Sleepy Hollow Wagon Ride

I heard about a new (to us) Halloween activity this year and really wanted to take everyone.  There were several things going on in October but there was a non-school-night evening when everyone was in town and available at the beginning of Fall Break. We bundled up and headed to Springville for a Sleepy Hollow Wagon Ride.

In order to make sure the kids were familiar with the story Sleepy Hollow, we listened to the audiobook while we were on our campering overnight.  I was glad they were prepared and knew what to expect when we went on our wagon ride adventure.

It was such a fun experience!  We began just after dusk, so it was completely dark when we finished the 30-minute ride.  A tractor pulled us and a couple of other families in a trailer as a recording of the story of Sleepy Hollow played.  During the ride through the country we saw scene-setting set-ups such as structures, decorations, and a campfire, which really enhanced the experience.  There were also several people in costume riding on horseback or sneaking up to our wagon to try to scare us (and then giving everyone fist bumps).  As the story came to an end, the Headless Horseman chased Ichabod Crane away.  It was a great combination of fun, festive, and spooky!

Most of my pictures didn't turn out because it was getting dark but this gives you
an idea of what it looked like.  The actor in the background was on a swing
(not swinging from a noose as it might appear in the picture).

Each of the younger kids chose a pumpkin to buy at the end.
Luke could barely carry his.

We loved it - we'll have to do it again when we have friends or cousins visiting!

Minecraft Incorporated

Luke
Boss, Minecraft Incorporated

Me: Tell me about your business.

Today I fired a bunch of people, and hired a bunch of people.  They were the same people.  And also, my job is to be cardboardsman - that means that I make things out of cardboard.  And I am also boss.

Me: What does that mean?

That means that I fire people and hire people.  My job is to fire people, hire people.  And my job is to make things out of cardboard.  Cree's job is to color and trace.   Daniel's job is coloring, tracing, and cutting.  Noah's job is to make the books.  That's also Liam's job.  And Owen's job is to color, trace, and cut.  And Liam also prints.  So does Noah.

Me: What kinds of things have you made?

I didn't make anything, it's just that we're doing really good in business.  Owen and Daniel already got their weekly payment.  I need to get my weekly payment.  Also, Sheldon is buying a lot of our products, which is good.  We need money!

Me: Sheldon is your customer?

Yep, Sheldon is our customer.

Me: But what are your products?

Oh, our products are Minecraft stuff.  I make the armor - that's what cardboard working is.

Me: So you've made armor?

No, not yet.  But I need to make armor.

Me: You're supposed to be making armor.

Uh, yeah.  During Fall Break I can do armor.  I would like to make a good business and lots of things in it, and our business is going pretty good.  Also, we're making books.  We allied with another company today.

Me: Do you have a name for your company?

No, we do not have a name for our company.

Me: When did your company start?

It started a couple weeks ago.

Me: And you already have one customer and they've bought two things?

Yep, one customer, two things.  No, actually, they've boughten like four things.

Me: So how much do your products cost?

Oh, they have different prices.

Me: What are the prices?

They're about five cents to three dollars.

Me: Oh, wow, that's quite a range.

Ben: Were you able to pay your employees already?

Uh, yeah.  Two of our employees already had their weekly payment and if our other employees don't get their weekly payment then they get two dollars the next week.  Everybody gets paid a dollar.

Me: So who's the treasurer?

Oh. Um, so if you get money, then you give it to somebody who hasn't been paid already.

Ben: So when you earn money, you just give it to a worker.

Yep. Until finally, everybody has at least one dollar.

Me: Cool. Are you happy with how your business is going so far?

Yeah, it's going pretty good. Really good. Really really really good.

Me: What happened today with your employees?

So I fired a bunch of employees cause they weren't doing the right things, then I hired them all again because they were working for a business that was super trashy.  That's it.

Me: So you didn't want them working for your competitor?  Was that it?

Uh, yeah. Our competitor's name is Recess.

----

[The next day, Suz was visiting and I asked Luke to tell her about his business.]

I make mula in the school.  Sometimes I make back alley trades.  And sometimes we trade in class, when we have free time, which is surprisingly a lot.

Suz: What's your back alley trade?

When we go to the swings, stand next to each other for a minute, then... (trails off)... and then we get our money.  But I still haven't gotten paid.  I feel like the boss should get paid the most. We've paid three of our employees so far. All of my employees get paid three dollars - tres dolares - tres pesos.

Me: What else does Suz need to know about your business?

She needs to know that if I do not get paid in three weeks, then I will quit my job and Daniel will become boss.

Me: Oh, you're gonna resign, huh?

Yeah. No. Sorry, I'm gonna go on strike.

Me: You need to tell her about your competition business, Luke.

There's another company that has the same people that are in my company!

Me: Does your company have a name yet?  

Nope

Jack: Minecraft Sellers

Ben: AAA Cardboard

Me: What about Luke & Co.?

Suz: Lukecraft!

Me: Or what about Timpcraft?

-----

A few days later, Luke told me that his company is officially named Minecraft Incorporated.

And this weekend, he finished two items that will be sold by MI, these pipe-cleaner-and-perler-bead rings (which he made completely by himself, including hot glueing the perler beads in the centers):

Sundance Before Snow

We went back to Sundance for one more lift ride on the last day of the 20-21 season, this time with Cat.  It was definitely colder and less colorful, and there had been noticeable progress on the improvement projects!  I brought along my good camera so here are some of the better pics:

(the kids as they went over Outlaw, which is much wider than before)

As we were leaving, a crowd was gathering for an event.  Ben and the boys
were ahead of us and the girls and I could see the boys chasing each other through
the crowd of people.  Can you spot them?

Phone pics:

Do you see the little zipliners above us?

Campering

We spent 24 hours camping in a camper (thus, campering) in the mountains recently and loved it!  The kids have been saying they want to camp since the summer and we finally just picked a weekend and rented a camper to try.  Ben decided we should go to the Granite Flats campground just above Tibble Fork Reservoir in American Fork Canyon.

We knew it was going to be a cold rainy weekend - the first really cold and rainy weekend of the fall - but figured it would be okay since we would have a place to go and be dry, and we'd be dry while we were sleeping.  It turned out that the canvas layers around the push-out beds did leak but it wasn't too bad and the heater worked, so that was nice.  It would have been much worse if we'd been in tents.

We brought our canopy so that we could set it up over the campfire, since it's not camping if you can't sit around a campfire.  And because Cat and I came a little later, Ben got the camper and the canopy set up as the only adult, with the help of the younger kids.  Go Ben!

Tin Foil dinners are the best.

It was great to have a warm, dry place to eat.

We made a simple campfire "peach cobbler" using a jar of peaches, 3 crumbled
biscuits, some butter, and cinnamon sugar.  Add some canned whipped
cream and it was a pretty yummy camping dessert.

I picked up a Disney villain puzzle to work on that night but the 1000 pieces
was too ambitious, haha.  At least we realized we could save the sections we'd finished
by wrapping them in tin foil.  We listened to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
while we puzzled.

Jack wanted to sleep by himself, but these three wanted to snuggle
together in one of the queen-sized push-out beds.  They slept pretty well,
in spite of some dripping water.

The next morning Eliza came up with a new campfire treat:
Roasted Airborne Sour Strip-Wrapped Starburst.
It was yummy.  S'mores were also part of the breakfast-period.

We had bacon and eggs, plus campfire muffins in orange peels for our (main) breakfast.

Cat loves the rain.  And the hail.

Mountain background for a family selfie before Cat left for work.

Campber background.

After Cat left we went on a little drive to Silver Lake Flat Reservoir.  The fall colors of the leaves on the trees were beautiful, especially as they speckled the dark green evergreen trees on the mountain.  Add in the clouds and the new snow from the night before and it was really awesome.  We stopped at the trailhead for Silver Lake but just hiked for about 15 minutes along the stream, then turned around.  It was really nice to get out and walk around for a little while, in spite of the cold and drizzle.  And the Aspen trees were such a brilliant shade of yellow!

After our short drive and hike we went back to our campsite to eat a little lunch and pack up.  It was a great little trip!

Fun to see a visitor near our campsite.

Hooray for campering!

Checking In With Eliza

 Here are a few fun things Eliza's been up to...

Eliza has a running joke with a friend at school about
"babushka" so she had fun creating this little look,
with the help of tissue paper and some throw pillows.

Eliza bought herself this Minnie Mouse sippy cup at Walmart and
has gotten a kick out of using it, and sharing it with her baby brother.

A good friend invited E to a BYU football game.
Eliza had no BYU swag to don but decided to show her
support of the home team by using blue hair chalk.

Eliza competed in a keyboard competition, playing Fur Elise

and one movement from a Catherine Rollin concerto.  She did a

great job and definitely earned her caramel apple treat afterward!

Eliza chose to be Lucille Ball for her Wax Museum project.  She was really excited about this and I love the way everything came together!  We found her a bandana and an apron to wear over a dress she already had; we sprayed her hair using the rest of the orange hair spray from her Pippi Longstocking costume last Halloween; and she created a cool retro TV on her board and we propped up a Chromebook in front of it to play a 1-minute I Love Lucy highlight video on a loop.  It all looked great!  (Though she said the younger kids watched the video instead of her when she was delivering her little speech.)  She said most of her friends didn't know who Lucille Ball was, so I'm glad she could help educate them.  Also, I found it amusing, and appropriate, that a friend gave Eliza some chocolate and she ate it just before someone came to hear her speech, so she did her best to deliver it with a mouthful of chocolate.  I think Lucille Ball would have been proud.

That afternoon, Eliza helped Luke create his own Lucille Ball look, of sorts.

A topic of discussion lately has been How much do Cat and Eliza look alike? We think they look similar, but not strikingly so.  It's been amusing though that several people have come up to Eliza recently and said something like, "You must be Cat's sister!"  We find it a bit puzzling.  But here are a few pictures where I can see a strong resemblance:

Who wore it better?

And which sister is this?