Dad Time

Jason has been on the busiest service we've experienced so far, for 4 months in a row now. 2 of the months he was working nights so we barely saw him except for on Saturdays and the other 2 months he was working days and every weekend with Tuesdays being his day off. In October he had Tuesdays off and we made the most of that time with him. The Tuesday of Willem's fall break Ellie still had school so we took Willem out on a Mom & Dad date and had breakfast at Matt's Big Breakfast.

Later that day Jason fulfilled his promise to Willem and dyed Willem's hair blue. A few weeks ago Willem had asked me if he could dye his hair blue and after say no for several days, I said, ask Dad. Knowing Jason would say no. Not the case... Anyway, this became a Daddy and Willem project and Willem was quite pleased with the results.

Jason was also able to make it to a couple of music classes this month which was a lot of fun. I'm not too mobile these days, so it was fun for the kids to have Daddy to dance around with.

We also went to the Science Center as we had heard the new Lego and Dinosaur exhibits were great. We only had an hour before the museum closed so we just checked out the Lego area this time around. The kids loved it. It was all about transportation, so they pretended to fly a plane and Willem dressedup as an astronaut at one point.

 

This time we just hung out in the large lego area but next time Jason's going to take Willem to the other side so they can build with the tiny legos. We also all built cars with the Duplos and raced them down a track they had there. That was probably Willem's favorite.

After, we headed to Trader Joe's to pick out our pumpkins. The kids were excited about having their own carts and are looking forward to decorating the pumpkins next week when Tia Julie comes to visit.

The last Tuesday of the month, Jason picked Willem up from school and took him to the Science Center to check out the dinosaur exhibit. Willem loved digging for dinosaur bones like a paleontologist but was a bit scared of the talking dinosaurs.

 

Sleeping

Cuddling at night

Helpful

Willem helping Ellie put her shoes on at school

Day trip to Prescott

Willem was on Fall Break this week so we decided to take a road trip up to Prescott for the day. I was hoping the kids would get to see the leaves changing colors and have a chance to spend a day in a town that was actually experiencing fall. It was actually still pretty toasty up in Prescott as well but we did see the beginnings of beautiful foliage. And most importantly, we got to spend the day with my wonderful brother and Dad.

The kids were pretty excited to have Jayme along for the road trip and Jayme was a trooper sitting in the back with them. The kids have little sense of personal boundaries and thought all of Jayme's things were their new toys.

Jayme knew of an area just south of town that had a nice lake so we stopped there to let the kids run around a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids enjoyed watching people fish and made friends with a family whose kids were catching tadpoles in the water. They let Willem take a turn with their net and he was thrilled. We lifted up rocks in hopes of finding something but mostly just enjoyed playing in the water. Ellie loved throwing rocks in and watching the ripple effect. Definitely want to come back here with Jason sometime!

We then headed into town and had lunch in the old downtown area. We fell upon this neat bookstore and picked up a copy of the original Winnie the Pooh story. We just finished Charlottes Web so it was perfect timing to find a new book to read.

The kids could have played in the town square all day.

 

Fiddle Concert at the Pumpkin Patch

Willem's studio was invited to play at the McDonald Rancch Pumpkin Patch on opening weekend. We had never been there before so it was a fun first for us. For the performance Willem learned how to play the drone for Boil the Cabbage Down and the mouse part for Old McDonald Had A Farm. It was a neat experience for him to get to see older kids who have been playing for years play some fun songs at a Pumpkin Patch of all places.

 

 

Ellie loved watching the horses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kiki joined us as well and took the kids in to the petting zoo area. Willem loved feeding the goats and Ellie liked being around the animals but not too close.

 

 

 

We told Willem he could do one ride before we headed out and to our surprise, he chose the bungee cord trampoline. His love of adventure often surprises me because he's so cautious in some regards but has a very adventurous spirit when it comes to rides.

Rachel took part in the fun as well and entertained us all with her aeronautic skills.

Willem bounced for a good 10 minutes and loved every minute of it!