County Fair

I felt brave this year and took all three kids to the county fair by myself.  Connor's class had a (kind of) field trip on October 1st, so we all got in early with the other school groups, and had free admission!  I say it was kind of a field trip because, although we were registered as a school group, it was really all the families showing up when they felt like it and doing their own thing.  We got there just as all the big school groups were leaving, but before any other kids were out of school, so the kids' areas were pretty quiet.  We mostly just saw Connor's classmates and a handful of other homeschooling families, it was cool.  We saw (of course) all manner of farm animals, did the petting zoo, and I got to milk a goat!  It's a lot more complicated than it would seem (sorry, I wasn't coordinated enough to milk, hold Evan, and get a picture at the same time.)

     

Connor thought these piglets were the cutest things on earth.

I always leave fairs determined to be a vegetarian.  I wish I would stick with it longer, though.

The ever-present bossy goat enjoyed assaulting my kids.

   

The kids begged me to let them ride these ponies, and after explaining to them that this would be our only big purchase that afternoon, I paid the six dollars each for a couple walks around this circle.  They loved it, of course.

    

  

We saw a cool bee exhibit, looked at some robotic dinosaurs, and took a free train ride around the fairgrounds.  Then we saw it.  Or, rather, I did.  It cost only a dollar more than the pony ride, so I broke my vow and spent more money.

    

The "train" ride was not exciting, but it involved sitting down, so I was sold.

Yeah, I've seen those "When Animals Attack" clips, but I figured we couldn't pass this up!

Proceeds went to fund an elephant rescue shelter.

It was a fun field trip, despite the rain, but those fairgrounds are just too big.  When we finally decided to leave after about four hours, I had a pioneer handcart moment where I wasn't sure if I could get everybody and the stroller all the way back to the car alive.

   

We have had several new families move into our Ward in the past couple months.  One of them has a little boy Connor's age named Hayden who Connor just loves to play with.  Here they are being knights.  Notice what Elise found to be her sword and shield.  I love her in these pictures.

    

   

Lastly, Evan has a new trick!  Yay Evan!  He's also finally sleeping most of the night since he learned to roll onto his tummy.  I guess he never could get comfortable on his back, and that's why he needed help every hour or two.  Hopefully that's why.  I'm enjoying having a bit more sanity!    
     

First Days of School

During the past two years, Elise has always been jealous that Connor got to go to Joy School and she didn't (except for when it was at our house.)  So, the first day of HER Joy School had her thrilled.  She very generously allowed Connor to attend, since his school hadn't started yet.  This year, we have the sweetest group of little three-year-olds you could ask for, and the moms are all awesome, as well.  After teaching five-year-olds, though, these guys just seem so tiny!
     

First day of Joy School!  Waiting for her friends to arrive

Painting the school rules

From left: Charlie, Connor, Elise, Andrew, & Sarah

Connor's first day of school was the following week.  After a lot of thought and prayer, we decided to enroll him in a charter school located about twenty minutes from us.  It's a unique classroom/home-study program, so he does all his math and reading one-on-one with me at home, then the class meets one day a week in their own classroom for P.E., science, "team challenges", and art, among other things.  He attends from 8:00 to 1:00, so he gets to take his lunch and everything.  Here he is showing off his backpack and school clothes.  
   

It took me almost an hour to sew that Mario patch on.  I still haven't added the five mushrooms.

What an excited kid.

The first day of school was a bit of a mess.  Ryan was going to meet me at the school to do the parents' welcome party together, but I was running so late I ended up just dropping Connor off with his dad and turning around to take Elise to Joy School.  I was really mad at myself for missing everything, but at least Ryan got some pictures!  
    

   
So far we're really enjoying the program.  Connor loves his class and teacher - he tells me every time I pick him up.  His favorite part is in the afternoon when they do art.  We're also having a lot of fun with the home study stuff.  The kids and I just lie on the bed and read the history, poetry, and read-aloud books together, it's totally cozy.  We don't know if we'll stay with this school next year, but for now it's working out perfectly.
    
This was also Connor's first year doing soccer.  His Joy School buddies were all going to be on a team together, so we couldn't resist.  Its been a lot of fun.  He has practice every Thursday afternoon and has games each Saturday.  In their age division they split the soccer field in half and play two 3-on-3 games simultaneously against the other team, which is perfect for giving each kid more play time.  We didn't expect Connor to be that into it,  but he loves it!  (Although he does prefer to play "defense", which seems to mean waiting for the ball to come to him.)  His coaches both do an awesome job of making it low-stress and fun for the kids.  The team is named the "Blue Speed Racers".  Yeah, they picked it.
    

Stretching before the game

So much exercise . . .

    
We were sad to see summer go, but this fall has brought a bunch of new, exciting activities.  Besides, we live in L.A., so it's kinda summer 10 months of the year, anyway.  The other afternoon I saw this horrible creature in our backyard, trying to swallow my kids.
   

We couldn't turn the sprinkler any higher, because Elise was afraid she'd get wet.

Aspen Grove

The last few days of our August Utah trip we spent at Aspen Grove, a family camp run by the BYU Alumni Association.  We'd never done it before, so we figured we'd give it a shot by attending their "mini-camp", which is just four days long, as opposed to the whole-week regular program.  We arrived Wednesday afternoon and stayed until Saturday morning, and it was awesome.  I hesitate to recommend something that always sounded so dorky to me, but Aspen Grove is almost the perfect vacation for families with little kids.  They provide classes for the kids from 9:15 to 12:00 and again from 1:30 to 4:30, including the babies.  I wasn't sure how well that was going to go, but Connor and Elise loved their groups.  
      

Connor's group (the "Kittens") met for pickup after each session at this bear statue.

      
The counselors are all super-sweet BYU students, and we couldn't have asked for better people to take care of Evan.  He basically had his pick of slaves to take him on walks, play with him, and put him down for naps the whole time he was there (he's still at the age where he has no problem with strangers.)  I'd stop in to check on him and nurse, but we were pretty much free to do things as a couple during the day.  We played badminton, tennis, racquetball, frisbee golf, did archery (at which Ryan excelled), rifle shooting (at which I excelled), and a bunch of other goofy stuff.  We even tried the climbing wall, and Ryan did the high ropes course.  I was pretty impressed.  There was no way I was going to do that.  
     

    

       
Meals were all served in the cafeteria, which was super kid-friendly.  The food wasn't great, but it was definitely low stress.  The evenings had surprisingly fun family activities, including contests (here we are trying to roll a giant ball around orange cones, and attempting to knock other cones over with frisbees.)  
       

        
They did a cool "Cowboy Village" night full of western stuff like tomahawk throwing (at which Ryan also excelled - must be the Indian blood), crafts, treats, and this sword-fighting game for the little boys.  Yeah, I know cowboys didn't have swords, but they didn't seem to care much. 
        

       
The final evening they held a little show where the kids presented songs they had been practicing in their group classes.  Elise's class dressed up as the seven fat cows and ears of corn from the "Pharaoh's Dream" song in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  I expected her to be shy, but she marched up there and did her little dance with enthusiasm.  Connor's class didn't have costumes, but they sang and did actions to the "Benjamin" song from Dreamcoat.  It was super cute. 
         

Trompers, Trompers are the best, goooo Trompers!

It was raining like crazy that night, so everybody is bundled up

My favorite little fat cow

Watching the show with one of Connor's friends

After the show there was a family dance in the cafeteria.  The kids started out hyper, but quickly deteriorated to overtired, so we went to bed.  
    

   
We're definitely going to go back someday, although I'm not sure we could handle the full week.  Connor and Elise were exhausted by Saturday from the activities and the heat and the lack of naps.