January was jam-packed. Back to school, Rachel starting basketball, etc. And we managed to do a lot of fun family activities, too.
We've been needing to take down our play set for a while now as the wood is getting rickety and old. Ryan broke off part of a piece of wood when he was going on the monkey bars, so we finally got everyone outside and started disassembling it. Rachel didn't want to join in the fun at first, but we made her anyway, and she learned how fun destruction can be.
The kids all liked using the tools, but Rachel stuck with it until the end.
The others got a little distracted with the pieces as they were dissassembled, and a new playground was created.
The second weekend in January, and no sign of snow, so the kids used the platform and the old swings to go sledding.
Ryan earned his next belt in karate and is up to green with a white stripe. He sure loves his sports.
He learned a new form this semester using a fan, and had a lot of fun with it. The fans can be good and loud when they unfurl them, and loud noises are Ryan's favorite kind.
For my birthday we had my birthday buddies, Jill Reimann and Jen Grace, and a few others (the Allens and Knights) come over for games while the kids had a movie night in the other room. It was fun hanging out with friends, and we do that so infrequently these days, it was much needed.
The next day we had a party lunch at Grandma's house.
It was a long weekend with MLK Jr Day on Monday, so we went on a hike in Saguaro National Park. It was a decent hike and beautiful weather, and only a couple people got cactus stuck in them, so we'll call it a good day.
We got a Minute to Win It kit for Christmas and we had played one or two games here and there, but that night we got them all out and played all the games that were included. The funniest one to watch was the Elephant March one where you try to knock over a bunch of cups with a tennis ball stuck in pantyhose stuck on your head.
It was definitely a winner.
Annie did a great job in the 3rd grade concert.
This was the only picture I could get from my point of view of the square dancing they were performing. Lighting already messed up pictures, and movement made it worse. But it was really cool to see a bunch of 3rd graders perform so well.
We got tickets for the U of A women's basketball game vs. ASU and invited the rest of the family along and they took us up on it. It was a lot of fun to watch and the game was pretty close the whole time, but U of A won in the end, which made it even more fun.
Rachel started middle school basketball at the beginning of the month, so it was even more exciting for her to watch. Ryan starts his basketball league in a week or two and since we got the basketball hoop for Christmas all the kids spend lots of time shooting hoops, so watching a real game in person was a real treat.
Except that Megan was NOT interested. We sat down and within one minute she asked if we could just go home. Popcorn eventually placated her for most of the first half, then sitting by Peyton helped for a while longer. What kept her occupied through the second half, however, was taking pictures with my phone. We got a lot of gems.
Ryan was really into the game and may have caused deafness in some of the people sitting near him with his enthusiastic (ie loud) cheering. We may need to bring complimentary ear plugs for anyone sitting by Ryan in the future.
For Christmas Grandma bought us all family bowling. Megan again asked to go home within a minute of getting there, but after we got started, she ended up liking it more, and she won one of the games, with the help of the ramp. The kids really wanted to play in the arcade when they weren't bowling so we found a quarter for each of them and they got to play foosball to get a jawbreaker.
Pizza was included in the bowling game, so the pigs ate it up.
Ryan bowling:
It sure is fun to have cousins close by to hang out with so frequently.
Rachel's first basketball game was last week. Apparently it was against the best team in the league and they ended up losing, but Rachel scored 6 out of the 10 points for the team, and had a great time. You could tell it was the first time playing for some of the girls, but it was still a lot of fun to watch the play.
After the game the coach asked Rachel what she ate for lunch that day because she was on fire. She replied, "Peanut butter sandwich." He told everyone to eat a peanut butter sandwich for the next game since that's obviously got something good in it. I'm excited to watch more of her games this season.
Friday Annie's ELP (gifted) class got to go to Mildred's and Dildred's Toy Store for a field trip. They're starting a toy invention project, so this was their research, learning about what kinds of toys are good for different ages, and what makes a toy a good seller. They got to play with some toys and games for a while, then they headed into the store to hear from the owner, and choose a toy that caught their eye and explain what made the toy appealing.
As always, it was a lot of fun. And Eloise just got in to ELP, so she and Savannah got to come along on the field trip, too.
With such a full January, I'm sure there are many things I forgot because if I don't take a picture, I don't remember... a few that come to mind are that Ryan got to start Primary Activities, Megan got to go to Burger King for a mommy-daughter date that she earned by having a good attitude at school, Jacob and I managed to make it to the temple, and I was able to go another time, too, and I also made it in to Casa Alitas a few times. Busy, busy is our life. Especially after school, just keeps filling up with more and more activities.
