Girls slide at rest stop

The hair! The hair!!

Fall break to Memphis

Most years, the school builds into the calendar a short break in October. Last year, we went to Chicago. We enjoyed that so very much, we wanted to try and do that again. However, we missed the reduced price deal and then Chicago didn't work out.

We always like to take the kids to places they haven't ever been, especially new states. I think kids need to see different parts of the country (and world) to understand how different and similar people are in different places as well as the differences in the landscapes. Anyway, we like to travel and we love exposing our kids to new experiences.

The criteria for the trip is that it has to be within 5-6 hours driving distance, be within the small budgeted amount we determined, allow us to see something new or visit a new place we haven't been before or show the kids something we have seen before, but want them to experience.

The top contender this time was Chicago, but when it landed outside of the budget parameters, it was off the table.

The next two contenders were Oklahoma City (never been there or to Oklahoma), Memphis, or Nashville.

In this case, Memphis was the winner! We made a long weekend of October 15-18.

So, we packed the van and hit the road for Memphis.

Here are the kids at the a rest stop close to the border of Missouri and Arkansas. It was very close to the New Madrid fault line, which is very interesting topic of you are looking for an Internet rabbit hole to fall into.

Amelia and William are different

All kids are different. Even siblings are different. William and Amelia have always had some similarities, but I have always been struck by how individual they are.

This year, they have been selected to participate in some enrichment class work. They go one day a week to a different school building and have some enrichment class time. As they are so close in age, they frequently end up in the same classes together. One day they brought home the same worksheet about joining a circus that was identical. See how differently they think?

Amelia's zig zag braid

So neat looking!

William's project

We went to our town's small Fall Festival. Home Depot was there with some projects for the kids. All three kids wanted to do a project and all three picked something different.

John set out to help Amelia get started and I opened up Gemma's package of supplies. I told William I would help him as soon as I got Gemma underway.

William agrees, but then took his bag of prepackaged supplies and moved to the cement ground area and spread everything out. Moments later, he was hammering together industriously with a craft sized hammer. He seemed to have a handle on the situation and wasn't asking any questions. I helped Gemma complete her project and then turned to check on William.

It was perfect timing as he had all the pieces of the project together except one and it wouldn't fit. I asked William what step he was on in his enclosed direction sheet. He looked up at me, surprised.

"There are directions?"

I showed him the step by step directions page.

"Oh. Huh. I just looked at the picture on the box and put it together."

This made John and I both laugh out loud as this is totally what grandpa Kevin would do.

In this case, we needed to take a few things apart and rotate one piece to make everything work.

William's first 5k

At the last minute, I asked William if he wanted to run a 5k with me. He has been interested in running lately and has been asking frequently to run on our treadmill.

When he agreed, I signed us up!

It was cold that morning standing around, but I quickly realized we were overdressed.

William easily ran the first 1 and a half miles with me and then ran out of steam. We walked most of the rest of the route with occasional bursts of jogging.

Just before we turned the last corner, William told me he NEVER wanted to run one of these again. After we crossed the finish line, he had himself 2 pieces of cake and multiple glasses of juice. (Mom had a banana). When we got home, daddy was cooking up pancakes to celebrate his race.

I asked him again that afternoon if he would run another race with me and he said he would love to- just not tomorrow!

Feed the birds 10/9

At Grant's Farm, we decided to try their new attraction of feeding the parakeets. For $1, we were given a Popsicle stick with birdseed stuck to it with honey? Or peanut butter?

You walk into a huge cage full of many parakeets. You hold out your stick and soon, you are covered with parakeets.

William, in particular, loved this! At one point, I looked over and saw he had 5 birds on his arms, shoulders and even head.