Emily's Violin

We have a new instrument at our house. Emily wants to join the orchestra at school and learn to play the violin. Today we picked up her rental instrument and Emily couldn't stop smiling! She got a 1/4 size violin and wanted to start playing right away.

I gave her her first lesson, which consisted of learning how to hold the instrument properly (we are fighting about the left hand position) and playing each string by itself. She wanted to learn more, so I tried to teach her how to place her first finger on a string. "Mom! It feels like it is cutting my finger off!" she complained. That's what it is supposed to feel like at first.

How big is a 1/4 size violin compared to full size? Here is her violin next to mine for comparison.

How does she sound? Really good for the first day!

(she likes to play fast!)

Kindergarten

Adam started kindergarten this week.  So far, so good!

The "best" part of kindergarten is... RECESS!

What do Joshua and Olivia do while Adam is at kindergarten?
They come to me about every 5 minutes and ask to go get Adam.  It's a long 3 hours unless they can be distracted by running errands or this fun toy:

I love watching Adam wait for the carpool!  The second day of school he started watching for the car about 15 minutes early - and patiently waited for his ride to come.

Emily turns 10

Emily recently celebrated her 10th birthday.
Wow!
She made her own birthday cake and did a great job.

Emily was so proud to make the cake herself.  She loved frosting it while Aunt Jenny and I watched.  She put on quite a show.

Emily with her new camera!

I can't believe you are 10 !!!!!!

We sure do love you Emily!

Two-Buck Tuesdays!

Our last field trip of the summer was to Thanksgiving Point's Museum of Ancient Life, or as my children affectionately call it:

THE DINOSAUR MUSEUM!!!!! 

(yes, all caps and exclamation points are necessary when saying it.)

So why pay regular price when you can go on Two-Buck Tuesdays?  Two-year olds are free.  The kids and I could all get in for just 10 bucks!  What a deal!

Evidently half the state of Utah had the same thought process.  The parking lot was packed when we arrived 15 minutes before they opened.

This is the line ahead of us:

and behind:

We waited 25 minutes in line before we got in.  Miriam had to have her picture taken in front of this mural on the side of the building.  

The kids weren't too thrilled with the precambrian room.  When I tried to get Miriam to stand next to a trilobite for a photo, she told me, "Mom (eyeroll), you already have a trilobite at home!  Why do you need a picture of one?"  Thankfully, Joshua consented to stand in front of the mollusks for a picture.  For some reason invertibrates aren't very interesting compared to dinosaurs.

Finally!  the dinosaur section!

Part of the agreement of visiting the museum on a discount day is the acceptance that you will move through the museum as if in a line, with wall-to-wall people.  Everyone was polite and kind, but I really missed my personal space.  For example, the sand and water table was so crowded, the kids barely found a corner to squeeze in.    Take a look!

The oldest three had fun moving the sand around.  Olivia wanted to play too, so I pushed her stroller over and let her stand in it to reach.  Under no circumstance did Joshua want to get near the water.  He might get wet.

Adam's favorite dinosaur.

I liked these fish. (and Emily let me take her picture!)

Animals are strange without skin.

It took a lot of convincing to get the kids to stand this close to the shark for a picture.  It was scary.

Miriam didn't like the "skeletons that look like people."

Adam loved digging in the sand for bones. 

The boys' favorite thing was this puzzle in the gift shop.  At Thankgiving point it was about $16.99.  With a discount coupon, I can get the same puzzle from Robert's Crafts for 40-50% off!  Any guesses on what Joshua might be getting for his birthday?

We LOVED the museum, but next time will make sure we don't visit on Two-Buck Tuesdays.  Personal space is worth full price.

Grandpa's favorite store

The kids were thrilled to visit Grandpa's favorite store last week.

..

First stop - the huge mountain in the center of the store.  This time Olivia didn't panic when she saw the animals.

On the other side of the rail is fish pond.  Fortunately, none of my kids fell in, even though they tried hard to lean over as much as possible.  The kids loved throwing food to the fish.

I liked Olivia and Joshua's expressions in this picture.

Bears and Moose are huge!

After walking around the ground level, we took the elevator upstairs and found the food!  

Ice cream sandwiches!

Our cashier thought the kids would enjoy the shooting range and gave us free tokens.  Well, it was interesting.  I tried to show them how to hold a gun - drawing on my brief instruction from my childhood on how to fire a BB gun.  Let's just say, the kids loved the sound the gun made when they pulled the trigger, but couldn't care less about aiming.  I'm just glad I didn't pay for any tokens.

The best part of the store we saved for last - the aquariums!
This fish is almost bigger than Emily.

I'm sure when my dad was 5 years old he would have look just like this staring at the fish.

Sweet's Candy Factory

I have a new favorite candy company!

I took the kids on a tour of the Sweet's Candy Factory and it was so much better than that other candy factory we toured a couple of weeks ago.

No cameras, jewelry, cell phones, backpacks, purses, strollers or other personal items allowed in the factory as described in their tour guidelines.  And we had to make an appointment ahead of time.

We were able to walk on the production floor and watch the candy fly through the machines - as long as we stayed between the painted yellow lines.

And one more thing... we had to wear HAIRNETS!

Has anyone who really reads this blog ever met my 3-year old, Joshua?
Imagine showing Joshua a thin blue hairnet and telling him he has to wear it for the next 45 minutes while we stay between the yellow lines and walk through the factory.

Do you think he kept the hairnet on?

Me: "Look Joshua!  There is a man over there working, and he has his hairnet ON and he isn't yelling."
Joshua rips it off anyway and falls in a heap on the concrete floor.
Me: "Look Joshua!  There is another man wearing a hairnet over there, and he is walking nicely!" (as I point out all the workers who can wear hairnets and not act like Joshua.)
Joshua very reluctantly accepts that I placed the hairnet back on his head - again.

repeat every 5 or so minutes.

But aside from the hairnet war, it was really fun to see the inside of a candy company.  The yellow lines guided us right between rows and rows of fresh candy just off the machines.  If we didn't stay between them, we could pluck candy right off the trays.  Of course I didn't point that out to the kids.  :)

Our tour guide offered us lots of samples.  We tried many different candies as they came off the machines, like half-done cherry sours, raspberry sticks, and taffy.  Once back in the main store, we were offered a free sample of any kind of candy we wanted to try.  We tried a lot!  And then purchased our favorites to take home.

Once back in the parking lot, I took a picture of the kids with their loot.
Joshua, who had been so happy to get rid of the hairnet at the end of the tour, panicked and had to have his hairnet ON for the picture.

Miriam - was the opposite extreme.  She noticed the real possibilities of a hairnet right off the bat!  "Mom, if I wear a hairnet, no one knows if I comb my hair or not!"  

And she wore it all the way home.