Pumpkin Time

Yep.  It's that time again.  Fall.  Family.  Seasonal traditions.

There is a crispness in the air and what better way to celebrate October than a trip to the farm.  Last night we met some friends down at Aqua Linda Farm about 45 minutes outside Tucson.  This was the first night of their Fall Festival activities that included a hay bail maze, petting zoo, tractor rides and some good old tire swinging. 

 

We all had a great time.  It was relaxing and simple and fun.  You could practically see the childhood memories being created right before your eyes.  Although we all had our favorite moments mine was the movie under the trees.
 

What movie?  Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin of course.

I can see this trip becoming a new family tradition.  How do you celebrate the change in season?

Ava and I headed downtown to the music store today to pick up a violin for school.  This year the fourth grade gets to have orchestra classes twice a week at school.  We are just renting for now but if she loves it we may look into finding one she can keep. She was interested in the violin several years ago but we decided on Kung Fu lessons instead.  She is so excited and can't wait to start.

I'll use any excuse to go downtown and The Chicago Music Store did not disappoint.  We just poked around at first.  

But she knew exactly what she wanted.

This young lady seems to be growing before my eyes.  

 I could have stayed a lot longer but she was anxious to get home and show her dad and sister. 

First lesson is Tuesday... I'll keep you posted.

Downtown

 Where we live is a little hard to classify.  We don't live in the country, or a suburb but I wouldn't describe it as urban either.  Is there are word for a living in a nice neighborhood near a university campus in a mid sized city? 
 Anyway, there are amazing things happening just miles from our house but we don't take advantage of it like we should.  We are such homebodies and it really takes effort for us to get out, but we're trying.  Over the weekend we decided to go downtown to visit the King Tut exhibit.  It was a total dud in my book so I won't even go into it.  What I did love was the beauty of our city's streets.

We started the afternoon at one of our favorite places in college, Frog & Firkin.  Strange name I know but it has an awesome patio for people watching, amazing food, and really good beer.

Erin was tired and hungry and clingy but we (her and I) pushed through it and tried to make the most of our afternoon out.  Once she got her pizza and I got my beer we were good to go.

Jeff and the girls brushed up on Egyptian history while we waited for the trolly.  I sat back and enjoyed not having to clean up the dishes.

There is an old fashioned trolly that stops right in front of the restaurant and it takes you downtown.  .25 cents per person on Sunday's made it even sweeter.

It was a short walk from the trolly to the museum but like I said that was my favorite part of the day.

One of the best parts was the tunnel lined with tiles of people's faces.  Silly me forgot to take a picture.  I think I'll just have to take a trip back with my camera and do it again.

The Wildlife Museum

I'm back at work and the last day of summer the girls wanted me to take them to the International Wildlife Museum. We went early and had the place to ourselves.

The girls spent time exploring the critters in the pond out front. They really spend time like this, hand in hand, and it just melts my heart. I love this picture with their arms entwined. The sisterly bond between them is so strong.

Erin and I loved the room filled with butterflies and moths. The colors and patterns were amazing.

Just an hour after seeing this...

and this...

Ava came home and made this museum for her toys. I love that kid.

Trolley Trip

Normally we are homebodies but we had so much fun visiting the Arizona State Museum a few weekends ago that we decided to go back down to the U of A campus and take a trolley trip downtown.

We did a little window shopping while we waited for the trolley then took the 5 minute ride several blocks down to 4th Ave. This street is sort of our local cultural center lined with bars, cafes, thrift shops and tattoo parlors. We walked a little then stopped for lunch (asparagus crepes with lemon cream sauce, yum!). Erin put on a show after her PB&J. I know she'll kill me for these later, but really that kids loves to entertain.