It has been a busy, fun summer (as evidenced by my mountains of blog posts). But, like all summers, it must come to an end. And while the summer season may not be all finished yet, my kids' summer vacation is definitely over.
Before school started, we managed to squeeze in a couple of small activities, like going to the Reid Park Zoo for their annual "reading celebration" that they throw in conjunction with the Pima County Library's summer reading program.
They always love to ride the bronze baby elephant!
It was very hot that morning, and it was also very crowded...like, three times more crowded than this library event has ever been in years past. As you might expect, I got cranky right away and had to bite my tongue a lot on this trip. The heat wore the girls out a lot too, so when they begged to play in the zoo's splash pad for a little while before going home, I relented...
They claimed they were cold afterward. Silly kids, it's summer...you're never cold in the summer in Arizona!
We stopped for an Eegee's frozen drink on the way home, so everyone was happy and sugar-infused in no time, the heat and grouchiness forgotten.
Our last week of freedom was mostly spent inside, listening to the rain (we're still in the middle of monsoon season), having the occasional play date, and watching a lot of television. That will be a tough habit to break now that the school year's begun!
On our last Saturday before school resumed, our LDS ward decided to hold a "Pioneer Day" pancake breakfast. Pioneer clothes were encouraged; unfortunately, not being very "crafty" people, our family had none. However, there was also a bicycle parade that the girls were happy to participate in.
The girls enjoyed the parade, even if we didn't manage to decorate their bikes in patriotic colors. So sue me...I am not terribly "festive" in the summer. I save all my holiday craziness for the end of the year (Christmas woo hoo!).
A lot of people were more into the "pioneer spirit" than we were...
That last weekend, I felt like I was clinging to my family, and especially my two oldest girls. It was hard to believe the school year was already upon us!
Intellectually, I've known Celeste would be starting kindergarten this fall...emotionally, it has been hard to accept that. Despite our occasional conflicts, it has been so much fun having her as the "big girl" at home this last year. Celeste has grown and learned so much in the last several months (riding a bike, swimming, starting to read, doing first-grade-level math with ease); I know she is definitely ready for the next step in her growth. But I will still miss her!
With Lorelai, my feelings are a little more complicated. I suppose I am "used" to her leaving me every fall by now. However, since she had so many issues in second grade (especially loud, unruly, bullying classmates), I have been a little nervous about sending her back into the "jungle" of elementary school. Her new teacher is renowned at school as being a real tough cookie, who puts up with absolutely no nonsense. I am hopeful this year will be a more productive one emotionally and academically; but since Lorelai is a little sensitive to criticism, I think having a tough teacher will be a bit of an adjustment for her.
When the first day of school dawned, Lorelai and Celeste were so excited. They were up bright and early, dressed and with beds made. They even helped make their own lunches! I certainly hope that is a trend that continues...
I didn't shed any tears dropping them off...I was so proud of myself! Their enthusiasm helped me feel happier and more confident that everything would work out well. Lorelai immediately found her friends and started catching up on old times; she couldn't wait to get into the class. She had already forgotten I was there!
Celeste was even more excited, if that were possible. I had turned to talk to Lorelai for a few minutes, only to turn around and see that Celeste was nowhere to be seen! She'd walked through the main gate of the school, straight into her classroom. Once there, she hung up her backpack...
...sat down, and immediately began working on a project! She didn't even need a hug, or need to say goodbye! She even went right up to her teacher and said, "I'm ready to do some math. Where do you keep the math books?" Wow!
Things got a little weird when I headed home...and it was just Aurora and myself. Now we are down to two people every day; it's an odd feeling! We don't quite know what to do with ourselves yet during the day, but we'll have plenty of time to figure out. Our regular weekly schedule will still take some time to figure out (the girls' dance classes don't start until next week; my piano students are still figuring out when they want to come over). So I may have a little time to sit back and relax (and hopefully finish blogging about our summer!) for a few days.
This will be a pretty short post, but it's a necessary one, since it's about a pretty big change in my life. On Sunday, July 21st, I was released from my calling as Primary president in the Sahuarita First Ward. I had been Primary president for almost exactly two years; before that, I'd served in Primary as piano player and as classroom teacher. All told, I'd served in Primary for more than five years, up until my recent release. Now, I am no longer serving in Primary at all, and I have to actually (gasp!) attend Sunday meetings with adults.
I have known my release was coming since the end of June, when our bishop called me on the phone and told me my replacement was imminent. Technically, I've known this release was coming since Nathan was called to be the ward mission leader in May. In general, the LDS Church tries to avoid calling husbands and wives to serve in leadership callings at the same time. The way the bishop saw it, I'd had my "turn," and now it was Nathan's turn to take the lead.
Luckily, Primary is in excellent hands (probably better hands than mine!!). My dear sweet friend Elizabeth was called to be the new Primary president, and she is more than capable of handling whatever craziness serving in Primary will bring. Her counselors are awesome ladies, and I know they will all do a great job. Even so, however, I can't help but be a little jealous of them all...because I am going to miss being in Primary!
My feelings on getting released are very mixed. On one hand, it will be a relief to not have to attend so many meetings. My new callings (yes, I have two) are ward missionary and ward choir director (ugh). I am actually looking forward to not being in charge all the time, and just doing what people tell me to do. I guess I will be a "leader" in ward choir, but in general, adults don't need the "herding" and constant attention that children need. I also won't miss the administrative duties; there were a lot of extra calls, e-mails, and messages that constantly needed sending. It could be very overwhelming at times to juggle as many tasks as were sometimes required of a Primary president.
On the other hand, though, I will miss some of this work as well. Even though it kept me busy, I always felt good doing it, because I knew I was working in the service of others...both children and their parents and teachers. It was always so satisfying to see a project, lesson, or activity come together, and to know it was benefiting others. Being Primary president was one of the greatest learning experiences of my life, and I will always be grateful for that. It taught me a lot about leading, delegating; accepting responsibility; sticking to my guns; standing up for myself and for others; being kinder and more diplomatic; being patient and empathetic; and a whole bunch of other things.
On that note, I am also so grateful for the chance I had to serve with so many amazing women as my counselors. Some of them had previously been Primary presidents themselves, and they were excellent at giving me good advice and counsel, while simultaneously letting me have the final say and deferring to my decisions. They were such hard workers and great helpers; and above and beyond all that, they were sweet wonderful friends too! It has been great getting to know them and serve with them.
Most of all, I will miss being with the Primary children. When I moved to Arizona almost ten(!) years ago, I was called as a Primary teacher for the first time in my life. I went home and cried for days. I was convinced I didn't like working with kids, and would lose my patience and my mind. I was sure I'd never feel the Spirit in church again! Well, I was wrong on all counts. I grew to love the kids in my class...and then all the kids in Primary. After we moved from Tucson to Sahuarita, I felt the same thing all over again.
Primary children can be restless, noisy, and at times impolite (Primary is many things, but it is never boring!). But Primary children are also innocent, pure, and sweet. They want to understand the gospel, and they want to know the truth. When they bear their testimonies, it's so powerful...even more so than the testimonies of adults, in a way. Their enthusiasm and vitality always helped me feel young and full of energy. And when I looked into their eyes and felt their love, I wanted nothing more than to be a righteous leader, and to be a good enough person that I could keep them on the path back to our Father in Heaven.
Despite all the craziness and stress, I will really miss the Primary children. Serving in Primary has made me a much better person, and I hope I can carry that over into my new callings. This last Sunday, I went into Relief Society for the first time in a loooong time. It was a little weird, but it was nice to sit with my friend (and former counselor) Rita and listen to a lesson presented for adults. It was nice to feel fellowship with the sisters in the ward. But it will take a while to get used to the quiet and the peacefulness! Oh, well...I can always substitute teach a Primary class to break the monotony :) In the meantime, I am hopeful and optimistic to see what the Lord has in store for me next.
Our summer was (for us, at least) surprisingly busy. I usually prefer to stay at home and do nothing, and let the kids figure out how to amuse themselves. Also, I am a cheapskate, so I don't often pay for extra summer activities. This summer, however, I decided to splurge a bit, and our days and weeks got more crowded. Besides our UT family reunion, we paid for the girls' swimming lessons, and then finally in late July...a week-long hip-hop dance class!
My friend Cindy, who is a member of our LDS ward, was holding a series of hip-hop classes throughout the summer. Our ward is blessed with a lot of talent...including a lot of really good dancers! Cindy is really energetic, funny, and fun to be around; I thought the girls might enjoy doing some hip-hop dancing as a change of pace.
Lorelai is a little more tuned-in to popular music than her sisters (and myself, for that matter!), and she loves to dance around to that music at home. I wasn't worried about her loving the class. Celeste, however, is our precious little girly ballerina princess baby, so she was a little more wary of the whoel "hip-hop" thing. She got especially disappointed that she had to wear tennis shoes(!) for hip-hop dancing, and no skirts(!!!). She went into the first lesson with eyes downcast. Luckily, she got caught up in the energy of everything, and by the end of the first day, she was saying, "I LOVE hip-hop Mom! It is even more fun than ballet!!"
The class was filled with five- to eight-year-old girls, plus two older girls who acted as Cindy's "assistants." The class was held Monday through Friday, July 15th through the 19th, for an hour each day. The class learned a new "mini-dance" the first four days, and then on Friday they did a quick review and performed all the dances for the parents.
Here's the class, in "normal" mode...
...and doing their "cool" poses :)
Here are each of the four dances, in all their glory (well, as much glory as I could muster sitting on the ground and trying to photograph the girls while holding Aurora). The girls are in the rear of the formation on the first two dances, but in the last two dances, the kids were all shuffled around and they're closer to the front. I also got about half of Cindy in the frame, but I don't think she'll mind!
I thought all their dances were so fun and so adorable! I'm also glad they had such a good time. Lorelai in particular really seemed to take to this style of dancing, which was a revelation since she wasn't as interested in ballet-style dancing. Cindy even told me that Lorelai has "got some moves"! Maybe this will be something she is interested in doing in the future. For Celeste, it was a fun diversion, but she is looking forward to ballet in the fall anyway. Maybe next summer she'll feel like shaking her stuff again!
Last summer, the girls and I took a day-trip to Phoenix to play; it was a lot of fun and I thought it would be a good idea to repeat the trip. Heck, maybe we will make a tradition out of it...we'll do at least one "fun" day in Phoenix every summer! However, this year, I didn't want to just repeat everything we'd done last year...there are a lot of cool things to do in Phoenix, and I wanted to branch out a bit. The only catch was that our bank account was feeling a little slim due to our June trip to UT, as well as various annoying vehicle repairs and other necessary expenses that have cropped up this summer. It was time, I thought, to have fun while being thrifty.
For example, I decided to take the kids someplace where we already had a membership card that would let us in for free--the Arizona Science Center! True, we had visited it once recently (I did feel a bit guilty about revisiting so soon), but truthfully, it is an awesome museum for kids, and the girls were all overjoyed to be returning again. We last saw the Science Center during our Phoenix over-nighter last December, but there were already some new exhibits up for the kids to discover, as well as some favorites from our last trip they were excited to revisit.
It looked a little different from the last time we saw it...this hill outside the Science Center was covered with snow when we visited last December! Now it's just your typical grassy knoll.
Here are some of the highlights from our return to the Science Center:
It was fun to shoot balls into the air with water spouts...
...so Aurora spent a great deal of time getting everything in just the right position!
A new exhibit taught kids about everything involved in building a house, from the differences in shower wall composition...
...to the intricacies of plumbing...
...to the agony of interior decorating.
Lorelai & Aurora enjoyed using these wooden slats to build their own houses.
In the "human body" section of the museum, Aurora loved going down the massive stomach slide...complete with gross burping sound effects!
Watching the suspended bicycle rider as she made her way over the first floor of the museum
Celeste was everywhere, including on a bed of nails...
...and spinning on a centrifugal force pole.
Aurora likes to imitate her big sister...
...in all things.
Here's the "intense weather simulation" platform, in which visitors are treated to gusty winds, earthquakes, rainfall, and intense heat. Lorelai is a little scared of this exhibit, so she only stood in the "danger zone" when the program was turned off.
She much preferred to study rocks...
...while Celeste & Aurora got rained on.
Here's the "volcano" portion of the simulator; intense heat & a shaking floor! Whee!
The girls all love to pose in front of Planet Earth
This was a special screen the girls could stand behind, then watch as digital colored "rain" fell on their shadows. Pretty cool.
I am not sure when we'll return to the Science Center again. I'd like to take a break from it for a little while, so it doesn't get stale. Also, our membership to Kitt Peak National Observatory (which, coincidentally also gives us free entry to the Science Center) will be expiring by the end of the year. However, we've gotten so many benefits from this membership that we will likely be renewing it soon, one way or another. We are a family of museum nerds, and there's no way we will pass up free entry to such an awesome place!
Playing amidst all the science, however, made us pretty hungry. I decided to drive a mile or so through downtown Phoenix to a famous restaurant I'd never visited before...The Old Spaghetti Factory. I figured the kids would love the carb boost after all their running around...
...and did they ever! They loved just about everything at the restaurant: the fact we got to sit inside an "actual" trolley car, which sat smack-dab inside the dining area; the warm buttered bread; the tasty spaghetti with its huge meatball accompaniment! All that, and the kids got spumoni ice cream for dessert at the end!
From an interior decoration and nutritional perspective, The Old Spaghetti Factory is firmly stuck in the 1980s. It felt like I'd gone back in time to an earlier time, with dark, lacquered, overly decorated walls looming over me as I ate. There wasn't even a Wi-Fi connection in the place, either...it was a pre-Internet kind of lunch! As I munched on my noodles, I mused that the low-carb/healthy carb crowd would probably have a conniption fit if they were forced to eat here. The way I see it, stuffing your face with delicious hot spaghetti is not a crime, so long as you don't do it all the time.
Now that our bellies were full and our energy restored, I decided to take the kids to an indoor playground that some of my friends had told me about, but we'd never visited ourselves. Makutu's Island is located just off the freeway in Chandler, on our way out of town. The location was perfect for a quick getaway to home after our visit. Another reason I chose Makutu's Island was that we could get in for half-price because it was our first trip there! This was great news on account of that "slim bank account thing" I mentioned earlier.
As it turned out, Makutu's Island may be something worth paying full price for in the future. It was inevitable that we compare it to Pump It Up, the indoor inflatable playground in Tucson that's also popular with my girls. Makutu's Island has a smaller play area than Pump It Up, and like Pump It Up, it has a faint whiff of sweaty gym socks...but that's probably inevitable in a place like this. However, I thought Makutu's Island was a nicely decorated, very creative play area, and it was the perfect level of "little daredevil" for my kids.
The girls crawled through tunnels and artificial "grottoes"; slid down metal poles; walked across creaky wooden bridges twenty feet off the ground (don't worry, there are protective nets beneath!); climbed ladders, stairs, ropes, and artificial "trees"; and dove down some pretty tall, steep, twisty slides...
It was all very exciting!
Aurora was a little nervous about the whole thing the first time through; she made me follow her everywhere through the play area. Bad idea! It was a play area designed for kids and young teens; there were many places that adults could barely fit inside. I managed to navigate through most of the play area with Aurora, but only with great difficulty. I bruised my hips & arms several times, and I twisted my ankle so badly it was sore the entire next day. I did see a few other adults crouched inside various secions of the play area; as I doggedly crawled past them, I saw they had the same expression on their faces as on mine...long-suffering patience.
Mostly, I was content to sit at the foot of the giant "tree" playground that filled the center of the room, reading my book and listening to the progress of my happy girls as they passed by beside, around, and over me. We ended up staying for more than two hours, with no real breaks; the girls went at full speed the whole time! In fact, Celeste and Aurora burst into tears on the way out, because they were so sad to leave. That probably means we'll have to take them back someday!
Lorelai took this shot from our car...not bad!
It was past six o'clock in the evening when we finally emerged from Makutu's Island (into the hot hot Phoenix night air...ick!). However, I'd brought enough snacks in the cooler to keep our kids fed so we could go straight home without stopping for dinner. The ride home was uneventful and quiet, since the girls all started snoozing in their seats. It had been a very fun day, and we were all tired, full, and happy. It may have been our last "official" Family Fun Friday of the summer (since we ended up having a bunch of commitments on the following Fridays), but at least we went out with a bang! I wonder what we'll do in Phoenix next summer?
