An Autumn Hike

It was just too beautiful of a Fall day not to head up to the mountains for awhile today. So we did. It was gorgeous. We took the dogs, and hiked two different trails. It was a wonderful afternoon.





Winnie using the binoculers she bought at the thrift store this afternoon to watch the river.



When one sees a mountain, one really must climb it.





Child exploring the river.



Bassett hound exploring the river.



Fall in Utah.



Hiking on the second trail.



Two passing mountain bikers snapped an impromptu family photo for us.




Exhausted Olly dog on the way home.

Some Days...

Some days impromptu playdates keep mama from running away. Not every homeschooling day is easy, but all of them can be survived.



Apparently throwing sand in the pond is more fun when one is half naked.



"Fishing" sans bait and actual poles.


Jennifer came to pick up Owen this afternoon. Olivia went home late last night. It had been a trying morning between rambunctious dogs, a whiny toddler, and food aversions. We all took a walk to the park, and then the pond. We gathered fuzzy caterpillars and explored.

The kids needed it, and it was good, until we had to leave. Zhara couldn't handle Olivia leaving without making a fairy house in the woods. No amount of convincing that we would plan a whole fairy house making day for next week, and that we would spend the next few days gathering supplies would appease her. We walked for home, and she stayed behind to cool off. Jennifer's family headed home and the kids and I drove back to get her, but she was still not better. It took awhile to get her in the car. We headed to Target because I had put off going for three days and we desperately needed things. We bought premade lasagna for dinner because it's been that kind of a day.

We've had lots of kiddo tears and upset. I think we're all tired from two very busy days with friends. Regardless, mama's done and ready for daddy to be home. Come on, daddy!

A Day with Unschoolers

We had a great day today. Not only is it Adam and I's anniversary, but we had a wonderful park day with our two favorite unschooling families. Our kids all get along, which is great, since there are 11 of them total. We played at one of the coolest parks in Salt Lake. Then we lunched at McDonalds, and played more. Then we went and played some more after lunch. I even brought two extra kids home with me, which means ours are happily content hanging out with friends this evening while we watch bad TV together. Now if Winnie would fall asleep, the day would, indeed be perfect!

Dinosaur Museum with Dad

We are very lucky to have in the town we live in, a museum that houses the world's largest collection of mounted dinosaurs. For my dino-obsessed kids, this is a big bonus to living in Utah. It is called the Museum of Ancient Life, and it also has tons of other amazing skeletons and exhibits in addition to dinosaurs. Quickly after moving to Utah, we purchased a family pass to the museum and we go every few weeks. The kids never tire of it. And though we go quite a bit, Adam rarely gets to attend these types of things with us, since he is working. So last weekend we took him to the dinosaur museum for the first time. It was hit. The kids had so much fun being tour guides, and Adam enjoyed what he could catch of the museum as we sped through it. Everyone wanted to be the first to show him their favorite exhibits.

Even dad is dwarfed standing under a brachiosaurus.

Everyone loves digging for "dinosaur bones" at the end.

Chinese Culture Day

We ended up moving Chinese Culture Day to Thursday because we were going to go to the park with our friends on Friday. Instead, Zhara felt lousy with the same thing the rest of us had, so we skipped that. It ended up being fun, though. We had gotten some books on China at the library, so we looked through those. At lunch we made noodles, and ate with chopsticks. My kids love any excuse to eat with chopsticks. We also looked through the books for Chinese words and phrases and tried to a) remember them, and b) use them with each other.


We drove into town in the middle of the day and played at a park. Not traditionally Chinese, I suppose, but it was a lot of fun.

My kids are always the park daredevils.

For dinner we made Kung Pao chicken over rice, which everyone seemed to like a lot. We also made a special dessert. I was going to make almond cookies, but I was afraid that the kids wouldn't actually eat them, so I made almond cake instead. And they surely ate that.

Mmmmm, cake.

After that Zhara and Angus had karate. We talked about the fact that karate is Japanese, and Kung Fu is Chinese, but that both are martial arts and share many things in common. So that was how we rounded off our day of Chinese culture.

Children of the Corn

I call the kids "children of the corn" a lot. I don't remember how it started, but they enjoy it, and are really unaware of the obscure and odd movie reference, so it works. Well, yesterday, they truly were. We went to the corn maze and pumpkin patch. Oh my goodness, we had so much fun. We went to a slightly smaller version from the huge one right down the road from us. Mostly because the one at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi would cost around $60 for us to all go, so we scrapped that one fast.

Here's the map.

Instead, we went to Utah's Crazy Corn Maze in West Jordan, Utah. It was a truly good time. The corn maze has a map that they give each kid to follow and they have to find checkpoints along the way. It is not easy navigating through all that corn. At each checkpoint, the kids had to punch a hole in the appropriate spot, and then if they returned the completed map at the end, they got a prize. Oh, they were all over that.

Zhara and Angus did almost all the navigating by themselves.
There was an occasional consultation with dad, but mostly, they made it through on their own.

Our fearless leaders.

We made it to the end, and had an absolute blast along the way. Honestly, it was so much fun, even for Adam and I.

Punching the map.

Winnie's favorite part by far was the corn. You'd think the child had never seen corn, or had not spent the bulk of her life in the Midwest. She loved it. She would stop constantly and scream -- "look, corn!" with amazement, as if we weren't completely surrounded by it. She collected kernals in her pocket, and bounded along happily singing odes to the corn.


After we emerged from the corn, the kids claimed their prizes -- coupons for McDonald's french fries or Chik-Fil-A ice cream -- both we enjoy very much.

Then we headed over to pick pumpkins. We each trekked out into the field, and picked one just right for us. That way we will have plenty to carve and decorate for Halloween.


At the end, there was a huge climbing wall. Everybody wanted to climb it, but it ended up that Zhara was the only one brave enough to make it up above dad's head. She made it all the way to the top, though, and hit the buzzer and everything.


No one wanted to leave at the end. We all had such a good time, but we went home, and ate homemade chicken noodle soup and fresh bread and talked about what a good time we had at the corn maze. This will definitely be a yearly ritual for us.

Beautiful Piano Music

Zhara in the music room practicing.
Notice the roller skates, she doesn't even take them off for this.

Zhara has been playing piano now for about 4 months. She is doing an amazing program called Simply Music. It truly is absolutely outstanding. It is music taught as though it was a foreign language, which frankly, it kind of is. So that the kids learn to "speak" it first by immersion -- playing it -- and then they slowly introduce the reading part of it. That way the kids don't get bored playing scales and such. It is amazing. It is basically teaching kids how to play by ear, and THEN also teaching them to read the music on top of it.

It has been such a gift for us. Zhara loves music, but struggled with traditional methods. She can honestly play so many complex songs already. Like close to 17. She practices every day. She enjoys the piano so much, because she CAN play the songs so quickly, that I don't even have to cajole her to practice most of the time. She's playing blues, and classical, and pop songs, and to me it is unreal how good she is at these complex songs after only four months of lessons. The lessons are group lessons, and one parent attends as well, so it isn't easy for us, but it is totally worth it.

Right now we just have a keyboard, as pianos are expensive and hard to come by really cheaply in Utah -- Mormon kids play them some piano, let me tell you. So, we are thinking for Christmas, that we are going to ask the grandparents to contribute to the "buy a decent used piano" fund instead of buying toys and individual presents. We'll see if they're interested, but Zhara would love it. She yearns for a real piano, and I want to hear her play more on a real one. She practices on one in class, but never at home, and you can tell she misses it when she's here.