Today, the United States of America chooses its next President. At our house, it means mock elections. We’ve been studying about the electoral process these last couple of weeks, the different parties, and the Electoral College. Today is the big day. The boys will go to the ‘polls’, ‘cast their vote’ and spent the evening tracking election results on a map we’ve printed out.

While we’ve talked about all of the elections that can happen on the General Election Day (voting for Senators and Congressmen, local elections and State/County Constitutional amendments, etc.) we are focusing primarily on the Presidential  candidates today.

DOWNLOAD BALLOT FOR KIDS  HERE

(this ballot was created as a sample ballot from how the ballots were presented in our county. No favoritism is implied)

Feel free to print off this ballot for your kids and allow them to participate in one of the most fundamental rights and privileges we have as American citizens – the right to vote.

PS. For a little help on the Electoral College – here’s a very helpful video.

See more about our Harry Potter reading tradition here.

While watching the show tonight, Connor had the brilliant idea of putting a big “A” on his chest like he sees from the fans at soccer matches on television. So we helped them take it one step further to help rally support for #teamalton!

We’re fans of Justin Warner, for his geek-worthy appeal, though we’d be happy if Martie Duncan made it, too.

Come join me over on the Sweet Shoppe blog to learn about my not-so-secret obsession with Mason Jars and how I use them around my house.

Happy Independence, America!!!

This is a great dramatic recreation of the Vote for Independence and the reading of it by the people from HBO’s John Adams. If you haven’t seen it – it’s wonderful.

Join with us in reading the Declaration of Independence aloud with your family. It becomes so much more alive to hear it !

Then I hear, “Honey, you need to see this.”

He showed me a website of the Stan Lee Comicon that was coming to Dallas that weekend. I was just about ready to blow him off with a “yeah, hon, that’s great, now let me get back to Food Network Star because Alton is on it!”

Then I saw what he was trying to get me to see. Patrick Stewart. No, make that Sir Patrick Stewart. He was coming to Dallas. To DALLAS. We live near Dallas. We could go, and we could meet him, and we could shake his hand and say thanks, and tell him all about how he was about to be an integral part of our children’s education (he’s a brilliant Shaksperian actor, and we’re about to delve into some of those), and how he’s just so awesome..and.and…

PATRICK STEWART! Even Russ was excited – I could tell.

We kept pausing and giggling and saying, “PATRICK STEWART” – well, I was. He was just nodding and grinning at me. He was just as excited about the prospects of John DeLancie (played Q), David Prowse (Darth Vader’s body), and other people I’ve already forgotten.

Some back story – I disliked Star Trek. I thought it was hokie, but when Star Trek The Next Generation came along and I was hooked (still not a fan of the original).  Then I moved to Austin, on my own, to begin my adult life and when I would have problems getting to sleep, I would pop in Patrick’s A Christmas Carol audio to let his voice lull me to sleep. The voice rates right up there with Sean Connery as someone who can read me the phone book and make me happy.  While in Austin, I became a part of a Star Trek club (yeah, I am that nerdy, too), and got to go to a couple of conventions where I met most of the cast from Next Gen as well as some of the original series people. But the one person whom I had never gotten to meet or hear speak was Sir Patrick.

So…the excitement of meeting him was just about too much to bear!

Then we saw the price. HOLY SMOKES! But we hoped that it would be a lot like the time we got to meet Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes and that guy who shall not be named who played Worf a couple of years go  (go here to see) – where we were able to at least walk up to them and say hi, even if we didn’t get a photo with them or get their autograph. So..the adventure began – and we made the trek.

We donned our geekiest matching outfit (just be thankful that there were no Star Trek Uniforms involved)

and took off. When we arrived at the venue, there was this REALLY long line. We kept thinking – surely it’s not a line WE will have to wait in. Maybe it’s the line for Patrick – for his autograph. yeah..that’s got to be it. We stepped off the bus, went to the first people in line who informed us that, indeed, it was for us losers who hadn’t bought the VIP tickets or come earlier in the morning. It was a VERY big line. They wanted to let us join their group since we were Whovians, but we didn’t want the wrath of the billion people behind them to come down on us for cutting. So..we made our way to the back of the line, and waited…and waited…and crept forward…and waited some more. We did see some interesting sites along the way:

Back to the Future

Jawas (mighty big ones if you ask me)

a “Ghostbuster”

Sora and other character from Disney’s Kingdom Hearts – Connor’s favorite game – he went just a little bonkers to see these guys.

We waited for about 90 min to finally get in the door, get our tickets purchased, and then I went immediately into another line  (for an hour) to wait to get drinks. The venue was so poorly planned at the convention center – I just don’t think they knew how many people would show up to see Stan Lee and Patrick Stewart. The boy went into the exhibition hall. In that line I found out that there was just no way we were going to get to meet Patrick. No way. We wouldn’t even be able to get a  glimpse. I was ready to go home.

Once we finally got something to drink, I decided I was going to brave it and head upstairs just to see what I could see. The boys continued back browsing the booths for cool stuff, and I headed upstairs. When I finally found the area where Patrick was signing, I nonchalantly walked around the area as if I was meant to be there, and walked around a door post to see….HIM! There he was – right there, signing someone’s autograph. Immediately a security guy tried to move me along, so I took a couple of steps away and got to watch a minute through a frosted window. I grabbed my camera, took a shot, then ran downstairs to show Russ and the boys only to find out I did not check the camera settings and the photo wasn’t saved properly, so there was nothing.  I headed back later to see if I could at least try again, and Patrick was already at his Q&A session (and I was dutifully told that my badge was not good enough to get me in), so took another shot of the window to have the keepsake:

Would I do it again? Nope. The wait was too long, the venue was definitely not set up for these kinds of crowds, there was no real access to anything that would make us want to go without paying HUGE sums of money (and we aren’t about to do that for any one), and it was just too much trouble. While there were moments of fun talking to other people in the crowds and seeing a few characters here and there, it was definitely a letdown.

Oh..wait..I did get to see the back of Stan Lee’s head. There – that made it all better

I’m only going to scrap some of my absolute favorites from the last couple of weeks, but feel free to visit my gallery at Sweet Shoppe Designs to see everything if you’re so inclined You can click on any layout to see larger sizes or the full credits.

My Honey

Fun kit + great template + fun photos makes me a happy girl!

And yes – we’ve been bitten by those silly Angry Birds – and are loving every minute of it!!

The only one in our immediate family to love Peeps, I blame it all on my father-in-law – they share this bond of  loving this really yucky candy, and Aiden looks forward to every Easter to share some with Granddad. We know Peeps are available year round now, but we try to save some things for the season they were intended – like candy corn only after October 1 through Thanksgiving !

Special because it’s my Dad..with one of his joys in life – his grandkids

There’s little that my boys like to do better than play in the rain! Unfortunately, in TX, most rain comes with lightening, so playing isn’t always an option – they grab those lightning free rain shower moments with gusto!

My gang at a Frisco Roughriders game a couple of years ago. We were given free tickets and enjoyed our evening immensely!

Our Baldwin family at Thanksgiving