Halloween

Ryan was Buzz Lightyear for Halloween this year. So was his buddy Jimmy. They thought it was pretty cool when they saw each other at the ward Halloween party. Apparently Jimmy later told his mom that he was the good Buzz, and Ryan was the bad Buzz from Toy Story 2. :)

 These two are about 5 months apart in age, but have a huge height difference. Ryan is small for his age, and Jimmy is tall for his age, so they look like they're 2 years different in age if you look at just their height. :)

The kids had a good time at our ward Halloween party, doing a little square dancing, then we headed outside for the long awaited trunk or treat. Annie was happy to be allowed to go around with her friend Laura instead of having to stick close to Mom this year. She reveled in her freedom and went around a couple of times, stocking up on candy. Rachel probably made it around 3 times. Even Ryan and Megan who just went around once got a pretty good haul and were happy with all the candy people gave them so willingly.

Monday I went in to Annie's classroom to help with some pumpkin exploration. They measured pumpkins, saw how many pumpkins tall they were, then measured how many pumpkins tall I was (along with other activities).

Annie didn't want to dress up to go to school on Halloween because she didn't want to ruin her costume, so she went as an engineer, like Jacob, because he can just wear his regular clothes to work. Next year she'll have a badge to wear if she wants to go as an engineer again. One of the 3 Rainbow Dashes in her class said to her, "You forgot it was Halloween!" She replied very matter-of-fact, "I'm an engineer." It made me chuckle.

That night, though Annie was happy to dress up. And she made an awesome pirate, especially with the newly missing tooth that had just fallen out that day.

 Rachel was a ninja at the trunk or treat and at school, but then at her class party at school she won a cat-ears headband, so she decided to be a black cat for Halloween night. Luckily we still had the black tail from her costume last year.

 Peyton and McKenzie came to trick or treat with us. We had Reindeer Peyton, Doggy Megan, Pirate Annie, Kitty Rachel, Bunny McKenzie, and Buzz Lightyear Ryan.

And when it was all over we all celebrated because Halloween was over (so not my favorite holiday), and it is now time for the real holiday season to begin! :)
Rachel even began decorating for Christmas when Peyton left behind part of her costume:

General happenings

After fall break we were all happy to get back into our regular routine, though it seemed that our schedule has been busier than normal lately. But routine is good, even if it gets thrown off with more places to be than we are used to. 

Brush and bulky week (when people can put out extra big junk out for garbage pick up) sometimes yields great rewards. Like this time. Our neighbor around the corner put out her old playhouse. Whenever we would go to their house, Megan would spend most of the time playing in the playhouse. Her kids had outgrown it, and one man's trash is another man's treasure, so we hauled home this treasure, sprayed off the spiderwebs and killed a couple spiders. The kids have been thoroughly enjoying their new toy.

Jacob is good at playing with the kids. The kids especially like playing Sleeping Monster (where he pretends like he's asleep, then when they wake him up he gets them and tickles them), and building forts with him, and being tickled by him (he likes to hunt for Gnomes in their Knees). He came up with another fun game they like: fishing. He moves the couch to make a lake or ocean, then gets a string with a fork at the end where he puts the bait (apple slices) and tries to catch the fish in the lake. The kids love it. He's such a good daddy. :)

The kindergartners had a Community Helpers Parade that we got to come watch. Annie dressed up as a vet.

It also happened to be the day before Annie's birthday, so we brought one of Annie's favorite books to read to her class and some pretzels and a couple toys to pass out to her friends at school. Annie loves when I get to come to school. And Ryan and Megan were super excited to be able to go inside Annie's classroom for a little while.

Jacob got a negative converter for his birthday so he can digitize all the old negatives he has. Megan wanted to get in on the fun, and helped out for a little while.

Ryan loves playing Don't Eat Pete and set up this game for me one day. He put a bonus grape out, too. One of his favorite things in the world is numbers (he counts to 100 several times over the course of each day), so combining writing numbers with a yummy treat was a real win-win.

Ryan and Annie were having a rough time getting along one day. I finally sent them to their own rooms for a little quiet time and to get away from each other. When I went upstairs later I found Annie had left Ryan a note.

"Deer Ryan, you or (are) the scum beetwen (between) my toows (toes) You mac (make) me vomit. Loove Annie"
I'm not sure if this was in jest, quoting Little Rascals, or if she meant this sincerely. Never can tell with those two. They love playing together for hours some days, and can't sit in the same room for 5 minutes without fighting other days. Or sometimes on the same day.

After months of her top teeth being loose, Annie lost them both within a week of each other. The first one came out just in time to complete her pirate costume for Halloween.

On Friday Jacob's work held a rare open house where we got to go inside his work and see his office. Generally no one without proper security clearance is allowed in, so we have never been inside. There wasn't all that much to see, but the kids loved writing on his white board, seeing the great view from his high up office, and seeing where he worked. The next day they made themselves laptops out of cardboard, and set up their own offices just like dad's. They even put on the awesome badges that the company had made up for each of them, complete with their own picture just like Dad's work badge.

Fall break part 2

The second weekend of fall break we planned to go camping. The weather forecast said it would be raining on Mt. Lemmon, so we headed south to Madera Canyon. Unfortunately we missed the boat and got there after the last campsite had been claimed. The campground hosts told us of some primitive camping close by that we could check out. Rachel was NOT keen on the idea of no toilets nearby, which made us think we should help her over come her fear and learn how to rough it a bit. The other kids were totally gung ho. Unfortunately a stream crossed the dirt road out to the campsites, and we didn't think our minivan would be up to the challenge, so we turned around and headed home, much to Rachel's relief, and everyone else's disappointment. "Camping" in the loft under a blanket fort helped assuage the disappointment a bit.

Because we had missed out on the camping fun, we decided to go to a pumpkin patch the next day for some family fun. Kids got in for half price at Buckelew Farms that day, so we headed out there.

Apparently a big pile of dirt is all you need to keep kids entertained.

The sun was beating down pretty strong, but we toughed it out, riding out to the pumpkin patch for everyone to find a pumpkin they could carry on their own. Annie wouldn't settle for a small pumpkin, so she struggled to carry the huge pumpkin until we dropped them off at our car.

Ryan was a fan of the tractor pulling the wagon to and from the fields.

We checked out the petting zoo, but the animals weren't all that interested in the food the kids had. The only one that would eat any was this pig.

Because it was so hot, we got a couple icees for the kids to share. They didn't want to take turns, so they all dug in at once with their own straws:

They had pedal race cars Ryan and Annie enjoyed

Rachel got a size too big for her and couldn't pedal or steer well, so Jacob rescued her, driving hers back to the starting line.

We went through one of the corn mazes. Rachel wanted to go farther, but the other kids were getting to their last leg, so we took the short route.

There were some ziplines set up for the kids to go on.

Ryan:

Annie:

Rachel:

As we drove back towards home we encountered the storm we had been hoping would cool things off for us. Apparently the forecast was right that the storm would cool things off. In Tucson. Not several miles west of Tucson where we spent our afternoon roasting. Oh well. It was fun anyway.

When going through clothes to get rid of too small clothes and get out pants that fit, we found these overalls. I told Megan she could be a minion for Halloween. She liked the minion goggles for a little while, and loved the overalls.

Ryan loved the safety goggles that I had out for putting up his door.

I also had them out for an activity we did with some of the young women. They came over and some of them used a saw, then they made pumpkins out of the wood we cut. Fun was had by all.

(Since it was fall break and some leaders and girls were gone, we had the Beehives and Mia Maids all together for the evening.)

Family home evening treats and movie for the activity:

 The kids have really enjoyed being able to watch more TV over break. We made a rule a month or two ago of no TV/movies on homework nights, which translates to Monday through Thursday. It has worked out really well and now I don't have to constantly say no to them asking to watch a show all day. But over break they could watch it most days, usually after getting their chores done. I am looking forward to getting back to the no TV rule and less fighting and whining. Though I'm some of the fighting and whining is due to the kids being around each other all day every day with no break, I think TV also has added to it, and it will be good to get back to our regular routine.

Last Wednesday we went to Peter Piper Pizza to use up Annie's free pizza coupon she earned at school for something. Of course the pizza was secondary to the rides and tickets. Ryan liked the carousel, though Megan couldn't be persuaded to try it out.

 Annie hit 75 tickets on this game and was so excited.

 Of course that set off a round of "unfair" from Rachel that reminded me why I hate to go to those type of places. Instead of just having fun it becomes all about how many tickets they win and who got more. She got over after a little while and they all had fun. Then we realized that we were going to be late for the movie we were going to and high tailed it out of there.
We met Grandma to watch The Secret Life of Pets. The kids always love a trip to the movie theater. We go about 3 or 4 times a year: spring break, fall break, and maybe a couple times over summer break.

Annie is so close to losing her front top tooth. It's hanging sideways and leaves a big ol' gap. Combined with the tooth she lost on the bottom she looks a little like a jack-o-lantern. We keep telling her she should just paint her face orange and be a pumpkin for Halloween. Especially after that tooth falls out in the next couple days.

For the last official day of fall break, we went to the Flandreau Science Center on the U of A campus on Friday. My favorite part was the puzzle and math room. We could have stayed there a lot longer if Annie hadn't been so anxious to move on to the other parts of the planetarium.

Here are some of the kids cutting and putting together some 3-D shapes.

 This parabola makes it so no matter where you launch the ball from, the ball bounces off the parabola into the hole. Unless the ball is going too fast.

 The puzzle is to get all the blocks of wood to fit into the box enough to close the lid.

 Megan wasn't interested in solving any of the puzzles, but she sure had fun playing with the pieces.

 Downstairs houses a world renowned mineral collection. I told the kids to find the coolest rock they could and I would take a picture of them next to their favorite.

 This exhibit was pretty cool. There was a projector above that projected contour lines onto the sand, showing basically a contour map that adjusted itself as the kids moved the sand around.

 Its purpose was to show how rainwater flows, and it projected blue wherever the water would be as it rained, showing streams, and lakes, and if you made a tall mountain it would even show snow at the top of it. The kids stayed there for a LONG time.

They also thought it was cool walking around U of A campus.

 Grandma took them on a shortcut through the education building, where her official office is (that she never uses, because all the classes she teaches are off campus at elementary schools). They loved seeing the many different kinds of water fountains that could be found all around, and seeing the big lecture hall with the tiny desks to write on was a highlight as well.

 Grandpa and Ryan were twinners when we showed up at their house after church one Sunday.

We got discount tickets to Disney on Ice through Jacob's work, so we went Saturday to see the show. Grandma and McKenzie and Peyton got to come, too.

 Jacob and I even got to sit next to each other, so it was a nice pseudo-date. 

 Ryan and Megan weren't all that impressed with the first half, which was basically Toy Story 3 and The Little Mermaid.

 When the lights came up for intermission they were excited to go home, and disappointed when they realized there was more. We let them get some wiggles out running up and down the stairs, then they were ready for the second half, which they both liked a lot more: Cars and Frozen.

 Lightning McQueen was Ryan's and Megan's favorite part of the show. Ryan especially loved the sparks flying several times during the Cars portion.

 After the show was over we headed to Chick Fil-A for dinner before heading home.

I asked Rachel what her favorite part of fall break was and she said it was Thursday, when we got to sit around at home all day and not go anywhere. I liked that, too. The last week of break several other things came up that we had to add in to our schedule, so the week felt extra busy. But the first two weeks were a little more relaxed, and overall we were productive, getting some cleaning projects done that needed doing, as well as fitting in some fun outings. In 3 weeks we went to:
the zoo
the library 3 times
gymnastics and arts and crafts camp for Rachel and Annie
fall break camp with Mrs. Heather for Ryan
the International Wildlife Museum
Peter Piper Pizza
a movie
the planetarium
Disney on Ice
the pumpkin patch
camping in the loft
a sleepover with grandma
a bike ride
workout group twice
And we cleaned out and donated two boxes of toys, books, and junk, rotated too small clothes and got winter clothes out, washed walls, cleaned bathrooms, organized bedrooms and toy closets, canned/processed 60 pounds of chicken, and read lots and lots of books, watched at least one show almost every day, and participated in and/or broke up an untold number of fights.

Phew! Now it's time for a break. Good thing school starts back up tomorrow! :)