Another Great Trip to the Ryan House

William, Jacob, and Spencer had the entire week of Thanksgiving off from school.  It was great!  Since we didn't have plans of going out of town, we decided to go to the Ryan House.  We went up Sunday and came home Wednesday afternoon.  It, as always, was wonderful!  

Bryce with Jiminy Cricket, one of the therapy dogs.  He and Annalise both love the dogs that come.  Almost makes me want to get a therapy dog for them...almost!

Annalise in the sensory room.  This thing has pictures that are projected onto a mat on the floor.  When you walk over it or brush the pictures with your hands the top picture "moves" or changes and you can see what is under it.  This is by far one of the favorite things here at the house.

Pretty girl

silly girl

Our high healed viking!  The boys love the dress up clothes.  It cracks me up.

Annalise loves her cookies.  The volunteers often make cookies or something yummy for the kids.

Monday John had to work so the older boys and I went to Walmart to get some food for the days we would be there.  In the Walmart parking lot there was a Mandarin buffet place that was having their grand opening.  We decided to go there for lunch.  It was super yummy.  William even tried the octopus and stuffed mushrooms.  He loved the mushrooms, but said that the sauce on the octopus was too spicy.

Then Tuesday, John and I took the older boys to the Children's Museum of Phoenix.  We rode the light rail to get there which was a first for all of us.  The boys thought that was great.

building a fort

They had a few different crafts.  Here the boys are making paper turkeys.

Spencer working on a drumstick hat.

I think the hat is hilarious, but what a cute boy that Spencer is!

They played a little bit more, but by noon they were ready to leave.  I think they have out grown this place a bit.  Most of the things seem to be geared more toward preschool/kindergarten aged kids.  We decided that we will try the Science Center next time. There were also a bunch of people here.  There were a couple of school classes there as well.

After looking at the prices of the food in the museum, we decide to walk around and see if we could find a restaurant on the way to the light rail.  We found a little pizza place and had lunch there.

On the way to the light rail, we came across these metal figures and the boys had to get some pictures with them.  

Then it was back to the Ryan house for some arts and crafts, Wii, games, and of course swimming!

Annalise had so much fun and was not happy with me when I took her out to get ready for bed.  She was in there for almost an hour.

William was not happy about the fact that he was not able to swim.  Hopefully his cast will come off this Wednesday so that he will be able to swim next time we are there.

We had a great time playing and relaxing at the Ryan House.  I finished the book I have been reading for months and slept through the night 3 nights in a row.  It was wonderful.  

The people at the Ryan house have done so much for us that I would like to do something for them.  We will be going back there for a couple of days before Christmas.  I have decided to collect items from their wish list and take them with us when we go.  If you would like to donate any items, just let me know and I will add them to our gift bag!  In addition to the things listed on their wish list, they have told me that they like when people donate snack type things for the kids, things like fruit snacks, granola bars, brownie or cookie mixes, etc.  I know a lot of those things can be bought for next to nothing with coupons. Hopefully we will have a nice big gift bag to give them for Christmas!