Fall Break 2012

My kids have an abnormally long fall break since their school schedule is modified year round. That meant two weeks to fill with super fun activities. In years past, we've usually spent an extended weekend in San Diego--Sea World, Disneyland, the beach, etc. It's such a fun place. However, Derek just got handed a bunch of work on a new case, so we needed to stay in town. I racked my brain for some fun ideas. I wanted to do one activity every day during the week. Here's what we did (I didn't actually do an activity every day, but pretty close!):

We read The Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base. It's a mystery novel that has everything explained in a sealed portion at the end. There is a story you read and then you go back through trying to put together clues that are revealed on every page. My kids really enjoyed this and I did too. I think my kids are actually more diligent than I am at trying to piece the mystery together. I was ready to cheat and look much sooner than they were.
The next day we sang some songs from a book about the Constitution of the United States. There were some pictures to go along with the songs, but we learned a little bit about George Washington and the flag and some other patriotic stuff. If I had really been a great mom, I would've had us do a red, white and blue craft and had a matching food spread to dine on, but we just sang songs. (Baby steps...)
The next day we went to Peter Piper Pizza. The kids had certificates for free tokens and free pizzas from the summer library program. I was expecting a dirty place with bored teenage workers. It was completely the opposite. The service was amazing, the store was clean and we had a lot of fun. I discovered that I really like to play the Let's Make a Deal videogame. I have a hard time giving in--I'm always hoping my case has a bazillion tickets!

Madi and Owen have been best friends and betrothed for many years now. 

The following day we went to the train park in Scottsdale with our friends the Russells. It is a really cool park with several play areas for the kids not to mention the train that you get to ride. Although there was one wild west structure that I'm certain is not up to code. The kids can play all over the roof and the ledge around the structure is only about a foot high. Being the good mom I am, I let my kids play on it. Following an exhausting train park visit, we went to The Sugar Bowl in Scottsdale. I had never been, but I loved it! Their portions of ice cream were HUGE and it was really yummy too. The kids had a blast.

The apples one week later. Ryanna's got mold, so we had to toss it, I graciously gave her mine. What a great mom!

We had an "apple day" where the kids and I peeled apples and carved faces in them to allow them to age into the wrinkly old witch type faces. That night we made caramel apples to eat.
One day we did a scooter ride through the neighborhood.
We also had a baking day where we made pumpkin and chocolate chip muffins.

We visited the huge Bass Pro Shop and fed the trout and explored the store. The kids loved seeing the huge mounted animals (Elk, deer, bear and small stuff like coyotes and snakes, etc). Caleb loved climbing on the ATV they had on display. Owen found some pop guns that made a great noise when you shot out the attached piece. We also rode the elevator which took us behind the huge fish tank and had a great time. When we left, Owen asked, "Mom, how much did that awesome place cost?" He was shocked that it was free!

Owen's in there...somewhere...

There's Eli in flight!

Owen REALLY wanted to ring that bell. 

We hit a new pumpkin patch called Vertuccio Farms with our friends the Kimballs. They had a train to ride, pumpkins to see, turkeys, ducks, pigs, cow, mules, the largest bouncy structure I've ever seen and one of those huge corn mazes that is a fun pattern from the sky. Ryanna and Quinn went to do the huge corn maze, but it was a bit too hot (90 something degrees), so they quit after a while. The boys did smaller mazes made out of hay bales. There were also strong man bell ringing things and bean bag tosses which my kids liked. And, little go cart things to ride. After we left we went to Bahama Bucks which the kids loved!
We had a park day where we got together with lots of friends from the ward.

He's making his mean face for the camera. 

What? Don't you carve without a shirt on?

My first attempt to carve a pattern on a pumpkin. Let's just say there were some complications.

It looked great for one full day!

Caleb's shirt was actually one we made when Eli was less than a month old. Amazing how fast the time goes.

And, lastly we carved a real pumpkin and we made our annual Halloween shirts--which the decals are falling right off!!! Except Ryanna's. Oh well, it's tradition!

100 Dresses Relief Society Activity

I'm sure several of you have participated in this Relief Society activity for your area, but we just had it for the first time in our ward. I found the idea on line here.
I really liked the idea of getting several copies of this book and circulating it through the ward, so that the sisters could be touched by the story before ever attending the event. We purchased five copies and started circulating them about a month before. The Primary President in our ward had several more copies and she lent hers out as well which helped. The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes is really a beautiful child's book about the idea of inclusion and true charity. It's also a very fast read--a quick reader could do it in ten minutes.
There are several different takes on how to incorporate the story in the book into an activity. I decided I liked the idea of donating our ward's used dresses, skirts, tops and shoes (women's and girl's) to a local shelter. We found one called The Center For Hope which helps women with children who have had substance abuse issues and are now recovering from addiction and ready to enter the workforce. They need dresses to go to interviews and once they have a job. On the posters we asked all of the women to clean out their closets and bring their stuff that night.
I assigned myself to centerpieces and I really hit the jackpot when I found another woman had blogged about how she had done the event. I can't find the link to her blog right now, but she had decided to frame photos of different dresses that she had printed on her silhouette machine. I don't own one of those nor did any of the women in our ward know someone who did, but I had something even better--a neighbor who scrapbooks and is awesome! I asked her to create dresses for me out of scrapbook paper. She hit a home run with it. I can't tell you how many compliments I got on her dresses.
So, our activity went as follows:
We provided dinner for all the women in the ward. After we had all gotten our food, I asked the woman who found our shelter to get up and describe the help our donations would provide to other women (the shelter didn't have someone available to come and speak). We also have a woman who used to work as an attorney with domestic abuse victims and she talked about how much help these women need. We then had a woman in the ward speak about taking hard situations and being positive. I had asked her several weeks before, so she could be prepared. She did a fabulous job.We then had a discussion about the book itself. The women really had a lot to say--who can't relate to this book in some way? We finished it with thoughts from a member of the RS Presidency.

Our ward easily donated over 200 dresses/skirts/tops/shoes. I have to mention that in addition to the sisters who donated, we had a husband whose wife had died last Christmas donate her clothing and shoes (she had over 200 pairs). We filled an entire van with what the sisters brought and the bed of an entire truck from the donations by the brother in our ward. I couldn't believe it. It seemed to me to be the perfect activity--service, socializing, food and discussion. I love it when an idea comes together.