Day out on the town

Today is the beginning of fall break!  We are trying to plan a few fun adventures, since we were unable to fulfill our girls greatest desire of going to Disneyland for the weekend.   Months ago we purchased a season pass to the Utah Hogle Zoo with plans to travel there often, and we have.  This is the about the 5th or 6th time we have went there in the last 6 months.  It is always one of our favorite places to go!

This time the highlight of the day was the tigers!

Frequently when we go there the tigers are all sleeping, though last time this tiger (the one in a lone cage) was crying the entire time we were there.  It was pretty weird!  This time he was up roaming around.  The other cage has 3 tigers and they were the life today.  One of them jumped in the water and played with a big blue ball for us, while the other two roamed.  Yet, in a few minutes two were asleep and the playful tiger was out doing his roaming.

The point is at a zoo, one minute there is lots of see and in another they are just sleeping animals.  It's just luck if you get to see anything exciting!

Unless... its the Polar Bears!  The new Rocky Shores area of the zoo is awesome with their black bears, polar bears, seals and otters.  The Polar Bear (behind my girls) is always active and fun to watch swimming!

Here in the water by Macey, Alyssa, Hailey and Abby  you can see three of the seals swimming in the water.

This baby giraffe is 2 1/2 weeks old and while he wasn't very 'fun' to watch he was fun because of how small and soft he looked.

This is Acara the Orangatan.  She was waving at us and Alyssa took this picture of her.

After we left the zoo we went to Gardner village to see the witches at their annual witch fest.  They have the cutest witches and I really wish I could post their pictures, but it keeps turning my pictures sideways on me so I can't upload any of them.  All together it was a very fun full day.

Cornbelly's

Cornbelly's is a fun, end of the harvest, place to take your children for playing on the farm!  They got to play on tractor's, toys, run through a corn maze, pick out pumpkins, and get spooked.

Hailey brought her friend Vivian with us and together they shared so many smiles. 

Corn sack races down the slides!

Macey and Alyssa playing in a shed full of dried corn!  The did bury her like it was sand but I made them stop for fear something might get in her nose or ears.

These are the cow (barrels) that we road in as the tractor pulled us all through the farm lands.

The large corn maze we ran through!

We also cooked smores over a campfire and got marshmallows all over our faces :) 

The haunter monster that Abby loved and Macey screamed the entire way through.  It wasn't really haunted, just dark and I used my cell phone as a flashlight for her.

5th grade math

In today's world education is like being on a teeter totter. They want less teachers so bigger classes and want the kids to know so much more. Yes my children are smart an they do just fine with the core standards set up for each of the classes but.
My kids go to Edgemont elementary and while it's a very old school it's still a really good family school. They try hard though I don't agree at all with a few things they have done in the past.

Hailey is in 5th grade this year, and you know me being a math teacher, I volunteered to help with their accelerated math program for her class. There used to be a teacher that was paid to teach the class, but that was one thing the budget cut and so it dissolved. 6th grade still has it, so how are the students suppose to be ready for it in 6th grade. Accelerated math in 6th grade is pre-algebra yet in 5th and 6th grade they learn so many things that they really should not skip. So what could I do to help?

I decided with the 5th grade teachers to take the top 18 students in their classes and teach them 5th grade math just using a lot more logic and having them do more story problems, developing their true understanding of the basic math facts. We would move faster than the other classes and so in the end we would cover a small portion of 6th grade math also, preparing them for their pre-algebra class next year.

What I didn't expect was Macey, people always canceling on our kid swap and parents who had said they would watch her because I'm teaching their children flaking out completely. It has ended up I do two kid swaps a week and Johns mother watches her two days. This week due to some unseen events I am suppose to take her to school with me 3 days. Let me just say Macey is 2 but will be 3 soon. She has more energy than anyone I have ever met and completely ruins any lesson I am trying to teach by stealing the attention of everyone in the classroom. They all love sweet little Macey!

What am I to do, well right now the only option if this continues is to stop volunteering at the end of the semester. I've spent lots of time and money on this class but I cannot continue to do this all year if I continually have to deal with this. So I guess 2 1/2 more months and then they will all go back to their teachers 2 chapters ahead.

Squaw Peak we tackled you!

I had been wanting to hike to the top of squaw peak all season, but also wanted the heak to back of a little.  Now at the end of September the weather is still beautiful, but cool enough to hike here in the mountains. 

Alyssa was the only child of our invited to come along.  She is a go gitter and loves to do this kind of thing.  Abby would complain she needed carried the entire time and Macey really would need carried to Hailey (happily) stayed home watching her little sisters, with Grandma's help.

Lets just say she did a wonderful job and had more energy than the rest of us for hiking.

John's dad, Grandpa Giles, also wanted to come on the hike with us.  He wanted to be in shape for the hike and so he started going on 1-3 hour walks in the hills everyday before our hike.  He did a wonderful job and lets say he is in excellent shape.

We made it to the top and we could see our house below so we called and had Hailey and her Grandma look at us through the binoculars.  They couldn't see us, but they could see the flag we were sitting right next too!

Maybe next year we'll take a few more children, maybe not.

Making applesauce

It's that time of year again, the time when I have to can and can and can somemore.  This year I have canned green beans, raspberry jam, tomatoes, salsa, peaches, pears, sweet n sour sauce and hamburger (yeah, I know most people will think that is crazy!).  Apples are just coming on so this week I have been working with applesauce and next week I am hoping to get my apple jelly all canned.

A good friend of mine is learning how to can a few different items and really wants to can applesauce this year.  She is always calling asking questions so I thought I would put this as some info on my blog.

Step 1: Start out with at least a 5 gallon bucket full of good apples (these just need to taste good, but can be seconds), this will make 7 quarts of applesauce.

2. Wash and quarter all your apples.  If using a victorio strainer you do not need to cut the pits out of the apples.

3. Cook the apples for 10-20 minutes, just until the apples get nice and mushy

4. Run the apples through what ever kind of strainer you have.  I have a victorio strainer and it works great

5. Season your apples with sugar & cinnamon (optional) and place in your hot sterilized jars.  Process 30 minutes and whala your finished!