Another day at the zoo

I absolutely LOVE my kids.  They are seriously the most amazing kids ever.  Seriously.  They are so loving, helpful, happy, kind, intelligent, talented, imaginitive, well behaved, and fun little people.  And I am so lucky to have them.  And even luckier to be able to spend as much time as I do with them.  I truly am blessed.

Okay so it's been a while since Friday, but I decided I needed to clear some pictures off my camera and remembered I never posted about our last Friday fun day.  We went to the zoo a month ago with my sister, but it was a long and hot day so we didn't see the Asian Highlands or the stinky animal building (the reptile and small animal building).  I promised the kids we'd go again before winter to see the rest.  By the time we got Spencer from school and got down there it was already past 2:00 (even though Friday is his early out day).  I gave the kids a snack in the car and when we got there I lathered on sunblock, put the girls in the double stroller, tossed the cold water bottles in the stroller basket, and headed in.  I still had a Dr. Pepper can discount to get one child in free and Clara is still free so it only cost $16.  The zoo is a place I have to say is technically worth the price of admission.  I mean you can really spend a good deal of time there, it's educational, and I know it's expensive to take care of the animals.  I'd rather give them my money than a company just out to make money.  That being said, it still gets expensive.  Fridays are a big reason why I'm thinking we may be done with 3 kids.  Now that Tessa is 4 I have to pay for her pretty much everywhere we go (Soldier Hollow Classic and Rocky Mountain Raceway still give her a couple more years).  And Clara now costs lots of places too!  It's getting more expensive to have fun with them!  Okay, back to the zoo...

We always get a kick out of watching the monkeys.  Clara even loves watching them move around.  But they're doing construction right by them so a lot of them were inside and just sitting around.  The elephants are always fun to watch.  It's amazing to the kids to see such large animals up so close.  And I think they're sick of hearing about my experiences in India helping bathe the elephants in the river and riding on them.  We also love to watch the giraffes.  Again seeing animals so much bigger than us is quite an experience.  All but one of the tigers were asleep, but it was fun to watch the one awake tiger pacing back and forth.  They are truly a beautiful, mysterious animal.  Spencer really wanted to see the wolves, but they are a hit or miss and none came up while we were there waiting.  We also saw the camels, some other big cats, orangutans, gorillas, rhinos, turkeys, peacocks, ostrich, and the stinky animal building (reptiles and small animals).  Despite the smell the kids love this part.  They can get up close to the glass of so many cool things.  The crocodiles are here as well as plenty of snakes, lizards, turtles, and spiders.  There are some smaller wild cats, porcupine, monkeys, bats, birds, and Clara's favorite I believe was called a Cavy (?).  One came right up to the window and Clara just kept waving and saying "Hi-i" and blowing kisses.  When I stepped back to take a picture she banged on the window so I pulled her back a bit but the little guy just kept staring at Clara.  They were about the same size.

I feel like I have so many pictures of the kids and the animals at the zoo, although apparently most of those are Spencer when he was a baby.  In any case, I didn't take too many pictures this time except when Spencer wanted the girls out of the stroller to join him on one of the statues.  Here are a couple of those:

And they have the wooden horses in the sand area they used for the dinosaur bones over the summer.

I usually let the kids choose if they want to ride on the train or the carousel, but decided not to spend the extra money this time.  The kids played for quite a while on the playground, but that was very stressful for me as they weren't playing together so I not only had to follow around Clara but I had to try to keep track of both the other kids on the large playground.  Although this day was cooler than the last time we came to the zoo it was still in the mid 80's and there were no clouds so it was quite warm.  I kept giving the kids their drinks and telling them to drink, but I didn't really pay close attention to how much they were drinking.  Before leaving I gave them each a go-gurt.  Spencer only had like one swallow and didn't want the rest (which really surprised me) so I gave the rest of his to Clara. 

After getting in the van and pulling out of the parking lot Spencer told me he didn't feel well.  I told him he was probably tired as we had been out walking around at the zoo for 3 hours.  He said he felt sea-sick.  I asked if that meant he was going to throw up and he said yes.  I quickly threw back Tessa's Hello Kitty lunchbox I had used for the drinks and go-gurts and told him to at least throw up in that.  Which he almost immediately did.  Then Tessa started gagging from the smell so we drove home on the freeway with the windows down as quickly as possible.  We had been planning on going out to eat, so I called Brodie and told him to stop for take out instead.  When we got in I had Spencer lay on the couch with a bucket and some Gatorade while I cleaned and sanitized the Hello Kitty lunchbox.  Spencer only ate a few bites of the egg drop soup and none of the Phoenix Chicken or Chow Mein or even his favorite Ham fried rice from Chin-Wah.  But he drank a bit of water and seemed to be acting himself.  Just to be safe I didn't allow him to have the playdate he wanted on Saturday, but arranged it for Monday instead, as he didn't have school Monday.  He was just fine on Saturday and none of the other kids got sick, even though Clara shared his go-gurt.  Oh, I forgot to mention that after I cleaned out the lunchbox I was putting away things and noticed he had hardly drank any water.  So I'm thinking his puking was probably related to being outside walking, running, and playing in the sun and not drinking very much.  I'll have to pay more attention in the future.

Tessa's Strawberry Shortcake Party

All year long my kids are telling me what kind of birthday party they'll want.  Currently Tessa has the next 4 years themes ready.  Of course they change their mind on a very regular basis so I try not to think about it until about a month before the birthday.  About a month ago Tessa was very sure about wanting a Strawberry Shortcake party.  I tried to find premade invitations but could only find some online and the shipping costs were twice as much as the invitations themselves.  So I made invitations.  I printed off a photo frame printable from Hasbro's strawberry shortcake site and then modified it to become an invitation.  We invited all the little girls within a year of her age in the neighborhood and ward.  Then we invited all our family members 2 hours later.  I've decided it's easier to have two separate parties--one friends and one family--rather than trying to do it all together.

As I was trying to decide what games or activities would be good for 3 & 4 year olds, I decided to do a craft project.  I took an idea from my neice's birthday party and decided it would be fun to decorate baskets.  But I needed strawberry themed baskets and the only ones I could find online were much too pricey.  So I went for the paper mache instead.  I bought red and green craft paper and tore it up.  I paper mached the bottoms of the balloons with red and the top with green.  I tied yarn around the balloon and hung them outside from my trampoline during the process and once I had all 20 done I moved them into the garage for the night.  I did this for 3 nights.  Then after the last drying I popped the balloons and cut out half ovals to make a basket.  Then I spray painted the handles green and the basket red.  I bought foam flower and bug stickers, stick on jewels, little flower blossoms with glue dots, and some lace.  The kids at both the friend party and the cousin party seemed to enjoy decorating these baskets.  Here's Tessa's:

Tessa really wanted cupcakes for her birthday so I made her vanilla cupcakes filled with strawberry gelee and topped off with freshly whipped (and colored) whip cream and sprinkles.  Then I had to make a chocolate cake so I layered it with the same strawberry gelee and covered it with green whipped cream and green coconut.  I then put Strawberry Shortcake in a hot air balloon on top.

Here's when she saw the cake and the new Strawberry Shortcake toy:

I also made a pinata out of a cardboard box to resemble Strawberry Shortcake's house.  I tied ribbons in it so the little girls could just pull on the ribbons to make the candy come out.

Then the girls used their baskets to get all the pinata candy, which was all strawberry (the hard strawberry flavored and shaped candies, frooties, and Twizzlers):

I also put a strawberry lip gloss, a strawberry shortcake charm bracelet, and a strawberry fruit by the foot in each basket.  Then we opened presents.  At the end of the presents Brodie and Spencer returned (I had shipped them off to the Chinese Moon Festival during the party).  After the girls all went home I went to my mom's to pick up Clara (I shipped her off as well so I could focus on the girls).  I came home to re-fill the pinata and put out some more decorative stuff for the baskets before the family group came.  It made me realize how much more calm 6 little girls are than a group with boys.  There is really a very big difference.

Spencer had a lot of fun with his favorite cousin, Logan.  Tessa loved playing with her best friend/cousin Afton and the older girl cousins whom she ADORES!  I tried to give Clara a nap but that obviously didn't work, which combined with me shipping her off for a couple of hours made her very clingy and whiny.  It was fun and Tessa got even more presents and we had more pinata candy.  She was so excited to get so many Strawberry Shortcake toys as the only ones she had before her party were a couple from McDonald's.  She has been playing with these toys soooooo much.

After the parties it was dinner time so we headed over to Cafe Rio with my sister and her family, since they needed to eat before heading 1 1/2 hours back home.  I sure do love Cafe Rio!  I think that is one place I could actually eat at on a weekly basis and not get sick of it.

I have a great husband who helped immensely with the clean up after the parties.  Only Brodie's parents came from his side of the family so we had tons of leftovers.  I had made 3 dozen cupcakes, 2 9 x 13 pans of chocolate cake (layered on top of each other with the strawberry gelee in the middle), and made 20 paper mache baskets.  We ran plates of cupcakes to a couple different neighbors' houses, ate leftover cake for almost a week, and I have a few strawberry baskets still sitting in my garage that I can't get myself to get rid of after all the hard work I put into them.  I'm sure I'll come up with a good use for them soon...or else I have a feeling Brodie will help "get rid of them". 

Chuck E Cheese and Tessa's birthday

My little girl turned 4 years old last week.  She woke up to a dozen helium balloons and a dozen roses in her bedroom.  Ever since her first birthday I've given her roses, since her middle name is Rose.  She was very excited to bring treats to her preschool class for her birthday.  I also decided to make her a pancake cake for breakfast, after getting the idea from the latest puppet show at the library.

We let the kids choose where to go to dinner the night of their birthday.  Chuck E Cheese seems to be the favorite.  Not because of the food, but because a birthday is the only thing that can get me to be willing to go there.  It's really not that bad, but I still dread it.  I think Chuck E Cheese ties with Classic Skating for the worst pizza I've paid for.  The salad bar is an extra $7 and it is the smallest salad bar out there.  And there are too many kids running around, a good number of which should have their parents paying closer attention to them.  On the good side--tokens are only a quarter and nothing takes more than one quarter.  There is a very large variety of things to do from the regular skee ball and such games to the little car and carousel and other little kid rides.  There is also a play structure (like McDonald's type) that is completely free.  Our favorite is the picture sketch, although there's usually a line for this one.  And I've never come across a game out of service when I've been there.  And you can get some sort of coupon off their website at any point in time.

On our way to Chuck E Cheese we passed the Mayan.  Last time we went we were pleasantly surprised and the kids really enjoyed themselves so Brodie suggested eating at the Mayan and then playing at Chuck E Cheese.  At first I was against this, knowing it would take more time and have me staying up later getting ready for her party the next day, but as I thought about eating Chuck E Cheese pizza, I agreed.  However, our experience wasn't as good as last time.  The carnitas were dry and very fatty.  And the shows were only every half an hour so we only watched 2.  And they didn't seem to be as long or as involved.  The worst part of it was that Spencer totally freaked out.  They did the whole "monsoon" thing with lights flashing for lightning and thunder sounds and stuff and Spencer covered his ears and closed his eyes and started crying.  He was so scared and just wanted to go home.  His over reaction caused Clara to start crying and Tessa almost cried as she responded, "Maybe I shouldn't have chosen the Mayan because Spencer is so scared.  Let's just go to Chuck E Cheese."  But our food was on its way out so it was too late.  Brodie and I both tried talking to Spencer in our own, very different, methods.  He finally sat down and ate without screaming, although he jumped and almost over reacted quite a few more times throughout dinner.

We just bought tokens at Chuck E Cheese and the kids were off.  First they played in the play area, climbing and sliding.  Then they rode the little rides by the play structure.  Clara LOVED the little carousel so much.  We let her ride it a few times, then a couple more times at the end.  Usually the other kids rode with her, as there are 3 horses. 

 






















Then we headed over to "win" some tickets.  We played skee ball, squirting water at the targets, squishing the spiders, making the lizards knock over the flies, virtual bowling, tossing ping pong balls, catching bees in a basket, popping bubbles on the screen, having the bear catch the falling apples in his mouth, shooting the horse teeth down, and most of the other games there.  Clara mainly loved the rides so the older kids sweetly obliged and rode in the car and jeep with her a few times.

Then we took our ticket receipts to the counter and let the kids go crazy with small, cheap choking hazards and candy.  The kids had a lot of fun and can't wait for the next birthday so I have to go back there again.  But we now set a new precedent as Spencer told us he wants to eat dinner at Chin-Wah and then go play at Chuck E Cheese when it's his birthday.  We'll see...

Soldier Hollow and the story of my dog

I grew up with dogs.  Of course having a farmer for a dad meant the dogs were always outside animals.  Until I was a teenager and my blue-eyed baby sister talked my dad into getting another dog.  My mom said this one would have to be allowed to be a house dog.  And my dad, getting soft in his older age, actually agreed.  So off they went to get our most memorable dog, a golden retriever mix named Angel.  She became one of my best friends.  I still miss her.  On the other hand Brodie only ever had one dog growing up and didn't have the same attachment as I did.

Seeings as we never even discussed how many kids we wanted or when we wanted to start having them before getting married, you can guess we never discussed having a dog.  But when we bought this house 8 years ago I was so happy to see a dog run.  Brodie quickly dispelled that possibility.  But not too long after we moved in our neighbors across the street came home with the cutest little furball named Buddy.  He was a purebred Australian Shepherd runt that was born to my neighbor's cousin's litter, who couldn't keep him because he was a runt.  Brodie got talking with this neighbor and the cousin, who at one point called our house and I happened to answer and found out Brodie was looking at dogs.  We went and saw the puppies and came home with our little Pace.  Seriously, how could you not fall in love with this?

So we brought home my new little baby.  Here are some more pictures I found from when we first got him.  Scanning these pictures made me think of 2 things:  Boy what a difference 9 years makes, we were so young!  And I am so thankful for digital cameras, which we didn't have at the time we got Pace.


Our first meeting



His first bath

(My sister should love this one...)




 

So Pace was our first baby.  And just like the others, he has grown up so fast.  Here are some more pictures as he's grown up:

 

 You can see why he's become an ASCA and AKC Champ.

Okay, so that's my puppy.  Now for Soldier Hollow.  Labor Day Weekend after we got our Pace, our neighbors asked if we wanted to go to Soldier Hollow for some sheepdog thing.  Because both of us had sheepdogs, we thought it would be fun.  This was the first year of the Soldier Hollow Classic.  We watched in awe as the dogs herded the sheep down the hill, around some fences and gates, and worked with the handler to shed the sheep.  We also watched some dogs herd ducks and ate some food.  A few years went by before we made it up there again.  And wow things changed in a few years!  There were soooo many more people up there, and a lot more food vendors.  So we've now made it our family tradition.

Last year we didn't take a family vacation so we decided to stay at a hotel in Heber Sunday night before attending the last day of the Championship on Monday.  The kids had so much fun that we did it again this year.  We came home from church, ate lunch, packed up and headed out.  After checking in we changed into swimsuits and headed down to the pool.  The girls had a blast and Spencer totally froze up as his feet could only touch right by the stairs and he freaks out in the water if his feet can't touch.  He doesn't even like Brodie and I taking him around.  I actually think he's getting more scared each time he goes in the water.

Then we cleaned up and headed out to George Washington Park to meet Brodie's cousin for a picnic dinner.  The kids had a blast on the playground while Brodie and his cousin enjoyed catching up.  I spent some time chatting with the guys and some time playing with the kids.  Of course Tessa and Clara wanted to swing the whole night away.

Monday morning we headed out to Soldier Hollow for the Sheepdog Championships.  Oh, one more change over the years is the price of admission.  It's up to $16 per adult on championship day and kids 5 and under are free.  I think kids 6 through something are $8.50.  We did get some $2 off per person discount coupons from IFA.  And parking was $5.

When we first went in we stopped in the bleachers for the Splash Dogs, a fairly recent addition to the festivities.  Because we were there pretty much right when they opened the gates we got to watch some dog handlers attempting to get their dogs to jump in the water.  Some were pretty resistant to the idea and just watched their favorite toy swimming away from them.  Some of these overcame their fear, and some didn't seem to.  But it was fun watching the dogs jump!

After watching this for a while we headed down and around to the main event.  The kids saw the playground and wanted to play so I supervised about half an hour of play while Brodie watched a run.  Then I wanted to watch a run so the kids were forced to sit for another half an hour to watch.  I really love to watch this.  The run I watched was a team from South Africa and the dog worked on an actual sheep farm, so he was very familiar with the animals.  It starts out with the dog running up the hill and on his own herding the sheep down the hill and through some gates and around some fences and stuff.  After getting them down another group of sheep is released and he has to go back up to herd those ones down.  When they're all together he has to herd them into a circle area where his handler is waiting.  Then they have to "shed" the herd.  Half the sheep have a red scarf (if I remember correctly there are 8 with scarfs and 8 without).  The dog and handler have to get all the sheep except 5 with red scarfs to leave the circle and head over to a gate.  But they have to keep the 5 there.  And these sheep really want to hang with their friends so this is quite interesting to watch.  Then they have to lead the remaining ones into a little pen.  And there's a time limit for all this.  At the end they receive a score.  Here are a couple pictures of the run:

Then we headed to the food.  And in the food area there was a bean bag toss and a hula-hoop area for the kids.  The IFA tent even had a thing where the kids could "milk" a pretend cow that squirted water.  Spencer was pretty good at all of these things.  Clara fell asleep in the stroller for a while.  Tessa was a trooper and walked most of the day on her own.  And we only made 2 visits to the port-a-potties.

There was also a police dog demonstration that we watched, but it was really hard to hear what was being said.  And we watched the other dog show where the dogs ran through an obstacle course, caught frisbees, and one dog was an amazing jumper.

 


















The kids only lasted about 5 hours (well really about 4 so we had whining for the last hour before we gave in).  It was a fun day and the kids are excited to go back next year.  Now that they understand traditions and realize we go here every year, Tessa and Spencer have been telling me that they will still go when they are mommies and daddies.  Tessa even told me what she'd be wearing when she's a mommy so that I'll be able to find her.  Of course she still isn't understanding why she can't marry Spencer when she's older.  I know one day that thought will really upset her so I have to put it on paper to remind her of it later.

Entertaining a 3 year old and playing at Gateway

Another week of Spencer in school all day.  Meaning another week of playing Barbies, baby dolls, princesses, dress-up, makeovers, coloring, hide-and-seek, and such.  To break things up I took the girls to Fashion Place Mall, Wal-Mart, and Chick-Fil-A (which besides having the best fast-food chicken also has some of the friendliest and most helpful staff--carrying my tray for me, bringing around mints, refilling my drink, etc.--a fun play area, plastic table covers & Cheerios for the little one, and educational but still fun toys).  I'm actually getting better at playing these girly things.

On Friday we drove downtown right after picking Spencer up from school.  I wanted to let the kids experience the Play exhibit at the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum before it is gone next week.  I've been waiting for a coupon in the Monday ads but all they've had the whole summer is a $10 off a 6-month membership coupon.  Then I remembered I had a buy-one-get-one-free coupon in my Entertainment (Happenings) book.  It didn't specify if it was only buy one get one or if you could use it for multiple buy one get ones so I took my parent's coupon with me as well.  But I didn't need it.  Instead of paying $34 I only had to pay $17 (it's $8.50 per person ages 1 and up).  Still a pricey outing, but I can handle it about twice a year.  I contemplated getting a 6 month membership for the girls and I while Spencer's at school.  With the $10 off coupon it would be $40 for the 3 of us ($15 more to include Spencer).  But I'd still have to drive all the way down there, pay for parking, etc.  I think I'll stick with once or twice a year.

Of course the Beehive was still a huge hit for my kids.  I know I talked about this and posted some pictures back in February but this time Clara was old enough to really get involved.  It's crazy how much she's grown up in 6 months!  She loved putting the balls in places and watching them come out of places.  She screamed and tried so hard to get away from me when we eventually moved on from here.  Here's one picture of Clara's favorite part--the older kids would drop the balls in top and they would roll down and come out the hole by Clara.  Of course the older kids favorite part was still the vacuum tube (see earlier post).

From here we went to the construction site where Spencer played on the crane lifting the foam blocks onto the platform to build something.  We played in the little house and Tessa went shopping in the little store.  We also went to the farm and the bigger kids sat on the big horse.  The kids picked vegetables and drove around.  Clara loved driving the little cars she could walk all by herself. Tessa loved the tractor where she would pick vegetables and then drive them to the horse to feed him.  Sometimes they got in each other's way.

Then we went to the water play area.  In the past they've only had the ping pong balls and the water doesn't really move them as much as it should so the kids get frustrated.  But this time they had all sorts of toys--fish, boats, dragons, etc. so the kids had a lot of fun here.  Clara just plain loves the water and one area was low enough for her to reach in.  Spencer loved following her around trying to help her, while Tessa just worried about herself, which was actually easier for me.

There's a little section for kids ages 3 and under here.  But by the time I started coming here, Spencer was already 4 so I've never gone in this area.  However, I decided to go this time.  At first there was no one else in here so I told Spencer he could come in with us.  Besides, I wasn't going to leave him or the girls where I couldn't watch them.  Maybe it's because we've never been in this play area before, but it was the kids' favorite part of the place.  They played with the little toys and books, played in the little bird house, climbed up and went down the baby slide, and played in the boat.  Clara LOVED it too.  She played by herself most the time and the bigger kids played together here.  Some other kids came in but Spencer didn't seem to take away from their experience so I let the kids keep playing.

Then we went upstairs where the kids made their videos of toys, stamped and colored pictures, and played on the stage.  Last time we were here they had princess costumes, this time they had birds.  Spencer played a bit on the stage but mainly loved changing the lights and the backdrops.  Tessa just loved to dance.  Here she's dressed up as a bird.

We played with the puzzles but someone was hogging the earthquake table long enough for us to play puzzles, waffle blocks, large legos, people in the houses, and magnets, so we moved on without playing the earthquake table this time.  We went out to the helicopter and visited the temporary PLAY exhibit.  At first the kids played on the large backgammon board where each time they stood on a triangle it lit up and made a music note.  They thought it was fun for a little while.

We couldn't figure out the bowling thing quick enough and the kids lost interest and moved on.  We went to the pool table with a giant pool ball.  Online their website said they had 9 pool balls that would make music synchronizing with each other.  Spencer had been excited to hit the balls on each other.  But there was only one quiet ball.  Not too much fun.  The large dominoes were fun though.  Spencer and I started setting them up to knock over, like regular dominoes.  But an employee was trying to build a fort at the same time and was grabbing them as quickly as he could.  So we only were able to line up 6 of them.  Spencer loved running into them--football style--to knock it over.  As soon as they were knocked over the employee grabbed them up to finish his fort.  To give him credit, the fort was also fun for the kids with tunnels on either side leading to the middle.

Then we went into the foosball where they had the foosball figures facing a mirror and you could climb up the steps and stick your face in and see yourself in the mirror as a foosball person next to a few others.  The kids didn't really get this one.

After 2 1/2 hours at the Museum we hurried down to the Apple store to exchange something for Brodie.  The kids wanted to go in the fountains so I told them they could.  Spencer asked if I had extra clothes for them and I said no, but it was okay if they got wet.  I'm not sure if it was the fact that I didn't have extra clothes or that the fountains would spray spontaneously but the kids were a bit hesitant here.  They loved watching the other people and got a little wet, but they didn't go full out.

I'm not used to getting such a late start on Friday fun days, with Spencer in school.  Thankfully Brodie got off work a little early since we didn't get home until 5:45.  Lucky me--I have a wonderful husband who knows how to cook.  So dinner was ready shortly after we got home--Parmesan chicken (Spencer calls this naked chicken because the first time I made him eat it I told him it was chicken nuggets and he said it looked like all their feathers fell off--so he calls it naked chicken, and it's the kids' favorite meal ever), sauteed carrots and zucchini, spaghetti, and corn on the cob.  What a great husband and a fun day!