While not technically fall, as soon as the school year begins, fall activities start in our house. This year it coincided with the Hub's birthday. We were still quite tired from making the new school room (read about that here), but we celebrated with a quick hike, homemade breakfast, and a delicious dinner.
The boys made soyrizo and eggs by themselves. I LOVE having kids who cook now. They make quite a few breakfasts and dinners for us.
We decided to give Brown's Woods a try for hiking. While it's one of our favorite hiking spots, it's been VERY crowded since the pandemic began, so we've stayed away. While it was still busier than we're used to, it wasn't terrible. Quite a few trails had barricades due to downed trees from the derecho. We may or may not have gone around them to hike (and also those areas had less people around).
Max has been working on selfie skills.
New roommates! Zeus is thrilled to be in a room with his favorite humans. The small humans are not happy with some of his early morning wake up calls, but overall, it's been awesome. The boys are in charge of taking him outside and waking up with him anways, so it made sense to move Zeus (and all of his belongings) into the boy's room.
Hubs request for dinner: steaks, potatoes, and asparagus.
Serrano pepper challenge. Max won, but Harrison took bigger bites.
Snookies (ice cream) and Mulan.
Waiting for any that were dropped. We introduced the kids to Sister, Sister (thanks Netflix).
Max didn't want to leave Zeus for an afternoon, so Matt and I took the younger two to an alpaca farm and the Blank Park Zoo. It was a great afternoon!
Alpacas are crazy soft. I recommend petting one if you never have. It was just as theraputic as goat cuddling this past spring.
This amazing farm had pears for picking as well! We scored finding this place.
This was our first visit to the Zoo since Covid hit. It made me realize how much we've missed our quick Zoo visits on the weekends.
Ever since Covid and we began homeschooling, I've noticed my three being much more aware and interested in everything around them. That means any and all learning exhibits wherever we go are studied and examined thoroughly. Our quick trip to the Zoo was made longer because they had to read EVERY sign they came acrossed.
The peacock followed us down the sidewalk.
We also made a quick stop at the store, which resulted in a Halloween costume for the dog. He was NOT amused by it.
This is how I homeschool prep on the weekends.
The minis have been great about doing schoolwork when we have the time, which isn't always traditional school hours. They worked on their art project (tie blankets) throughout a weekend.
We spent a morning making enchiladas with my family and Zeus got a play date in. Despite making them for years, this is the first time I (and the minis) have partaken in the rolling of enchiladas. Then we ate them. The minis LOVED making them and are eager to make them again.
Hubs and I were invited to a soft open of Fresko. This was a huge deal because 1.) we haven't been inside a restaurant in 6 months and 2.) we had a few hours away from the minis. Great food and great night! I highly recommend this restaurant!
More school work on the weekends. This time, we did streak tests for science class. All of the plates came broken, but we were still able to use them.
Thanks to some hard work and exceptional fellow board members of mine, we did a test run for re-opening the Des Moines Children's Museum with ALL NEW exhibits. Elizabeth came with me to help, since there wasn't a big crowd. She also helped with some last minute exhibit things before she came out to play with a friend.
This one is always so hopeful for a bite of whatever anyone is eating.
I wanted to get our pumpkin patch visit in early in the season, so we wouldn't have to worry about crowds. We had a wonderful, socially distanced time for an afternoon. We went to our favorite pumpkin patch, Geisler Farms, and did all of our favorite activities. For the first time, we attempted the corn maze. Harrison was excited about it, but Max and Elizabeth wanted to be done. Max complained about how hot he was in jeans (I told him to wear shorts) and Elizabeth wondered, "why on earth would anyone pay to walk around in a bunch of corn?" I reminded her I was that someone who paid so we could walk around that cornfield. Anyways, it wasn't long after that we picked out our pumpkins for upcoming science projects and left. I treated myself to Starbucks after that fine experience.
All middle schooler over here.
All of the corn was still on its side from the derecho that came through the beginning of August.
Complaining kid.
Happy kid with the map that he wouldn't let anyone else see. The problem is he really stinks at reading said map, so Hubs had to have the map of the maze up on his phone to help out.
Another complaining kid.
Minis: No pictures! We're done.Me: Smile, we'll get pumpkins, and then we can go...but don't smile stupid.
True words spoken by mother of the year over here.
We put up a new covering on the windows. Keeps people from seeing in, the kids can't see out to be distracted, it let's light in, and it looks cool when the light hits it. Awesome Amazon find!
Drama at Walmart pick up. A bug was sitting on the sign. I was worried about the bug flying in the car. Turns out I should have been worried about the hundreds of birds flying around. Several nearly flew into my car as I waited for them to put my groceries in!
