The Fair!

Going to the State Fair has become a really fun tradition for us. We always buy a set number of tickets and the kids can choose which rides they want to go on. They went on this one several times -- they had to climb huge ladders, go through ball pits, slide down a giant slide, and go through several other obstacles. Rand was so sweet and helped Ella out whenever she got stuck. She got scared in the ball pit (she'd never been in one before) and Rand held her hand and walked with her through the whole thing.

We got cotton candy and funnel cakes....mmmmm.

We watched a high school rodeo -- the goat tying and calf roping were especially exciting.

They had a kids play area where they could play in big sandboxes and ride around on these little bikes.

The petting zoo was a huge hit! Rand liked the teeny little potbellied pigs best. I tried to get a picture of Ella petting the big llama but she was too fast. She had no fear at all of that thing!

Phoenix Art Museum

The kids had a great time at the Phoenix Art Museum a couple of weeks ago. They are starting to get old enough to really enjoy and appreciate the various kinds of artwork. Ella was only slightly traumatized by all of the pictures of Jesus dying on the cross (go Renaissance art!). Rand's favorite painting was one of a little girl named Clara playing with her tea set and dolls. It was painted in the mid-1800's and it was fun to see him thinking about how kids are kids even 150 years apart.

Rand and Ella thought this sculpture was hilarious.

Rand loved the flower garden. He took about 25 pictures of all different kinds of flowers.

International Day

Rand and Ella's school has an International Day celebration every year, where children dress as their cultural heritage and we have a big potluck with all kinds of fun and interesting dishes. Rand and Ella loved their kilts and we brought scones with cream and jam -- they were a hit!

Rand is all the way on the right by his teacher Ms. Eva.

Ella is all the way on the left by her teacher Ms. Marty.

Rand and his friend Brady welcomed everyone to International Day and told us what song they would be singing first. They did a great job!

Pumpkin Carving

We had a fun time carving pumpkins. Rand wanted a "scary pumpkin" and so Ella wanted the same thing. Rand made me pull out all of the seeds out of his pumpkin, but Ella was game and didn't mind sticking her hand inside (although I love the mildly disgusted look on her face). They were so excited watching their pumpkins glow in the dark and sat and watched them until it was time to go to bed.

Desert Botanical Gardens and Butterflies

The Botanical Gardens got a really fun special exhibit where they have 9 huge wooden sculptures of various kinds of bugs. We had a great time walking through the gardens and finding all of them. They also had the Monarch butterflies exhibit so Rand and Ella spent a long time there admiring all of them.

Horse Show!

We had a fantastic horse show on Sunday. Ella did her leadline class and was just adorable. She answered all of the judge's questions and she would ride all on her own if I would let her.

Rand rode all on his own for the first time, and he did great! He didn't want to show at first because he was afraid he wouldn't win. We had a couple of nice chats about winning and loosing and he decided that he did want to ride after all. He got a 4th place (out of 4 riders) in pleasure -- not his fault, Bourbon is NOT a good pleasure horse -- and he did a great job controlling Bourbon and doing what he was supposed to do.

He got a 3rd place in trail, and again, he did exactly what he was supposed to! He remembered his entire pattern and did a very nice job controlling Bourbon and being in charge.

Happy Halloween!

Rand and Ella are just the right age for Halloween! We had so much fun this year. We went to Garden Lakes Baptist Church (where we go to Awanas) for their harvest festival. Rand and Ella had so much fun playing all of the little games, eating cotton candy, bouncing in the bounce house, and riding the little barrel train.

After the harvest festival we went to the Wotherspoons neighborhood and went trick-or-treating. Rand first went to the Wotherspoons house, gleefully shouted, "TRICK OR TREAT!!!!" and then was surprised when I said we could keep going. He said, "You mean we can go to peoples' houses that we don't know?!" Ella and Abi held hands and skipped along, and Rand and Isaac karate-kicked their way through the neighborhood. There were a couple of super spooky houses and Rand thought they were so fun and not scary at all (Ella clung to me like a drowning cat so we hung back).

They had a great time sorting their candy afterwards and were just thrilled with their loot.