Local field trips

Hello all and HAPPY NEW YEAR! OK, I am a little behind in saying that, but only a week or two right? Here's to a fresh start and great year ahead 2015!

For this entry I decided to write about some of the great local field trips in and near Enumclaw. In November and December there are quite a few Non-school days and we are always looking for new and affordable places to take the kiddos for a fun filled day. Here's a few on the top of our list...

1. The Chalet Theatre

If you have not paid a visit to this town gem, be sure to put it on your calendar! The building has been around since 1928 and even has a fun history. It has been family owned and operated since 1977 and recently a new family member has taken over the reigns. Upon taking over the theatre Charles put in a new sound system, began offering beer and wine and even screens the Seahawks games for FREE! Charles has let our Camp Commotion as well as Enumclaw Adventures programs bring kids to the movies for a couple of years now. He charges $5/kid for a movie of our choosing, small pop and small popcorn! What a deal! We love this place and are thankful for a field trip within walking distance!
The Snack bar in 1952!
http://chalettheater.com/

2. Bounce It Up 360!
The kids get so excited when we go to Bounce It Up 360. The owner has several locations now, but we like to frequent the Black Diamond one. Plenty of bouncing equipment, balls, arcade games and even a video gaming area (recently added) to entertain for hours! Great prices as well. Check out their website for more information!


http://bounceitup360.com/

3. The Mason Jar Farm

We have had so much fun at this farm and always look forward to our visits! We have done countless fun activities there and Jenni, the owner is wonderful kids and always coming up with fun and creative games to play. We have learned about farming life, planted seeds, planted our own pumpkins in the spring and came back for them in the fall, did taste testing with various plants. So many fun memories and also great price for a visit!


http://www.themasonjarfarm.com/

4. Tiffany's Skate Rink!
Most of you probably have been to or know of Tiffany's Skate Rink in Puyallup, but did you know they do $2 Tuesdays!? Such a great deal and it's from 1pm-4pm, so you get a lot of skating time. It really is a good field trip for school aged kids because they get a chance to learn some coordination skills and you are essentially tricking them into fun exercise!;) But in all seriousness, I do think it is a physically beneficial field trip for all.


http://www.skatetiffanys.com/

5. Station 082
While not very active, if you couple this field trip with a day at the park it's perfect. Station 082 is basically this century's version of an arcade for kids. There are numerous TV's with endless video game options as well as board and card games. It is $5/kid for unlimited time. The kids really enjoy this place and they have done a great job of making the environment inviting and comfortable for everyone. Check them out!

http://station082.com/

These are just a few of the places we love to visit on Early release or Non-school days. When the weather permits we also enjoy spending time at various local parks! It's a great community and we are thankful for all of these businesses!

Good Cop Bad Cop Costumes!

Another Halloween has come and gone! This year Connie (my employee) and I tried to channel Pinterest for our costumes. Enumclaw Adventures had a booth at a local Halloween Carnival put on by Dance It Up and we wanted to wow the crowd! While I am not sure we accomplished WOW...we had a great time doing this project and thanks to the few who understood what we were, it was well worth it!

If you have not seen The Lego Movie this costume won't make sense, if you have, well we hope you enjoy...

Our final products!

Here's how to make it!

First you need a kitten...just kididng, but it did make the process more fun:)

Supplies (for 1 lego cop):
2 foam wreath forms
1 Yellow posterboard
Black sharpie
Hot glue gun and glue
Silver paint
White paint
Yellow paint
Black paint
Gold paint

We painted the faces after gluing but realized it would have been easier to paint the faces on the posterboard then glue it onto the wreath forms. 

We are not artists but we did OK hand drawing the faces and cutting out the mouths. We then used sharpie and paints to make the eyes and glasses. 

Connie clearly has more artistic ability than me, look at her work!

Meow..distractions.

It helped to have both of us gluing the posterboard to the wreath forms. One wreath form on the bottom and one on the top. 

Almost done!

We found a few wrinkles but were able to smooth them out.  

Half Lego!

We used yellow paint to paint the foam wreaths to make our posterboards. 

More kitty play....

We used yellow construction paper and taped it to the top of the head. We also used some Styrofoam cups, painted them yellow and taped them to the top of the head where we had taped construction paper to add the full lego affect. 

We just fond large boxes behind and opened them completely. Then we cut large round holes for our heads. 

We used this picture from online to draw and paint the bodies. 

After painting the bodies we were finished!

We had a great time at the carnival!

We made a pumpkin patch!

Oh how I love fall! Especially the sunny and warm fall we've been having so far, how much better could it get?

You know what goes perfectly with a sunny and warm fall day? NO SCHOOL! That's right, we had our first non-school day of the year and boy did we enjoy it!

We started our morning out with hot chocolates and made our way up to Mud Mountain Dam Park in Enumclaw (a very fun park if you have not been I highly recommend it).

After our park adventures we got to do something very special....

 Last May we visited The Mason Jar Farm and planted pumpkins!

We were able to come back this fall and get the pumpkins WE planted! How fun is that!?

What a fun way to learn about planting and growing things and supporting a small/local business. We are so thankful for our visits to this farm!