Monday, October 31, 2016

Halloween

On Halloween, we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. For a lot of the time, we were with our neighbor, who has an almost 5 year old and a 1 1/2 year old. The kids really enjoyed that. They also enjoyed getting lots of candy and the couple of haunted houses they got to go through.

Pirate Matthew.

50s girl Sarah

Spider girl Megan.

All three.

This year's pumpkins. Megan decided to paint hers so it would last longer. (Carved pumpkins get moldy super fast around here. Like in a day or two. The downside to having beautiful weather for trick-or-treating.). Matthew's is the one on the left and Sarah's is on the right.

Halloween Happenings

If you talk to our kids right now, they'll probably tell you about all the fun Halloween activities we've had in the days leading up to Halloween. Here's a few pictures to capture the memories.

While Sarah and I were at Science Camp, Megan and Matthew went with U to a Fall Carnival at work. There were bounce houses, carnival games with candy and dinner. They even had a zip line and trampolines to jump on, but the kids decided the line was too long for those.

Matthew climbing.

Megan and Matthew climbing.

Pirate Matthew.

Cowgirl Megan.


A few night later, our neighborhood has its Halloween activity with bounce houses, dancing and candy. (Sarah informed me that she'd just come for the candy.)

Couple good shots of Megan dancing.


Sarah, Policeman Matthew, Spider girl Megan and Me.

Matthew during the costume contest for the youngest kids. He got a pumpkin!

The next night was our ward's Trunk-or-Treat and Chili cook off. Sarah's friend Malia came with us. Matthew was a pirate, Megan was Spider girl and Sarah was a 50s girl. The kids were very happy with all the candy they got.

Sarah and Malia.


Tonight is Halloween night so there is more fun on the way!

Other October Happenings

Besides visiting the Hall of Flame, going to Science Camp and having lots of Halloween activities (oh! and a trip around the world which I'll eventually get to blogging about once I get a chance to go through the 2000+ photos), here are a few other October memories:

U made a helicopter out of a box. Megan and Matthew had lots of fun playing in it. They even made helmets that had microphones on them.

Front view of the helicopter and pilots.

Sarah and her friend practiced making strawberry flowers. Looks nice!

The kids enjoyed a festive, tasty treat thanks to the Relief Society President. (Instructions: put pineapple in the bottom of a cup and then a cutie on that. Put a bit of whip cream and top with a candy corn.)

Cute girl!

Megan and Matthew with the pumpkins they brought to school for pumpkin day. They did lots of fun things with the pumpkins like measure them and count the seeds.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Hall of Flame activity

We went to the Hall of Flame for their annual open house activity. The kids all dressed up and enjoyed the various activities that were there. We even saw a helicopter take off as it got called away on an emergency! (That was a bit dirty though, as the wind from the blades blew a bunch of stuff on us.)


Sarah putting out a fire.

Matthew extinguishes the flames.

Megan puts out the fire.

Playing a "pass the fire extinguisher" game. Megan is second from the left while Matthew and Sarah are on the right. 

Using the fire hose to save the house.

I love the look of intense concentration on his face.

The girls doing their part.

A fireman from Scottsdale gave us a really in-depth tour of one of their pumper trucks. We learned a lot about what they carry and how they can use it. Here we are in the engine.

Riding a fire engine. Matthew was very happy no one lost a hat. (He'd been quite concerned about this as his blew off last year.)

 
Eating some Firehouse Subs.


The kids all got an airbrush painting. This is Sarah's.

Megan's.

Matthew's (in two parts since his arm is so tiny!)


Sarah in her poodle skirt.

Cowgirl Megan.

Nurse Matthew.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Science Camp

Sarah and I went to Science Camp in Prescott with her 6th grade class. It was the first time the school has gone to Science Camp and Sarah was super excited! I tagged along as a chaperone.

Sarah and me. They had this really cool photo station that Sarah used a lot. Unfortunately, this was the only picture that actually was sent!

We left the school Monday morning not long after school started and arrived at the camp around lunch time. Everyone was super excited to get out of the buses. Here's my group eating lunch.

Skyelar, Malia, Sarah, ThaiLee and Amanda.

Some of the girls spotted this tarantula walking around. There may have been screaming involved....


The groups played some games at the beginning of camp. Our group, the Cougars, consisted of two groups of girls (10 total) and one group of boys (6 total). 

Here Amanda is holding the stinkiest sock in our group. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), it "smelled like vinegar" and wasn't the stinkiest which "smelled like throw up."

Sign at the climbing wall, which we didn't use. A good reminder...

Skyelar, Malia and Sarah work on designing a bridge during the engineering class.

And a few selfies.


Monday evening, the kids played chair games, went on a hayride and played dodge ball. Then it was time for bed. Except that the girls mostly didn't sleep that night. 

Learning about photosynthesis and tree growth.

Sarah hugging a ponderosa pine. It smells like vanilla!

View from the top of our hike.

The Cougars at the top of Bean Peak.

Another selfie.

In the afternoon, they had a lot of fun activities. The first one was trebuchet, where the kids recorded and then graphed how far balls would go with different counterweights. Sarah's group did well. They also learned about heat transfer by making (and then eating) ice cream. They went on a zip line and did archery.

Sarah at the beginning of one of her runs on the zip line. I was bummed I didn't get to go on it, since the information had said the chaperones could go if there was time. However, the policy changed (although why it's less of a liability for school kids to go than for adults, I'm not sure.). Another of the chaperones and I got a good system going with helping the kids be ready to go on the zip line so each kid was able to go three times. (And there was still lots of time left after that.)

Another time.

There she goes!

At the bottom.

Archery. It was Sarah's first time shooting a bow and arrow and she did quite well.

Ready, aim, release!

The adults did get to do archery. Yeah!


A bunch of the adults. The lady in the turquoise jacket is one of Sarah's teachers, Mrs. Babcock.

The two other teachers, Mrs. Young and Mrs. Fredrick.
 .

After dinner were skits. Our girls did a skit where each of them crawled in looking for water. Here Sarah is right after she collapsed.

The fifth girl crawling in.

Once she got to the water glass, instead of drinking, she pulled out a comb and combed her hair.

After the skits, we had s'mores and all the kids got glow bracelets and necklaces. Then it was time for bed. Thankfully, the girls slept much better Tuesday night. I think between the exhaustion and the talk from the teachers (anyone out of their room after lights out was invited to spend the night in the teachers' cabin. And they wouldn't be happy to see them.), it was to be expected. Unfortunately, Sarah threw up. Poor kid! I think it was the combination of too little sleep the night before, a long day, not normal food and extra sugar. She felt much better by morning and was able to participate in the activities.

Playing human foosball. Our team did pretty well.


After an early lunch, we headed back to school.


Overall, it was a fun camp with lots of good memories made!