Children's Museum

As one of the prizes for their summer reading program, the kids all received a pass for free admission to a nearby children's museum.  We'd heard good things about the museum, and the passes were going to expire at the new year, so we went recently.  Considering it's $7 for admission for everyone (even Alex), I'd say we had a good deal for only spending $14 to take the whole family...and we stayed for 5 hours.  We definitely got our money's worth.

There was a pretend children's hospital with ambulance.  Annie and Alex made a beeline for that first.  Oh, and before I get too deep in the pictures, I will point out that this was was one of those activities where the kids weren't at all interested in looking at me when I called their names.  Plus they were moving non-stop, so there's a lot of blur.  In the ambulance...

Logan headed to the pretend grocery store first, and after a few minutes the rest of us joined him.

Annie had the amazing bottomless pit cart!  She made good choices, though; that's a LOT of fruit and vegetables, plus a turkey on the bottom.

Logan was meticulous with what he put in his cart.  He and Jim went through adding up the costs and being aware of how much play money Logan had to spend.

Jim rang up the kids.  I loved it.

Next we headed back over to the pretend children's hospital.  Logan and Annie were very much into taking care of the newborn babies.  (That's their favorite pretend right now that I'm pregnant.)  Here Annie was being so cute trying to put a diaper on the baby.

After dragging the kids away from the hospital (with a promise to return) we found a room with various cool tracks.  There were some golfball roller coasters, a train table, and this pinewood derby track.  The kids were even able to assemble and take apart the cars.  Surprisingly, Annie spent a VERY long time working on the cars while her brothers went from activity to activity.

Our next stop was the aerospace room.  Logan couldn't wait to get up in the big plane and try on the goggles.

Jim and Logan did their flight simulator.  (Annie did it later with Jim.)  That was quite lengthy, but I stayed in there with the other kids the whole time.  It was a rather large area and I even lost a kid once or twice...  Actually, that happened several times throughout the day.  I'm glad it wasn't extremely crowded.

Alex really liked these little planes.

We then visited the Lego room, farm room, pretend pizza parlour, and the music room.  I didn't think to take any pictures, but the kids really enjoyed those rooms too.  We made a short visit to the drama room, and the kids wouldn't LET me take pictures.  They were too busy trying on costumes.  This is the only quick poor shot I took.

And the LAST room.  It was an art room with all sorts of supplies available.  We painted, glued, cut, colored, etc...  Considering we'd been there for HOURS by this time, I was really surprised how much attention they gave their art in here.  I had to peel them away.

We allowed the kids to briefly visit their favorite two rooms one final time: the track room and the hospital.  Alex was being really cute hauling around one of those baby dolls that were half his size.

One final stop at the bathroom, and we were DONE.  If we lived closer, I'd almost consider getting one of their memberships.  I'm pretty sure my kids could have played in any one of those rooms for hours.  I really enjoyed watching their creative play; it was a nice family outing.

Christmas Kickoff

We did celebrate Thanksgiving, though it was more of a Christmas kickoff in my mind.  :)  The day before we prepped most of the food.  We had all the normal fixings, and ate well, but the best thing we ate was the treat we had the day before.  I was making a big pumpkin pie, per Jim's request, and since I don't like pumpkin pie I decided to make a few mini apple pies.  The kids helped me make them, and they came out super cute and delicious.  I only made a dozen and we devoured them straight out of the oven on Wednesday.

Immediately after Thanksgiving dinner (no pictures) we put up our Christmas tree.  Then Annie crawled under it and promptly knocked it over.

Then we had a big family nap.  Aah!  We spent the evening decorating the tree and listening to Christmas music.

Ta da!  We have several clumps of ornaments at about 2 feet high, and several very bare spots at that same height.

Over the past few days, the bottom portion of our tree has been un-decorated several times, and then Logan helps re-decorate it which means the clumps are ever growing and moving.

Kids Say

I was encouraging Alex to use his spoon during a meal instead of just holding it and Logan piped up trying to make a joke, "He thinks it's just to cuddle with?"

Logan, "So acorns have peanuts in them for us to eat."

Annie's justification for being on the kitchen counter, "I'm not worried that I'm going to fall."

Annie, "What color hair do I have?"  Me, "Blonde."  Annie, "No, I have gray hair."

Logan, "Dad, I am not sad that you lost my balloon on our trip to Colorado.  I'm not mad about that anymore."  (This was 3 months afterward.)

Annie, "I like humongous food!"

Logan telling a story inspired by the fact that Jim had just eaten a spicy bite of jalapeno, "Have you ever heard of the witch pepper?  Wanna hear what this pepper was called?  The witch ghost pepper.  Seriously Dad.  This was really hot.  He ate the whole pepper in one bite and his mouth was on fire and there were flames in his brain.  And he told his parents that he needed to go to the hostipal so they took him to the hostipal."  'pause'  "Do ghosts eat ghost peppers?"  'pause'  "And that was a true story Mom."
Me, "I'm recording this bud."
Logan, "Why?"
Me, "For your posterity."
Logan, "What's posterity?
Me, "Your kids and grandkids."
Logan, "You're texting that to my prosperity?!!"
Then a little later after we'd corrected his word, "Mom am I your posterity?"

Logan, "Mom, are you an Allison or an Allidaughter?"

Logan was running around yelling, "Valitation!"  When we asked him what it meant this was his reply, "It means you throw stuff in the air in a parade.  And it means you throw stuff in the air at Christmas.  We're pretending we're throwing stuff in the air that will make us remember Jesus' birth."

Being silly I said to Annie, "Bite the wall."  Annie, "I can't."  Me, "Why not?"  Annie, "Because I don't have enough teeth!"

Logan, "Do you want to know how long I will love you?  I will love you for 21 summers and 23 64 years."

Annie, "I'm a meal, but I'm a people meal."  Logan, "I'm a loke.  I'm a deer head fake deer.  I'm a deer beside me.  I'm a block chopper."

Logan, "You have to starve if you're hungry."

Logan, "I have an idea for when Joseph Smith is alive again.  If he lives in a house that doesn't have lightbulbs, I will put some lightbulbs in so he won't have to use candles anymore."

I asked the kids what baby names they thought would be good and Logan had one that I thought was funny:  Rainbow.

Logan, "Mom!!  We just ate alfresco!"  (He was using it correctly and was very excited to realize it.)

Logan, "I feel my blood!  I feel my blood taking water to my brain!"

Four Things

First: two pictures of a cutie.

Second: a Christmas project.  I figure I can share this one since he's young enough that I doubt he looks at my blog.  I made a pair of pajama pants for my 7 year old nephew.  Then because I had just enough fabric left, I made him a pillow case to match.

Third: Alex's first slumber party with Daddy.  Jim has a slumber party with Annie and Logan every Friday night, and he decided Alex was old enough finally.  I hear it wasn't the most restful night.

Fourth: A Saturday raking leaves.  We had a major carpet of leaves in our backyard, so we decided to take care of them last weekend.  It was a good workout!

LOTS of leaves!

We decided to throw the kids in the big pile, but I wasn't expecting Jim to throw them quite so high.  Thankfully she wasn't hurt, but she didn't like the fall on this one.

After a lot of work (we've learned a lesson for next year) this was our final pile.  Hopefully the truck will come soon to take them away...before they all blow back into our yard.

Announcement

I thought I'd see how well people would notice our hidden announcement in the last post, but now I'm going to make it obvious for anyone who didn't see it.  (Doubly obvious if you look at our sidebar.)  We're expecting baby #4!  He/she is due around July 6 and we're very excited!

Halloween

We had lots of positive, happy, un-scary fun this year for Halloween.  First of all, we went to a pumpkin farm (details and pictures on the school blog).  Then we went to a trunk or treat at the church.  That was a little overwhelming for me because they decided to hold the trunk or treating in the hallway instead of the parking lot and I could barely hang onto my kids and help them!  There were just so many people there since it was a combined ward activity.  The kids definitely had fun, though.

Here's Annie all ready for the trunk or treat.  She was very happy to wear the same costume again this year (good thing because I didn't have another option for her.)

Logan at the last minute decided he wanted to wear his old costume too...that's three years in a row!  He REALLY had to get out of his comfort zone to allow me to put facepaint on him.  Then he didn't want a picture of it.  Afterwards, he decided he enjoyed the facepaint.  He overcame an anxiety, though!  (Big deal here.  This kid has an unusually high level of anxiety, and we work with him on it a lot in SAFE situations where he can feel okay if he fails.) 

I was so excited to use the duck costume again this year.  Alex was one cute little bird!

We also decorated our pumpkins last week.  (More details and pictures on the school blog.)  This is the biggest masterpiece of my lifetime.  Too bad it's rotting on the front porch.  (Not normally an artist here...)

Last night we went trick or treating.  The kids had a blast, and it was such a fun family activity.  We really enjoyed walking around together and seeing the kids interact with the nice people that gave them candy.  Logan decided to wear his new-to-us costume.

We also had a little stowaway along for all of our activities.  He/she sure was secretive!

After trick or treating we had a good time hanging out as a family.  It was seriously one of those evenings where the magic of family time happened.  LOVED IT.