And Just Like That...All My Girls Are In School

Oops, look at where the time has gone. My July was jam-packed, and I was just about to start blogging about it at the very end of the month...and then of course, our computer got a virus and broke down for a few days. Unavoidable delays are the worst! Very soon, it will be time to get caught up with some photos from our fun family vacation to Colorado!

But I have to skip ahead of that for just a minute first, to write about a pretty big event in the Barrett household...

...the first day of school! Our charter school, Great Expectations Academy, starts earlier than most area schools; the kids headed for class on Monday, July 27th. What made this first day of school especially memorable was that for the first time, all three of our girls are now full-time students!

No more preschool for Aurora; now she is a big kindergartner. And she couldn't be happier about it.

  Several of her friends are in the class, and she has loved her teacher and her class so far.

 I honestly hadn't been sure how she would handle the day away from me; after all, Aurora is the "clingiest" of our girls, and she dotes on her mama. However, she has barely looked back (although she is usually pretty pooped by the late afternoon!). She was socially ready for school to begin, and she is clearly loving her school life so far. I hope that enthusiasm carries on for a long, long time. I also hope I will be able to volunteer in Aurora's class in another month or so. It has been hard to be a volunteer some years, but I am hoping to "be more available" this coming year, with my days being so much freer (for now, anyway!).

Celeste is now a seasoned second grader. She is lucky enough to be in a class with all her best friends, and I am hopeful that her teacher this year will be better prepared to keep order than her teacher last year. My biggest issue with Celeste's first-grade year was the lack of discipline in the class; many rowdy students made learning very difficult for the more obedient kids. I am optimistic this year, and hope to be able to spend more time in the classroom to see first-hand how things are going. This year, Celeste is very excited to be able to try out for the school play (second-graders are eligible this year...yay!), and I can't wait to see what part she gets.

As for Lorelai, she is thrilled to be in fifth grade. She keeps reminding me that it is her "last year of elementary school." As for myself, I try not to remember that part of things, since it makes me feel pretty darn old. But I am still so proud of her increasing maturity and enthusiasm. She is very excited for her new teacher and that some of her friends will be her classmates once again. I hope she has fun in class, learning new things and advancing scholastically. Last year she sometimes got withdrawn and didn't spend as much time with friends; I hope she is able to cultivate a lot of positive relationships this year. She is well into the "mean girl" phase of her life and I am starting to pray every day that she doesn't experience (or cause!) a lot of heartbreak. I also hope Lorelai enjoys jazz band this year (she is very excited for it to start up again). She is also hoping to try out another after-school club as well (once she figures out what they are!).

So where does this all leave Mom & Dad? Nathan just started teaching seminary again (he has the sophomore class this year), and he is very excited about it. Work is also (mostly) treating him well. And as for myself? I will save most of my ruminations for another blog post, but I will say this much: I miss my girls terribly some days, but most of the time I am very happy for them. They really do love going to school, and I hope they enjoy every minute of it. This year will be a time of transition for all of us in several ways, but with each other's help, I think we will all pull through. Right now we are all in the stage of excitement and discovery with our new roles. Hopefully once we are all settled in, things will get even better.

Phoenix Phamily Phun Phriday 2015

Every summer, I take the girls up to Phoenix to play for the day. This year, we chose Friday, June 19th, since nothing else of great import was going on for us that day. Since the Phoenix area is so huge and has so many different activities, I try to mix things up and try something a little different every year. Although we did visit a lot of "old favorites" this time, we did manage to try out some new restaurants and visit one new location. So overall I'd call it a successful trip.

Our first stop was an old standby...the Arizona Science Center. It's a great science/exploration museum for kids, good for hours of playtime. We hadn't been to the Science Center for about a year and a half, and I'd bought a reciprocal museum membership for our trip to Utah a few months back, so we figured it was a great time to return!

As usual, the kids were able to entertain themselves for quite a while, both at the outdoor play area...

...and the indoor interactive exhibits.

We'd considered seeing an IMAX show, but changed our minds at the last minute. Instead, we paid extra to see a traveling exhibit called "Grossology". We were greeted at the exhibit entrance by this horror...

...and it was all downhill from there. We played flatulence pinball, we crawled around in upset stomachs...

...the girls climbed on a "wall" of zit-encrusted skin...

...played inside a congested nose...

...and made this guy burp by pumping gas into his stomach.

I knew going into the exhibit that it was about weird body functions, but it was still pretty disgusting. To quote Michael Bluth, "I don't know what I expected." At least the girls had fun playing with all the gross stuff...it probably made them feel like rebels. But they tired of it before long, so it was on to the rest of the museum.

After playing hard for a few hours (including a few rounds getting wet on the "nature simulator"), we decided to bid the Science Center farewell, and go try out a nearby pizzeria for lunch...Pizzeria Bianco.

This restaurant was definitely more of a "boutique" pizza place; each pizza only had a few (organic/all-natural) ingredients, and they were cooked in an old-fashioned brick oven.

 

I was a little worried if the kids would like them, but luckily they really enjoyed their meal! That said, the restaurant was a little pricey for a pizza place, so I probably wouldn't take the kids here again.

After our yummy lunch, we decided to have a little state history lesson; we drove a few minutes to the Arizona State Capitol Building to take the tour there.

By this point, it was really hot. Like, Raiders of the Lost Ark-style melt-your-face-off hot. There was a slight breeze outside, but it just made your skin burn all the worse. No sooner did we start walking towards the Capitol than Aurora started crying from the agony. Thank goodness for air-conditioned government buildings!

The Capitol museum actually turned out to be more interesting than I'd expected. There were several exhibits, all of them well-labeled and documented, covering many diverse aspects of Arizona's history and governance. There were also several sections focusing on notable Arizonans from history, as well as several items of historical significance.

For instance, there were two separate statues honoring the Navajo code-talkers, who aided in the US intelligence efforts during World War II. One of the statues was outside the building, while the other was inside and part of a larger exhibit.

We also got to see some relics from the sunken battleship USS Arizona, which the Japanese bombed in Pearl Harbor. First, there was an American flag that had been recovered from the ship, plus a piece of the ship's hull...

One interesting recovery was the "ship's silver" from the Arizona. Apparently, each major naval ship had its own silver, designed with motifs honoring the state for which the ship was named. It was kind of weird to see Victorian-style designs on a huge silver punch-bowl, interspersed with saguaro cactuses!

One bowl even had the San Xavier del Bac Mission engraved on its side. I enjoyed this one, since it reminded me of Nathan's previous job for the San Xavier District.

 

There were a lot of kid-friendly sections of the museum as well. There was a large exhibit on the electoral process (that's more interesting than it sounds)...

...and we also got to take a tour of the original room that housed the Arizona Legislature.

This may have been the girls' favorite room, since they got to do a lot of play-acting inside it. They each got to take a turn being Speaker of the House...

...while the others would sit at various Congressman's desks and "propose legislation."

Oh, and there was a gigantic Arizona flag made entirely of LEGOs, too. Good times!

Outside the Capitol Building, there was a nice little memorial park, with a few dozen stone slabs honoring various military organizations/law-enforcement agencies.

 

At least the kids were willing to stop and look at this memorial, because there was a dog on it. :)

We didn't spend a lot of time at this park (because soooo hot outside), but I hope to return someday to take it all in a little more.

What better to cool us off than some delicious ice cream? After this we headed for Churn, a small shop just a few minute's drive away. I'd read about it online, and was excited to try their oddball flavors.

The good news? The ice cream at Churn was indeed delicious. Just look at Lorelai's S'mores ice cream sundae. Yes, that's a giant melted marshmallow on top. Yes, it was filled with graham-cracker pieces. Yes, it was delicious.

The bad news? Churn has no indoor seating. Most of the year, this probably wouldn't be a huge deal; on this hot hot day, it meant we had to frantically scoop ice cream into our mouths before it all turned to soup. At least they had a shaded patio and some misters to keep us a little bit cooler...but not much. In the end, we weren't able to eat all our ice cream anyway...I think our eyes were bigger than our stomachs that day!

After this sweet interlude, the girls begged to return to Makutu's Island, their favorite place in the Phoenix area. It's an indoor play area, and it is pretty cool (both excitement-wise AND temperature-wise). And I'd brought a book to read, so I thought, why not?

 

The girls really got their money's worth...they climbed and jumped and slid and rode for over two hours. I was impressed with their stamina, especially after such a hot day! Luckily for me, I got a lot more reading done as well. It was a little harder than usual, though, since there was a "DJ" at Makutu's Island that night, playing a bunch of Just Dance music videos on a screen. It gave the whole place a more party-like atmosphere...which was good or bad, depending on whom you ask.

At least the girls got to do a little dancing, on top of all their other scrambling around.

Finally, it was time to grab a quick dinner from McDonald's and head home. Even if we didn't get to do as much "original" stuff as I'd hoped for, I think we still got a pretty nice mix of old and new during this Phoenix trip. It won't be our last trip to Phoenix this year, though...we are heading up as a family this fall to watch Wicked on stage, and we will probably go again just after Christmas, as is our custom. I wonder what we'll do for fun then? Time will tell!