A weekly list of things accomplished, enjoyed, learned, tried and remembered.
We just finished a two week Fall Break. The boys LOVED not having school and homework–and I have to admit–I did too. School breaks are when we have the opportunity to visit fun places and do things we normally don’t have time to and we packed in A LOT.
1.Skyzone! This is SUCH a great place to let your kids get their energy out. There are tons of trampolines, a foam pit to jump in, basketball goals so they can try out their dunking skills, and dodge ball. You pay for the number of hours you want to play–we only did one and it was PLENTY.
2.Making Halloween Cookies. When the month of October hits, I am required to make two treats. The first one is Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins (you can get the recipe here) and Halloween sugar cookies (click here to get that recipe). My boys love decorating these just as much as the ones we do at Christmas and it was a great way to spend a rather cold afternoon. Grayson always goes a little heavy on the candy corn, but that’s because he’s the only one that likes candy corn–it’s his way of making sure he gets his fair share. Smart boy.
3. Trampoline World! This is another of our favorite places to get energy out. They have so many fun trampolines, a trapeze to swing out over a foam pit, harnesses for doing the really high jumping and practicing flips, and a rope swing too. You can pay for 1-3 hours of jumping. My boys are EXHAUSTED after just one hour and have easily gotten to enjoy all that they wanted to.
4. The Zoo. This one is usually my choice. I LOVE our Colorado Springs zoo. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is up on the mountainside and they have done such a great job with all of the animal exhibits. I love that we can spend 2-3 hours strolling through (it’s a bit of a hike up hill in some places) and get to see all of the animals and even interact with some of them (feeding the giraffes and birds). The staff is always so friendly and available to tell you all sorts of interesting facts.
5.Focus on the Family and lunch with Daddy. We have been going to the play area at Focus on the Family since my boys were little bitty. If you’ve never been–it’s located inside their bookstore/welcome center–you just go downstairs. It’s free and such a fun place to bring your kids to play and explore. My boys still love going after all these years–playing in the air plane, going through the hidden pathway and the wardrobe into Narnia, going down the big slide, and Grayson had a blast doing a couple of their scavenger hunts–although he is never satisfied until he finishes.
After playing at Focus for about an hour we got to go to Super Rockstar’s office and then out to lunch with him. The boys always enjoy going to Daddy’s office–he keeps a lot of toys in his office that they don’t get to play with very often. Super Rockstar has been known to play with his super hero dolls (action figures) in between meetings (shh, don’t tell anyone).
6. Great Wolf Lodge. We had our first experience at Great Wolf Lodge back in March (my parent’s treated us). We had such a good time so we decided to go back. It is a little pricey, but worth every penny. I’ve heard you can get deals on Groupon and other money saving sites.
We pretty much did the exact same things as last time (you can read about that here), but this time Morgan and Grayson REALLY got into the Magi game–they were running around back and forth so much completing their “quests” that Super Rockstar and I were getting exhausted trying to keep up.
7. Sledding. We got to have a snow day during the last part of our fall break, so we got to go sledding for the first time of the season. Boy, was it cold, but we still had fun before our teeth started chattering and we lost feeling in our hands in feet. Starbucks hot chocolate to the rescue!
8. The new school. I told you about our school changing names and that we would be moving to a brand new building right after fall break (you can read that here). We got to go to the ribbon cutting ceremony and see the new school the weekend before. Wow! They did a GREAT job. The new place is SO much bigger than our old one–the classrooms are bigger, our gymnasium is a full size one now (with a stage for future assemblies and even plays), and the play ground is enormous. My son, Morgan, still can’t stand school–but at least he’ll be unhappy in a nicer place.
9. Pumpkin Patch. Our last venture of fall break was to go to a pumpkin patch. I use that term loosely, because there wasn’t a pumpkin patch–there were a bunch of store bought pumpkins lying on the ground to choose from. But, the real fun was all the activities they offered. We’ve gone to Colorado Pumpkin Patch for 3 years now. I like it because it’s suited for kids of all ages–they have inflated thingies to jump on, laser tag, human fooz ball, slides, swinging tubes to play in and hay rides.
Whew! We did it. We (I) survived two full weeks (plus) of running my boys around, doing fun activities, watching tons of movies, letting them play WAY more video games than normal, and watching my two very quickly growing up boys enjoy just being kids.
Hope you have a great week!