Harvest Festival

Two years ago we heard about a harvest festival up in the Tri-Cities that was being done by a church.  We went to it and had a great time.  Last year it was rainy but this time weather was perfect.  It was basically the same as two years ago, but I don't think the kids realized that.  It was still fun.

There was a spot that was meant for family pictures.  It was decorated all Halloween-y.  Did I mention that it was a sunny day?

All the kids got to go on a little pony ride.  Adam seemed a little ambivalent about the ride, but the girls all liked their turns.

There was a big pumpkin bounce house.  We had to wait in a long line for a turn but it was still fun.

Adam is afraid of bounce houses.  So he and I waited in the "baby section".  There were little farm animal toys.  And a nice lady giving out candy.

A spot to see how tall you are.  It always amazes me that Rachel is almost as tall as Whitney.

We went through this straw maze.  Whitney was our leader.  With her as a guide we didn't make any wrong turns.  And more candy at the end.

The baby goats were adorable and super friendly.  They loved sniffing hands.

The girls all got their faces painted.  This probably took the most amount of time.  Megan wanted a heart.  Whitney is a shark and Rachel is an angel.  They all turned out very cute.

Then we played some carnival games.

This was Adam's favorite game.  You were suppose to find little jewels in the container of beans.  Adam didn't care about the jewels.  He just wanted to scoop out the beans, over and over and over.

Then on our way out we stopped at the little pumpkin patch so each kid could get a little pumpkin.  These pumpkins are cute and tiny.  I think we will paint them instead of trying to carve them.  It was a fun afternoon.

So now we are ready for Halloween.  My kids are really excited about their costumes and getting lots of candy.

Gymnastics Day

We have a friend in our ward whose daughter is part of gymnastics.  They travel to the Tri-Cities every week for her practices.  They told us about free gymnastics day and invited us to come.

There were a couple of little performances for people to watch.  I thought these were cool and some of the older kids who did flips and twists were really good.  I have to admit the gymnastics is my favorite part of the Olympics to watch. 

There also were times where the kids could play on the different gymnastics equipment.  Adam liked going down this little slide.

Up high was a spot for slightly older kids that Whitney and Rachel spent most of their time at.  Whitney is waiting in line to jump into the pit.

And in the pit.  Both girls spent at least an hour jumping into this foam block pit.

Each jump led to big smiles so it must have been quite fun.

Megan liked this car track and spent a lot of time sliding on it.  Even Adam did this a couple of times.

Megan climbing onto the double bars.  No crazy flips were done but she showed off her balancing skills.

This was Adam's favorite spot.  It was a long thin trampoline.  Unfortunately, only one kid was allowed on it at a time so you had to wait for your turn a lot.  But Adam still loved it.

Maybe one day we could get our kids involved in gymnastics because they all had a lot of fun here.  But I don't know if they would actually like being told what to do versus having free reign with the toys and equipment.  Still a fun day.

Beautiful Balloons

So Will has wanted to see a hot air balloon show for awhile now.  We tried to see it in Walla Walla, but that one was canceled.  Then I heard about a show in Prosser.  We looked at the weather report and it looked nice so we decided to risk it.

For some reason the balloons have to lift up right after sunrise.  So we got to leave at 5:30 in the morning to make it there.  The kids weren't thrilled with this, but they survived.  And look at how happy they are to be waiting at the Prosser airport.

This is the balloon that we were closest to.  It ended up being huge but we got to see them start filling it up with air.  The flames were cool to see but I couldn't get a good picture of that.

This was the first balloon that made it all the way up and into the air.  It was one of my favorites because of its beautiful colors.

The patriotic American flag balloon goes up into the air.  There was a commentator who told us what each balloon was called and who was flying it.

I loved seeing lots of balloons in the sky at the same time - so amazing.  It would be pretty awesome to fly in one someday.

Prosser was having a little festival after the show.  Whitney admires somebody's handiwork.

We just had to stop and get little balloon animals from this guy.  The kids loved their balloons.

These cookies were called something like straight from heaven.  I don't know about that but they were pretty good, very sugary and pricey.  But the kids all loved them.  It is nice to get treats now and then.

Then we stopped to play at the Prosser park.  This was a big and pretty cool park.  Adam found this slide and went on it over and over and over and over.

There were lots of balancing kinds of toys that would swing a little as the kids walked across them.  Rachel was probably the best at this.

Adam found this mural by the park.  He has recently learned 'wheel' and he likes to find wheels everywhere.  This was extra special because there were two little toy cars just sitting there so Adam played with them for awhile while his sisters kept playing in the park.

So it was really fun.  I am glad the balloons went up this time; I guess they did not go up on Friday morning.  So we got lucky.  It was beautiful. 

Megan's Water Party

At the end of August Megan turned four years old.  She requested a water party, and she is the only child who could probably ever have one.  So we thought this would be fun to try.

First we decorated baggies - with fish stickers, of course.  Then the kids all got to put in a couple of goodies.

I love paint by water, really love it.  My kids like it too and even Adam can do it.  Since this was a water party I bought a few of these books from the dollar store.

Then it was time to try to collect beads in a pan of water using just your feet.  Some of the kids were more successful at this than others.  They got to trade their beads in for some candy.

I saw this in a Friend magazine - Duck Duck Splash.  So you use a little water sponge ball to play and the kids dip this into a bowl of water.  Instead of saying goose, you say 'splash' and get to squeeze the ball on the person.  The kids thought this was really fun and played for a long time.

Even Adam got a turn to be the "It" and pick someone to splash.

This game probably would have worked better with older kids. oh well.  The kids stood in line and they each had a cup.  The first person was suppose to fill their cup and then dump it behind their shoulder to the next person.  The first team to fill their bowl in the back was suppose to win.  So the little kids didn't seem to understand this game.  Maybe we will try again in a couple of years.

And it isn't a water party without water balloons.  Will was very nice and filled like 80 water balloons.  They were all gone in about five minutes.  But it was a really fun five minutes.

Then it was time for food.  I scoured the Internet for food ideas for a water party.  We ended up with goldfish crackers, watermelon, and cute little quesadillas shaped like fish or ducks.  I think most of the kids liked their light lunch.

Megan loved opening presents.  She got a lot of fun things.

And my favorite was the "water" cake.  Most people put Swedish fish on their cakes on-line.  But I think Swedish fish are not so tasty and I didn't want to be stuck with extra.  So we used blue frosting and mnm's.  I thought it turned out cute.

Happy Birthday Megan!  Hard to believe you are already four years old.  I am glad you liked your party.

Last of Las Vegas

This will be the last Las Vegas post.  There was just so much to see and do there.  It was an awesome place to visit.

We had our choice of chocolate places to visit in Las Vegas.  There is a Hershey's World and an MnM world.  But we decided to go to the fancy Ethel M Chocolate Factory.

We picked this place because you could take a free self-guided tour and watch the workers as they made the chocolates.  We saw some delicious looking fancy chocolate apples and somebody cutting a huge slab of caramel.  It was interesting.  We stopped at the gift shop afterwards and admired all the choices.

Outside of this factory is a cactus garden.  I guess the man who originally ran the Ethel M factory wanted to have a sanctuary.  So he had this built.  It was fascinating. I had no idea there were so many kinds of cacti.  These paper spine cacti reminded me of the cactus ball men in the Nintendo games.

I thought these ones were also really beautiful.  It is kind of hard to tell in the picture but they were tinged purple.  Very pretty.

Another place we decided to go to one afternoon in Las Vegas was to the Siegfried and Roy gardens.  There were dolphins that you could watch through the glass.

Every half an hour was a "water show".  The dolphins did some flips and would get rewarded with fish.  They would also weigh the dolphins and the workers would check to make sure they were healthy.  I did not get a good picture but there was a baby dolphin that was kept in a separate pool with its mom.  It was so cute.

The dolphins were only a couple of feet from me.  I really wanted to touch them but that is a big no no.  They are such fun animals.

Also part of this garden were some big cats.  This was a white lion.

And a white tiger getting a drink.  I didn't know much about these big white cats, so they were cool to learn about and watch for awhile.

We stopped at the gift shop/museum where we could touch these sea creatures.

Anyway, Las Vegas was great.  I am so glad we got a few days to spend together.  Thanks again Ma and Pa Keeler.