Halloween

Last Monday I organized an odd assortment of people to go on an Apple tour at a local orchard.  Half were friends from the ward, and the other half were new friends from a Natural Mommies meetup group and a Homeschool Mom's meetup group.  If you are looking for friends, try meetup.com.  It's like online dating for Mom friends.

 I needed 10 kids to make the reservation (usually for school groups) and I was scraping the bucket trying to find people with kids who would be interested.  I'm so glad it worked out because the tour was amazing!

 We learned all about apples (things that I didn't even know), and got to see how apple cider is made.  We got apples, coloring books, rings, apple cider and crayons at the end of it and I must say it was time and money well spent!  It was cold though, and my crazy children boycotted my suggestion of pants on such a freezing day.

 The rest of the week was crazy full, although I can't remember with what.  I finished halloween costumes, and am over the moon that both the big girls chose to be something other than a princess!!!!  They loved their costumes and I loved how easy they were to make.

 Quinn's cabbage patch wig did not turn out.  Unfortunately our backup was her Cinderella outfit.  Therefore I ended up being the one who perpetuated the Halloween princess cycle, with the only child who didn't have a say in the matter.

 So at the ward Trunk or Treat we had a bat, a princess, a mouse and Tyler and I were Hansel and Gretel.  Hansel didn't want to dress up.  Friday we went to a combined ward chili dinner and halloween party.  The other ward had a lot of kids and younger families, it was packed and noisy.  The girls loved the trick or treating, and loved the free rein I let them have over their buckets.  I'm surprised it took so long, but after 4 days I think they are officially out of candy.  Unfortunately tomorrow is Halloween and I'm starting to wonder if they will be content sitting on the porch passing out treats, now that their own stash is gone.  This is the first year I've really loved the Trunk or Treat- we know 3 neighbors and I don't really trust anyone else in the neighborhood enough to let my kids take their free candy.

 Quinn caught the croup.  She is the first of my 3 to do so, I guess I can't complain.  But the screamy teething croup monster is wearing out her welcome.  Lucky for her Tyler just finished the second block of tests and so we get to breath and recoup for a few days.

 Everyone in the ward thinks that my Mom must live really close because she has been to visit TWICE this month!
I guess I never posted about her wedding because Tyler and I had just arrived in Pittsburgh and missed out on the event.  In July she married a very nice man named Dana, sold the farm, changed her name and moved to the city!  They are now on a honeymoon of sorts driving all over the country.  Lucky for us Pittsburgh was in the middle of their church history tour and so we got to spend Sunday with them.  The girls were so sad to see them go, and all cried for a good 10 minutes after goodbyes.  
Monday Alex and I attended a Girl Scout meeting while my angel visiting teacher watched Quinn and Heidi.  Alex is very excited to join Girl Scouts and I'm very excited it's working out.  She is one of 2 white girls in a troop of 7, and we have already had a few awkward moments with unfiltered Alex mouth.  I really have no idea how to deal with it, or even what terms to teach her.  I'm afraid our sheltered, non-diverse upbringing is going to come across as racist and rude.
Tuesday I finally went to Ikea and finally picked up my birthday (March) present from Tyler and the girls.  A nice big down comforter!!!!  The windows don't hold back much of the cold air and I've woken up an icecube the last week straight with 3 blankets on!!!  Last night I almost slept like I was alone in a hotel- minus the croupy baby laying in Tyler's spot next to me.  It was gloriously warm and wonderful.

Homeschool Zoo

 My baby can sit and my big girl can read!

My Heidi is content with her scissors and all is well with the universe.  What a happy homeschool moment.

To suppliment homeschool and socialize Alex a bit more, we decided to sign Alex up for a homeschool class at the Zoo!  She has had 2 of 4 classes thus far and seems to enjoy it.  She gets to run off with 20 other kids her age and do all sorts of stuff while Heidi enjoys my complete attention and gets full decision making authority.

  The first week Heidi decided she wanted to see the camel.  So off we went to explore for 2.5 hours until it was time to pick Alex up.  

Well, the sea lions are on the way to the camel and we got a bit distracted by the baby.  Heidi spent the next 30 minutes racing baby back and forth over and over and over.  She laughed and laughed and ran and the sealion just kept chasing and racing her.

   Next was the camel who was interested in eating leaves.  Heidi thought that was fantastic and wanted to feed it the leaves.  Then we got yelled at.

  We were allowed to pet the Goats, and Heidi made sure we touched each and every one.

  Meercats, bat room and baobob tree for the next hour and then the statue and slide for a bit longer.  Then it was time to get Alex and grocery shop.

Today was class number 2.  I was in charge of our wanderings today and so we went the big animal route.  

We started off with the baby tiger.

Now that we are zoo experts (we've been 9 times in the last 12 weeks. totally getting our money's worth of that pass.) I've  started people watching.  Everyone gets really excited when the animals are active or close.  They crowd together, everyone taking mediocre pictures on their smart phones, and then running off to the next thing.  This pattern repeats with each animal.  But Heidi stays.  She sits and watches and waits.  I love walking the zoo with her because she is so content to stay and observe, and that is really fun.

She spends a lot of time locking gazes with wild animals.

My brave child, she will probably be a lion tamer someday.

I'm fairly sure Quinn is teething.  That or she suddenly REALLY hates me and has decided to scream ALL the time until I find her a new mother.

Heidi has recently become a wanderer.  She has no desire to keep me in her sights, nor do I think she cares if I can see her.  She is always saying "I don't care" and when I threaten her with stories of children getting stolen and us never seeing her again, she responds with some comment about the stranger being nice and letting her watch movies.  It makes outings rather stressful.  The stage before this one was "YOU ARE ALWAYS LEAVING ME", when I would get 5 feet ahead of her.  I think she has accepted things how they are and decided to spite me.  If you won't wait for me, then I will just run away.

We went to Target the other day.  Or as Heidi calls it "The circle store."  We saw this outfit and the girls BEGGED me to get it.

I have to say for a mom who refused to put my first baby girl in pink, I've come a long way.

Quinn can sit on her own and is great at those baby sit ups.  She can get anywhere by rolling and spinning so I think she may follow her sister's example's and just go straight to walking.  She loves to eat paper, any color or kind and no one can make her laugh quite like Alex and Heidi can.

Home school is fun.  We are learning I have been forced to be a better person.  It's hard work and I no longer have the luxury of wasting time or even really doing crafts anymore.  My "free time" is spent interacting with the baby, planning the next day's lessons, or if I really love Tyler- cooking and doing laundry.  Last week in history we learned about Japan.  I made candy sushi and we ate fish and rice over couch cushions on the floor.  It reminded me of my Mom doing the same thing for passover one year when I was a kid.  I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
     I'm hoping that the girls remember all the good times we are having.  As stressful and crazy as life seems to be right now, I love being with my girls and I'm so happy that I'm homeschooling.  We have adventures every week and are learning and growing all together.  It is so fun being a part of their learning process, and watching them teach each other.

Erie and New York

 Last week Tyler had a PA conference in Erie Pennsylvania.  Being in PA school in PA is very confusing to explain to people.

 One of the freedoms that homeschool affords, is that we can tag along on things like this without it being a big deal at all!

 So we went.  And it was wet.  When it rains here, looks and feels like it is going to be wet and miserable all day and then sometimes the weather surprises you and the sun will pop out for the rest of the day and it will be 80 degrees!  Or you will wake up to blue sky and a sudden storm will pop up and last.  You can never tell.  So I haul rain jackets, coats and blankets everywhere we go.

 We couldn't check into our hotel until 3pm and we arrived at 8am, so the girls and I spent the day buying socks and eating out.  Having 3 young kids is rare here.  I feel that a mom taking her 3 young kids to Cracker barrel at 9 am on a Wednesday, is very rare here.  I get comments everywhere I go.
  Well, the sun did come out on Wednesday and so we visited the beach on lake Erie!

 The girls loved it.  We didn't find shells, but there were lots of pretty rocks.  Alex had collected a couple special ones and when it was time to go I agreed to let her bring them to the car (I NEVER do this).  The girls jumped at Mom's generosity and when I turned around I laughed out loud to see they had both stacked their arms as full with as many pancake rocks as they could carry.  It was hilarious.

 Thursday we woke up and went swimming!  I am often told by Heidi that Hotels with swimming pools are the greatest things in the world.  After swimming I saw that there was a small window of sun scheduled for the day so off the girls and I went to pick some apples at a huge orchard.

 Quinn loved the stroller, Heidi loved the basket and Alex loved the apples.  Everyone won.

 Apple picking was on my "Must do in Pennsylvania" list, so I was tickled to put a big check mark next to that.

 Alex has eaten half of the apples already.  By herself.  I may have mentioned that an Apple a day keeps the doctor away.  It seems to have fueled the apple fire.

 3 cranky girls later we loaded up the car.  As we were driving off I saw that there were GRAPES we could have picked!!!!  I stopped the car and thought long and hard about it.  I decided at that moment it wasn't worth getting everyone back OUT of the car.  I've regretted it every minute since.

 We went home and did homeschool for the day.  Homeschool is really fun on big soft hotel beds.  I got Heidi her own 'homeschool' book and she absolutely loves doing her own preschool stuff while Alex is doing Kindergarten.

 Friday was our golden day.  We went to breakfast with one of Tyler's instructor's who had caught a ride to the conference with us.  She is a doll and the girls fell in love with her at once.  She ended up walking around the conference center with the girls and I for a good hour.  After being asked if these were her grandchildren 10 times in a row, we decided to adopt her as our Pittsburgh Grandma and she accepted.

 We left her and went to spend the afternoon on Presque Island State Park.  It was beautiful being out on the skinny peninsula with all the fall leaves.  We found a beach and went exploring.

 It was a windy day and a bit chill, but it reminded me of visiting Canada in the Spring when Heidi was almost a year old.  This stroller on a beach with a baby in it.  It keeps happening.

 I 've had this long standing dream of walking on the beach with 3 little girls looking for treasures.  This could have possibly been that dream coming true. But I hope it happens again when all 3 can walk.

 The girls LOVED the beach.  The were sad that there weren't many shells, but we came home with a bouquet of seagull feathers.

 Quinn was an angel.

 I can't stress how windy it was.

  I had this fear that if I let my eyes wander away from any of the children, for just a moment, they would disappear.  While I dream of taking my children to the beach, I also have nightmares of giant waves and/or sharks sucking them into the ocean, lost forever.

 The time passed quickly.

 There seem to be an abundance of ladybugs in Pennsylvania.  The girls find them everywhere and threaten to bring them home.  They are my favorite bug, but I don't want a car full of ladybug carcasses.

 We littered the beach with stroller tracks and then decided to move on, hoping for a less windy beach with more shells.  This was pushing my luck.

 We found another beach, more windy if possible.  And within 5 minutes (after I spent 10 minutes getting everyone out of the car and ready to beach) everyone was crying and half of us were wet.

 The first picture represents the moment when the wave snuck up and caught them off guard.  Heidi may have even had her eyes shut in that picture.  Here you see the moment Alex realizes she is in danger, and Heidi reacts to the sudden cold wave of water over her feet.

 She stumbles backwards as Alex flees, only to trip and land completely in the water.  I saw this moment coming.  That's why I took the pictures.  Unfortunately I didn't foresee the fall and unfortunately my camera didn't catch the next frame.

  30 seconds later while I was consoling Heidi, a wave stole Alex's sandal forcing her to forsake dry clothes to save it.  Before I knew it EVERY child was sobbing.  That also happened to be the moment Tyler texted and said it was time to pick him up.  Perfect timing.

 But it wouldn't really be a Brady family outing if someone didn't have to pee in the bushes and if it didn't end in tears.
  So we picked up Tyler and headed north to Niagara.

 Fortunately we ended up getting a good deal on a hotel super close to the falls.  We were able to easily walk to the river from where we stayed.

 Unfortunately the weather pulled a fast one on us and when we were 50 feet from the viewpoint it started to hail.
 So instead of taking a boat ride up to the falls on the Maid of the Mist, (kids under 6 were free!) We got a family picture and left.

I don't know why I thought breakfast could wait until AFTER the falls, but hungry kids are usually crying kids and therefore this was our Niagara Falls breakfast.  Alex is still talking about the time we had chocolate cake and orange juice for breakfast.

 We left Niagara and headed East to Palmyra.  Our original plan was to see Niagara in the evening and take a jaunt over to Palmyra and then head home Saturday.  But the day got late on Friday so we modified our plans, then believe it or not my Mom was on her way to Palmyra that day!  We extended our vacation one day and got to see Mom and Dana at the hotel and share Sunday breakfast.  What are the odds!

The Hill Cumorah was our first upstate New York destination and it was lovely.  The leaves were already dropping, but there was such a beautiful mix of greens and oranges and reds everywhere.

 I tried to have a spiritual thought on top the hill, and the girls were decent in the visitors center. By this point we were all tired of the car and ready to run and be silly.

 It was amazing to be surrounded by all that church history.  It was fun to take the kids but I look forward to going back and spending time really experiencing it.

 Next we went to the Smith family farm.

 We took the tour and got to see the houses and all.

 A temple has been built on the property and it is just beautiful

 The whole area was gorgeous, and Heidi made a mouse house out of rocks.

 The kids were nearing their limit as we made it to the sacred grove, so we stuffed them full of swedish fish so we could have a happy moment in the woods.

And we did.

Saturday night was swimming. Sunday morning was Grandma and Grandpa D breakfast and then we took off back home.  We made great time until we were within 60 miles of Pittsburgh.  A few of these lovely back ups (that are so prevalent in Pittsburgh) and our arrival got pushed way back.  But we passed the time with terrible Knock Knock jokes and rhyming games and all was well.