I don't get out the paints very often because I don't like cleaning it up but I found that the girls are much more careful than the boys were and they did a very good job of even painting in the lines. Kaylee was extra careful and really surprised me. Wow
November 2nd I took the girls to a Mad Hatter Tea Party at the Woodlands Children's Museum. They had a lot of cute things set up and had many characters present from Alice in Wonderland. They got their faces painted, had cookies and juice, and made cool hats. They were pretty tired by the end as you can tell from Kaylee's face in the "picture frame". :)
We enjoyed LDS conference weekend and tried our best to listen to what we could. YouTube and Chromecast worked great this time on the TV. The kids were pretty good to be in the room while we watched. I had some activities for them to do. We colored, painted, and did snack time by getting a snack item for each corresponding word that they heard. We still we get more out of it as we listen to and read it later.
The first full week of October was pretty busy. On the 6th I had Scout committee meeting and on the 7th and had my first crown started. Not very much fun, but I guess I'm grateful for the modern techniques so that we can keep our teeth. We fed the missionaries that night so it was a busy day for me. On the 8th I helped with our Relief Society meeting by playing my flute with another sister singing. It was very last minute and not perfect, but it's always good to play. On the 9th I went with Tyler and Chris to a "mother's and son" night at the elementary school. They served pizza, lemonade, and cookies. Then they had black lights going in the gym and we danced. It was pretty loud and crazy. They started some hula hooping contests but Chris was getting tired. Chris really flipped out when I drew a star on his hand with glowing marker - it was for fun but he obviously didn't want it. I couldn't calm him down. We left with him screaming and I got so frustrated I had to pull the van over and get out of the car for a bit - and we only live minutes away from the school! I wish I had a good method for helping Chris calm down. At least 3 out of 5 mornings each week Chris has a break down before going to school and I'm not very good at handling it. I am just so tired of it. Doug is good at distracting him and getting him to laugh, but that is not my talent.
The 10th Tyler had a scout service project in the morning, helping at an animal shelter. Later that day we realized that this was going to be our only Saturday to do something as a family before Halloween so we drove up to a place called 7 Acre Wood. They had a fun set up with a petting zoo, playground, life size chess and checker boards, a zip line, sand area, mini golf, and pretend town area. You could pay extra for pony rides, tractor rides, and paintball shooting. We all had a fun time - we always struggle in the beginning with at least one person not wanting to go but once we get there we all usually have a good time. We bought a few rounds of paint balls and everyone enjoyed shooting the targets, especially the boys. We stayed until almost closing time (5:00). It was a lovely day, warm with a slight breeze, a perfect fall day. We stopped for a Little Caesar's pizza on the way home. :)
The next week was normal and busy. I usually try to go to the library on Monday, exercise at the church on Tuesday, errands on Wednesday, preschool on Thursday, and play group on Friday. Friday I was busy packing for our camping trip. The Cub Scouts were having a big outdoor activity on Saturday and the families were invited to camp over the day before if they wanted to. We hadn't been camping all together for a long time so we figured we were up for it. I made tin-foil dinners and ended up cooking them before we left. I didn't want to get up there hungry and then have to wait for an hour to get the fires going and get everything cooked. We arrived around 5:00 and we were hungry. We got everything set up first and let the kids play for a bit and then we ate. We tried making cobbler for the first time in our dutch oven. I went by what I had found on Pinterest but we must have done something different because it was too runny. Oh well, we'll do better next time.
Bedtime when camping is always the hardest. I was hoping the girls would just want to sit on our laps by the fire and fall asleep. Nope, they wanted to go into the tent, but once in there they just started jumping around and bugging each other. I stayed in there reading my book but they weren't going to sleep. Tyler and Chris joined us a little bit later and the girls were just bothering them. So I finally gave up and Doug went in and he was able to calm them down and get them to go to sleep. He is so much better with the kids than me. I just have no patience and they get me too frustrated. So once the 4 kids were in bed we were able to have a bit of fun around the camp fire. We learned a new game where one person leaves and the rest of the people choose a city in the U.S. Then the person comes back and one person who knows the game will tell a story or snap their fingers and the person who left (who also knows the game) will be able to know what city was picked. We played for about an hour and I was feeling so stupid because I couldn't figure it out. I finally had a theory at the end, but I didn't really get a chance to test it. They explained it a bit later and I was mostly right. I would have had it in another round or two. Doug figured it out a few rounds before I did as did a few others. It will be a fun game to take to the Datwyler and Petersen reunions. It was crazy how warm it was. I was in shorts for the whole evening and just had a light jacket on. Not your normal Utah camping weather in mid-October.
Sleeping was a bit tight. I thought that our big tent would fit us all but I forgot that it is only a 6 man tent. So we were all packed in there pretty tightly, but we were warm. :) Doug and I were up a lot - crying kids from the nearby tents, but thankfully our kids slept through everything. I got up early and actually showered - I felt so sticky and dirty. I got back to the tent and found out that Kaylee had peed in the tent, gratefully in was on one of our sleeping bags and not the ones we had borrowed. The Cub Master and his wife helped the group a lot and she cooked some eggs and bacon for everyone and we had breakfast burritos. Not everyone in our crew likes eggs so I had brought up some muffins, yogurt, and bananas too. After eating Doug started putting things away and then were were to meet at the amphitheater at 9:00 for our hike and to meet with the other scouts who didn't spend the night.
The Webelos went on a 3 mile hike and the Bears and the Wolves went on separate 1 mile hikes. I went with Tyler and the Wolves with Chris and the girls. Doug went with Damon. The girls did pretty well. I only had to carry Jenna for a bit at the end. I was glad it was only 1 mile. There were a lot of roots and rocks that the girls kept tripping on. It was a good thing Kaylee had pants on to protect her knees. After the hike we roasted hot dogs over the fire and had chips and watermelon for lunch. Then after packing up we went back to the amphitheater for some skits and songs. We finished off with a little service activity of picking up trash around the area. It was a fun day. A lot of effort but it was good to get outside. Next time we will remember to bring both of our tents and sleeping arrangements will be better.
The scenery was beautiful. The parks says that there are alligators that live in the park, but we didn't see any.
IN OTHER NEWS
A few random pictures:
I braided Jenna's hair to make it wavy, didn't have time to do Kaylee's.
Here's a picture from Google - gag! The guys wear a 'smaller' garter on their arm. Too funny! I think we will definitely have to be out of Texas by the time our kids get to high school.
1 comment:
That was fun to read, it sounds like you've been up to a lot. You guys are fun. :) I am laughing about that Texas tradition. HAHAHA! That game sounds fun, so I'll be excited to try it one of these days. :)
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