a Valentine, so we put them in it as well. Then, I announced that the Drawer of Love was open. Now, our family can share their love and make sure that everyone knows how much they are loved.

I found these crafts online at FamilyFun's website:

Cute Valentine's Bracelets

If you have some string and beads nearby, this craft is a good one. Just get some beads and start stringing them on. Make messages on them and give them to friends and family members to show your love for them.

Heart Curtain

I like this idea and it sounds like something I would do (I probably can't because I have a three-year-old brother). First, cut out little hearts and write a message on them. Put those papers onto another color of paper and cut out a back for them. Get a long ribbon and hot glue them onto it (ask a parent for help because a hot glue gun really hurts! I've gotten hot glue on me and trust me, it is not very fun at all). Finally, hang the hearts from a top of a doorway (a doorway with no door works great) and voila! You have a Heart Curtain!

Hot Chocolate!

Find some plastic cups and stick a hot chocolate packet in it. Cut out a heart and then write a message on it and glue or tape it to the front of the cup. Now you can give someone the gift of hot chocolate!

Lollipop Flowers

Use colored paper to cut out a lot of medium-

sized hearts. Get your choice of lollipops and glue one on the middle of every heart. From the sicks, glue two green paper leaves to complete your flower! These treats will make a great Valentine's Day gift!

A Puzzle from the Heart

Get some old puzzles out from the garage or buy some at the dollar store. Get some red or pink paint and color over the puzzle piece. Place them in an area where they can sit and dry. Then, glue them into that shape of a heart. Make as many as you can before the pieces start to run out. If you want to, you can glue magnets on them. Have fun!

The Pencil Valentine

Cut out a paper heart and write something on it. Poke two holes, one on the top left corner and the other on the bottom right corner. Find some cute Valentine's Day pencils and poke it through the holes. That is how you make the Pencil Valentine.

Valentine Butterfly

Get a bunch of clothes pins. These can be used for the butterfly's body. If you do not want (or don't have clothes pins), you can use sticks of gum. Get colored paper and make wings for the butterfly. Write your message on your wings and glue or tape the wings to the clothes pin or stick if gum. Get pipe cleaners and cut one in half. These can be curved to be the antennas. Decorate your butterfly with glitter and anything you can think of.

Hearty Pencil Topper

Candy hearts are fun, but pencil toppers just like candy hearts. Get foam hearts, but make sure that they are tiny. Poke a hole in the bottom and poke a pipe cleaner through it. Twist the pipe cleaner around the pencil from the top and glue as you go. Make sure that the foam heart is glued to the top of the pencil. (This craft can also be made with a pen).

I hope these ideas will make your Valentine's Day a lot of fun!