True Americans: President's Day 2017 Edition

While I've mostly been updating you on our countries and theme weeks, we have had a bit of other things sprinkled in here and there. We are off on another adventure tomorrow (Universal Trip before the passes expire!), so I thought I'd get caught up on a few of those odds and ends. 

Last Monday was President's Day, which is like my favorite day ever! Of course we played True America, a game I invented that year we celebrated all the president's birthdays. It's evolved over the years, and as we learned about more presidents, so I'll give you a basic run down. The object of the game is to get to your rootbeer at the top of the snack tower.  You do that by guessing the president on your head (like a game of Headbandz). Along the way you get other various snacks and make your way up the tower. 

Our snacks this particular holiday were a nod to those guys (and gal) who won the popular vote, but lost the presidency. That's five people. Obviously Hillary Clinton, and Al Gore. But then there was Samuel Tilden who won but lost to Rutherford Birchard Hayes. Andrew Jackson got to be president the next election, so it didn't suck as bad for him. And Grover Cleveland just ended up as the only guy to have two non-consecutive terms when he lost re-election to Benjamin Harrison, but then beat him the next time around. 

We pulled out my Grover Cleveland and Andrew Jackson pez dispensers for decoration, since technically they are in that group, but our snacks were for those poor souls who were the victim of the good old Electoral College. 

Down at the bottom we had a fruit based cake for Al Gore. (Ok, so finding a desert he likes besides fruit is impossible, since he's all healthy and vegan now. And if I just put fruit on the snack tower, nobody would be excited.)

Then we have lemon crumb cake for Samuel Tilden. I had to google forever until I found something for him. I guess if you don't become president, nobody really documents what your favorite dessert is. But, I did find deep in one of many google searches a link to a book that had a recipe for Samuel Tilden and it was a lemon cake. So, there you go. 

And finally, Hillary Clinton is a big fan of chocolate, and it's real easy to find a recipe for her chocolate chip cookies. Nobody cares about your favorite dessert if you don't become president, I found. But, she was a First Lady, so that was easy enough. 

We also decorated the table in all kinds of my presidents stuff to be festive. 

We did have to add one name into the jar of presidents. 

I swear I mixed it in, but Asa drew it out on his very first one. He was not pleased when he realized he had Donald Trump on his head. 

Ok, so we go around the room and everyone gets to ask questions about who is on their head. Mostly we use number and party to narrow it down. Once you have it, you buzz in and yell 'JFK, FDR'.... and whatever the guy on your head is. If your right you get a 'shot' of your prohibition cocktail (It's a Shirley Temple, but my kids don't know that!) 

Then you have to make your way to the snack tower by naming three facts about the president. Each time you get one right you take a step on your pillows. (If you touch the floor, it's hot lava, and you're out). 

If you're wrong, you have to make your way via pillows over to the 'Corner of Shame' where you can read my presidents book to come up with facts. When it gets back around to you, you now have four facts you have to name to get back to your snack. 

Once you complete your facts, you get your snack, a new president on your head, and round and round we go. First person to the top is the winner (That was me)! 

 The dogs sure love True American because there's lots of pillows to lay on! 

And everyone else has a good time. It gets intense sometimes though. 

The game ends when everyone gets to the middle and gets their rootbeer. 

 I always forgo my rootbeer so everyone else can have one. 

But as the winner, I got to eat off of my Benjamin Harrison china. It's the only official White House china I have, for now. Of course dinner was the very famous Nancy Reagan Mac & Cheese, and we had some Lincoln 'Federalist' wine that our friends had given us. And we drank out of Lincoln and Jefferson cups. Because that's how much we love presidents. 

We had also decided awhile ago to write some thank you notes to Hillary Clinton. The boys appreciated the tone of her campaign (whatever you think about this election, just know the boys, Peyton especially, witnessed some things first hand), but mostly the fact that she was there on inauguration day, and we thought it would be nice to tell her as much. 

The boys didn't want me to share the inside of their cards, but I did snap a picture in case they ever want to see what they wrote. 

Other than that we haven't been up to that much. We've been down at the lodge to hang out and play some pool and such a decent amount. 

One morning the boys swore they would actually get up for lunch to go to dollar taco day at Vallarta's. This was Calib at 11AM. (Though to his credit he was up at 8 AM for our trip to the Buddhist Temple Sunday Market today). 

But Hayden and Peyton had dollar tacos, and then we stopped by Costco, because Costco! We love having one up our way, but we're still adjusting to not thinking we have to buy stuff to last forever, because we can go whenever we want, instead of once a month or so. 

We've been getting some things done around here, and Dipper thought the ladder was a fun addition to the living room. And in other pet news, Phenom got a hair cut, and is now 'Fancy Noooms!' 

Asa did get his bonus check, too. So, he bought himself and Peyton Pokemon Go Plus, now they don't have to have their phones out every time we're out and about. 

We also got the awful spiky baby palm tree taken out of the front walkway. It's not that the tree was awful, I just wouldn't have picked it, and more than that, I never would have put it where it was. I didn't take a before an after picture, just an after. But trust me, it was not great. Oh, and the guy who took it out, saved it and was going to give it to his mom for her yard, so it will live on! 

 

I leave you with a cute picture of  our furry family members. 

Next Up: Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure! 

Religion Week: Bangladesh

Today marks 30 countries in! Bangladesh is the second country we put with Hinduism, mostly because the other countries with a large Hindu population were taken for other things. (We need to use India for Sikhism). I think something like 8% of the population is Hindu, but Bangladesh is the 8th most populous country, so that's still a lot of people! 

Bangladesh is home to the largest mangrove swamps in the world, and conversely, the most overcrowded city in the world. They have Bengal tigers, jam packed trains, and rickshaw traffic jams. The rickshaws are bicycle taxis (The capital, Dhaka has more then 300,000 of them) that cause plenty of traffic jams. 

The national sport of Bangladesh is kabaddi in which 'raiders' from one team tag tackle and invade the playing area of the opposing team. One of the main rules of kabaddi is that a player who raids the other side must repeat the phrase 'Kabaddi, Kabaddi, Kabaddi," without running out of breath. If they do, they're out! 

A traditional dress for men in Bagladesh is a Lungi, which is a patterned piece of fabric worn like a skit. They make some popular gifts. 

Bangaldesh is not without it's issues. The US Department of State warns against the continued risks of travel to Bangladesh due to a threat of terrorism. 

And monsoon season can be rough. From June to September every year much of the country is prone to flooding. For three months, Bengali's have to deal with intense periods of wind and rain. In 1998, the monsoon flooded 68% of the total area of the country, over 1,000 people died and 30 million people became homeless as a result. It's said to be one of the worst flooding in human history. 

I posted all about our Hindu lesson in the Nepal blog, so that's three religions down, three still to go! 

Our activity for Hinduism and Bangladesh (although more popular in India and Nepal) was to celebrate Holi, the festival of colors. 

I ordered some Holi colored powder on Amazon. 

Most people said you could mix it with flour, and while you'd dilute the colors, you'd get a ton more out of the package. So I mixed away. 

We put the bowls out in the yard and went to town! I didn't take pictures during the event, as I took part, so you just get to see the after pictures. 

The colors were a little more vibrant than they photographed. 

Hayden ended up with some in his ear, Calib said he didn't have any shirts he didn't care about (just in case it stained- but it really didn't), so he went shirtless, and Peyton was the only one who decided to wear shoes. 

 All in all, it was pretty fun. And nobody got mad! And Peyton didn't even care about getting messy! (Well, I mean, he cared, but he did it anyway!) 

And then Asa threatened to hose everyone off. We decided on showers instead. 

Seven percent of the agricultural land in Balgladesh is used for rice. They produce over 35 millions tons of it a year, so it's a valuable source of the economy. But when I told the boys that, they groaned. (If you've been reading, you know they are already over the rice dishes!) 

So, even with it being ingrained in Bangladesh (ha! A little rice humor for you!), I tried to find something OTHER than a rice dish. 

Instead we had Besan Chicken, Cauliflower with Bengali five spice, Bengali potatoes, and Bananas (Something like 40% of all the produce grown in Bangladesh is bananas). 

This dinner earns four spoons up. 

Calib only gave it a spoons down because as he says 'I'd eat it again, but I wouldn't be that excited about it'. The rest of us really liked it. The cauliflower got as good of reviews as cauliflower can get, but we all liked the chicken and the potatoes. 

 The boys all shared their postcards at dinner, which will complete our set of 10 to vote on the best collection of four tomorrow. 

 Peyton colored in Bangladesh. Fun fact: The boys can name all the countries and capitals, and where they are on the table. 

30 down, 163 to go!

Next Up: Thailand & Buddhism