Fall Break

Having our schoolchildren home for a couple days last weekend motivated us to plan mini-field trips. On Thursday, we just stayed home to do chores and play and rest. Friday was spent with cousins and friends at our local Scarecrow Festival, where we enjoyed old-fashioned games like hit-the-milk-bottles, new-fashioned blow-up slides, and a picnic on the grass.

Then Saturday we went to Tracy Aviary (think bird zoo). I took the kids up there in July and they loved it so much that they were excited to take Matt. They eagerly led their dad through the little park and showed him their favorite birds. Matthew liked the "chubby quail", Jamie Beth played with the tinamou, Dallin stayed quite a while with the flamingos, and we suppose Nate liked the cuckoos, because he kept putting his fingers in their habitat, even as they pecked him and his shirt. We also shared a bit of our lunch with one of the roaming peacocks. (The pictures below are actually from our July outing, but last weekend's trip looked precisely the same.)

note the sign

Later that night, Matt and I went on a date while the kids stayed at Nana and Papa's house. I think this activity was their favorite of the entire weekend. Pizza, movie, popcorn, and Nana's favorite: Nate carefully spooning strawberry Qwik powder onto her carpet.

Sunday was, of course, Sunday, with church and our usual dinner with grandparents and cousins.

Monday we ventured out again...this time to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point, where an event called Barnyard Boo provided very basic activities that appealed to the little crowd: frosting cookies, digging for "bones" in a sandbox (I thought that was disgusting), beanbag toss, pumpkin bowling, wagon ride. The kids also fed bits of dried corn to the many ducks, horses, goats, sheep, and alpacas; but, of course, the main attraction here was the pony ride, which elicited broad smiles from Nate until he decided midway that he was done, so he hopped off. Luckily, I caught him. As had become tradition, we enjoyed another picnic before heading home.



At the end of the weekend, I think we almost felt we had been on a vacation. Aside from being able to re-live a little of the summer freedom with the kids, my favorite part was being finished each day just in time for naptime.