Fire Station, Costumes, and Piano Fun

Our school has a program called WatchDOGS (Dads of Great Students) that encourages dads to volunteer on campus on Fridays. They help out with whatever is going on at school or in the workroom, and kids get to have a regular male presence at school. It's a very popular program, and the kids were super excited that their dad came to school!

It was a beautiful weekend when community activities abound. One of which was the fire station, right next to our neighborhood, had an open house. We biked over to check it out. I feel like Owen went to so many fire station tours for birthday parties and field trips, but somehow Hadley did not (or was too young to remember). She wasn't sure what to expect, so she was pretty excited to check it out. First stop, photo props.

It's a pretty new fire station, as those go. I was a little disappointed that they weren't letting us see the part where they live/sleep/cook, which we got to walk-through in Idaho, but they did have a lot of other stuff for us to do. For example, the kids got to spray the fire hose! Pretty exciting stuff! The fire station had a cute little house set up where they could knock down the flames with the water.

They also brought in the fire safety trailer, which simulates three different rooms in the house where fire fighters talked about kitchen safety, fire detection, and escape plans. Owen even got to make a pretend 911 call with a fireman on the other end of the line. He did fairly well, but apparently, we need to memorize our new house street number!

Even Sparky, the mascot, was there for pictures. I asked the kids if they wanted their picture with him, and they surprised me with a yes! They also got to step inside an ambulance (where the EMS told them that he needed a bulletproof vest for shootings!), see a demonstration of fire fighters breaking down doors, eat some popcorn, and check out the fire truck.

A little later that same afternoon, we gave our Halloween costumes a test drive at our church's Trunk-Or-Treat. This year, we have a witch and a Grim Reaper.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but there were so many people there! Hello, Big City! Standing in line for 5-10 minutes for one piece of candy and a simple game got kind of old, fast. So after sweating in a few lines (it was in the upper 80s with no shade or breeze), we decided to move on. We ended up at the store with ICEEs in hand and picked up some candy for trick-or-treaters.

I finally signed the kids up for piano lessons to bridge their Let's Play Music foundations (that were interrupted by our move) to more universal musical skills. It's been fun for me to see them learn to read music and play songs. And oh my gosh, when Hadley sings while she plays - there's nothing better! They will tell you that they hate it, but Hadley has shown a real patience for playing things over and over until she gets it right, and Owen has a natural ability that I hope he will fully appreciate and harness someday.