Fall (Work &) Fun
General Conference was great. I love hearing from the prophet and apostles. I can feel their love for us and I hear what God wants me to hear.
I decided that I want to start taking casual/candid family photos on a regular basis. Not on a schedule, but just several times a year at convenient times. (Or when I just insist.) So, I suggested this to Rob and he thought it was a good plan and agreed to help with sometimes less-than-willing children. Surprisingly, they were all pretty cooperative. (Alee had a moment, but that's to be expected.)
Enjoy -
I let everyone take a turn with the camera remote for the whole-group shots. I have no idea who took which picture (and I kept only my favorites), but Seth was obviously the last with the remote because when we were done and everyone went completely candid, Seth snapped another shot.
It's actually kind of cute. Rob watching me as I go take care of the camera. Seth standing in the middle of his 4 girly sisters running around like crazy. Kind of feels normal. (Especially Alee throwing out some dance moves.)
The week after conference, we finished up the turtle tank redo - adding a DIY-basking tank to the top of Leafer's actual tank. (Rob used a heat tool to melt a door into an old small animal habitat we used to use for transporting Leafer to/from the yard (or tub during tank cleanings) and I bought a dollar tree rug to line the box.) The basking light came in the next day.
Then, we had Wednesday - Friday off of school (unexpectedly) when Hurricane Matthew started causing trouble for SC. We did end up having some fallen trees around town, but mostly it was just normal (but kind of bad) storms around mid-SC. The school closings were mostly to accommodate the needs of the coastal areas for evacuation.
The kids enjoyed sleepovers one night and time away from school.
My normal shopping day would have been Friday, but because I knew everyone else would be crazy and buying out all the milk and hot dog buns by then, I decided to shop 2 days early. Unfortunately, everyone was already going crazy and buying out all the milk and hot dog buns, so I had to go back for a few things this week.
Our Aldi just got remodeled (it's really nice. I made a layout to help make my new list), and so I'm tweaking my shopping list to fit their new layout. Here's take 2 on that. (The first edit needed some work. I'll see how this goes and edit as needed.)
This week is back to normal - school, activities, etc. Except...
We were talking and decided last minute to change our plans and take the kids to the state fair Wednesday (yesterday) for dollar day. (First day admission is $1 each instead of $7 each in advance or $10 each at the door.) Some of the fun and some of the prices:
One of my favorite things is the random street acts you see (those are free) :). The first is a juggler on a ladder with knives and an apple (which he took a bite of each time that came through his hand) and the next is a band that played several genres of music. The kids loved watching both.
Then we got ridiculously expensive food.
(I included prices for memory sake and in case SC family reading wants to know to plan ahead!)
Overall, if you add the cost of food plus parking and admission, it costed us about $12.50 each for the fair experience. It doesn't sound so bad when you put it that way, but all added back up, it's very expensive. Which is why we don't go every year.
(Kaitlyn knew she had been before, but couldn't actually remember going. When did we go last? I went through my pictures to look it up: 2012. She would have been 5. Flashback!)
We wanted to see everything, but we were only able to see a little. We looked at the fine art (and flowers) and the animals. We would have loved to have stayed in each of those longer plus see more.
On the way to the animals, my brother saw us and called out. (So we took a quick picture...then off to find the horses for Carolyn.)
Seth wanted to see the little duckies that go down the water slide, but they weren't there yet, so I told him I'd check on Friday. Rob and I are going on a date to the fair for the lunch special (if you go in at noon and are out by 2 you get your admission fee back, so it's free admission). We'll probably take pictures of what they didn't see yet and bring home some more fair desserts for Friday night treats.
Carolyn did indeed get to see the horses. Some even came over and nuzzled into her hand that she stuck through the bars. (I was a little nervous that they might snap at her, but they must have sensed that awe she has for animals in her voice. One did shake its head and snap away from her to say "no more".)
We told them they could bring their own money for a ride or a game, but we didn't end up having time for that, nor did we want to fight the crowds. Some other year, we need to go on a non-opening day so we can go earlier and stay longer. I wish we'd have a school holiday fall during the fair some year. It was fun, but it felt so short and a little crazy.
The traffic was also crazy. It took us an hour to get down there (should have been about 30 minutes) and it took us about 45 minutes to get out of there and home. I let everyone sleep in as much as I could this morning and then rushed them through morning routines.
Enjoy -
I let everyone take a turn with the camera remote for the whole-group shots. I have no idea who took which picture (and I kept only my favorites), but Seth was obviously the last with the remote because when we were done and everyone went completely candid, Seth snapped another shot.
The week after conference, we finished up the turtle tank redo - adding a DIY-basking tank to the top of Leafer's actual tank. (Rob used a heat tool to melt a door into an old small animal habitat we used to use for transporting Leafer to/from the yard (or tub during tank cleanings) and I bought a dollar tree rug to line the box.) The basking light came in the next day.
Then, we had Wednesday - Friday off of school (unexpectedly) when Hurricane Matthew started causing trouble for SC. We did end up having some fallen trees around town, but mostly it was just normal (but kind of bad) storms around mid-SC. The school closings were mostly to accommodate the needs of the coastal areas for evacuation.
The kids enjoyed sleepovers one night and time away from school.
My normal shopping day would have been Friday, but because I knew everyone else would be crazy and buying out all the milk and hot dog buns by then, I decided to shop 2 days early. Unfortunately, everyone was already going crazy and buying out all the milk and hot dog buns, so I had to go back for a few things this week.
Our Aldi just got remodeled (it's really nice. I made a layout to help make my new list), and so I'm tweaking my shopping list to fit their new layout. Here's take 2 on that. (The first edit needed some work. I'll see how this goes and edit as needed.)
We also got some things done -
Like our semi-annual clothing sort (try on everything, pass down or giveaway what doesn't fit, and move around the seasonal clothes) - we have a lot of hangers that got emptied.
and we did a school "book report" for Alee. She had to decorate a pumpkin like a character from a book.
She did it pretty much by herself. (I helped smooth out an eye and draw the ears for her to cut.)
Her book character she chose is "Knuffle Bunny" - we love Mo Willems' books.
We had a pretty calm time around here hurricane weekend- just rain and I think the lights flickered once the whole week? Knowing about our family that was facing some much worse weather elsewhere in SC and NC, we prayed for them. Saturday morning while we were still in bed, we heard Seth practicing the piano (gotta get that list out of the way so he can have video game time!)
The last song was not one I had assigned but he right-handed it: "Master the Tempest is Raging". Fitting.
Like our semi-annual clothing sort (try on everything, pass down or giveaway what doesn't fit, and move around the seasonal clothes) - we have a lot of hangers that got emptied.
and we did a school "book report" for Alee. She had to decorate a pumpkin like a character from a book.
We had a pretty calm time around here hurricane weekend- just rain and I think the lights flickered once the whole week? Knowing about our family that was facing some much worse weather elsewhere in SC and NC, we prayed for them. Saturday morning while we were still in bed, we heard Seth practicing the piano (gotta get that list out of the way so he can have video game time!)
The last song was not one I had assigned but he right-handed it: "Master the Tempest is Raging". Fitting.
Saturday, we decided to rearrange the room since Leafer (turtle) now has a light and the sun doesn't really help anyways through the porch/window/sheers/tank. The layouts show both viewing directions - standing at the computer and standing at the fireplace.
Before:
After:
This week is back to normal - school, activities, etc. Except...
We were talking and decided last minute to change our plans and take the kids to the state fair Wednesday (yesterday) for dollar day. (First day admission is $1 each instead of $7 each in advance or $10 each at the door.) Some of the fun and some of the prices:
Then we got ridiculously expensive food.
Chicken and fries "bucket" $9
Footlong Corndog $7. (Regular that kids got was $5)
Greek Gyro $10
Desserts? We ate them before I got a picture of them!
The funnel cake with hot fudge was $7 ($6 for plain) and the elephant ear was $8 ($7 for plain) and the cotton candy was $5 a bag. We all shared the fries from the kids that got chicken and we all shared the desserts.
Overall, if you add the cost of food plus parking and admission, it costed us about $12.50 each for the fair experience. It doesn't sound so bad when you put it that way, but all added back up, it's very expensive. Which is why we don't go every year.
(Kaitlyn knew she had been before, but couldn't actually remember going. When did we go last? I went through my pictures to look it up: 2012. She would have been 5. Flashback!)
We wanted to see everything, but we were only able to see a little. We looked at the fine art (and flowers) and the animals. We would have loved to have stayed in each of those longer plus see more.
On the way to the animals, my brother saw us and called out. (So we took a quick picture...then off to find the horses for Carolyn.)
We also saw the rabbits. The younger girls wanted to see those the most.
Seth wanted to see the little duckies that go down the water slide, but they weren't there yet, so I told him I'd check on Friday. Rob and I are going on a date to the fair for the lunch special (if you go in at noon and are out by 2 you get your admission fee back, so it's free admission). We'll probably take pictures of what they didn't see yet and bring home some more fair desserts for Friday night treats.
Carolyn did indeed get to see the horses. Some even came over and nuzzled into her hand that she stuck through the bars. (I was a little nervous that they might snap at her, but they must have sensed that awe she has for animals in her voice. One did shake its head and snap away from her to say "no more".)
We told them they could bring their own money for a ride or a game, but we didn't end up having time for that, nor did we want to fight the crowds. Some other year, we need to go on a non-opening day so we can go earlier and stay longer. I wish we'd have a school holiday fall during the fair some year. It was fun, but it felt so short and a little crazy.
The traffic was also crazy. It took us an hour to get down there (should have been about 30 minutes) and it took us about 45 minutes to get out of there and home. I let everyone sleep in as much as I could this morning and then rushed them through morning routines.
Some memories are worth a little crazy.
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