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! :)

Fall Break

We are 2/3 of the way through the kids' fall break. The first few days I put the kids to work to clean out their rooms and clothes and got a big stack of stuff to donate. Rachel complained, "I thought Fall Break would be more fun and relaxing. Like I'd get to sit around and read books all day." We got around to that eventually. :)

We kicked off Fall Break with a movie night on our big projector screen. Annie has been wanting to invite just her friends over for a while, and it was her turn to choose the movie for movie night, so we let her choose friends to invite over, too. Luckily her friends' families had kids of other ages, so the other kids got one or two of their friends to come, too.

Monday morning we went out to Dunkin' Donuts. Rachel has been earning beans for practicing piano and she had earned 50 beans, which is enough to buy a trip to Dunkin' Donuts. It was a good way to kick off Fall Break.

Annie has been begging to go to Open Gym at the gymnastics place for weeks, but it is during school. And it is just for kids 5 and under, so this break is her last chance to go before she turns 6. 

 She had a good time, as did Ryan and Megan. They spend most of their time in the foam pit. Rachel had a Grandma date since she couldn't go to open gym. She was a little jealous of the other kids, but had a fun time watching a movie with Grandma.

Ryan had kicked many holes in his door when he was in his big tantrum phase when he was 3 (and a little into age 4). He wanted a new door so bad, but the deal was that he had to go several months without a tantrum where we had to lock him in his room before we would get him a new door. He finally accomplished that (he's been much better the last 5 or 6 months or so), so we bought a door and painted it. He wanted to paint it green, so the inside of his door is green. The outside is white to match the other doors in the loft.
I had the brilliant idea to hang the door myself. I had watched the door installer hang like 5 doors at our old house when they had to be replaced, and had an idea of what had to be done (cut off a little from the bottom, and use a dremel to cut out the divots for the hinges). It took a LONG time to get it good enough. Then I went to hang it and it was too wide, so I had to cut the side, then do the hinges all over again. Then sand down the corner so it would close smoothly. Eventually I got it done well enough, but 4-5 hours is much longer than I had planned to spend on it.
Anyway, while I was out in the garage working the saw and router the guy who lives diagonal from us apparently had some health issue and 2 ambulances and a fire truck showed up. The kids were excited to see them and the firefighter that was left outside to keep an eye on the truck invited the kids to climb in.

 It was a little awkward when I looked up from taking this picture to see the neighbor being wheeled out to the ambulance. I waved, like "thanks for calling these guys out here so my kids could have fun," then got the kids and headed back home to let him suffer in private in the back of the ambulance.

We went to the zoo for our first real outing of fall break.

 Fun was had, animals were seen.

 The first weekend of October we were happy to enjoy General Conference. As per our new tradition that we started in April, we went on a bike ride/picnic in between Saturday's conference sessions. It was pretty nice weather and the kids went farther than we ever have gone before.

 During conference the kids did a pretty good job listening and coloring their packets I had printed out for them.

 Sunday afternoon they started to lose interest (apparently sitting for 8 hours is asking a bit much). Rachel built this awesome tower.

 The other kids spent a lot of the session playing outside, though Annie was so into taking notes when the apostles were talking that she made sure to come check intermittently and whenever an apostle was talking she would listen long enough to find something to write down in her notebook.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Rachel and Annie were able to attend a Fall Break camp put on by a couple teenage sisters that used to be in our stake, whose dad works with Jacob. The first hour was gymnastics, the second hour was arts and crafts.

 The girls had a blast and are hoping they do it again for Spring Break.

Wednesday afternoon we went to the International Wildlife Museum. Grandma Knight was able to come with us, too.

 In all the years we've lived here I've never been there. It was pretty cool.

 They had some cool displays of predators taking down, or stalking their prey. This was one of my favorites.

 You really can go snipe hunting. The bird to Rachel's left at head height is a snipe.

 Ahh! The jaguar is eating his finger!

 Megan wouldn't go near the alligator until Grandma carried her.

 This was one of my favorite rooms. It had so many animals, and some were HUGE. Those bears were amazing.

 Ryan liked the giraffe.

 Rachel in giraffe jail:

 The alligator is eating me. And Annie sits there calmly, not even caring that I'm being eaten alive. ;)

 There goes Rachel, being eaten alive, too.

 Rachel realized that this mountain sheep was just the right height for her to have horns.

 Of course Annie and Ryan had to follow suit.

 We've been to the library a couple of times, the kids have gotten to watch more TV than they usually get to, and we've been in pajamas for a good portion of most mornings. Overall, it's been a good break so far.

 One more week to go.