Another trip to the Benjamin Stephenson house

I chaperoned Bella's field trip to the Benjamin Stephenson house on Friday.  Due to budget cuts this is one of the few field trips the kids will get this year. 

Inside the house the children were expected to life by the etiquette rules of that era.  Which meant the girls got the soft setee and the boys had to sit on hard chairs.  The girls also got to always be first.  The boys in our group were dying.  They thought it was horribly unfair.

Saturday I got another excursion with Bella.  We went to her friend Camie's B-day party.  Camie just recently moved out of our ward to another ward.  She was the only other girl in Bella's primary class so she really misses Camie.  She had a countdown all week until the party.  On Saturday, she got up and was dressed and ready to go hours before it started.  She was ready before me and I had a church meeting to go to beforehand.

(Don't try to take her picture if she's not in the mood!)

Children's Zoo

Bella has been asking to go to the zoo for months. Since we didn't make it with Grandpa and Grandma, I took them on Veteran's Day.  She didn't just want to go to the zoo though, she wanted to go to the Children's Zoo.  She loves to pet the guinea pigs and brush the goats.  We met up with a couple other moms from school and had a wonderful time. The other two moms each had girls Bella and Xandy's age, so we took Delaney along with us so Katy wouldn't be bored. (Poor Jacob was the only boy out of a dozen people, but the zoo is his favorite so he didn't mind too much).  One of the giraffes came right up to the fence and was eating grass out of people's hands.  The girls thought it was great.  Jacob was disappointed that the giraffe couldn't reach his hand.  (Notice the shorts!  we couldn't have asked for a nicer day and I love that it was still so warm in November!!)

Overheard at the Puffin Pool:

Jacob: Mom, when I grow up to be a puffin, I'm going to splash people

Me: Sorry, but little boys don't grow up to be puffins

Jacob: (Pouty face) Aw..... (face suddenly brightens) Can I be a puffin for Halloween next year?

Me: If you want, sure.

Jacob: and can you put me in a pool of water to trick or treat in?

Me: ?????

Jacob funnies

If you squeeze Jacob's to tightly he gets digruntled and says "Stop squeezing my head off"

The other day the car wouldn't start when we came out of the YMCA.  Jacob kept telling me "Just pull that thing down right there.(he was pointing at the gear shift)  Mom, that's how it goes.  Just pull it down!"  
Should I be concerned that he's already figured that part out?

On a side note, Jared had to come help us.  Apparently there was a glitch and the interior lights weren't going off when the door shut.  After figuring out what was wrong, we took the lights off the door mode and Jared jumped us.  Afterwards, we went to Qudoba so Jared could eat before returning to work and so he could make sure the car would keep starting before I set off to run errands.  Jacob thought it was the best day in the world.  He told everyone we ran into that day that "our car broke and Dad came to rescue us and I got to ride in his car to the restuarant, and he bought me a soda!"  So even though I was slighly inconvienced by the 20 minutes spent waiting for Jared, and Jared had a even bigger inconvience leaving work, the day was wonderful in Jacob's mind.  Just goes to show its all in the perspective.

Turkey disguises and Christmas jewelry

Each year, the students and families at the elementary school disguise turkeys so they can blend in and not become someone's dinner. Sometimes the directions are specific- like the year Katy had to decorate hers to look like a professional of some sort.  Xandy followed her lead that year and we had a teacher and a nurse.   This year the directions left it up to your imagination.  After steering them away from things they had done in the past (I really wasn't keen on making another teacher) we settled on a flower garden and a christmas tree. They both turned out pretty cute.  Xandy said hers was the class favorite.

Jacob loves to have his picture taken, BUT only if he can make silly faces.  Trying to get a cute serious picture can be next to impossible on some days

The girls made the necklaces and bracelets they are wearing in this picture.  They made the jewelry to match their Christmas dresses that are red satin and black velvet.  This was the first time Jacob wore a suit coat.  He was so stinking cute, I had a hard time reprimanding him when he was irreverent.

The last two days

The primary program was scheduled for the week after Grandpa and Grandma were there.  I wished the timing would've been a little better, but we did skip Sunday school to watch the primary practice.  It was the next best thing to actually having them there the week of. 

Sunday after church we hit the trail for one last walk and Grandpa grilled some yummy steaks for dinner!

The "boys"

Even more silliness occurred

 Jeanne stayed home to read (or maybe to enjoy the peace and quiet)

Monday the girls tearfully said goodbye before leaving for school.  Shortly after I got back from my morning run, Jared called.  He was sad he'd had to say goodbye the night before and was already missing his parents.  He asked if we'd have time to meet him for lunch before they left for the airport.  So, the rest of us got one last excursion together and Grandpa got to eat at Steak N' Shake afterall.  The girls were NOT happy when they came home and Jacob told them his secret.

The Great Godfrey Maze

(continuation of our week with Grandpa and Grandma)
Saturday was Katy's last soccer game.  She was glad Grandpa, Grandma and Aunt Jeanne got to see her play.

After the game we headed to the Great Godfrey corn maze. Grandpa bought everyone the combo passes. In addition to unlimited access to the maze, we got to go on a zipline, shoot the corn cannon, ride on a hayride, and the kids got to ride on the kiddie train. We packed a lunch and continued to enjoy the beautiful weather. I even regretted not wearing shorts. It got really warm!

The corn cannons

silly Grandpa!

Grandma and Katy on the zipline

silliness must run in the family

The corn box is a favorite with our kids.  It took me months to get all the corn out of the washer and the car last year.  We did a little better at emptying our pockets and shaking out our clothes this time.  All the kids took a turn getting buried and all 4 wanted their picture posted

Bella

Jake

Katy

Xandy

We finished off the fun day with a trip to Bobby's.

Geocaching

Jared had a pretty busy week at work the week his parents were visiting.  Additionally, one of his co-workers was going out of town for a wedding.  He had pre-warned me that he wouldn't be able to take any time off.  I was disappointed he wouldn't be able to spend more time with them.  I was however, planning on pulling the girls from school on Friday.  It had been almost 2 years since they had seen Grandpa and almost 1 year since they'd seen Grandma.  Jared surprised us all on Thursday by informing us he had arranged to take Friday off after all.

Earlier in the week I learned that Grandpa had a handheld GPS.  I had always wanted to try geocaching with the kids and hoped we could fit it into the week.  (Our regular GPS is a piece of junk and won't let us input coordinates.) Thursday night we hurried and found one geocache before it got dark.  Friday was a beautiful day, so we grabbed the GPS and set off on another geocaching adventure.  We looked and looked at one location and couldn't find it anywhere.  There was a park nearby that distracted the little kids.  After searching for quite sometime we gave up on it but knew there was another one off a trail about a mile away.  I knew we could connect to that trail from the trail at the park.  Grandma and Aunt Jeanne stayed at the playground with the little three while Katy, Grandpa, Jared, and I set off to find another cache.  It ended up being a really fun one.  When we opened the official geocaching box, another container that fit the exact description of the "missing" one was inside.  I think the two must've been combined at some point.  It was hidden under a bridge.  When I climbed out, I startled a biker so bad he almost fell off his bike.  I thought it was funny although I'm sure he wasn't as amused.

Under the bridge

 the "missing" container

We were all getting hungry so we decided to try to beat the weekend crowd and headed to Pappy's Smokehouse.  Apparently its busy all the time.  We waited in a line as long as the one the first visit.  Poor little Jacob fell asleep in line and we never could wake him up to eat. 

We took a roundabout way home so we could stop by the temple. I LOVE being so close to a temple!