Fall Break Was Busy But Enjoyable

Halloween decorations are up! (such as they are)

Well, it's October, so that means our family is crazy busy again. Fall Break for the local school just happened to be the week after General Conference weekend, so we've spent many days "off-schedule"; we're just now getting resettled! We managed to have a lot of fun though. Here's a quick rundown of some of the week's highlights:

MONDAY

This was our "little bit of everything" day. As a bonus, it was Columbus Day, so Nathan had the day off from work as well. Hooray! We went out to breakfast (where Celeste and Aurora were both fabulously rude; at one point Celeste yelled, "The problem with your restaurant is that your food takes forever!!!"); we took advantage of a lovely cool morning to visit the Reid Park Zoo; I visited two different Sunflower Markets to pick up Jonathan apples for my applesauce (the first store was sold out (!) of Jonathan apples, so across town we went!); and last but not least, we visited Bookman's, a used book/DVD/game/etc. trade-in store that's one of our favorite places in Tucson. Aurora found a pretty neat tiger hat there (but she sadly had to put it back; we had bought our allotment of used stuff for the day). We also managed to sell off a bunch of our old books and games. The constant trading-in and buying on store credit means we have rarely paid for anything out-of-pocket at Bookman's; part of why we love it so much! That afternoon I taught two piano lessons, and the kids had a play date with some good friends.



TUESDAY

This was the day I put all my Jonathan apples to their intended use, by turning them all into applesauce. You may have read my account of this event not long ago. Besides that, the girls all had playdates at various homes, which gave me a couple of quiet hours to do my canning. I spent the evening teaching piano lessons and attending a free dance class taught by one of the sisters in our church, who was a dance major in college. It was fun, but I was the oldest and fattest person there. I also woke up the next morning aching something fierce, in places I didn't even know I had muscles.


WEDNESDAY

Probably our least "interesting" day, but certainly enjoyable. We went to our local library's story time for kids; I managed to get a little blogging in; Lorelai had a play date; I taught a few more piano lessons; and we braced ourselves for the crazy days ahead.


THURSDAY

Lorelai had her annual doctor's appointment this morning (all was well, of course). Since our pediatrician is in Tucson, we also ran many other errands while in town. I took the girls shoe-shopping for their cold-weather shoes. Being in a shoe store with my three girls is akin to bringing a cat into a yarn store; let's just say it became quite difficult to keep everyone close by and on budget. We all went to CostCo as well; I love CostCo, but doing CostCo with three young kids is a laborious experience. Going through the "free samples" gauntlet all by itself can take a loooong time.

But our Thursday wasn't all business; we still had this to look forward to in the evening...

Disney On Ice!! A friend directed us to some pretty cheap opening-night tickets; I took Lorelai and Celeste (Aurora went to a game night with Daddy and some friends). The theme of this performance was "Dare To Dream," and it featured Princesses Tiana (of Princess And The Frog fame), Cinderella, and Rapunzel (of the movie Tangled, naturally).

Rapunzel's "floating lanterns" light up the sky

 I was amused by the whole show, but there were a couple of sequences I found genuinely lovely; a large rope of Rapunzel's "hair" was hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the ice floor, and the skaters playing Rapunzel and Flynn Rider would periodically climb aboard the lovely locks and go flying through the air.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got of the flying, but trust me...it was pretty cool! It added a nice element of acrobatics into a cutesy ice-skating show.

Lorelai, being my little tomboy, had been unsure if the show would be "her kind of thing." However, the aforementioned flying skaters won her over...as did the pyrotechnics. In the Princess And The Frog segment, when Prince Naveen was cursed and turned into a frog, she turned to me and yelled, "Mom...is there real magic in this show??!!?" Only the "magic" of entertainment, kid.

But while Lorelai had initially been a tough sell, Celeste was completely sold from the moment she heard we were going. For weeks she kept talking about the "real life princesses" we were going to see; she asked over and over again which princesses would be there. She spent most of the show clapping, cheering and generally squealing at the top of her lungs. Her reactions were worth the price of admission for me.

Of course, I had to buy some souvenirs...ugh. Just don't ask me how much they cost!


FRIDAY

We all got to sleep in a little bit Friday morning...except poor Daddy, who headed back to work. We still got to squeeze in a little family time, though; I took the girls to meet Nathan for lunch. We actually had some fun in Downtown Tucson...and I don't usually use the words "fun" and "downtown Tucson" in the same sentence! Last weekend, however, the city was holding the Tucson Meet Yourself Festival. Essentially, it's a showcase of many Tucson businesses, organizations, and artisans. And restaurants...let's not forget the restaurants!

There were dozens of food stands set up everywhere, with cuisines representing dozens of countries. It all smelled soooo good and it was sooo hard to decide what to eat! In the end, Nathan got some good old fashioned barbecued beef (wrapped up in a tortilla...because we're in Tucson), and I tried out a Costa Rican combo plate. It was quite delicious! I got a tamale (which had chicken, rice, and even a little fruit inside!); some sweet chicken mixture, and some rice and beans.

The girls weren't up for such exotic fare, so we took them to a nearby pizza parlor. They were very happy with their large slices of pizza, so everyone ended up full and happy. Our Friday evening was spent with various friends; the girls had a friend over to play, and Nathan went to his monthly gaming group. Fun times!


SATURDAY

It's officially fall now, and that means pumpkins. Since none of my girls had a pumpkin patch field trip planned, we decided to take a family trip ourselves! This year, we decided to stay close to home and visit Agua Linda Farm, which Nathan and Aurora had never been to before.

Here's the farm's "corn maze"...pretty lame

Agua Linda is a working farm run by a bunch of hippies local family; everything is organic and thus their pumpkin fields appear pretty wild and uncultivated. Every time I've gone there, I see huge crates of pumpkins they've bought somewhere else; then I walk into the pumpkin patch and see those same store-bought pumpkins tossed about everywhere, so everyone can "pick" a pumpkin. It feels like cheating to me; if they can't grow enough pumpkins for everyone, they should stop scheduling field trips and gouge people who want a "real" pumpkin-picking experience!

Luckily, there are some pumpkins to be found on the vines at Agua Linda; they are usually a little smaller than the store-bought pumpkins, but that suits our family just fine. Here are the three we managed to pick from the patch:

Now it's time to say some nice things about Agua Linda Farm--because we really did have a nice time overall! There are a lot of wonderful activities for young kids at the farm. Take, for instance, their cute little hay-bale maze:

And how about their petting zoo? Look, you can crawl right up close to the chickens (and potentially trap your family in a cage). At one point, when a chicken came too close, Celeste and Aurora started screaming their heads off. So funny!

There were also tire swings aplenty...

...haybale mountains...

...mini tractors for kids to sit on...

...and, last but not least, a tractor-pulled hayride, that took us all around the pumpkin patch. The girls absolutely loved it!

The weather was beautiful; our girls even more so.

What a fun trip!

SUNDAY

In church news, I attended Ward Council; later in the day, I directed the first run-through of the Primary Sacrament Meeting Program. Ugh. The less said about that, the better. Too many crazy wiggly kids to get much out of church on that day. Oh well...just two more weeks, and we can put this year's program behind us...and get on to other worries, like assigning classes and teachers for 2013. Man, Primary can be a headache in the fall.

NOW do you see why Aurora looks like this?? She looks like we all felt at the end of this long, happy week.

See you next week, after our ward campout!