Wonder-ful Celebrating

After our crazy Summer with the 7 Wonders of the World Balloon Art Exhibit at Thanksgiving Point's Museum of Ancient Life (you have no idea how many times I said that while making YouTube videos this Summer), and after things calmed down a bit, we got together with the other balloon artists and had a celebration to thank everyone for their hard work.

And of course we couldn't do this sort of celebration without themed food.  So I would like to share with you the foods we had based on the ancient wonders of the world and the modern wonders of the world.

 Hanging Garden Salad with Lite House Dressing

(the salad even had flowers on it)

Golden Apples (because of the Greek myth where Atalanta chooses to follow Artemis but later has to get married because during a footrace she slows down to pick up golden apples her suitor throws in front of her)- for the Temple of Artemis

Zeus Juice (we forgot to get a picture of the pitcher of orange juice we made up for the party- sorry)

Mousse-aleum Cake (okay, so it was chocolate pudding cake, but close enough- we did not feel up to making chocolate mousse with all the other things we were doing)

Colossus of Rhodes Rolls

 Great Pickle Pyramid

 Chichen Itza Pizza (you can even see the shape of the step pyramid on the left pizza)

 Petra Floats

 Colosseum of Croutons

 Egg Roll of China

 Taj Mahal Cheeseball

We wanted to be respectful of the statue of Christ the Redeemer, so we didn't have themed food for that Wonder, but we made sure to say a prayer before we ate.

It was so nice to celebrate with our friends in a relaxed atmosphere where nobody had to be pumping up and twisting balloons.  We just got to eat and chat and play a little Phase 10 toward the end of the evening.

Our family also had it's own little celebration at a different time.  The kids were real troopers this Summer with me dragging them to Thanksgiving Point every week, sometimes multiple times a week.  They were awesome.  So we took them out to the Olive Garden to say Thank you.  Great kids.
It was fun.

Oh, no.  Jr. Jr. says drinking Sprite turns him into a Daddy-eating piranha. 

During the process of preparing this blog post, I realized that with the ancient wonders of the world I blogged about in July, I forgot to put a picture of the balloon Lighthouse of Alexandria.  It should have been between the Colossus of Rhodes and the Great Pyramid of Giza.  Oh, silly me.  So here is that picture of the Lighthouse of Alexandria for your balloon viewing enjoyment.

Modern Wonders of the World

November 4 is King Tut Day, the anniversary of when King Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered.
When I think of King Tut, I think of Egypt.  Well, I think of the old Batman show with Adam West, but I also think of Egypt.  When I think of Egypt, I think of pyramids.  When I think of pyramids, I think of balloons.  Well, the 7 Wonders of the World Balloon Art Exhibit from this Summer.  Then I think that I showed finished pictures of all of the ancient wonders in July, but I never put up finished pictures of the modern wonders.  So I am going to do that now.

 Great Pyramid of Giza

 Chichen Itza

 Petra

 Colosseum

 Great Wall of China

 Statue of Christ the Redeemer

Taj Mahal

I'll also tell you what was said to our children this morning.

Me:  It's King Tut Day.

Jeremy:  You know what that means.  It means you have to be nice to your Mummy.

That's My Family

Yep.  That's my family in front of the Great Wall of China.  Pretty cool, huh?

Relaxation Day 2015

August 15 is Relaxation Day.  So what were Jeremy and I doing until 2 o'clock in the morning (the beginning of Relaxation Day)?  Building small balloon sculptures to go on the Colosseum.
Yeah, this is me standing next to the balloon holder/carrier so you can see how big it is.

This is how full of sculptures it is.

In total (including sculptures that were already built and at the museum), we had to build 80 small sculptures for the Colosseum.  Yeah, it's going to look cool.

Alfred Hitchcock's Birthday

August 13 is Alfred Hitchcock's Birthday.  I told the kids we were going to visit the Wonders, but we were going to do it mysteriously.

Petra looks so cool.

Petra Floats

Yesterday, August 5 was Work Like a Dog Day.  I told the kids that if we worked really hard all day, we could celebrate the next day, August 6, National Root Beer Float Day.
Jr. tried to get out of it by saying that dogs are lazy and just lie around.  I explained to them how some dogs work really really hard.  Finally I told them, "Anyone who works as hard as I work will get a root beer float."
I took some pictures throughout the day of them "working like a dog."  I even gave them a list of things they could start with.

They did help with some things.

And other things?

I saw them doing this

when they should have been doing this.

So in the end Jeremy and I had root beer floats this evening.  I did work really hard.

And we realized something.
We looked at pictures Jeremy took of balloon Petra.  The side walls look like root beer floats with the layers of root beer and ice cream and root beer and ice cream.

We had themed food for Petra and it wasn't even planned.  Petra Floats.  How cool is that?

Chichen Itza Pizza

At the start of building the Ancient Wonders of the World, we had themed food- hanging garden salad.
After Jeremy got his world record we had themed food again- long hot dogs.
During the start of the Modern Wonders of the World, we again had themed food- Chichen Itza Pizza.

We have fun.

Big News

You've seen the ancient wonders of the world. 

 Hanging Gardens of Babylon

 Temple of Artemis

 Zeus at Olympia

 Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

Colossus of Rhodes

Great Pyramid of Giza

Now see my wonder-ful husband attempt to break a world record for largest modeling balloon sculpture by an individual.  All this coming week, he'll be building in the Show Barn at Thanksgiving Point.
And on Saturday, July 25, there will be a Balloon Bash at the Show Barn from 10am-4pm.  Free admission.
The other balloon artists will be building the Thanksgiving Point water tower in the Museum of Ancient Life while the Great Pyramid of Giza is on display.  Then it's on to creating the rest of the modern wonders of the world (the Great Pyramid is considered both an ancient and modern wonder).
Wish us luck.

A Real Live Date

I'm so tired so this is going to be short.  Jeremy didn't have to stay all day at the Wonders today.  Heather was doing great on building today's part of the Great Pyramid of Giza.  Jeremy was able to come home from Thanksgiving Point, we took the kids to a friend's house, and he and I headed off for a date to... Thanksgiving Point. 

Yep.  He took me to the Tower Deli since I hadn't been there yet and he's eaten there several times and wanted to share it with me.  Then we headed over to the Museum of Ancient Life to say hi to Heather, then went next door to the theater to watch Jurassic World.  We knew we wanted to see that movie in the theater so this was our last chance because things are going to get busier for the rest of the summer with the modern wonders of the world out of balloons and a county fair and Jeremy's world record attempt for largest balloon sculpture done by an individual.  Next week at Thanksgiving Point's show barn as part of their Founder's Week celebration.  He's going to be building starting Monday and the final measuring and such will be done on Saturday.
But like I said, this was our last chance to go out on an actual date for a while, a real live date.  And it was so nice and the food was good and we notice that the napkin dispenser at the deli had an advertisement on it for the 7 Wonders of the World Balloon Art Exhibit.  It had a picture of the Temple of Artemis Jeremy built.  Fun.  And I absolutely loved the movie and it was so fun to watch it at the theater right next to the dinosaur museum.
Wow.  This post turned out to be longer than I was expecting.  I'm still tired but I had a great evening with my husband.

Museum Comes to Life Day 2015

We didn't watch Night at the Museum for Museum Comes to Life Day this year on June 24.
We did go up to visit the Wonders at the Museum of Ancient Life.  Zeus at Olympia looks so awesome.
In the statue's hand is a smaller statue of "Winged Victory" or "Nike."  When a breeze blows through the room, Zeus's fingers move.  It's like he comes to life.  How awesome to celebrate that way this year.

Artemis and Zeus

The kids and I visited the finished Temple of Artemis sculpture at Thanksgiving Point today. 

Jeremy was working on the statue of Zeus at Olympia.

O.K. kids.  Nice picture.

Now, silly picture.