Our Day at the Theatre...Miss Nelson is Missing

Saturday afternoon the Kempiak Party of Five, along with Baylee’s sweet friend Aimee, went to Tempe Center for the Arts to see the kids in room 207 misbehaving in the children’s’ play Miss Nelson is Missing. All of us give it a double thumbs up. The farce had us all laughing but definitely Jon’s and my highlight was watching Aimee belly laugh, hunching over sometimes nonstop. We were in tears. We love taking our kids with us to experience the awesomeness of live theatre and wish our pocketbooks allowed us to do it more often. If you haven’t seen it, we highly recommend it.

Water Wonderland

Our week’s been packed with school related things, including me getting more volunteer hours in at Edu Prize. I’m over half way towards our required 80 hours for the school year already and it’s only the fourth week of school. Yikes! Well, before beginning my “substitute teaching duties,” I just had to squeeze a few more hours in Nathan’s class one last time until I can do it again in late October. I also needed to be in Baylee’s class to prepare my mind, students, and lessons for the week's to come!

With that said, our Party of Five needed some FUN family time to release. I planned a fantastic Friday night, medicine to our souls and uptight schedules. My cousins Laura and Kaydon joined us since Kasey was out of town and Baylee’s friend Sabrina did too since her poor mommy is recovering from ankle surgery.



After school ended on Friday, we all piled in our van and headed out to Tempe to pick up pizzas near the university then straight to Tempe Beach and Splash Park to play in the cool water. The kids had a fabulous time just being kids, running around and enjoying all the water features. And I had a fabulous time as well, watching and joining in on the water fun for a bit. It brings great joy to me to watch happiness on my kids' faces and laughter roll out from their little bodies. Our night was great; we even shut the place down, with the water totally being turned off! We were some of the last to leave. As for our family, we want to go again before it closes down for the season.

Family FUNtastic Day!

Call us wild and crazy if you must, but the Kempiak Party of Five decided to "spice things up" today by having our Family Fun (Night) during the day! We were “suppose to” bowl as our fun activity but with the cooler weather (mid 80’s) we decided to switch it up and go miniature golfing at Golfland Sunsplash! We had a blast letting the kids explore something new and were amazed with how focused each of them were. 18 holes went fast, believe it or not! All of us gave this latest endeavor “two thumbs up!”

Having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

No, I'm not having that kind of day and neither is anyone else in our Party of Five. Alexander is the one! For those of you who do not know the great children's book; Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (by Judith Viorst), you are really missing out! It’s a book that’s been around for a long time. I referred to it when teaching and still do to this day with my kids (and Jon)! It’s a humorous look at a boy who’s having “one of those days”, who would just love to escape from it all! (You do have one of those days, don’t you?)

This afternoon, Jon treated us to a very special family date. All of us dressed up and went to Tempe Theatre’s Child’s Play featuring Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day! It was fantastic! It captivated us the entire time! They ended allowing kids to share in front of other's their terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days too!

Jon and I love the theater and we really want the kids to love it too. Jon grew up in theater productions while his parents managed a local theatre in Des Plaines, Illinois and I minored in theatre. It’s been awhile since we’ve been in any productions but one day hope to do it again in the future, even as a family. For now…we’re in the audience and that’s a great place to be too!

Anyone want to share one of their terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day real stories with our blog world? I'd love to hear it and I'm sure others would too!

A Day on the Farm

Today's field trip with Nathan's Kid's Discovery Club Preschool to the Superstition Dairy Farm , a family run dairy farm, was so much fun. In the barn, they spent the first portion teaching the kids about the dairy, showing all of us the 50 pounds of feed given out to each cow daily, the shots, ear tag application, magnets for each belly, and much more. Then, we headed onto the tractor pull hayride to see the dairy cows up close and personal. Next, we were able to pet and feed some of the other livestock and even were able to hold a very tame rooster for those that wanted to. Owen could have stayed at that station all day, he loved being Nathan's guest on this trip. Owen loved all the animals, but especially the goats!






The preschool kids enjoyed choosing from the 12 flavors of milk to drink (raspberry, lime, cherry-vanilla, chocolate, orange cream, etc.) that went along with their graham cracker snack. Go figure...Nathan wasn't in the adventurous mood and only chose "plain milk".
Our time was finished at the haymaze, something Nathan could have run around with Gavin for hours. Nathan was sad that his friend's Jack, Harrison, and Benji couldn't make it though but very grateful that Gavin did! We really enjoyed finishing up the month-long theme of "the Farm" at a real one just a few miles from our home.

For those who are looking for an Earth Day Celebration, on April 26th the farm is having a day packed with activities for only $10 for the whole family! They'll be using solar cooking, showing seed planting/organic growing, "Pollution Solutions" with reusable bags, having garden tours, hayrides, crafts, as well as seeing performances from Charlotte's Web and Worm Drive the Musical. It sounds like a great all-day event (10-5).