On our many travels this summer we got to do some pretty fun things. After staying two weeks in central Utah the kids and I made our way north toward Idaho and we bid farewell to Mitch as he drove first to Colorado Springs, then on to San Antonio and Fort Sam Houston.We made a few stops along the way to Caldwell and Thanksgiving Point was our first. The greatest part is we got in for FREE, yes that's right, all of you Milwaukeeans, your Discovery World pass will get you into the Dinosaur exhibit!! Ok, so the kids had a blast and it broke up the drive a little bit. They have all sorts of interactive things for the kiddos to do including, a small cave to climb into, dinosaurs to play with, wings to unfold and flap about like a giant insect, a water table where you can bury your dinosaurs, flood them out of existence or just get messy,they also have a dino dig where the kids dug up prehistoric bones. Addie and Wesley are starting to be really good friends and they played really well together as we walked through the museum, well they ran around like wild children, but they were having fun, and they didn't steal any bones from the dinosaurs, so it was totally ok with me.

"I'm Bored" Fixes 1. Have a pajama day, make breakfast, watch cartoons etc. 2. Have a treasure hunt "x" marks the spot 3. Grow a garden 4. Hold a family reading competition for the summer or for a week or two, have a prize if goals are accomplished 5. Make a summer to do list and hang where everyone can see it 6. Learn a new skill 7. Create crafts crafts.kaboose.com 8. Sly a kite 9. Knit bandages for leprosy victims leprosybandages.blogspot.com 10. Go to the library 11. Make some frozen treats 12. Grow a sunflower 13. Start a journal 14. Be chef for a day 15. Host an olympics 16. Grow butterflies insectlore.com 17. Make an anything goes lunch 18. Play with bubbles 19. Hold a no electricity day 20. Enjoy fresh fruit 21. Use work books 22. Attend a concert in the park 23. Go fishing 24. Live outside for a day 25. Hold a family science fair 26. Go ice skating 27. Have a cupcake day 28. Start a collection 29. Organize a block party 30. Service 31. Have a garage sale 32. Stargaze 33. Have a photography contest 34. Go on a scavenger hunt 35. Participate in a race 36. Make pinatas 37. River wade 38. Paint 39. Read aloud 40. Attend a festival 41. Have a talent show 42. Make razzle dazzle shirts 43. Go to the zoo 44. Host a game show 45. Go horseback riding 46. Go indoor camping 47. Go to a farmers market 48. Make seashell critters 49. Take a day trip 50. Tell some tales 51. Make salsa 52. Make homemade lemonade 53. Have an archeology dig 54. Volunteer at an animal shelter 55. Attend the county fair 56. Have a theme picnic 57. Play uno 58. Scrapbook 59. Play night games 60. Make a fort 61. Show and tell 62. Create a homemade waterpark

After church today I was putting together some hamburger patties to put in the fridge to marinate a little bit before I cooked them. Addie was watching me create the circular patties and when I was almost finished asked if she could make one. I gave her a little ball of meat and watched as she made a decently round pattie. The following conversation is what we said as we made patties.

Addie: "What are you making?"
Momma: "I'm making hamburger patties."
Addie: "Can I make one?"
Momma: "Sure"
Addie: as she makes a circle "I"m going to make an Addie Pattie."

I'm pretty sure she wanted to say "make an addie size pattie, because we often make things her size, but the "size" part was missed and the resulting "Addie Paddie" put me into hysterical laughter. I recounted the tale to Mitch who laughed then I started laughing again and Addie looking at both of us with the pattie still in her hand laughed at herself too, proud of her ability to make her parents laugh, even if she wasn't sure why. I'm really not sure why either for that matter other than "Addie Pattie" struck me as particularly funny and cute at that moment.

Lately I've been reading to the kids as night while they lay in bed. I do this not only to calm them down by a soothing, familiar voice, but because exposure to literature and words is, I think important, and also because it gives mommy time to relax too, I know selfish right. lately I've been switching between "Anne of Green Gables" and "Matilda" but on Sunday this week I decided to read the Gospel Principles manual instead. I sat down and started to read about the eternal and omnipotent nature of God and Addie says:

Addie: " Let's read Anne."
Mandy: " Well I thought we'd read about Heavenly Father tonight."
Addie: " I don't like to read Heavenly Father."

Perhaps my literary choices should have started with the gospel and then ended with Anne girl.

Happy Halloween! This Halloween was a lot of fun for our family. We carved pumpkins that we got from the pumpkin patch. Addie was very proud that she drew her own face on her pumpkin, although she wanted to do the cutting too. Wesley liked eating the pumpkin seeds, right out of the yucky pumpkin guts. He didn't much mind the yucky parts, it was just an interesting sensation I suppose. Addie was a fairy princess although she only wore her wings for these pictures, then Mitch wore them the rest of the night as we went to Boo at the Zoo. He got a compliment for them, that handsome guy! Wesley was a little scarecrow with a hat that he hated to have on. The Medical College had a trick or treat too, that I took the kids to. Addie was unusually shy and would not say trick or treat, or go into any of the rooms without me to get a treat. This was very unusual for her, although it annoyed me a little at the time, I'm glad she had some more stranger danger awareness. She was so funny picking out the candies too. I have such a sweet tooth that I would have gone for the Almond Joy's and the Snickers and the so called "Good" candy. But Addie was very meticulous about her choices. She picked out suckers and the smallest pieces of candy. One of the ladies even commented on how careful she was in choosing and putting her candy in her trick or treat bag. Wesley got an orange balloon with a Jack O Lantern on it that he bounced around back and forth until it got lost in the melee of costumed trick or treaters in the halls. It was fun to have a kid old enough to actually understand what's going on, even if her choices of candy were not the ones I would have made, at least she had fun and can look forward to it next year.