Project for Dad and Son

Daniel has been driving us crazy asking for a Pirate boat. Paul decided to make one for him after he couldn't take the incessant requests. This was a joint effort and still continues to get things added to it. The steering wheel really turns and the spindle that holds the thread for the anchor does too causing the anchor to drop. Daniel added the ladder from his Legos and made the sails. We are still deciding whether to paint it or leave it. But they sure had fun making it!

Pyrah's Pioneer Peak Farm Fall Festival

 

There is a farm in Palmer Alaska that used to be a church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) farm. It's now rented to a family and they have a U-Pick farm there. It's where we went to the winter festival last year and Reagan and I had our hair done like the Who's from Whoville.

 

Every year they have a Fall festival as well and this year they added an extra day just for kids with special needs and made it free just for that day. What a blessing! We were also blessed with good weather after having horrible rainy days preceding it. Unfortunately it wasn't well advertised so not a lot of kids were there.

 

But that just meant my kids were able to enjoy it more and not have to wait in any lines which was fabulous for us. We were there for about an hour and a half  until Daniel decided he couldn't handle any more.

 

 They had so much fun bumping into each other doing this. They were laughing so hard they could barely stay on their balls.

 

Cabbage bowling anyone?

 

They also loved the bouncy toy. Since no one was there they got an extra long turn and I was able to just sit and enjoy the beautiful day.

 

It took a lot of coaxing for Daniel to ride any of the rides. Anything that moved he wanted nothing to do with. But Reagan and I persisted and he enjoyed it once it started.

 

These are cool tractor trikes. As it was something to ride Daniel wouldn't get on but he was more than willing to help Reagan do it.

 

It was a fun beautiful day. We picked up some pumpkins and brought them home. Enjoyed some pumpkin custard from them. I hope they do it again next year!

A Drawing to Get Excited About

Looks like not much right? Well for Daniel it is a huge step forward. There is more than one color in this drawing. This is the first and only one that we have seen of this kind but hope more will follow. It's a developmental step for him. He has to think further about what he is drawing and plan the different colors. It's not so linear.
Daniel says that it is a picture of him driving a 4 wheeler with a trailer hooked to it. He's holding onto a shovel so he and Daddy can dig for pirate treasure. The trailer is full of camping gear for them and the flag is a pirate flag of course.
Just have to shout hooray when something like this happens.

For school this year part of Daniel's school work is poetry, and for each term he has to memorize one poem. This term it is a A Child's Garden Book of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. Reagan also joins in on the poetry. Here are their poems for this term, picked out completely by themselves.

Reagan is now learning a second one called Auntie's skirts as it reminds her of Aunt April. I was going to wait to post this until exam week in which we have something really fun planned but I couldn't resist sharing.

Random Pictures

 

Reagan was begging me to take her picture this day.

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And here they are decked out in all their glory one Sunday after church after they got presents from my friend Colleen Kigin who loves to drop in and say hello.

Finger Knitting

One day about a month or two ago Reagan really wanted to do something with my yarn. So I pulled out some yarn I didn't really care about and worked on teaching her how to finger knit. It takes some dexterity. She was very happy to do something with yarn like Mommy does. We haven't revisited it yet but hopefully soon as I have found memories of sitting with my Grandma Lyman and her teaching me how to crochet, I think this is a good first step.

Alaska State Fair

So if we ever leave Alaska, I got to cross of one thing off my Alaska bucket list this summer. The Alaska State Fair! People come from all over the world to see our State Fair. And why not, we have vegetables the size of people! Unfortunately we kept missing that building so I didn't get any pictures of it.

 This is probably one of the only chances kids up here get to ride a Carousel. There aren't any up here permanently.  Reagan was all for that. The trucks are the only thing we could get Daniel to ride and only with much coaxing. Unfortunately the picture with him won't load for some reason.

 If you look closely you can see a seal out of the hedge.

We saw all kinds of animals, this was a baby Tiger. The Zoo up here doesn't have  a lot of different animals so this was a good chance for my kids to see different animals they don't usually see. The zoo here though was were I got to see my first camel with 2 humps. They are a cold weather animal.

 

This clown was from Calgary Canada. We get a lot of Canadians here in Alaska. Small wonder. The kids really enjoyed her show.

There were lots of music shows from all over but I couldn't get the kids to stay in one place to listen. We enjoyed the farm animals though Reagan couldn't wait to get out of there as she was not keen on the smell. She loved parts of the crafty building, all the dolls  on display and clothes. I loved seeing the quilts. The were absolutely amazing to me.

Hopefully next year we'll see the vegetables and you'll get to see the pictures as they really are amazing.