Teddy Bear Tea Party

Kids: Tyler, Adelia, Sam, Lincoln, Dillon, Kiara, and Ivan, eating their magic carpet treats on the picnic blanket

It's Art City Days here in Springville, and today we started it off by attending the Teddy Bear Tea Party at the library. The kids got to bring their favorite stuffed animal (Lincoln and Ivan brought their rabbits, and Adi brought a baby) and watch a skit (which I thought was a little too long) and then go outside and participate in several different activities that related to the skit. It was a lot of fun. 

We went with some of our new friends, both who have kids in Lincoln's sunbeams class and babies pretty close to Adelia's age. I was glad we could go with them, because it makes it more fun for me when I have friends (who are adults) to talk to, and it makes it more fun for the kids too. They are more likely to be adventurous and do things (like sit on the rug during the skit, instead of next to me in the chairs) if their friends are there. 

Ivan, Kiara, Lincoln, and Sam wading through the "swamp"

One of the activities they got to do was an obstacle course. They got to wade through a "swamp" (swimming pools), explore a cave (giant plastic tubes), and cross the dessert (go down a slide), and at the end there was a cup of Kool Aide for making it all the way through. 

Sam and Lincoln and Kiara exploring the "cave"

They also had a parachute for the kids to play with. The held onto handles on the sides of it, and walked around in circles bringing it up and down. Then they put all their stuffed animals in the middle and bounced them up and down, which made all the kids laugh. 

Ivan with the parachute

It got a bit windy after the obstacle course, so we had to hurry and make our hippo hats (another activity) and head to the car before we got blown away. 

It was fun. I am excited for the rest of the Art City Days celebrations. 

It's funny, but I find myself falling in love with this little town of Springville. It feels so right for us to be here, for one. Things have just been working out right and left ever since we moved, and I don't think that would have been the case if we'd chosen AZ instead. For another thing, I love the people here. We've already made some great friends. One of the first people I met when we first moved in looked so familiar to me. It took me weeks to figure out that she and I had been roommates for a very short time right before she got married and right before I met Aaron. She has boys Lincoln and Adelia's age, and her son and Lincoln hit it off right from the beginning. I love the neighborhood. I love that at any given point in the day I can look out and there will be kids playing, or riding bikes together. There are a couple of 5 year olds that live next to us that Lincoln has really taken a liking to, and he loves to go out and ride bikes with them. And they don't seem to mind that he does, even though he's younger than them. For that matter, they don't seem to mind that Ivan tags along either. I love our ward. I absolutely LOVE our ward. It's the kind of ward that you never want to leave. And I don't even know very many people yet, but I feel like we've been welcomed with open arms and we have been made to feel like we belong. It reminds me of our ward in Texas that way, which is so different from our last ward in Provo, where it took us a year to even make slight acquaintances with anyone.  I love that the town is small, it reminds me of Hooper. I feel at home here, in a way I never quite managed to do in Provo. I love the small town way of the people, there is a closeness almost like everyone knows each other (they don't, but they still treat people like they do), and it feels friendly and comfortable and safe. Right now, I could see us staying here forever and raising our kids here, that's how much I love it.