Photo courtesy of Camille.

This blog has been on a hiatus because we were preoccupied by a visit from my brother Shawn, wife Camille, Camden, Acadia, Winslow, and of course, my mom.  They (my brother) were last here at the beginning of 2014 and we were adamant that they needed to return for another winter visit but we weren't too sure it would happen.  But alas, a really bad winter up north motivated them enough to make the long drive down.  So see, long, bad winters CAN be a good thing!  

Snapped this picture of the four kids playing matchbox cars together.

Brady took this picture of me nursing Colby one morning.  Yup, this is what it's like to nurse an 18-month old.

This was the week of crafts.  I've wanted to get into sewing myself and teaching the girls.  So we got some embroidery thread and dullish needles and started "sewing" on Styrofoam plates.

We graduated to cloth.  The problem now is that the girls want to sew so many more things and I'm like "Whoa, slow down.  First I need to learn how to do it myself!"

Next up were some Perler beads.  We thought it was a fun Sabbath afternoon craft to make animals out of beads.  You then iron them and they melt together.

Brady blew me away by doing a workbook page that he found.  Between the potty training, big boy bed, and doing this stuff, I feel like he's aged exponentially in the last few weeks!

This is what I deal with almost every meal.  He loves to put food in his hair.

The two kids on the "blue eye team."

Found this at a yard sale and had a flash back to my childhood.

So close but yet so far.

Celebrated Duncan's birthday which was Sunday, March 8.  I told his mother that he found a new recipe for coffee that uses butter and coconut milk.  She got him some coconut milk for his birthday off Amazon but when he opened it, it looked like suntan lotion (or coconut oil).  We got a good laugh out of it.  Turns out it really was edible...I have no idea why they would put it in this kind of bottle.

Calleigh just "fake" reads the Primary Treasure so I was so excited to see Aubree sitting there actually reading a story out of one.

Can't beat the view!

Together again!

Camille and I took Winslow and Colby to Publix on Wednesday morning.

Playing together chewing on some frozen yogurts.

Just don't get too close to that railing!

Love these boys!

And these ones too!

Even though we didn't swim in the ocean, we had some nice walks along the beach.

Winslow couldn't figure out why she couldn't get to the Cheerios on the table!

Tub time!

Enjoying a treat.  Photo courtesy of Camille.

Cool picture my brother took of the fort.

The Putts came over Sunday evening for some supper.  Tim and my brother have been friends since college and Tim took the pictures at Shawn and Camille's wedding.

"Yo Winslow, we're too little to go on any of these rides so we have to just watch the other kids having fun through these stinkin' bars."

Trying to figure out where the water went.

A mommy/Colby selfie on the carousel.

If you pretend she's really high up, this would almost look real!

Buddies!  Photo courtesy of Camille.

Love this picture of these guys!!  Photo courtesy of Camille.

Colby hanging out in the waiting room.

This is how we roll at Casa de Grodack.  Who needs a big pool when you can have this??  But seriously, I will take a back yard for the kids to play in any day over having a pool if I had to choose one or the other.  This was us on Thursday afternoon about 4 pm.  We had finished all our school work in the morning so we were able to enjoy this after Colby's nap.  I sat out there with my magazines watching my four kids play and I thought "It doesn't get any better than this."

Can you play hide and seek under a regular pool?  I think not.

Starting to get to the point of wanting to climb up stuff on the play set.

Daddy took them to the big neighborhood pool this afternoon.  Warming up!

Last weekend we started a new hobby - - geocaching.  Some of you may be scratching your heads and saying "What the heck is that?" Well, according to a geocaching website, the definition of geocaching is "a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location." I'm part of some homeschool groups on Facebook and one of the moms posted about it (I had heard about it before but never had taken the time to investigate it) so I finally looked into it and saw that it was easy and fun.  Of course, having cell phones that work as GPS devices make it much simpler than I'm sure it was way back when.  

As you might imagine, there is really no actual treasure.  It's usually just a piece of paper where you write your name and the date as record that you found it.  Sometimes people will leave some small inexpensive item like a dime or cheap toy and you can trade it out with something you brought.  At any rate, clearly the excitement is in finding the treasure, and not getting a treasure.  We are using an app called "Geocaching Intro" and it's really easy to use.  You just open it up and it shows you all the caches around you and gives you directions to find them.  They can be hidden anywhere like in a sign, a tree, under some brush, etc.  It doesn't tell you THAT much detail because it would be too easy...rather, it just gives you the coordinates for the general area.  

We decided to try it out on Sabbath afternoon after nap time.  I will say that it will be up to you, of course, as to whether you find this to be a Sabbath activity.  We thought about it and determined it was motivating us to get out in nature and there really wasn't anything involved that I thought was a distraction from keeping Sabbath.  That is our take anyway.  We found some spots marked along the West Orange Trail (a great bike trail that goes for miles) and decided to walk along that and search. What a great time!  There were four different ones to find and we found all of them.  Duncan found the first one and then Calleigh and I (more me but I think she thinks she was first) found the second and third and I found the fourth.  The last one was actually along the shores of Lake Apopka where we ended with a picnic supper.  There are millions of these caches around the world so check it out!

Duncan finds the first cache.  It's in a 35 mm film case.  Can people actually still buy film or do folks save the cases thinking they may need them someday?

The next one was buried underneath a pile of leaves next to this tree.

The third one.  Located next to a butterfly garden.

The last one was in a box.  We had to be careful getting that one because there were a lot of people around.

Picnic supper.  I would have added the word "Nice" in front of picnic but there were a ton of bugs flying around which kind of put a damper on things.

Since soccer is over, our Sundays have been a little more peaceful.  I can sip my tea and read the Sunday paper!  But, no time to waste as there are kids clothes to go through (Colby transitioned to size 2T for shirts and 18 months for pants/shorts, Brady transitioned out of 18 month shorts into 2T and 3T, Aubree went to 6 for shorts, and Calleigh completely left 7/8 for all her shirts).  The never ending cycle of clothes going out and coming in.  I can only imagine what people with more kids go though.  We also went through the girls shoes and got rid of a bunch that we too small.  You would have thought they were pets.  Calleigh wanted to take a picture of a pair that she was apparently particularly fond of and didn't want to say goodbye and then Aubree had to follow suit. Oh the drama!  People may make fun of adults that wear Crocs but I honestly couldn't live without them for the kids.  The girls haven't had a pair that fit in a few months so we made the trek to the outlets so we could go to the Croc store.  I'd buy them on-line but Aubree is so tricky with her sizes.  She fits like a 10 in dress shoes but a 12 in sandals/flip flops. Crazy kid.  

Evidently these were very precious to her.

I don't know Aubs...they look like a regular pair of flip flops to me.  Unless you were trying to show what a pair of dirty, used flip flops look like in which case you have a winner.

Monday morning it was back to gymnastics for the girls after a two week hiatus.  Coach Kory is officially gone and now they have Coach Adam.  This is the first time they've had a male coach but they said they like him.  And, in fact, he seems to be doing more gymnastic-y stuff with them as opposed to Coach Kory who kind of did it more as a PE. We will see how things go.  Duncan actually came and picked the girls up because he was home for a little while before flying out of town up to Charlotte for work.  Thankfully it was just one night and he was back home Tuesday evening.

Tuesday we had a field trip with our homeschool group to the Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park.  We were going to have a free 45-minute tour for our group of eight families.  On the way there, I started really questioning myself..."This is a MUSEUM.  Do you really think Colby is going to be STILL and QUIET for 45 minutes?  Am I insane?" He really hates being in a stroller (I think he thinks he's a big kid and wants to do what they're doing which is walking around) and chasing a kid through a museum is just not good.  But, we persevered (one of our words of the week) on.  When we got there, we were the first ones so we took a trip to the potty.  The tour was at 11:00 am and when we came out of the bathroom, we had about five minutes to go so we waited in the lobby for the other families to arrive.  We passed the time by looking at a few artifacts they had displayed there.  At one point, Calleigh walks over to something and puts her hand up to point to it (I knew she wouldn't touch it) and in a matter of 1.5 seconds, an employee had made a beeline to her and was pushing on her hand.  Good grief.  She knows better than to touch!  

Time ticked by and no families arrived.  I was completely befuddled.  I checked my email and there wasn't anything I missed about it being cancelled.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any one's phone number who was supposed to be there so I couldn't call.  The odd thing was that the leader of the homeschool group was supposed to be there.  You would think a leader wouldn't forget!  At any rate, the lady was nice enough to give us our own private tour since not a single other person showed up. Works for me!  It was definitely nicer having someone to tell us the information rather than having to read it off signs.  The only thing that was really weird is that when she was talking, she would only look at Calleigh and not any of the other kids.  Brady and Colby were clearly not interested in what she had to say but Aubree was right there and yet she barely looked at her.  I guess she must have thought Aubree was "too young" to be interested in this stuff.  But the girls both were very interested and I was really impressed on how they took it all in and were engaged the whole time.  Most of the stuff we saw were blown glass, lamps, paintings, etc by Louis Comfort Tiffany.  I do not consider myself to be an artsy person by any means (afterall, this is my worst category in Trivia Crack) but i did find it all very interesting.  She took us around the museum for maybe 35 minutes and when it was done, I had to pinch myself that it had gone so well.  I had Colby in the Bjorn and he didn't make a single loud noise.  Brady was in the stroller and was silent until the very end when he said "Can we go now?" I sure heaped praises on the four of them for their amazing behavior.  Gives me hope!  

Nothing like a good bathroom photo.  But I thought he looked cute.  Calleigh looks like she's guarding someone in basketball.

Of course, you can't actually take pictures in the museum so we had to take this one to prove we were there.

After we left, I sent an email to the leader, Jennifer, asking if I had missed something and she said she wasn't there because her grandmother had died and then one other family had said they couldn't make it so that left five families that must have just plain forgotten. Poor Jennifer said she was so embarrassed because the museum was probably thinking poorly of her for organizing it and hardly anyone came that was scheduled to come.  Oops!

We had a pretty good week of school this week with only a few minor complaints from Calleigh (who else?)  Aubree's big accomplishment was finishing her "100 Reading Lessons" book.  Calleigh finished it on 2/11/14 so Aubree is 11 months ahead of Calleigh's schedule (not that we're comparing here).  Aubree is reading so well that she didn't really need to finish the whole book but I think it's nice to finish something you start.  



The kids are still on their puzzle kick.  It's funny how they go through spurts of things they like to do.  I had gotten like four or five new puzzles at a yard sale last Friday so I'm sure that's what also spurred it on.  The seller was a teacher and when I bought them she said "You know, I'm a teacher and it's amazing how many kids don't know how to do puzzles so I think it's great your kids like to do them." Mostly they've been doing floor puzzles but now we are transitioning into more pieces and I'm on the hunt for some good ones with 100 - 200 pieces.

Phew!  Brady had shorts on for the last picture. I didn't want you to think he only ever wears just his underwear. Because that would not be true.  Sort of.

Duncan has been working on another big home project that he had forbidden me to talk about or post pictures but now that it's almost done, I've been given the green light.  He's been building a rock climbing wall in our gym.  It's not quite done but it's usable and as you can imagine, the kids are very pleased with it.  I don't know where he gets these inspirations from but keep them coming!

Brady climbing the wall...in his underwear!

A few conversations with the kids:
Aubree had worked on a craft for John 3:16 which had the text in much plainer English than how many of us learned it.  Aubree was showing the craft to Grandpa when Calleigh butted in.
Calleigh:"I know that memory verse except I know it in a different way."
Grandpa:"Oh yeah?  What is it?"
Calleigh:"For God so loved the world that he gave his only forgotten son..."

I guess she wasn't that far off actually.  We do know that is how Jesus felt when he was dying on the cross.

Yesterday the girls got into a skirmish and I had to send Calleigh for a time out which then prompted some disrespectful words to me.  
Me:"Calleigh, because of your disrespectful words, you are going to have to clean your room by yourself."
Calleigh (sighing and half crying):"WHY does it have to be SO hard to be a HUMAN?"

A few more pictures...

Another Lego project for Calleigh.  Whoever thought up the idea to use the same pieces to make three different project and include instructions for all three...GENIUS!

Wish I had a picture of us together but Aubree and I both wore white shirts and blue skirts to the museum and styled our hair the same way.  I had to take this picture to prove her hair was the same as mine.

Aubree does my hair every night while I'm reading a book to them.  I sure hope that when I get to heaven, there will be someone there who can just brush my hair all day.  I would be..in heaven.

When you get rained out in the back yard, the only solution is to come inside and play in the tub!

Loved Brady's face in this one!

Nothing like falling asleep with black loafers three times too big on your feet.

Have a Happy Sabbath!
  

Spring has sprung and with it birthday season and outdoor activities.  What we have decided it has NOT brought is the soccer league.  It was supposed to start this past Sunday and go for eight weeks but I finally took a moment to think about it and realized that we would miss at least half the weeks due to birthday festivities and the church campout.  The girls were not at all pleased with this development but I finally got them to somewhat see reason.  The first conflict was on that very first Sunday - - this past Sunday. Our Adventurers club was hosting "Fun Day" which is when all the Adventurer clubs from Central Florida come together to do...fun stuff!  That included a bouncy house, petting zoo, face painting, earning honors, and most interestingly, booths with a "country theme" displayed by each club.  For example, our theme was Russia so our (I say "our" loosely because it's not like I actually set the booth up or anything) booth had Russian nesting dolls, some Russian food, etc.  Anywho, this was going on from 9:00 - 2:00 but then we also had a birthday party for the Z boys and Luke D. from 10:00 - 12:30.  Soccer would have been 9:00 - 11:30 so something had to give!  Some of us adults were sadder than others to see the soccer league not happening (and it's not who you think).   

Calleigh playing goal - - her favorite position.

All the birthday party kids.  Brady isn't in the picture in case you were looking for him!

Brady's best friend that isn't related to him.

The birthday boys - - Kaleb, Zachary, and Luke.

The country of Indonesia - - my favorite booth.  This girl showed us how to play these instruments.

Greece

Pina Coladas

When I picked Aubree up from SS, I realized she had her skirt on backwards.  All I could think about was that she was in front of the whole church improperly dressed!

The first find.

It was in the "V" of this tree.

We got the clues for the coordinates from this sign.

These were all over the place.  Baby grasshoppers?  We weren't sure.

This one was a big one.

The Geocaching crew.

Colby was being a real pain and only wanted me to carry him on the way back. Come on man.

The keychain trackable.

We had supper when we got home and Duncan got to hold London while the moms ate.

It's the Village People!

Climbing up at gymnastics.

And sliding down...over and over and over and over again.

One of the crafts for Adventurers.  They are a great group of kids.  Five is a really nice age I decided.

My mom got these magnetic cars at a yard sale down here a few years ago and they are his favorites.

Science experiment this week.  What's the difference over time with popcorn kernels between wetting the napkin and not wetting the napkin?  A no brainer!

The kids are in their pool every afternoon.  I honestly believe that they have just as much fun in theirs as kids with an actual swimming pool.

Found at a yard sale today.

Ta da!!  Okay, I have to brag a little bit here.  It is actually true that you can teach old dogs new tricks because I made these.  Can you believe it?!  Camille showed me how and I actually pulled it off although I should probably wait until the boys have worn them to church tomorrow and they haven't fallen apart before I say anything!  These are "no sew" just super glue so anyone can do it.

Our big activity of this past week was, of course, Easter.  We have had our annual tradition for Easter going for quite a few years now and we were happy to continue those traditions this year.  First off, we are at Ron and Elaine's for a breakfast and an egg hunt with the Bergherms and Isidros.  Like last year, Duncan and Allen rode their bikes over via some lenthy route and met us there.

I had decided this year that I was going to have a "golden" egg of sorts and put in a $5 bill in a random egg.  I stuffed them all Saturday night and was proud of my egg with the bill all folded tightly - - in fact, it was an egg within an egg.  So Sunday morning I mentioned to the kids that there was going to be special egg that might have some money in it.  And Calleigh says "Oh, I bet it will be $10!" Poof, my excitement vanished!  Now it would be a letdown to only find $5.  Guess I should have kept the info on the money to myself.  Lesson learned.

We had a lovely breakfast and then Duncan and Allen went out to hide the eggs.  Ron herded all the kids into the living room and put the TV on and was going to show us some footage they had recorded of  some boys stealing a bike out of the garage next door.  Ron and Elaine have like five or six security cameras set up around their house recording and keeping footage for at least several days and they so happened to catch the thieves red handed.  Very exciting!  Anyway, after Ron showed it, the footage went to a live view and suddenly we could see Duncan and Allen and where they were hiding all the eggs.  The kids thought it was pretty funny.

Pretty sure Brady is going to be my only lefty :(

We missed Bruce who was reffing at Disney.

The kids were out running around in the backyard and Blake said that Calleigh was sitting on him and his head bumped into the tree...or something like that!  So we got some ice for his head.  He was fine.

The hunt went great.  We let the kids start in waves and Colby was up first but he had NO idea what he was doing and it took him a minute to catch on.  But then all the other ones came tearing up behind him and it was a mass of kids running all over the place.  In the end, Brady ended up being the one with the "golden" egg and fortunately $5 is exciting enough for him.  

Annual kids photo.  It is now complete with baby London.

Waiting for Duncan to tell them "GO!"

Brady discovers the money

Family picture in our orange.  It's okay to wear it in the football offseason.

We went home for a few hours - - long enough for Colby to sleep and for me to make a fruit salad and stuff another four dozen eggs and then it was off to the Hilliards for the annual Hilliard/Bergherm Easter party.  It is always a nice time to catch up with people I don't get to talk to that often although some of us kept interrupting ourselves to see where our small children were due to the close proximity of the pool.  It's potluck style and I always find that I stuff myself so full because everyone brings such good food.  And then there's Brady who ate some chips and a fruit truffle because that's all he liked.  Arghhhh!

Men's table.

At least we know Colby enjoyed his meal.

The second egg hunt went well too although as I expected, Colby was completely freaked out by the Easter bunny just as Brady was at the same age.  The kids must have collected like 40 eggs each and seriously they have more candy than I don't know what.  I will be slowly confiscating about 90% of it over the next week.  And no, not to eat it myself because I can't stand the stuff.  I will never be able to do that Jimmy Kimmel joke on the kids where you tell them "I ate all your Halloween candy" because they know that would never be true.

Braelyn happened to be wearing the same dress as the girls.  I had gotten them the night before at Old Navy and I had even thought right before the party, "It would be cool if Braelyn had the same dress." I have NO idea why that thought crossed my mind but it did and there you go!

There is a vast, vast area to be covered on this hunt.

Buddies

The moment Colby spotted the bunny.

Going back to Sabbath...we switched services this week so we could enjoy the Easter service that went on during third service.  Typically we do church first (which is second service) and then go to Sabbath School.  We are actually planning to reverse services in July when the new year starts and the kids will be switching to their new classes.  The music, among other things, is a little too contemporary for my taste.  I know that makes me sound old but so be it!  The problem with switching things up is that the kids are attached to their friends in their Sabbath Schools so you hate to change it.  But, a lot of their friends go to the first SS, so I think it will work out just fine and in fact, Calleigh has already asked to go back to it.  And oh, the music!  How nice it was to hear the choir and sing from the church hymnal.  I am a traditionalist at heart, what can I say!

After naps, the Isidros came over for a visit and we took them on their first Geocaching expedition. Such a good time and Braelyn even found the first cache so that was extra exciting.  The kids were begging to find more but we had to stop after three and go home and eat.

One of the finds along the West Orange Trail

The kids open it up.  Look at Colby even in there.

 

Calleigh found the second one.

I think she found the third one too.

So, the other big thing of this week is that Colby is no longer nursing.  It kind of pains me to say that. It truly is the end of an era.  My body is my own once again.  I have either been pregnant or nursing since August of 2006 and it's kind of a weird feeling that I don't have to think twice about taking medicine or what have you.  The stoppage happened very naturally.  He is sleeping in much later now (between 7:30 and 8:00) and often Brady is already up by the time Colby wakes up so Brady will go in with me to get him up.  Who can think about getting milk when your big brother is there to play? Last Sabbath Colby slept in so late that I had to wake him and there was no time to nurse.  The next morning, I put him on to nurse and he put his mouth there for a half second, didn't do anything, took it off and that was that.  The end.  He went to 19 months which is the same as the girls (Brady went to 20).  I'm a little emotional about it but now at least there is theoretically nothing to stop me from sleeping in on a Sunday morning or going overnight without him!

Why have milk when I can eat asparagus instead?  That kid was shoveling it in.  Hopefully this means his eating style will be more like Aubree than the other two.

This week was such an amazing week of school.  Calleigh didn't whine, complain, cry, or throw a fit, at all!  I don't know what happened.  It's like having a baby and they have a good night of sleep and you try to figure out EXACTLY what you did leading up to it so you can duplicate it and have it happen again.   I couldn't figure it out but hopefully it wasn't a one week fluke.  I made sure to praise her up and down and in front of Duncan too.  We are doing some of the Southern states right now in History so we learned a lot about Rosa Parks, George Washington Carver (made a sweet potato pie in his honor), and Helen Keller.  I found a great movie on YouTube (seriously, what would I do without YouTube?) about Rosa Parks and then we watched the Disney version of "The Miracle Worker" also off YouTube and it was fantastic.  Brady actually watched the whole thing and was completely engaged.  I highly recommend it to anyone with kids.

A couple of conversations with the kids...

The kids had dumped all their candy on the futon in Brady's room and did I mention there was a lot? Fortunately they know they aren't allowed to take any without asking permission.  But then I came into the room and saw Brady licking various items.
Me:"Brady, were you eating any of that candy?"
Brady:"No, I was just licking the gum to see what it tasted like."

Note to self - - don't give any of the gum to Calleigh and Aubree.  But poor Brady...I told him he couldn't have gum until he was four so I guess this was his solution.

Our back door got messed up in the wind and it's a little harder to open and close so Duncan was working on it one day.  He was on a ladder pounding a hinge or something.
Brady:"Daddy. what are you doing on earth?"

Well, the words are right just not in the right order!

Some more pictures...

The bow tie I made last week.  It lasted longer than Brady.

Cushion fort.

Calleigh has switched her favorite color from green to blue (although a lighter blue) and Brady has switched to green.  And Calaubra has unilaterally decided that Colby's favorite color is yellow.

Puzzle mania has continued.  Brady is now doing these puzzles on his own and he's very proud.  He puts it together and then breaks it apart and does it again.

We did some Geocaching this afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa came to drop off Duncan's bike (he left it at their house on Easter).  The first two we couldn't find but the third Aubree found.  Her first find!

Have a Happy Sabbath!

Ever since I took my last "Corey" day on my birthday eve, I've been dreaming of the next one. Sundays are pretty busy with birthday parties and other such activities so the only date I could come up with was April 12 to take one.  But then, I suddenly realized that I had committed to a Ladies/Daughters Tea at the church.  And then the real kicker was when Duncan says "You remember I'm flying to Chicago on Sunday?" Arghhh!  I saw my happy solo shopping dreams going up into a cloud of smoke.  Fortunately the Tea was only from 11 - 1 and double fortunately, Duncan's flight wasn't until 9:20 pm.  Rad also tried to wreck thing by wanting to visit me on Sunday as they were in town but he came on Sabbath afternoon instead.  Crisis averted!

Love this guy.  The oldest and youngest of the 10 cousins.

Yes, we did it.  We finally made it back to Disney World.  When I use that phrasing it makes it sound like it was something that I was hoping to achieve when the reality is that I probably could live a perfectly contented life never going back.  Actually, that sounds really harsh.  I don't have anything against Epcot.  It is a perfectly nice park and you can learn quite a lot there, in fact.  So I think I'll save my Disney bad-mouthing for when we got to Magic Kingdom when it's 95 degrees out and we're being jostled by millions of people.

We have not been to a Disney park in nearly three years and we only went then because we had gotten free tickets from my cousin.  The kids, being kids and all and living in Orlando where they are constantly bombarded with Disney stuff, have been begging to go back.  We finally succumbed when I worked out an agreement that we would go in place of having birthday parties (I really hate doing birthday parties).  They have a special Florida Resident "deal" where you can go to three parks for just the low price of $xxx.  Ugh.  I hate to even say the number.  But it's that number times five and before you know you realize it you have just spent practically more money than it would take to fly us all to Boston if we were to find a good enough deal.  This is why we only go every three years (or, part of the reason, at least).  

The deal is only good through the beginning of June so it looks as though I'm still going to have to have a party for Colby.  Darn it.  But it also meant that we had one extra park to go to so we decided to use it to go to Epcot this past Sunday to celebrate Maddy and Kohlden turning five.  The Isidros, of course, have annual passes which we absolutely don't judge them for getting (promise Allen!).  Some people like Disney, some people don't.  Some people like Super Bowl winning football teams, some people don't.  We are all different.  

The day actually went really great.  We were there right when it opened at 9:00 am and hit up pretty much all the rides within the first two or three hours with virtually no lines. Soarin' had a line of 90 minutes so we decided to skip that one.  It was a tough decision but we thought Colby would probably only make it for about 60 to 70 minutes of standing in line doing absolutely nothing.

The first ride we did was the "big ball" Spaceship Earth and the ride has a little interactive story at the end complete with your picture.  This was their favorite thing about the whole day.  Calleigh and Colby were on the ride with me hence their pictures.

I thought Colby would cry when we saw the characters since he didn't like the Easter Bunny but maybe he is more comfortable with these guys since he's seen them on TV.

Poor fella didn't even make it to lunch.

In the early afternoon we met up with the Isidros and Clarks so we could do Test Track together.  You are able to get three fast passes in advance and that was one of the ones we got since that line is always so bad.  Duncan wasn't feeling his very best so he volunteered to stay with the boys (they weren't tall enough) and Maddy in a playground and I got to go on the ride with the girls.  I'm sure that ride has been there for decades but I had never gone on it and it was admittedly quite fun.

Brady and Maddy playing while we were gone.

These girls were so excited to go on Test Track together.

You get to design your own car and this is what Aubree came up with.

Calleigh works on hers and Braelyn's.

Aubree loves to be part of the "older girl" group.

After that, we hiked over to France where the Isidros were kind enough to get us all ice cream cones to celebrate the big day since no one had snuck a cake in.   The rest of the clan then went on their merry way afterwards and the Grodacks were left to wander among the countries.  About this time was when the "I am SO hot," "I'm SO tired,""When are we going to go on another ride?""I'm SO thirsty," complaints starting rolling in.  Had we been at a park where we had an annual pass, Duncan and I would have looked at each other with glee and said "It's time to go!" But this time, I said "We aren't going home.  We are staying here and you are going to LIKE IT." We met the Bergherms at Canada to watch the movie and when we came out, the weather had taken a turn and it looked like it was going to storm at any minute.  We decided that was our sign to go and we started running for the exit.  We made it just as big drops started hitting us and literally 30 seconds after we got into the van, it started pouring.  Whew.  So, we were there for 7 1/2 hours.

WHY does his favorite flavor have to be chocolate??

Waiting for the Chinese acrobats to start.

Just in case someone comes to EPCOT who has NEVER gone to the bathroom before....they have you covered.

That didn't take long. Wow, that's a giant Croc.

This week Aubree and Brady started swimming lessons.  Aubree took lessons two years ago (when she was four) from a college student that came to Ron and Elaine's pool.  She was swimming by the end of it and later in the summer but somehow over the winter, she lost it all and never got it back.  For whatever reason (I'm going to blame Colby though), I didn't pursue more lessons for her last summer.  I've pulled myself together this year though.  I didn't want to have to drive to Ron and Elaine's again so I had come to the reality that I was either going to need to go to someone's house or go to the YMCA.  To do the Y, though, you have to actually go there IN PERSON to sign up.  That's right.  Physically go there.  What??  Not to be outdone, I tried signing Calleigh up for a class (not swimming!) at Jo-Ann Fabrics.  And you know what I had to do?  I had to call someone on the PHONE and register.  Arghhh!  I absolutely hate not being able to do stuff on-line.  Isn't is so annoying having to actually talk to people to get things done?

Anywho, a couple of weeks ago someone named Robin had posted an ad on Next Door (basically the equivalent of Facebook for communities) about teaching swimming lessons.  Since this person lived in the next community over, I thought it was perfect.  I called and left a message and then the person called me back.  I was expecting a women in her 30's but I got a man in his mid to late 50's!  Now I know how everyone feels when they think they are going to be talking to some dude named Corey.  I will admit that I felt just a tiny bit strange about it being a guy doing the lessons but I asked for references and googled him.  As it turns out, the first reference he gave me was for a guy I used to work with at FH so there you go.  I talked to him and he gave a great reference.  Robin works during the day so we are doing the lessons in the evenings at 6:30 which works out well because Duncan is usually home and one or the other of us can stay home with Colby.

Aubree is doing well but strangely she is only able to swim underwater, or with her head breaking the surface, at least.  Robin assured me this will eventually change so I'm going with it.  Brady is getting used to putting his head under water and is already doing really well at floating (with assistance).  Hopefully he'll be swimming at the end of the eight lessons.  They are each doing a 30-minute lesson by themselves.  Calleigh is in heaven because she's getting to just swim around for that whole hour.






Our other activity of the week was going to the Zoo on Wednesday for a special homeschool class on Amphibians.  Did you know a frog can only eat something that moves?  If a fly is dead, he won't eat it because he can't see it.  Just one of the many interesting facts we learned.  We also learned that Florida has the second highest population of Bald Eagles (second to Alaska) which I was really surprised to learn.  And yes, Bald Eagles are NOT amphibians but they brought one in at the end to show us, nonetheless, and it was really awesome to see one that close.  It was full grown and only weighed 8 pounds which was another thing I didn't know.  I thought they were much heavier since they are so large.

Colby was smitten with this frog. He would laugh hysterically every time it jumped.

Seeing how far they could jump compared to different species of frogs.

Getting a stamp for her "passport." They had to go to eight different booths that had various activities.

Their favorite station....making their own button.

Pretty awesome.

A Grodack selfie on the train.

Tuesday I had a dentist appointment and the kids were at Ron and Elaine's for several hours.  Elaine encouraged me to take my time so I stopped and had lunch at Panera by myself and it was so lovely.  Quiet should never be underestimated.  As far as the dentist, everything is pretty good but they reminded me that at some point I really need to get an implant for my front tooth that has the crown on it.  I will have to put that on my ginormous "To Do" list.

Today we we did yard sales, of course, and it was a fairly routine day.  I'm only mentioning it because of what happened with Brady towards the end of the outing.  We were at one particular sale out in the boondocks of Longwood.  Everyone had gotten out at this sale but then Brady decided to go back to the car.  It wasn't that far and it was a dead end street with nothing happening so I said he could go back.  We shopped for a few more minutes and then the rest of us headed back.  Aubree was in the lead and all of a sudden she let's out this bloodcurdling scream "BRADY PEED ON MY TABLET!! AAAAAHHHHHH" Sure enough, when I got to the van, I could see the tablet which had been placed dangerously close to the potty upon Aubree's exit from the vehicle, was noticeably damp.  Brady had a sad little look on his face and said "Sorry, Mom." It was so sweet so I couldn't stay mad. His claim was that he had called out that he had to go potty but we didn't hear him so he took, uh hum, "matters" into his own hands and went in the potty without assistance.  Or, sort of in the potty as it turns out.  This sort of thing just doesn't happen with girls!!  That flailing appendage causes all sorts of problems.  Aubree was in a downright panic but I assured her that pee was actually sterile and that we could wipe it down and it would be okay to use.  Then Calleigh chimes in "Yeah, Aubree.  Pee is actually more sterile than water." Uh yeah.  Don't think that's true but thanks for trying to make her feel better.

Another Brady pee story.  We were playing hide and seek one night this week and there was this big buildup for it since we hadn't played it in awhile.  I was the first "It" and I went into the laundry room and counted to 30 and came out to find the rooms eerily silent and empty.  As I walked through the living room and into the dining room searching fruitlessly high and low, I suddenly see this figure stand straight up on the serving table thingy.  It's Brady and he says "I peed on the table." I hadn't been searching for more than 30 seconds but I guess he just couldn't hold it.  By the way, Duncan had hidden him up there behind a plant...he did not climb up himself.



What would my blog be without some smarty mouth comment from Calleigh?  When I was at Ron and Elaine's picking them up Tuesday this is what happened...
Me:"Alright kids.  We need to go.  We need to get home and have school."
Elaine: "So Calleigh, what are you going to do for school this afternoon?"
Calleigh: "Probably complain."

Check and check.

While we were walking around at EPCOT, this conversation happened.
Me: "Girls, this is Norway.  There used to be this cool boat ride here but it's closed and they are building a new Frozen ride."
Calleigh: "Cool!  Will it be here when we come next time?"
Me:"Yes, probably."
Aubree:"When are we going to come here again?"
Me: "Oh, most likely not for a long time.  It's pretty expensive to come.  I would say we will probably be back in another three years."
Girls: "Yes!!"

Isn't it nice when they have such low expectations?

A few more pictures...

Brought out some toys/crafts from Christmas that they hadn't used yet.

This kid is such a boy.  He is so obsessed with his cars.  He can sit there for long, long stretches just happily playing with cars all by himself.

Making some progress on the whole pedal thing after having the balance bike.

Aubree is officially riding a two-wheeler.

I thought this was such a sweet note.

Have a Happy Sabbath!  

This past weekend we were at Camp Kulaqua for the church retreat hence the lack of a post from me. The kids look forward to it with great anticipation and the parents, hmmm, maybe I'll say, anticipation.  But, no, it makes me happy when the kids are happy.  Anyway, last year we remembered that Aubree wasn't riding her two wheeled bike yet and we, in fact, didn't even bring her bike with training wheels so she was left out of all the bike riding.  The goal this year was that she be on two wheels and we were happy to say that she reached her goal.  Even Brady was pretty much on two wheels for the weekend (more on that later).  So it was three two-wheeled bikes that were loaded into and onto the van for the weekend.

Duncan got out of work a little late on Friday so Colby had already taken his nap when we finally left about 4:00 pm.  It's such a relief that I don't necessarily have to plan longer trips around his nap time anymore since he is relatively entertained by a movie playing overhead these days.  And anyway, we had other Colby issues to worry about it as it turned out.  Thursday night he woke up at 12:30 am and wouldn't be consoled so I ended up sleeping in the guest room with him.  I noticed he was warm and gave him some Tylenol and had my suspicions of what the problem was.  Sure enough, I checked his mouth in the morning and there, finally, was the tooth next to his two bottom front teeth just breaking the gum line.  Calaubra never had teething problems but leave it to Colby to break that trend.  The poor thing was whimpering all day and had his finger in his mouth.  Even when he would take a drink out of his sippy cup he would cry.  All I could think of was, "Why did this have to happen RIGHT NOW when we are all going to be sleeping in ONE room?" I was tempted to just send Duncan on his way with Calaubra but I didn't anticipate that would go over very well.  So onward and upward we went.

The first stop was at the Springs Diner where where we were curious to see if the same owners from England were there.  They had bought the place a few months prior to our eating there last year.  We were happy to see that they were.  I didn't get any chance to talk to them as we came after everyone had ordered and I had to deal with Colby.


We had our usual set up for lodging.  The Isidros, Bergherms, and us shared a 4-bedroom mini-lodge.  This year the Bergherms took the extra bedroom and we scored the big bedroom upstairs.  It's very, very spacious up there, which of course, was lost on Colby who insisted on sleeping right next to me and ON me both nights.  Actually, that's not completely true.  The second night he obviously spread out...so far that he rolled off the other side of the bed onto the floor resulting in a giant thump in the middle of the night.  I felt SO terrible.  I had put the pack-n-play (a complete waste of space to bring) up against the other side of the bed thinking that if he somehow got over there, the drop wouldn't be that far.  But apparently it wasn't up flush against the side.  Thankfully no real damage was done and after a few whimpers, he went back to sleep.  Of course, for the times that he was close enough to reach me (which was most of the time) his hand was in my hair so I "awoke" (I use that word loosely since it implies sleep was taking place) with a huge afro.  Ah yes, good times.  I had preemptively relegated Duncan to one of the empty bunks from the very beginning and he had his own challenges the second night.  Brady had been so tired on Saturday evening that we put him to bed at about 7:30.  His bed was all messy with toys so we put him in Duncan's bed and I had assumed Duncan would move him to his own bed when Duncan went to bed.  Except he didn't.  He thought Brady's bed was still messy (I had fixed it) so he slept in the small single bed with Brady the whole night.  When they woke up in the morning, Brady was basically sleeping on top of him.  Brady sat up and grabbed his private part so Duncan says "Oh, do you need to go to the bathroom?" And Brady says "I already did." And then he realized where he was and he got a really remorseful look on his face and said ever so contritely "Sorry, Dad." What a pair we were...my hair was as big as Dolly Parton's and Duncan reeked of pee.  But other than that, the weekend was great!

Mini Lodge # 8

The girls and Brady had a great time riding their bikes everywhere.  Aubree was thrilled to be a part of Calleigh's group riding around.  Unlike last year, the weather was perfect so we had no worries in the department.  We did Sabbath School and church in the morning.  After church, the Bergherms had London dedicated by Pastor Barb next to the spring.  It was really nice and of course, I'm partial to outdoor dedications next to bodies of water.  Following that there were two baptisms.  I missed it because I was tending to Colby but everyone was talking about how just after one of the baptisms, they saw a snake in the water behind the pastor and the "joke" was that it was Satan leaving the premises.  A pretty neat thought, actually.

Breakfast Sabbath morning.

Maddy flashing some gang signs. Incidentally, I had forgotten to bring any kind of sweatshirts or long sleeve shirts for the kids.  Oops.

Most of the kids in our group.

Aubree and Brady

The Bergherm family, Julia (Jennifer's mom), and Pastor Barb.

After lunch at the cafeteria, we had goodies back at our house courtesy of Jennifer for the dedication and then went to the zoo.  Thankfully Colby was now in better spirits and really enjoyed himself there.  While I took Colby back for a nap, Duncan took Caluabra canoeing.  In the evening, Brady went to bed early, as mentioned, but the girls rode their bikes until the last possible moment and had some smores.  The adults enjoyed their time chitchatting in the main area once all the kids were asleep and even had our own background "music," otherwise known as snoring, but it would be impolite for me to say who it was.

Kolden, Colby, and Aubree walking into the zoo.

Aubree was so nice and lifted Colby up to see stuff.

In years past we did pony rides and go-carts on Sunday morning but decided to skip it this year and just do some swimming at the springs.  The water was pretty chilly and Brady had no interest in it but Calleigh and Aubree were able to put their fear of snakes aside and go in.  They have this big giant inflatable thing called a "blob" you can jump on and Calleigh LOVED it.  It's so funny because Calleigh is so different from Aubree.  Calleigh basically has no fear about this kind of thing and totally went for it whereas I don't picture Aubree probably ever doing it even as she gets older.  I guess time will tell.

That's Calleigh flying up in the air at the end.

Aubree swimming in the spring.

The other big news since I last wrote is that I'm getting LASIK.  I am so excited.  I never thought I would be interested in getting the procedure but I have had so many contact issues the last two years and after seeing what a great experience Duncan had when he got it done, I have been eager to go for it.  First, I had to make sure I was eligible.  Last week I went in for an assessment at the same place Duncan had gone.  They were really nice and it was kind of funny because the lady that checked me was named Corrie (I told her she was lucky to have the girl spelling) and then the guy who took me around was named Rory.  I was waiting for a Lori to be involved but alas it was a Nancy (I have never met a lady named Nancy who was in her 30's until now).  It's basically like getting a regular eye exam...reading stuff of charts, etc and then they take pictures of your eyes up really close.  I was on pins and needles and then the doctor came in said a bunch of mumbo jumbo but the part I understood was that I was an "above average" candidate for the procedure.  Maybe they tell that to everyone, I don't know.  From there, Rory took me to an office to discuss the details of it all and he was like "Okay, we can schedule you for Friday if you are ready to go." I was like "Whoa, whoa, whoa." I wasn't expecting it that quick...two days!  Usually when you try to get appointments for stuff it's like weeks out.  I would have done it though but of course, we had the church retreat so it wouldn't have worked.  Instead, I'm having it this tomorrow.  Yippee!!  I asked Rory if I should be worried about getting it done on Mother's Day weekend because I didn't want anything to interfere with my shopping day on Sunday.  He assured me it would be fine but hey, at least I would have an excuse if I bought something really expensive...I couldn't see the price tag properly.  I say "Um yeah, I shop at Goodwill, so...." He chuckled and then we discovered that we are both homeschooling our kids so that was fun to talk about.

Let's see, what else is happening...Oh, so back to Brady and his bike riding.  I can definitively say that having a kid on a balance bike at a young age really does wonders for learning to ride a two-wheeler.  Brady's hiccup was that he couldn't start or stop on his two-wheels but the last couple of days have gotten those kinks worked out and he is riding it completely unassisted now.  I think that's pretty good for being three years old.  I laugh because I think Calleigh was six when she started riding one but that was probably because we didn't try it any sooner.

If only I could say the swimming lessons were going as well.  We have now done seven lessons and my hope was that Brady would be swimming at the end like the girls were (well, Aubree was basically swimming and then forgot it).  He is floating exceptionally well but he's not swimming.  The main problem, I think, is that the lesson is happening late in the day and it gets pretty chilly and he's shaking all over through the lesson.  Thus, he hasn't been doing the full half hour because he's shaking and crying.  I'm not sure if we should keep going or what.  Or maybe find a pool that's warmer and where he can go during the day.  I've got to figure that out.  Aubree, on the other hand, is thriving.  She LOVES the lessons and it's amazing at how great she is swimming now...above water and under water.  One less person I have to worry about drowning now.  I think we were will continue to do lessons but with she and Calleigh doing them together next.



On the Colby front, the tooth pain is gone, fortunately.  Sleeping is completely back to normal as soon as we got home...as expected.  I recall Brady's speaking taking off at 20 months.  Colby is now that age but I would say it hasn't exactly taken off yet although in the past day he is now saying "Thank you" and "You're welcome." Basically the first things he's said that are more than one word at a time.

Okay, I need to wrap this up so I'm going to end the commentary here.  A few pictures to close off and then it's a wrap.  I know the kids had some quotes since I last wrote but apparently I didn't write them down and I don't remember.

Took some family pictures at church a few weeks ago. It was pink day, obviously.

These were my latest bow tie creations.

Love Colby here.

And here.

We were chitchatting with some friends so the boys occupied themselves with peering down the drain.

Blueberry season is upon us once again so Duncan took the troops out for a picking session.

Eight pounds.

I'm not scared of lizards (you can't be in Florida because they are everywhere) but I gave a girlie scream when I went to throw something away in my trash in the laundry room and found this just sitting there.

Went to the new Trader Joe's in Orlando.  We so love that place.

Ate at this awesome new (for here) restaurant called Noodles & Company near the Trader Joe's.  All of us ate for $28 and the food was really good.  A lot of options for vegetarians.

Grandma came and babysat while I went to my LASIK assessment and she took the kids to the pool/splash playground in our neighborhood.

Picked up Monopoly at a yard sale and the girls have been playing.  I love how they are doing math and don't even know it.

Made some H2O molecules for Daddy out of grapes.

Doing a science experiment with baking soda.

Clearly this caught her by surprise!

Last Friday was the big day!  The long awaited LASIK procedure.  My appointment was at 3:40 which meant Duncan was able to be home with the kids and Elaine was kind enough to meet me there and drive me home since for obvious reasons, I couldn't drive myself.  One of the first things they ask you after you check in is "Do you need a valium?" And you're thinking to yourself, "Gee, I thought I was fine but do YOU think I NEED one?" I said I was fine and really, after having four c-sections, how bad could it really be in comparison?!!  And the answer is...not even close.  The whole thing was anticlimactic, really.  You lie down flat on a bed in a sterile room so at first, it was pretty similar to the whole c-section thing.  They do the procedure in two steps.  The first step is putting some drops in your eyes...no big deal at all.  While the doctor was doing that, he had some James Taylor playing in the background and he was singing along.  He joked "Hey, you get a free James Taylor concert as an added bonus!" To which I replied "If only I liked James Taylor." I'm sorry but even though he's from Boston, I've just never cared for him.  Anywho, he then asked me what I did like and I said, "Oh, the Gaithers.  Do you have any of that?" And he did.  So that is what I listened to during the second step.  I was so relaxed and it was just a no big deal kind of thing.  They put this plastic disk-y thing in the bottom part of your lids to keep your eye from closing, you look at a green light and 15 seconds later you're done.  Okay, yes, there was a smell but it didn't really smell like an eyeball burning up.  And even if it did, isn't it worth it for what you have in the end?  Perfect vision!

After it's all done, you have to wear these black "old lady" sunglasses for the rest of the day and put drops in your eye every fifteen minutes.  So that is a little tedious but again, a small price to pay.  Unfortunately it meant I couldn't take a nap when I got home either unless they were in 14.5 minute intervals.  But I was feeling fine anyway.  My eyes stung just a little but there was no pain or real discomfort.  After that first day, the routine is now to put drops in every two hours and put in an antibiotic four times a day for the first week.  Then it's just the drops every two hours after that for eight weeks.  Yes, you read that right.  EIGHT weeks!  Geesh!  Thats a long time.  BUT, I'm so happy.  My vision is now 20/20 and I could even read some letters on the 20/15 line.  Several times I've reached for my glasses first thing in the morning only to remind myself that I don't need them.  Such a great feeling.  I'm very fortunate in that my insurance covers the cost of this but honestly, even if it didn't, I think it's a worthwhile expense especially the younger you are.  Just think about not needing contacts or glasses for the next several decades of your life!  For a second though, I thought the timing of it was going to really stink because you aren't supposed to swim for the first week and here we are going to Hammock Beach but they assured me that just wading around in the water was fine but to keep my sunglasses on to prevent splashing going into your eyes.

I was very relieved that everything went so smoothly because I had big plans for Mother's Day weekend.  On Saturday night, I met Tangie, Jennifer, Amy, Leslie, Vasti, and Marlissa at Crispers for a late supper (which I had cheated on because I had made lasagna at home and couldn't resist it) and then went and saw a movie afterwards.  A great time with the ladies!  Then, Sunday morning, as anticipated, I had my Corey day.  I did my usual with the Goodwills and then also went to a couple of consignment stores too.  I was really dragging at the end, though.  I had drank some Mountain Dew at Crispers which clearly turned out to be a very bad idea because I had a horrible night of sleep on Saturday night.  Ladies, please cut me off if I have more than one!  Anyway, as things closed at 6 pm, I was so tired I headed for home but called Duncan to say I didn't want to cook.  He had the kids at the pool at the moment but we would meet at the house shortly.  I really didn't want to go out either at that hour so I had the bright idea to just order some subs from Publix and then pick them up.  Easy peasy.  Or so I thought.  They were supposed to be done at 7:05 (you just order it off an app and they give you a pick time) but when I arrived right at 7:05, they hadn't even started them.  I'm telling you this story so you can see how great Publix is.  They apologized profusely and without my saying anything negative to them at all, they said the subs would all be free.  Free subs...the perfect night cap on my Mother's Day!

While I was doing my alone time, Duncan took the kids blueberry picking among other things.  When they got there, Duncan told Brady "Make sure you pick one berry for every three you eat." As time went one, Duncan noticed that Brady wasn't doing anything.  He was just walking around with his bucket.  When Duncan asked him what was going on, he said "You said I could only pick ONE berry."

Colby, the super picker.  Yeah, right! I think he stole Grandma's bucket.

They ate at Winter Garden Pizza.  I discovered going through pictures this week that someone must have taught Brady how to wink recently since he's winking in several pictures.

Where you pick blueberries they have a free boat ride you can do out on the adjacent lake.

Tuesday afternoon it was time to head back to Hammock Beach.  The IT leadership at the hospital was convening there for a few days for some meetings and we were happy to tag along.  I asked Ron and Elaine to come too which was perfect because we love to hang out with them and the extra hands while Duncan was in meetings was greatly appreciated.  We were in the same exact three bedroom layout as when we were with my brother's family and mother in March but this time we were on the second floor rather than the tenth, much to my great relief.  Of course, I realize that if they fell from the second floor they would probably still be dead but when you're so high up, it's like I mentally panic every time they even go near a railing.

Our view from our room.

After settling in and a quick swim, we ended up at Bob Evans for supper and it was Kids Eat Free.  What could go wrong?! Ugh.  Everything.  They brought all the kids food first so they were finished eating by the time we got ours.  Then we finally got it and they had put bacon in my grilled cheese and they forgot Ron's biscuits.  We had told the waitress we wanted separate checks and I specifically said that the girls would go on their check since it was one kid per adult.  Some other dude, let's call John, brought the check at the end and I told him we were supposed to have separate checks.  He comes back eons later and he put all the kids on our check.  Okay, I thought. I'm sure it won't matter.  Obviously we're all together.  So this same John is at the register as we pay.  He rings up Ron and Elaine and then he rings me up.  "Yeah," he says, "it's one free kids meal per adult." I"m thinking "Are you kidding me, dude?" But I say, "This is why I had said to the waitress that we wanted the girls on their check." "Well," he says, "I"m going to have to separate things out again." He fiddles around on the machine looking bewildered and then mumbles to another employee what the problem is and she says "Just deduct them all off that check." Wow!  What a thought.  As he's ringing it through I say "This has really been a disappointing experience all around here." Of course, I wasn't really expecting him to do anything because he clearly wasn't the sharpest crayon in the box and he didn't disappoint.  "Sorry," he says not even looking at me and that was that.  But all was not lost!  I used this experience as a teaching tool for customer service on the way back to the hotel.  What a comparison between them and Publix!  Bob Evans...you're fired!

Wednesday morning Duncan had his meeting and Ron went up to Jacksonville to meet with a client so it was Elaine and I and the kids.  We hit the pools at about 10:00 am.  The water temperature had gone up considerably since we had been there nine weeks prior so we could do all the pools including the lazy river.  There's a water slide there as well and Calleigh was quick to grab Grandma so they could go up together.  Grandma came down with a big splash, going completely under water and we all got a chuckle.  She came out of the water exclaiming how fun it was and says "You have to try it, Corey!" So I grabbed Aubree who was very reluctant to do it by herself and off we went.  Darn if that thing isn't super fast.  We were all over the place going down, water splashing up on us from the sides.  We got to the bottom and I tried to hold Aubree up but she went under as well.  I'm not sure that I did but it seemed like there was a lot of water spraying around.  As soon as I started walking out of the pool I panicked, "OH NO!  WHAT HAVE I DONE?? MY LASIK!!!!" I am such an idiot.  In such a short amount of time I had forgotten that I wasn't supposed to be getting my eyes wet.  Arghhhh!  Fortunately they felt fine but I ran back up to the room to immediately put my antibiotic drops in.   After that, I didn't let my guard down.

Saw this typical sign at the elevator as we headed for the pool the first time.  Now that Aubree can read it she says "Why would you go down the stairs if there is a fire right behind you?  You should take the elevator instead!" Excellent point!

The next instance of me losing my mind would come later that afternoon.  After some lunch back in the hotel room, Colby went down for his nap and Elaine took Calaubra out to the beach.  The ocean had also warmed up a ton and the kids had an absolute blast playing in it...especially Brady.  Anyway, as I was lying there relaxing, I got a text from Duncan saying "Our door is open." I had no idea what he was talking about.  The van door?  Oh no.  Much worse.  He had just gotten a text from Allen who had stopped over our house to pick up some wood from the garage and Allen had found our front door halfway open.  He looked around inside and didn't see anything amiss.  So yeah, I was the last one out, 24 HOURS EARLIER, and had my hands full including a mug of tea in one hand.  How I would possibly have forgotten to shut the front door, I don't know, but I guess it was a better option than the alternative having happened.  But still! This 40th year of mine is really turning into a doozy.

He loved to just run on the beach and look at all the footprints he was leaving behind.

Love these two.  So glad they came with us!

Took a lovely evening stroll down the beach.

If you read my blog from last week about the church retreat, you will recall that the whole Colby sleeping thing was a nightmare...him sleeping with me in the bed, fiddling with my hair all night, and rolling off the bed even.  The first night at Hammock Beach, I put him in his pack-n-play and left the room.  He didn't utter a peep or wake up the entire night.  When it was nap time, I repeated this and again, nothing.  Could this really be happening??!  I could feel the excitement mounting.  Or was he just toying with me and the second night would be a living nightmare?  Believe it or not, the same thing happened the next night and nap.  I am beside myself with glee!  I don't know what to attribute this to.  Did he recognize the place from the last time?  Was it because he was by himself in the room (Caluabra had their own room this time)?  I don't know but we will be testing it out again soon enough.

Calaubra's room.  The second night Brady said he didn't want to sleep with them anymore.  He had some lame excuse why not which I can't remember.  So we put him the doorway of Ron and Elaine's room with the intention of moving him later. He fell asleep in 30 seconds.

The second day was pretty much a repeat of the first except Grandpa was there this time.  That was a good thing because Calleigh had a few "I'm bored's" going on the first day.  She loves to swim but apparently she needed a friend or something to play around with in the water.  I told her the alternative was to go home and do school work and I think that put her in her place.  In the afternoon, Duncan and I each got a free massage which was soooo nice, obviously.  Duncan's meetings were going until Friday noon but I preplanned for a variety of reasons to head back after supper on Thursday night.  We ate at Ruby Tuesday (much better than Bob Evans) and then I headed out with the kids.  I was thanking my lucky stars that Allen discovered the open door as it would have been awful to get back Thursday evening after dark and been faced with that situation.  Thank goodness for good neighbors...even ones who root for football teams who haven't won a championship in decades.

Good to have Grandpa around!

A few more random pictures before closing:

Loving my boy trying on some sunglasses!

Kids working on various crafts.  Colby was probably mad that Brady wasn't playing with him.

We did food trucks last night.  I had an awesome black bean burger from a new truck.

Can you say "Awwwww!"

Colby in Sabbath School this morning.

Aubree in hers.  They sang happy birthday to her.  Calleigh was SO mad because they didn't sing to her in her class even though we went to her old class for that very purpose.

This may look like an ordinary letter "B" but ladies and gentleman, I present to you, Brady's first B that he wrote himself!! He did this in church and no I wasn't having him practice letters in church (or any other time for that matter) so it was all his own idea! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

A week ago this past Sunday found us at Magic Kingdom to celebrate the girls' birthdays.  I mentioned previously that instead of birthday parties for the kids this year, we opted to just go to the Disney parks (the kids' decision).  Since we hadn't been in three years and since I would much rather NOT have a party, it worked out well.  I must say that the whole day wildly exceeded my expectations.  Of course, I've always chuckled when I see companies ask "Did we exceed your expectations?" as to indicate whether they provided you with good service.  I always think "What if my expectations were really, really low?  You could still do a crummy job but have exceeded my expectations." In this case, yes and yes.  My expectations were low and they were exceeded.  But exceeded by a lot.

We got there when the park opened and as luck would have it, ran into the Isidros, who were to be our companions for the day, in the parking lot.  I stopped at customer service to get the girls their birthday buttons.  Calleigh's birthday was that very day (17th) whereas Aubree's was Tuesday (19th). She so wanted a button and wasn't sure if she would be able to get one since it wasn't her actual birthday but we got one, no problem, and she was quite pleased.  From there, we went on our three fast pass rides and that's pretty much how the day went.  Go on a ride, get a new fast pass. Repeat.  But let me tell you...about 80% of the park seems not to get this concept.  The longest we probably waited in a line was like 10 minutes but yet, we still saw people waiting in 50 and 60 minute lines.  Why?  WHY???!  I don't get it.  All you have to do is go to the Fast Pass kiosk and get a Fast Pass and then you have no line.  The Fast Passes were available starting like 10 minutes from when we got it so it's not like we had wait several hours to use it.  At any rate, I guess we should just be grateful that so many people haven't caught on to how it works.

Brady looks like he's in a trance...

It's amazing how nice Disney can be when you don't wait in long lines.  Sure, it was still stifling hot but since we weren't waiting long to get on stuff, the heat was broken up as we got on rides.  It seems the pretty unanimous favorite of the girls and me was Splash Mountain.  The boys were too short to go on it and Duncan graciously offered to stay with them since I wanted to go.  Allen and Braelyn took Brady and Duncan's fast pass for it so the five of us went together.  It'a a pretty long ride so you definitely get your "money's worth." I did have a little incident though.  The best part of the ride, of course, is when you go down the "mountain" which makes a big splash.  For some idiotic reason, I thought it would be a good idea to take my visor AND sunglasses off as we went down (I've lost several visors on rides recently).  Well, you can guess what happened.  The water splashed right up into my eyes and instantly I remembered, "My LASIK!  AHHHHHH!" Yup, did it again.  Fortunately I can still see so hopefully that means it was okay!  But seriously, I appear to have no foresight with these things whatsoever.

Splash Mountain before I took my glasses off.

We laughed because Aubree is perfectly calm while the rest of us are making faces.

Since lines were so short, we went on pretty much all of the rides we wanted to do. We stopped for lunch which we had brought with us and then later in the afternoon, we treated the remaining Isidros (Braelyn and Tangie left for a school program) to some Dole Whips to celebrate the occasion.  Mmm, those are good.  Colby lasted a bit longer than Epcot and didn't fall asleep until about 12:45 but he did sleep for at least two hours which caused me to miss a few rides but it was all good.  I told Duncan ahead of time that we would stay as long as the kids wanted to stay since it was their birthday after all and we agreed that's what we would do.  The place was open until midnight and we teased them about whether they could make it that long.  But at around 6:00 pm, I got the sense that they were wrapping up and sure enough, Calleigh said she wanted to go (I'm pretty sure she knew she was getting a Lego set as her one gift to open on her birthday and she wanted to get to it).  Aubree wanted to stay but we were able to convince her to go.  It worked out perfectly because then we could eat supper at home.

Tea cups

Allen takes a nap in the Bear Jamboree

Aubs and the twins

Even Colby was just tall enough to go on the Speedway.

The new Dumbo ride has a play area while you wait.  Of course, we didn't even have to wait so we did this before using our Fast Passes.

Dole Whips.

Brady was having such a problem with the sun in his eyes that I begrudgingly gave him my visor.

The whole crew except for Duncan taking the picture.

Our newly minted eight year old.

Parting shot. Calleigh had a blister, Brady was too tired to walk, Colby obviously got the stroller...which left Aubree the only one walking much to her chagrin.

After supper, both girls opened a gift which was indeed Legos.  I told them not to stay up half the night working on it.  "We won't," they said.  At that point, I was so tired I fell into bed and was asleep by a little after 9:30.  The next morning, the girls called me upstairs because they wanted to show me their Legos they had built.  I said, "You guys finished this last night?" Calleigh says "Yes, I was up until 11:00 finishing it." Where do these kids get the energy and stamina?!  I could barely keep my eyes open after walking around Disney all day.

Oh, one other thing from Disney that I thought was a bit....strange.  At this one store, you could have a lady sprinkle pixie dust on your head and make a wish.  That wasn't the strange part.  The girls both did it and then Brady did it too since Kohlden did.  Afterwards we asked them what they wished for and they wouldn't tell us because they didn't want it to not come true.  But then Calleigh said she would tell Duncan so she whispered it in his ear.  I was a little affronted but then Aubree said "It's about you" so I decided that was pretty cool and special.  I was imaging all kinds of neat things. Later that night I asked Duncan what it was and he said "She said she wished that you would stop blowing your nose." Oh-kay.....

I wonder what he wished for?

Tuesday, Aubree's birthday, we made plans to celebrate with Ron and Elaine and Aunt Wanda since they had "missed out" on Disney.  Elaine came over after lunch to take the girls shopping for some gifts and then on to their house to swim and later we would join them for supper.  But she said when she came in the front door and saw Brady's face, she knew she couldn't leave him behind so she took all three.  That worked out lovely for me because Colby took a nice long nap and I had a very quiet afternoon.  Colby and I picked up Aunt Wanda at 5:30 and then drove over to Ron and Elaine's.  Elaine made some homemade pizza (girls had requested pizza for their birthday) which was really, really good and we had a nice quiet evening with the family.  The girls got more Legos, among other things, and were very pleased.

The newly minted six year old.

A new bike helmet and gloves.

Since they love playing with Calleigh's pilgrim costume she got for Christmas, we got Aubree her own.

Calleigh has wanted this Lego boat for months.  When she opened it up and found it had FIVE bags to it, she was very excited. The biggest project she's done yet.

The finished yacht.

No Jennifer cake this year since we didn't have a big party.

Our other big activity this past week was the homeschool convention which I had been looking forward to for months.  The convention has two really great things about it.  First, there are tons of booths which have various curriculum, books, kids activities, gadgets, etc.  Second, there are a bunch of sessions with speakers speaking on various topics whether it be homeschooling, parenting, marriage, you name it.  It takes place at the Gaylord Palm Resort in Kissimmee (this is the same hotel we went to right before Christmas to see all the ice sculptures and do the reindeer scavenger hunt). Yes, the resort is less than a 30 minute drive from our house but we decided to splurge this year and stay there for Thursday and Friday nights so I didn't have to drive back and forth.  Duncan took Friday off so he was on kid duty while I immersed myself in it.  The kids and I checked in at about 4:30 on Thursday afternoon. The hotel is very lovely but when we got into our room, which was just that, one room, Aubree couldn't believe it.  "This is it? Where are the rest of the rooms??" I guess when you just stayed in a 3-bedroom condo at Hammock Beach, staying in just a single hotel room is a big downgrade.  I thought it was pretty cozy, actually.

Saw this character while waiting to check in.  Not sure why there was a random Lego character at the hotel but fun nonetheless!

Friday morning I left the kids in Duncan's capable hands and joined Jennifer, baby London, Vasti, and David (Vasti's 9-year old son) for the day.  We went to a lot of the same sessions.  But the big thing was the lunch.  There is a Mediterranean restaurant there that does a lunch buffet.  But this just isn't any lunch buffet.  It's $26.50, for one person (!), but it is SO good.  Since it is just me, I don't feel THAT bad about spending that much money on one meal.  The icing on the cake is that they also have Mountain Dew which is included in the price so it can't get much better than that.  We are already looking forward to meeting there again next year.


As they day wore on, I started to get a little panicky.  There are many, many booths in the convention hall and I was making such slow progress going to them since I'm actually looking for stuff to buy.  Even though I already know the main curriculum for Calleigh for next year, I still have to add math, English, and spelling.  Plus, I now have Aubree and although I have Calleigh's old first grade curriculum I wasn't sure I wanted to repeat it (I need some variety...since I've already done it, I didn't feel like doing it again).  The convention lasted through Saturday at 6 pm but obviously I wasn't going to be shopping and buying stuff on Sabbath so I had to make all purchases by the time it closed on Friday.  I got pretty rushed at the end but I mostly got it done in the end.  But I need to use my time better next year.  This is what I ended up with for those that homeschool and may care to see:

Calleigh - Grade 3
Bible, History, Reading, Art, Music - My Father's World (Exploring Countries & Cultures) - I didn't actually get to buy this because MFW didn't come to the convention.  I was SO disappointed even though I knew it ahead of time.  I'll have to go online.
Math - Teaching Textbooks - - I didn't buy this either but Calleigh tried it out and I think I may go with this since she didn't last the whole year on Math-U-See.
Spelling - A Reason for Spelling (same as this year)- Again, didn't buy this because it wasn't there but confirmed this is what we were doing.  Checked out Spelling-U-See like friends are doing but Calleigh took one look and said "No!" Looks like a lot of writing.
Handwriting - Handwriting Without Tears, Cursive - For some odd reason she wants to learn cursive even though she doesn't like to write.
English - Language Lessons for the Very Young (same as this year)
Science - Apologia, Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day - MFW comes with Science but I haven't been too excited about it so I'm adding my own.

Aubree - Grade 1
Bible, History, Art, Music - Will join Calleigh in MFW
Reading - Explode the Code - Thinking of doing this but they were out of some of the books at the convention so I didn't buy it.
Math - Math-U-See, Alpha
Handwriting - Handwriting Without Tears
English & Spelling: - Not sure if I will add these since Calleigh didn't do them in first grade (wasn't part of the MFW) and I don't want to overload her.  We will see how things go.
Science - Apologia (same program as Calleigh)

So there you have it.  The previous two years I was still a little overwhelmed at the convention but this year I felt much more comfortable.  Ron and Elaine came down mid-afternoon on Friday to look around and then we went to supper at Sweet Tomatoes nearby.  A very nice day.

This is just wrong on so many levels.

There was a pool party Thursday night.  The kids are watching some other kids dancing.

Trying out some equipment at one of the booths.

Fishing for some candy at another.

The hotel has a small water slide park (including four water slides) and they had a ton of fun Friday morning.

Duncan took them to Cracker Barrel for lunch.  Calleigh spotted this and was all excited!

Incidentally, I was curious to see how Colby would do with the sleeping after the great experience at Hammock Beach.  As soon as I put him in the pack-n-play at bedtime on Thursday night, he started crying.  Here we go again, I thought.  I brought him into bed with me and he didn't fall asleep until 10 stinking 30.  Everyone else including Duncan was long asleep by the time he conked out.  Then I moved him and he slept the whole night in the pack-n-play so that was good at least.  The same pattern repeated Friday night but although he fell asleep much faster that time.  I'm still not sure if he did well at Hammock Beach because he recognized it or because he was alone in the room and this time he clearly wasn't.

For Sabbath, I spent the time just going to the sessions.  The convention is so great in that so much of it is faith based.  The keynote on Friday morning was about a pilot from Maine who flies for American Airlines and had penciled himself in the day before to be the pilot on Flight 11 that crashed into the tower on 9/11.  But something happened and a senior pilot ended up taking the flight and obviously this pilot, Steve, was miraculously saved.  He and his homeschooled son (one of eight kids!) made a short documentary on it comparing it to how Jesus took our place on the cross.  It was very, very moving.  It anyone wants to go to YouTube it's called "In His Seat." The keynote on Sabbath was a married couple with seven homeschooled children and they talked about the importance of a strong marriage and how the devil is trying to destroy it so that he can get to the kids.  It was also really good and so were the rest of the sessions that followed including several on parenting and the importance of character.  All the sessions were really inspiring and I've already made some changes in my daily routines and attitudes.   Highly recommend this weekend event even if you don't homeschool.  That part is really secondary.

I left mid-afternoon because we had company!  Kelly, Steve, and Caleb came down on Thursday evening for the long weekend as a last hurrah before baby Katelyn comes in July.  I felt bad they had to stay at our place without us but I guess it was a little quieter!  Also on Saturday evening, Devin, Leigh, Mia, and Bode came in to stay just that night.  They had won a trip to Sanibel for the week but they paid us a visit at the end.  They had never been to our house before (now it's just Shannon as the only cousin who hasn't visited, ironically the one who lived with us for a bit in our old house!) so it was due time.  Bode is a few months younger than Brady and they were like two peas in a pod running around the house.  We were sad to see them go the next morning but at least Nova Scotia is less than two months away.  The Conrads went to Disney on Sunday for the whole day (Kelly is 32 weeks pregnant but that detail doesn't stop a Disney freak.  I say that kindly, of course!) but I visited with her a little on Sunday night and Monday morning before they had to take off.  Steve even found time to fix our back door which had been hard to open since the SuperBowl.  We were VERY grateful for that.

My cousins and I.

Bode and Brady.  Aren't they cute?! They were even randomly dressed similarly.

Mia doing Calleigh's hair.

Horseplay with Steve

Now that we're caught up, a few quotes from the kids.

Calleigh (completely deadpan):"Aubree, remember when we were younger, like four and six, and we thought it was funny to just say the word 'poop'"?
Aubree (also completely deadpan): "Yup."

They're growing up!  Not that I believe them...

Aubree was so excited about turning six because she thought that meant she was going to start first grade.
Aubree:"Now that I'm six and not five any more, I can do first grade math."
Calleigh (exasperated):"Aubree, you are only ONE day older than you were yesterday.  That doesn't mean you can now do first grade math."

The day before the convention I went to a parenting seminar at the church.
Me (to the kids):"I'm going to a seminar tonight to learn about being a better parent."
Aubree (coming up and giving me a hug): "You are the very best mommy."
Me (silently smiling to myself, feeling really good)
Aubree: "But you're the only one I've ever had."

Some more pictures before closing...

Okay, so clearly we need to work on our "d's" and "b's." I swear this homeschool thing is working. I swear!!

Brady was happy to discover this hat in a bag of clothes from Camden.  Now he doesn't have to borrow my visor!

Random art project he did all on his own.

Why Colby??

We do races upstairs and Brady likes to get in the crouching position to start off and now Colby does the same thing.

Colby finally gets a haircut.  Just a little one though.

The four red bookcases are a new addition from Ikea.  I ran out of bookshelf space since I buy so many books at yard sales. Duncan and the kids spent part of their Memorial Day putting them together for me.  Very happy with the result.

Have a great week!

  

We have been quite the "vacationers" during the month of May as we have been to Camp Kalaqua, Hammock Beach, Gaylord Palms, and now finally Bonnet Creek Resort.  As someone pointed out, good thing we started at camp rather than ending there.  The good thing is that most of these trips came at little or no cost to us so don't be thinking of us as high rollers just yet!  I have become the master of packing for the two to three night trip although the unpacking is by far the worst part.

I was in charge of supper and I had cut up some cantaloupe as I waited for the pizza to come out of the oven.  Someone couldn't wait!

"Wait, this is my future husband you say??"

May not be their Memaw, but we love Julia!

Contemplating putting his feet in the hot tub.

Trying on Addi's Crocs.

And they are in the hot tub.  Love my boys!

This one thinks he's a swimmer.

The whole crazy group.  Brady was in a mood and took to the stroller to chill out.  Meanwhile, everyone joked that Colby ate an entire watermelon by himself.

If you look REALLY closely at the top of the tree, you can see the raccoon.

As soon as we saw Addi coming into the park she went right over and started stroking Colby's hair.  So cute!

A picture Duncan took.  Not sure what this is about.

Right after the rapids ride.  Duncan's sister made Brady this cute shirt to wear in the park.

Waiting in the front row to get on.

Colby feel asleep right before the safari ride.  I didn't want him to miss it so we woke him up after he been asleep for only 10 minutes.

One other neat thing about the park is they have these passport books that the kids get stamped at different stations around the park after doing an activity or two.  This really nice lady was trying to get Calleigh engaged.  Calleigh was in a mood for some reason at the moment but the poor lady wouldn't give up.  Said she was a teacher!

Look at Calleigh's expression.  It was hot!

I'm sure this is a character from a movie but I have no idea what movie or who this is.

"Whose poop?" That's the name of this activity.

The petting zoo area is nice.  Colby went crazy for it.

Brady covering his ears on the way home.  "I hate it when they cry," he says.

Aubs and Jake

This is why we call it Peacock Park.

The book of Psalms tells us, “Good will come to the man who is ready to give much, and fair in what he does. He will never be shaken. The man who is right and good will be remembered forever.”

This was Calleigh's poem:

TODAY is a most unusual day.  We have never lived it before; we will never live it again; it is the only day we have.

TODAY can be a healthy unusual day for you—and for others—if you take the time to:

·         give someone a smile…
·         say a word of kindness…
·         lend a helping hand to someone in need...
·         write a note of thanks…
·         share your treasures with others.

When we generously serve others, every day can be a most unusual day – a triumphant day – a very rewarding day!

I think that catches us up with everything.  Before I close with some pictures, here are a few quotes.

I'm upstairs getting ready to brush Brady's teeth.
Me:"Did you put your clothes in the dirty laundry bin?"
Brady: "Yes, because Calleigh told me to.  That was very annoying."

What are big sisters for, right?

We are eating breakfast and Duncan is headed out the door to work.
Brady:"Why doesn't Mommy go to work?
Duncan:"Because she works very hard taking care of you.  Think about what she does.  What does she do in the morning?"
Calleigh:"She makes us breakfast.  And we do school."
Duncan: "And what does she do in the afternoons?"
Brady:"We have quiet time upstairs and she goes downstairs and watches adult shows."

Well, at least he didn't throw in the part about my nap!

Some closing pictures...

Might be hard to see but a Morning Dove built a nest in our pergola.  The eggs have hatched and the babies have already flown out of the nest although they keep coming back to hang out.

The girls found the cracked shell in the planter underneath.

Aubree practicing her hand stand.

Monday night after supper I told Brady he had to throw some corn cobs in the trash to help clean off the table.  When he flat out refused, I told him he had to go sit in a time out until he did.  Naturally, he fell asleep and I carried him to bed where he stayed for the rest of the night.  I saved the corn cobs for the morning which he then cheerfully threw away.  Guess he had been tired.

The crew dressing up.

Would a teacher in a regular school get a free hairdo while doing a read-a-loud?  I think not.

We went to Winter Garden Pizza on Wednesday night for Noah's birthday and the girls argued about who was going to sit next to Noah and this was what happened when we got there.  Only eight and already the girls are fighting to be with you!

Have a happy Sabbath!

My wonderful Brady Breton turned four on Monday, June 8.  We celebrated a little early down at Bonnet Creek the weekend before but this past weekend we celebrated in more earnest fashion.  On Sabbath we attended our old service and Sabbath School class so Brady could be with his regular classmates and teacher when they sang Happy Birthday to him.  Of course, you couldn't tell by his facial expressions if he was happy with this fact or not.  I was laughing so hard while taking a movie of it because he was so deadly serious through the whole thing and kept looking at us out of the corner of his eye.  It was so funny.  He can be so wild and crazy and talkative and then so quiet and sheepish at other times.  

Meanwhile, this was the mischief Colby was getting into all during Sabbath School.

One of our favorite times of the year happened this past week - - Vacation Bible School or more affectionately known as VBS.  We were on pins and needles a few months ago as to whether we would even be able to get in.  The best VBS around is at Markham Woods Church and you literally have to register the same day the registration opens online or you won't get in.  As soon as the clock struck on the Monday of registration, I was on my computer registering the three kids.  When I was done, I got this ominous message that said that they were holding the registration open an extra week to allow their church members (we are not members there) and the community a longer chance to register.  Oh no!  They only take 150 kids so we were worried what our chances would be.  We almost had to wait two weeks but finally we got the email that the kids were in.  Major sigh of relief!

Fast forward two months to Monday, June 15 and the time had come.  This year was a big year - - Brady's first year!  Thank goodness he was born June 8 so he turned four right in time to make it.  Poor Colby with an August birthday still has three years to go until he's eligible.  Anyway, the girls were talking it all up with their genuine excitement and I was curious if Brady really realized what was about to happen - - as in, I was going to be leaving him there for three hours.  I was hoping that if he got in with kids he knew, he would be fine.  As it turned out, he was put in a group with my friend Leslie as his leader and then her daughter Sarah and another girl from Sabbath School, Violet.  I was relieved because I knew Leslie would keep in touch with me and let me know if there were any problems.  Calleigh and Aubree were happy too.  Aubree was with Kaleb, Evan, Kolhden, and Maddie so she had all her friends.  I saw Calleigh's group and it looked like she was with Marley and Braelyn so everything seemed to work out perfectly.  Well, that wasn't exactly true as it turned out.  When I picked them up and we were in the van, I said, "Calleigh, I see you're with Marley and Braelyn.  How great!" She says "No, I'm NOT with Braelyn.  I'm with all the SEVEN year olds." She then proceeded to whine and cry the whole way home that it wasn't nearly as fun without Braelyn  and why did she have to be with all the little kids.  Marley is her friend so she was happy with that (even though she won't be eight for a few months) but apparently there were a couple other kids in the group that were "only seven." I said, "Calleigh, you JUST turned eight like three weeks ago!" It fell on deaf ears.  Fortunately she seemed to get over it by the next day and it turned out that one of the other kids was indeed eight as well.  Good grief.



Brady did fine the first day and then when I told him something about going to VBS the next day he says "There's another BVS?!!" He didn't quite have the initials right but close enough.  I dropped them off the second day and met up with Jennifer, Ashley, Vasti, and Allen at Keke's to have breakfast.  Of course, I still had my sidekick Colby with me but it is indeed considerably easier to get things done when you only have one kid (although he is the most challenging of them).  After picking up the kids the second day, I asked Brady if he was being friendly to Sarah and Violet, was he talking to them?  "No," he says, "I don't talk to them.  But they talk to me." Leslie said the girls kept trying to hug him too so I guess they were getting along.  I also found at this point that while he was enjoying VBS, he did not like the singing which, of course, is a big part of VBS.  He did like seeing the different animals they had each day and the mascot, Miles the Moose.  The theme this year was Everest and as we all know, there are a ton of moose around Everest, right??!

The only time we'll ever see snow in Central Florida.

Calleigh singing.

Aubree singing.

Brady, Violet, and Sarah

Wednesday was fine and the Thursday morning I got a text from Leslie saying that Brady started missing me soon after I dropped him off.  She looked at him and saw his lip quivering and she could tell he was crying on the inside so she held him for a little while.  A bit later he saw Calleigh and Leslie reported that he was very happy to get a hug from her and was doing much better.  When I picked them at noon, I asked Brady if he missed me and did he see Calleigh?  He says "Calleigh gave me a hug and it was disgusting." Apparently it isn't cool to admit you like your sister hugging you.

Feeling a little down.

Working on his shirt helped.  Although he looks like he's in a trance...

Friday morning as I figured, Brady didn't want to go.  I didn't push anything because I figured he wouldn't be happy there and honestly, I missed him and didn't mind at all that he stuck with Colby and me for yard sale day.  The girls, meanwhile, loved the whole week and participated in all the games and activities to the full extent.  Thursday afternoon Kohlden had come over to our house to play with Brady while Calleigh and Aubree went over to the Isidros to be with Braelyn and Maddy.  Eventually they came back over to our place and they put the VBS music on and the kids were having a great time performing all the songs.



After VBS was finished on Friday, Calleigh and Aubree went over to the Whitakers until the evening performance.  Ashley had invited them and Lindsey over to spend time with Macey and Marley.  They were thrilled!  It was nice of them to invite Aubree too since she's a little younger since Macey and Marley are nearly 10 and 8, respectively.  But Aubree really likes to hang with Calleigh and her friends so it's great when she gets included.  The Whitakers have a pool so they spent a good amount of time in there in the afternoon and then watched a movie.  The one downside is that their dog bit Calleigh!  He is not a friendly sort of dog and apparently Calleigh stepped backwards into his path and he didn't take kindly to it or something like that and nipped her.  Fortunately no blood was drawn but Calleigh was a bit traumatized and shed a few tears (which is unusual for her since she is not a crier).

Didn't stay Friday morning but did get a picture with Miles.

Lunch at the Whitakers.

The rain forced them inside.

Friday evening was the program where the kids get to sing the songs they practiced during the week and they show slides/video of the activities that went on.  The big question was whether Brady would go up front.  He was very happy about his t-shirt that he colored so we thought maybe that would motivate him to go up front so he could show it off.  He didn't want to sit with his group but when everyone went up on stage and he saw that he could stand in front of Aubree, he capitulated and went up.  As it turned out, he was standing right next to a little boy about his age who literally screamed the words to the song the entire time!  Brady was almost cowering completely behind him.  But I was just happy he made it up.  The girls did great with their groups, Aubree singing "I Sing the Mighty Power" and Calleigh "Everlasting God." I was hoping to get Brady up there for his group song which was "Do Lord" but no such luck.  He did go up again for the final song but I don't think he really sang any part of any song.  Ah well.  At least he went up!  There is always next year.  

Final group shot.  The other little boy didn't start coming until Wednesday.

Braelyn, Calleigh, and Marley

Kolhden, Evan, Kaleb, Aubree, and Maddy.

What else happened last week?  Last Sunday we had several birthday parties.  The first was for my pseudo cousin Tiffany's boy, Greyson, who was turning one.  Since they live in our community, they had the party at the clubhouse which was obviously very convenient for us.  We also had built in entertainment with the pool although Duncan was on a bike ride which left it up to me at the pool.  It has it's challenges when you have to keep your eye on two kids that don't swim.  Actually, nobody did much swimming for awhile because there was a small snake swimming around in the pool that had everyone distracted.

Cake made by Jennifer.

The birthday boy.

Assessing where the snake was.  Ran into Gabby and Alexa Ottati at the pool.

The second party was for the aforementioned Sarah who was in Brady's VBS group.  She had it at My Gym which has a bunch of fun kid's stuff to do.  I was thinking Calleigh was getting a bit too old for it but when she saw her friends were there, all was well.  Duncan stayed home with Colby for that one which made it considerably easier for me than the first party.





Also this past week, Calleigh is continuing with her swimming lessons and Aubree has started with hers again.  When Calleigh finishes with hers, we will then start Brady again (I think 1.5 hours of lessons in a row is too much especially if Duncan isn't home in time and I have to have Colby there).  The big news is that Brady is now swimming on his own!  I knew he was close and sure enough, Duncan had him jump in and swim to him.  He did it without a thought!  He's only swimming underwater but that's what Aubree was doing just a few weeks ago and has gotten much better at the above water part so I'm sure after another round of lessons, Brady will be in good shape.  It's always nice when you see the lessons pay off and obviously the first round did pay off even if he wasn't swimming immediately afterwards.

I stayed home with Colby while Duncan took the others to swimming lessons.  Colby pounced on the chance to wreck all their Lego stuff.

A few other pictures...

Colby was so happy when the others were home from VBS.

He keeps wanting more and more books in his crib and this is what happens.

Brady fell asleep on the girls bed one night.  Aubree was fake sleeping here.

I had gotten some clothes and shoes at a consignment store one of the days which then prompted them all to want their shoe bins from the garage (these are the shoes they are growing into) which then prompted a huge mess in the living room right before lunch.

Went to Grandma and Grandpas on Tuesday evening to see Derek and Tyler, Duncan's sister Kristin's boys visiting from PA.

Since Brady eats no vegetables, I've been trying to make more smoothies with kale thrown in and then using the extra smoothie leftover to make popsicles.  The only problem is the mess!

Have a great week!

Some time over a year ago, I got a call from a lady at Wyndham Resort (a time share company) that basically went like this, "YOU have been specially chosen as a recipient of a SUPER great DEAL that we are offering!!" You know the type of call - - the kind where you hang up as fast as you can but you hardly have the chance because the caller is talking so fast that there's not even a pause in the conversation where you can say "good-bye." Apparently they had gotten my name from when we had stayed at a Wyndham in Newport over Christmas (my aunt and uncle are time share owners there).  While I was waiting for the pause so I could hang up, I played right into their hands and changed my mind.  They wanted to give us a 3-night stay at one of their resorts for a low, low price as long as we would go to their sales presentation while we were there.  I figured we might want to do that while we mom came down here.  So I went for it.

Fast forward about 16 months and the thing was about to expire but we finally booked a weekend.  It didn't work out when my mom was down here so we decided to go with Ron and Elaine instead.  It just so happened that cousins Derek and Tyler would be down here at the same time so we could make it a fun weekend away with them.  Since we just stayed at the flagship Wyndham Resort, Bonnet Creek, a few weeks ago, I booked this one for another property that's located in Davenport - - about a 35 minutes drive from our house.  Unfortunately the timing wasn't ideal because we booked it starting Friday evening which was the same Friday evening as the VBS program.  It meant we had to drive about 50 minutes to get there from Longwood and plus it was late.  It also ended up storming so we had to drive down and unload in the rain but what can you do.

Once we got in, we could see it was no Bonnet Creek.  It was definitely an older place but it was still more than adequate.  It was a 3-bedroom unit and we were hoping that one of the rooms would have two double beds so Ron and Elaine and the cousins could bunk together but it wasn't to be.  No matter.  We are used to being in one room.  Calaubra settled into their sleeping bags without a whimper but Colby was a whole different story.  I have recently discovered that if he has some sugar before bedtime (they all had a cookie last week about an hour before bedtime and it was a nightmare - - Colby was up until after 11:00 pm!) he has a hard time getting to sleep.  After the VBS program, they have refreshments and even though I didn't think Colby ate much there, he did have a cookie on his plate.  Arghhh!  Needless to say, that stinking kid didn't go to bed until 12:15 AM.  He cried in the pack and play so I put him in the bed with me but he just kept trying to get out of it so I finally just took him into the living room where the adults were talking.  Yup, wide awake the whole time.  No more sugar for that kid.  I hear the whole sugar thing is a myth but I'm not taking my chances any more.

You can tell a place is really fancy when they hang the TV on the wall like this.

This picture was taken at 11:47 pm.  He was just fooling around.

We intended to go to church in Celebration in the morning but Colby didn't wake up until after 10:00 after the late night so we ended up scrapping that.  Instead we just spent the day around the hotel chilling out.

The next morning was the sales presentation which we had to drive back to Bonnet Creek for.  Ron and Elaine were going to stay with the kids while we went but we got the bright idea that they should drive over with us so they could use the pools at Bonnet Creek.  Our resort, Bahama Bay, had pools but they were definitely not as exciting as the pools, lazy river, and water slide at Bonnet Creek.  I called the service desk at Bonnet Creek, mostly to ask if they were serving breakfast at the presentation (I had heard that the meal is really good and wanted to confirm they were having it - - which they were) and then just threw in "It's okay if my kids and inlaws come and use pool there while we are in the presentation, right?" I was told flat-out "no." Apparently it is fine for guests of people staying at that specific resort to use the pools but the insurance doesn't cover people staying at other resorts that come there to use it.  Plus, he says "You are't actually staying at a Wyndham property anyway." I was lost because Wyndham is the one setting this all up and the sign at the front of Bahama Bay says Wyndham so you got me.  I told him "That's it!  I'm not buying a time share now!"

Sunday morning it was just Duncan and I, then, that drove the 25 minutes to Bonnet Creek.  I was starving and all excited about the great meal I knew was coming.  We got checked in and got our name tags and then our salesperson, "Lance," brought us upstairs to where the meal was being served.  He made some comment about our Bob Evans breakfast and I chuckled to myself thinking he was joking.  He WAS NOT.  Remember last month when we had that bad Bob Evans experience when we went to Hammock Beach?  I said I wouldn't go to one again.  I suppose I didn't break that promise.  But yikes!  It was a little serving line with Bob Evans employees and they were serving scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes, and biscuits which only the latter two things I eat.  Now I'm REALLY not buying a time share.

Now I know some of you are thinking that going to a time share is like torture.  But honestly, Duncan and I were looking forward to it because we were curious as to how it all works.  We thought it would be fun to pick it all apart.  Let me be clear...there was NO WAY we were going to ever buy a timeshare even if the meal was a 7-course banquet or they let us use the pools there all day.  Dave Ramsey says it's a really, really stupid thing to do and that's all I need to hear.  We were not disappointed with all the stops they pulled out.  They had a smarmy looking guy Cliff do the first part.  I would basically sum it up by saying there were no facts presented but more a speech about how "If you don't spend time with your family, you are a horrible parent." It was put in a much nicer manner, of course, but that was the gist of it.  It ended with Cliff talking about how he bawled like a baby when his daughter left for college because he realized he hadn't gone on any trips as a family with her at all.  A lessor person might have felt their heart strings being pulled but Duncan and I could recognize it for what it was.  After that, Lance starts talking to us about how much money we will spend on vacations over the next 30 or 40 years.  He asks questions like "How much do your plane tickets cost when you go on vacations?" and "How much are the hotel rooms you stay in?" All the questions he's asking and basically everything he is saying I notice is pointed at Duncan.  He isn't even looking at me.  I'm not a women's libber by any means but finally it got way too annoying so I say "I see that you are directing this all to Duncan but he doesn't know any of that stuff." That put him in his place.

Next Lance takes us into his "office." Have you ever bought a new car and when you go into the dealership all the salespeople are wearing suits and you sit at these little tiny tables that fit like three chairs around it?  That's exactly what this is like.  Duncan asks him for some actual numbers on his it costs but Lance shakes it off and continues on with all the things you are going to get.  When he sees he's not making much headway with us, he disappears for a little bit and then comes back with renewed energy.  He pulls out a rewards book and says you'll save money on your cell phone and all this other stuff.  In fact, you will get 50% off at these restaurants!  I tell him that I don't believe it (I've never heard my aunt and uncle talk about getting 50% off at restaurants)...that it's not that simple.  He says "Are you telling me that 900,000 people are lying about how much they love Wyndham and that our stock going up is a fluke?" I say "Yes, I don't believe that it's true about the 50% off." He says "We have an integrity problem here then." And he storms off.  I told Duncan, "If only I had said that 25 minutes ago." So much for it supposed to be no pressure.

Next we have to go to this big room where they send in the next guy to try to convince you to do a trail period.  We point out some flaws with the deal and apparently the guy saw it was a lost cause so he gets up and says "Okay, let me tell you where you can go." But the way he said it, I thought "H-E-L-L was the next word to come out of his mouth!  Instead he took us down the elevator to where we could "check out." This was a rather long line and by the time we finally left with our $100 American Express gift card, we had been there almost three hours as opposed to the two yours they tell you.  Was it worth it?  I think so.  It gave us great laughing fodder for hours and days to come!

Meanwhile, while Lance was trying to sell us on everything, I got a text from Ron that Brady had been stung by a bee on his ear and was he allergic?  Fortunately we knew he wasn't and Ron assured us he cried for a bit and then calmed down but still, it was a bit disconcerting.  It stinks not to be with your kid when they're hurting.

After we got back, Duncan took the kids to the pool after lunch.  Brady is obsessed with the pool, jumping in and swimming underwater over and over again.  We also got a chuckle over something with Calleigh.  A boy about 12 was friendly with us (there weren't many people in the pool at the time) and asked Calleigh if she wanted to race to the end of the pool.  She said yes and off they went. Except...the boy was swimming doggie paddle and Calleigh beat him by a long shot.  On the way back, he swam with a nice stroke so we realized that he thought Calleigh couldn't really swim and was going easy on her.  He had no idea what a great swimmer she was.  It was pretty funny!  But seriously, that girl swims WAY better than I do and possibly Duncan.  We wish we could put her in a swim club.

The hotel did have a nice splash playground.

Someone forgot to roll up the window in their van and it rained cats and dogs.  Fortunately some stranger was nice enough to put a towel over it.

Later in the afternoon, we had an engagement at the Showcase of Citrus in Clermont (about a 15-minute drive).  I had gotten a Groupon for a ride on the "World's Largest" 4x4 SUV - - basically a giant monster truck.  They also have a country store, pick-your-own-citrus and other things of interest.  Once you are away from the pools, you really realize how stinking hot it is.  It's about 95 degrees out and worse in the sun.  Sweat is rolling down your front and back.  But, that didn't stop us!  Fortunately the truck has a canopy so we were protected a little.  Our driver was as authentic as you can get with the southern accent, jacked up teeth, and holes in his shirt and pants.  When he started up the truck and it made this very loud noise, the look on Brady's face was worth all the sweat.  It was such a joyous look and indeed, he enjoyed the whole thing immensely.  The driver drove us through the orchards, stopped so we could feed the zebra and some other animal I forget the name of.  He took us by the fertilizer plant.  I thought this was interesting - - Animal Kingdom pays them to take all of their poop.  They take it and turn it into fertilizer to use for themselves and to sell.  The best part of the trip, though, was when we drove through the swamp.  Apparently you can spot alligators in there from time to time but we didn't see any.

I have never seen this outside of New England. It's a horrible soda drink that some New Englanders go crazy over but I find utterly disgusting.

Notice the rips.

Going through the swamp.

Got some "world famous" orange juice slushies.

Got a brief respite from the heat under this little hut on the lake.

We had our $100 gift card burning a hole in our pocket so thought it would be perfect to treat everyone to supper especially since it was Father's Day and all.  We finally found a restaurant off Yelp that got good reviews and off we went.  On the way, I kept thinking about how nice a Mountain Dew would taste.  I usually try to limit my intake to one a week since it's so rotten for you.  I had one on Friday but it was so hot out that it would just hit the spot.  Most restaurants have Coke so I wasn't thinking I would have much luck.  We walked into the restaurant and right in front of us was this giant empty table that seats 10 and as I looked, I could see the Pepsi sign hanging in the back of the store.  Double jackpot!  Not to mention that Ron and Duncan got to eat free for Father's Day.  We were indeed impressed with Flippers Pizzeria.

We presented Daddy and Grandpa with some Father's Day stuff when we got back.

The next morning, it was time to check out.  Duncan had driven down separately so he was able to go straight to work.  Brady had his 4-year old well visit so I left with him and Colby while Ron and Elaine took the girls back to their place to swim.  Brady was a bit of a crab without his sisters there to show him getting weighed and measured wasn't a big deal.  He eventually got over it fortunately.  I was so curious to see how his height and weight had progressed since he eats ZERO vegetables and in fact, is a terribly picky eater.  I mean, really picky.  This is what he eats:  pancakes, french toast, eggs, hot dogs, PB&J, pizza, quesadilla (but only from Taco Bell, not made at home), bread, grilled cheese (but not a cheese stick or a slice of cheese), veggie chicken strips, smoothies, lasagna, naan, apples, cantaloupe, honey dew, strawberries, and mangoes.  We recently had to take watermelon off the list because he said "I don't like the seeds." I'm probably leaving a couple of things off the list but you get the gist of it.  With the exception of lasagna he doesn't eat anything that I've made from scratch.  Frustrating!  So yes, it was with great curiosity (trepidation?) that I looked at his weight/height trend.  What would it show?

The doctor showed me his computer screen and says "Yup, he's on the same 25th percentile line that he's been on for the last few years.  He's doing great." That was a huge relief.  My boy is still growing.  I told him my concerns and that despite him not eating any veggies that it wasn't my style to force it to him.  He concurred and said "I see no point in forcing your kid to sit at the table and eat a green bean.  It just causes the whole eating thing to be a stressful time and it doesn't make them like green beans." He said his daughter was the exact same way and they let it go and eventually she started adding more things to her diet and in fact, has a boyfriend now (she's 22) who is influencing her to eat all kind of new foods.  As long as Brady keeps growing, I shouldn't worry and I don't need to give him a multivitamin either or anything.

Next he asked me if Brady was going to do pre-school in the fall.  Of course, I whole heartedly do NOT agree with sending your kid to pre-school and I am firm in those convictions but somehow I couldn't help feeling a little defensive.  I said "No, but his sisters homeschool and I'm sure he'll be learning some things along with them." The doc says "Oh good.  I'm glad you aren't sending him.  I say let kids be kids.  They'll have plenty of time to sit and learn later." I knew I loved this doctor!



Brady - 4 Years Old

Height - 39 1/4 inches (25th percentile)
Weight - 33 pounds (25th percentile)
Blood Pressure - 90/65
Heart Rate - 92
Clothing Size - 4T for shirts, 3T for shorts and pants
Shoe Size - 9
Favorite Color - Green (switched from blue this year)

Our next bit of excitement was on Wednesday when we met Elaine, Derek, Tyler, Russ, Saray, and the Bergherms (minus Bruce) at the Science Center.  They have a new exhibit called "Mummies" there that was of particular interest.  Even though we have a membership, you have to pay $10 to get in and I was thinking that it wouldn't be ideal for the boys.  It worked out perfectly that the girls and Blake could go in with Elaine while Jennifer and I stayed with the other kids. Elaine told me that Calleigh and Blake asked a lot of questions about it.  These are, in fact, dead mummified bodies so it can be a little much perhaps for kids but it went very well.

In the hurricane simulator.  Love Colby's face.

Afterwards we tried to get lunch at the Subway there (although I had brought stuff for the kids so it would be just for me) but there were like 35 people in line so we said forget that and decided to go walk over to the hospital cafeteria instead.  I hadn't been there in a year and it had been much longer since I had eaten there so I was very much up for it.  I was very impressed with how friendly everyone was in the cafeteria, I must say.  I even had a random employee ask me if I needed help carrying my tray (I was pushing the stroller and of course had all the kids in tow).  When I went to pay, I was commiserating that since I wasn't an employee any more, I no longer had a badge to get the 30% off.  But then the cashier says, without any prompting from me, "You look familiar." I told her I used to work there and she's says "Then I'm going to give you the discount." How nice.  As I sat there eating, I contemplated going to visit my friends in Accounting but I really didn't think I was up for it.  I didn't think I could go look at my friend Treva's (the one who died last year from the bursted Carotid artery) desk without crying.  I still think about her so often.



Thursday was another day out.  This time to the zoo where the Bergherms joined us again.  It's so nice to have friends come along!  And yes, it is still incredibly hot out and maybe we are crazy to walk around outdoors when it's this blazing hot but that's Florida for you and you just have to roll with the punches.  They at least have a splash playground there so the kids were able to cool off.  We brought lunch with us and ate at a picnic table right outside the entrance (since you can't bring your own food in).  It's particularly nice to have lunch when we are out and it gets to be 1:00 - 2:00 o'clock because Colby always falls asleep in the car on the way home.  But the good thing about him is that you can move him from the car to the crib he either stays asleep or goes right back to sleep.  If we haven't had lunch yet when we're out like that, then I have to wake him up to eat when we get home and then he most definitely won't go back to sleep later.  That is a terrible thing because I need my quiet time!

The two rhinos behind them in this picture (you can only see one) were so hysterical fighting/playing with each other.  I wished I had taken a video.  Highlight of the day.

Evan paid to feed the giraffe.

Another day, another raccoon scrounging for food right near our picnic table during lunch.

Riding the train.

When you know it's been a fun day....

Friday morning we did our yard sales and made stops at Trader Joe's and Costco.  After nap time we loaded up to drive way over to Lake Louisa State Park in Clermont where Ron, Elaine, Derek, and Tyler, were staying in a cabin for the weekend.  It's about a 35-minute drive although we took a longer route on the way there.  Duncan missed the exit while he was on the phone and the way Google maps took us was on this dirt road.  I was imagining us driving into a lake because "the GPS told us to go this way" but it did eventually lead us to where we wanted to go. It is a really pretty state park and the cabin they were staying in was fantastic.  It was 2-bedroom unit with a really huge screened in porch on the front overlooking a lake.  Only $120 a night.  If anyone is looking for a place to stay when they come down here for Disney, this is it!  It wouldn't be a very far commute from there.  They have a ton of nature trails so we took about a 45-minute hike before supper.  When you're in Florida you always have to be on the lookout for snakes and the like not to mention all the spiders we saw hanging down.  Brady kept getting out in front and we kept telling him to stay with the group since we didn't want him to step on a snake or something accidentally.  His response every time was "I'm not afraid of anything!" We also saw some bobcat tracks which was pretty cool.  We knew it was that because they had a sign nearby that helped you identify the different tracks you could see.  Anyway, great park if anyone local is looking to do some hiking!

Someone at a yard sale was selling these mystery bags for $.50.  Such a fun idea.  The kids loved it.

We told Brady to get some shoes to go to Lake Louisa, but not his crocs since we were going to hike, and this is what he put on.  Fortunately we had noticed and brought something else.

Look at that porch!

Haven't used this backpack in years!

This morning started off very dramatically.  We have been watching some friends' guinea pig, Cheddar, for the past week which has been caged outside our back door.  We checked on him last night about 9:15 and then this morning when I opened the blinds, the top of the cage was off and Cheddar was nowhere to be seen.  It was a very bad feeling to make that discovery.  I yelled for everyone to get up and come outside and help me look in case he somehow was dawdling around the yard somewhere even though I knew the chances of that were very remote.  We looked for a few minutes and then Calleigh spotted him up in the "clubhouse" of our swing set.  It was as I thought.  There were no storms or wind or anything so we can only surmise that an animal had somehow gotten the top off the cage...we are thinking most likely a raccoon.  We felt terrible that he had come to an end like this and then Calleigh was very worried that her friend would be mad at her since the girls were "in charge" of taking care of him.  Thankfully the kids have been told and are handling it pretty well with no grudges.  But still, a sad day.  

Earlier in the week...

And now this.

A few more pictures before closing.

I went out Tuesday night to a movie with Jennifer and I guess he revolted.

Found a Carmen Sandiego game at a yard sale.

Loved how he was sitting.

What happens when you attempt to fold laundry during the day.

Missed this picture from last post.  You can see the two boys screaming on either side of poor Brady!

Have a great rest of the weekend.

On Sunday, I did something I haven't done in probably 15 years.  I rode a bike!  Considering that Duncan is a big cyclist and considering that we live in a place that has many wonderful bike trails, it's about time I got my butt on one.  Now, I didn't actually buy a bike.  Duncan discovered that one of the stops on the trail rents out bikes so we decided to give it a trial run...to see how things would work out with the whole family riding.  Duncan actually had to rent a bike too because his bike isn't conducive to towing a trailer.  The set up was the girls on their own bikes and then Brady and Colby in the trailer.  Brady, of course, does ride a 2-wheeler but we didn't think he would last for as far as we were going to go.

We drove to Winter Garden Station which is about an eight minute drive from our house.  Right as we pulled in, I realized I had forgotten the bag back at the house that had the sunblock and cars to entertain Colby so I had to go all the way back to get it.  That stunk but Duncan got us all ready to go while I was gone.  Then off we went.  When I got on the bike, the kids were all worried, "Mom, what if you don't remember how to ride it?  Do you know what you're supposed to do?" I said "Kids, don't worry.  It's like riding a bike!" Naturally, they didn't get the joke but I made myself laugh.  We were only riding for about ten minutes when it started to rain which is kind of odd because it rains pretty much every afternoon in the summer but we aren't used to it in the mornings.  Fortunately, there was a little rest stop area with covering and we were able to pull in to wait it out.  About two minutes later, a couple in probably their sixties, roll in to seek shelter as well.  I smile at them thinking how lovely it was to see this nice couple biking together.  Then the lady says something like "Well, sh**, glad we got out of the rain." Umm, do you not see the kids all standing here?!

Not the best picture but this was us waiting for the rain to stop.

The rain didn't last long and off we went again.  We were actually wishing it would rain again.  Have I ever mentioned that it's hot in Florida in the summer?  But everyone was doing great.  Poor little Aubree, though.  She has just the one speed bike and her legs were pumping about five times to our one.  She was so good natured about it all, I must say.  Duncan was bound and determined that we would make it to Killarney Station which is a 5.5 mile trek one way.  I thought it was too far, considering Aubree, and we needed to get back by 11:30 but we pushed on.  When we were a few miles from our beginning point, Aubree started to fade and I had to take some small breaks with her.  But she made it!  In all, it was a little more than 11 miles round trip.  The boys did great too except for the very end.  Colby fell asleep and then when Duncan went over a bump, he woke up and started screaming.  So we pulled into our destination with him crying his head off.  Oh, and Aubree's peddle fell off too!  Thank goodness we were at the end.  All and all, it was a REALLY great family activity and I can't wait to have my own bike...hopefully in the near future.

We rushed home from the ride because Calleigh had a knitting class at 1:00 pm at Jo-Ann's.  I had signed her up for a class a few months ago but it had gotten cancelled.  I think I was even more excited than she was about going!  My mother had attempted to teach me to knit when I was a kid but because she knits right handed (even though she is left handed) she had a hard time teaching me and it never amounted to anything.  In retrospect, it probably was just that I didn't get it.  I saw this as my chance to finally learn it (yes, the class was for Calleigh but I was hoping to tag along).  There were six girls in the class, including Calleigh, and one of the girl's moms had signed up as well (guess I should have but didn't think of it).  There was a nice older lady teaching and I marveled at her patience.  It's got to be tough explaining and showing the same thing over and over again and a kid still doesn't get it.  I will say that it took a little bit of time for me too.  But Calleigh and I both finally got it and we shared the needles and the yarn back and forth.  We weren't actually making anything...just practicing the stitches.  We were pleased with ourselves when we left.

The teacher

Trying to teach Aubree afterwards.

So we had the bike ride and we had the knitting and after the knitting we went to Ron and Elaine's for a final farewell meal before Derek and Tyler left the next morning.  But all that wasn't even the biggest thing of the day.  The biggest thing was when Calleigh came downstairs on Sunday morning and she was carrying a book, a chapter book to be exact.  Now, as you know quite well, Calleigh does NOT like to read.  She loves books...being read to and looking at pictures.  She just doesn't like to actually read it herself.  When I saw her with the book, I figured she was just doing her usual - - looking at the pictures.  She sat down at the table for breakfast, opened her book, and as I looked at her, I was like "Can it be?  Is she actually READING the book?" So I said "Calleigh, are you looking at the pictures?" She says "No, I'm reading it and I only have two chapters left." You could have knocked me over with a feather.  I didn't want to make a big deal out of it though so I said nothing.  How did this all happen?  Simple.  She got in trouble the day before and as her punishment she had to go to bed promptly at 8:30...which means actually getting into bed and not getting out and not being able to listen to any CD's.  That's tough, right there since she's my night owl.  I told her the only thing she could take was a book if she wanted.  At first she refused but then relented and well, I guess we see what happened.  This whole thing would be the headline of this blog but alas, she has not read a book since.  Was this a one hit wonder?  Time will tell.  Perhaps she needs to be punished again.

Russ and Saray also joined us at Ron and Elaine's.  This is NOT Russ and Saray.

Saying good-bye to the cousins.

Colby trying out Grandma's (Grandpa's?) kayak.

Last week we were on the go quite a bit but this week was much quieter.  Honestly, it's amazing how much more you can accomplish when you don't have school.  I was doing laundry in the middle of the day, paying bills, etc.  It was really, really nice.  The big project for the week was to completely clean out the school room and get it all set up for next year.  The kids and I will be gone for a month and when we return, it will be almost time to start school so I want to get it all done before we leave.  On Tuesday, our big chunk of curriculum, My Father's World, arrived and it is so exciting to open the box and look at all the new books.  I think Aubree and I were ready to start school right then and there!  We made a trip to US Toy so we could get some items to decorate the classroom for our theme this year - - Exploring Countries and Cultures.  I had some some coupons that I had been saving up and it was time to use them.  The kids had gotten a 25% one item coupon in the mail and since I hadn't used them from the year before, I had had six coupons to use (apparently I never signed Colby up for the program).  When I went to pay, the lady (manager?) first tried to tell me that I couldn't use the old ones because the newer one replaced them.  I politely told her that the first set didn't have an expiration date so I didn't see how they COULDN'T accept them.  She relented but then said the only way we could use the six coupons is if we did it in six different transactions.  I said "Do what you have to do." Then, as it turned out, to use your credit/debit card, they had to type in the number off the card rather than swiping it.  I say to the cashier "Wow, it looks like you need to update your technology here." She says "Oh no.  They just updated it.  We've only had this for a week." I don't think she got what I was talking about.  So yes, I had to wait there while they did six transactions, typing in the debit card number each time.  Meanwhile, the kids each got a free balloon because of their coupon.  This seemed like a nice idea until Colby got his and then the other three kids started freaking out that he was going to let it go.  Colby got all upset that I was holding on to the ribbon but if I didn't, Calaubra started basically crying.  That was a really fun 15 minutes checking out.  But I did save $11! Incidentally when we were at Publix yesterday, Brady saw Colby looking at the balloons and Brady says to me "PLEASE can we NOT get a balloon?"

School room is a mess.  This is the before.  There is no after yet.

Got some "goggles" with their own money.

Trying on the hats.

Box day!

Things are much calmer once the helium is out of the balloons and the strings are cut off.

Duncan had the day off today for the holiday which presented me with the chance to go to yard sales without kids.  I suggested to Duncan that we go to yard sales as a family but his eyes glazed over so I said forget it.  Ah well.  I tried.  It worked out very nicely anyway because I went alone and then went to a consignment store that was having a 70% off sale on their clearance items.  Got some good stuff.  Afterwards, I met Duncan and the kids at Winter Garden Village where we ate at First Watch and then went over to a mattress store, Mattress Firm.  We have had our mattress for going on 11 years and it's probably time for a new one.  It's a pillowtop which means you can't flip it over and now there are some significant divots, particularly for Duncan.  As I'm sure you know, you can pay some pretty significant money for a mattress and it does seem like the most comfortable ones are the most expensive!  Naturally, Duncan and I couldn't agree (in a friendly way!) which one to get so I told him "Let's hold off and in the meantime, we will to to Mattress Giant and try out our current mattress." Our current one is a Spring Air and it says "Made especially for Mattress Giant." Since we had two cars, Duncan took the kids home via the ice cream store (we had gotten coupons for free cones when we rented the bikes) while I went on a mission to try our mattress.  When I typed in Mattress Giant in Google, it kept changing it to Mattress Firm.  That's weird, I thought.  I give the Mattress Firm a call and find out, low and behold, they bought out Mattress Giant.  So there went that idea!  Back to the drawing board.  But man, it is TOUGH to mattress shop.  Such an important decision.

Duncan took the kids to Bass Pro while I was out and about.

A few conversations with the kids...

Aubree is taking her sweet time in getting dressed.
Me:"Aubree, hurry up.  Get dressed.  What's the holdup?"
Aubree: "I don't know what to wear. Is it going to be hot today?"
Me:"Aubs, it is the summer.  We live in Florida.  It is hot EVERY.SINGLE.DAY."

The kids get plastic cups at First Watch that they're able to take home with them.  As we are leaving the restaurant...
Brady: "Mom, can you carry this cup for me?" (It still had water in it)
Me:"No, you carry it.  I don't want to have to carry this the whole time."
Brady: "Don't worry.  You can put it down when you get home."

When the kids were eating ice cream, Duncan noticed that Brady was having a big challenge.  They are used to having soft frozen yogurt and aren't accustomed to eating the hard ice cream.  Brady was stabbing his with a spoon but wasn't actually getting much on the spoon.
Duncan:"Brady, you seem to be having some problems.  You need to hurry up and eat that."
Brady:"I know, I know.  I'm in a process.  It's complicated.

A few more pictures.

We ran into three little girls (4, 7, and 7) at the pool during swimming lessons and they asked Calleigh and Aubree if they wanted to play "Monster High" with them.

This is Monster High.  Pretty, ain't she??

The Isidros were out of town for awhile and when Brady heard they were coming over to visit, he was SO excited to show Kohlden all his stuff, he lined it all up at the door.

Putting on a show.

The kids split this new Lego set three ways, using their own money.  I didn't think it was going to end well with everyone arguing over who got to do what thing but it actually went perfectly.

Have a great 4th of July!!

Last Sabbath was the 4th of July and since it was Sabbath, we kept it pretty low key. Last year we did the LL Bean Fun Run since July 4 fell on a Friday during our time at campmeeting (oh, how we hope that next year campmeeting is back to that week) and the year before that we did the parade in downtown Winter Garden.  Alas, neither of these were options this year so it was a pretty normal day with going to church. However, later in the day we did have the Bergherms, Isidros, and Zbaraschuks over for supper (everyone brought their own) and fellowship.  Most everyone attempted to then go down to the pier near the clubhouse to see the fireworks but they quickly returned explaining that the bugs were so bad.  And it was raining.  Nonetheless, a good time with friends!

Made the boys bowties and the girls hair clips to match.

Brady in his new Sabbath School.  He did enjoy it despite the face.

I love Bruce's face!

On Sunday, I took the girls and I to get haircuts.  This was kind of a big deal because the girls hadn't had a haircut in almost a year and a half...I think I was reluctant because of the whole fiasco the last time we went (we had an appointment and were there precisely on time but they didn't get to us for 30 minutes).  I didn't want to go back there, Fantastic Sam's, so we went to Hair Cuttery which is right by our house. There was no one else waiting and there were three people doing hair so I was thinking we would be in good shape.  But as time ticked by and I took a good look at what was going on, I noticed that two of the hairdressers were doing color on two ladies with very long hair and it became evident that it could go on for hours.  We had already invested all that time waiting and there were few other options (Fantastic Sam's isn't open on Sundays even if I wanted to go back) so we stuck it out.  As it turned out, we had to wait probably about 45 minutes but finally Calleigh was in the chair.  It was a momentous occasion for her because she had decided to get several inches cut off.  I'll tell you, I think I was permanently scarred in my youth from being called a boy when I had short hair which is why I have long hair to this day and why I like for my girls to have long hair.  But, I'm dealing with it and when Calleigh said she wanted short hair, I swallowed a few times and said "Okay." Truth be told, it probably needed to be done anyway.  I wasn't intending for Aubree to get hers cut very much but the hairdresser showed me how the tips of hair hair were green from the pool so I agreed to him taking that off too.  It came out much shorter than I was anticipating (more than I think he even had showed me) but I kept repeating to myself "It's just hair.  It's just hair." All that should have been a tip off that I was in for something special myself.  Sure enough, when he was done with me, I had WAY more taken off than I had asked for.  Sometimes these hairdressers just get scissor happy.  When we got home and I explained it all to Duncan, he says "You went to Hair Cuttery?  Oh, I NEVER go there any more.  That guy Roger - - his fingers smell like cigarettes because he smokes." Thanks for the warning, Duncan, because that's exactly who we had!  Guess that place is out now too.

Before

After

After.  No before because I wasn't anticipating so much being cut!

This week we had several home days, partially so the kids could try on their pants and see if they still fit and go through all of their other clothes and shoes.  If only these darn kids would stop growing. On one of our home days, Allen and the kids stopped by to show off their new pet.  It was their guinea pig that met its demise here a few weeks ago and they were planning to get dwarf hamsters as a replacement. But low and behold - - what pops out of the back of the van but a DOG! They got a black lab/basset hound mix from a rescue place.  He's only 10 months old but was as calm and mild mannered as can be.  That is saying a lot because Colby was all over him, hugging him, petting his ears, etc and he didn't so much as look sideways at Colby.  They named him Tuxedo, Tux for short.  The kids all just love him (Brady was hesitant at first but then came around).  We have already decided to get a dog in the next three to six months and this really sealed the deal.


I have talked about on here how Brady doesn't really know any letters or anything like what the girls knew at this age.  I'm not bothered by it all but I decided that I was going to a better job of reading to him.  We read books/stories every night but they are usually more geared to the girls and then Colby has his "baby/toddler" books before bed.  One thing that really helped with the girls learning letters (well, mainly Calleigh as Aubree just seemed to learn them from Calleigh or something) were the "Letter" books which is basically a book for each letter with the things in the story starting with that letter.  He's been very excited about doing the books each night.  I started off reading them to him and now Aubree has taken over the task.  But I can see I kind of have an uphill battle.

Me:"Okay, Brady.  We are now going to do the "D" book.  It makes the sound of "d-d-d-d." Can you think of anyone's name that starts with that sound?"
Brady:"Camden!"
Me:"No"
Brady:"Calleigh?"
Me: "Try again.  Hear what I'm saying "d-d-d-d-d."
Brady:"Aubree!  Colby?"

Hopefully he'll have it down in the next few years!


In other Brady news, we had a little incident this week during lunch.  When I asked him what he wanted for lunch one day, he said that he wanted cereal.  That is rather odd because usually he has a PB&J but I went with it and poured him a bowl of Cheerios and milk.  A minute later, he starts crying and whining, "I didn't want milk in it!" I said, sorry, but that's what you said you wanted so now you have to eat it or you don't get anything.  He doesn't take any bites and then over the next few minutes he starts going on and on about how he's itchy and that "The milk in the cereal is making me itch." I took it for what it was....a made up story to try to get out of eating his cereal.  Finally, after listening him go on and on about it, I picked him up off the chair and pulled down his pants to look at the area he claimed to be itching so I could put a stop to the nonsense.  But when I did, I noticed that there was a black thing on his leg and my first thought was "Tick!" No wonder he'd been itching.  I looked at it really carefully and I couldn't tell for sure but I was pretty convinced that's what it was so I ran for the tweezers.  I tried a couple of times to get the darn thing off but it was pretty secure there and I didn't want to dig too hard because, of course, it wasn't very comfortable for Brady.  I snapped a picture of it and sent it to Duncan asking for advice.  Should I just leave it until he got home or keep trying?  Duncan texts me back "I thought that was a birth mark?" I"m like "No!  Surely I would remember if my son had a birth mark." But it got me thinking.  I went and got my computer and started poring over pictures, looking for one in his underwear where I could try and see if that mark was on there.  Sure enough, I found a picture from about three months ago and when I zoomed in, I was about 99% sure I could see the mark which must be a mole.  Oops!!  So yes, I was needlessly tweezing a mole on Brady's leg.  But, I think a very important message was learned here.  Don't pretend you're itchy to get out of eating something you don't want to eat or this could happen to you!  Of course, in the end, he didn't have to eat it because I felt so bad for tweezing him. Oh, let me add that no real damage was done to him, no blood was produced with the tweezing or anything lest you think I'm a horrible, horrible parent.

It COULD be a tick, right?  Right??!!

Last night the girls had their drama club again at the church.  They love it and were sorry to miss the second meeting while we were out of town.  They have been breaking the groups up into the Kindergartners/1st graders and then the 2nd/3rd/4th graders. Aubree was disappointed with her group the first time only because she didn't get to read anything like Calleigh's group did (Aubree's group had done a play but it was more like a charade than a play because they didn't talk).  So when they broke up into groups this time, I told her she could go with the bigger kids and she was really excited.  You may recall last time that Brady had that big poop accident when Duncan was trying to entertain them in the parking lot so I told Duncan that he may want to just take off with the boys this time instead of hanging around the church. But come eat first so I didn't have to make food at home!    That's what they did and then Duncan took them to the mall. They went to the Apple store as one of their stops and Brady used an iPad to play some games which then prompted this:

Brady: (Walking out of Apple store): "Daddy, we CANNOT tell Calleigh and Aubree what we did because they will FREAK out.  They'll say 'It's not fair!!"

A little while later, they come pick us up at the church and the girls and I get in the van.

Brady:"Calleigh and Aubree, we went to the Apple store and I was playing games on the iPad!!"
Aubree: "That's NOT fair. We get to use our tablets when we get home."

Some things are just to juicy to keep to oneself.  And while we are on the subject of what's fair, seriously, there is no phrase I hate more than "That's not fair!" When you have more than one kid, it's inevitable that things will not be exactly even at all times and this phrase rears it's ugly head.  I must hear it 10-15 times a day and it's getting so tedious that I've now made a rule that every time I hear it, the kid will be charged $.50. Hopefully that will help.

Practicing their play.

Aubree doesn't look quite so engaged here when they "performed" but she did love it.

Another interesting thing this week is that while I was talking to my cousins, who are from New Hampshire, they passed along the info that New Hampshire now has a law that you can't be talking or texting while driving (unless hands free) EVEN when stopped at a red light or in traffic which I think is way extreme.  So much for "Live Free or Die" (the state motto).  Guess if you have to look up directions you have to go park your car.  Crazy.  Anyway, I was telling this to Duncan one night at supper and he went and looked up the statute and read it verbatim to be sure we understood the rule correctly since we will be driving in the state of NH sometime in the near future.  This is what he read:

And then there were 18.  Another cousin added to the kids of the 10 cousins.  This is Kaitlyn Mae Conrad born on July 4 - -  a few weeks early!  She knew her parents needed to get to Nova Scotia!

This is what happens when Dad deflates the blow up pool.

Looks like fun but man, the clean up is a real pain in the you-know-what.

Colby getting into some mud during swimming lessons.

Went to pick up the pictures from JCPenney and we had to stop at the playground.  The girls are way too big for it now so I told them they couldn't run around...only sit there which they weren't too pleased about.

The boys had no such problems.

Love the sleeping pictures.

Once a year I like to do surveys with the kids to keep there "likes" documented.

Of course, the answers can get very skewed depending on what has gone on recently.  Brady happened to watch "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" for the very first time the day before this survey.

This is what Brady thinks of the story....fell asleep watching the Pats/Colts game Sunday night.

Okay, I admit it.  I spent WAY more time than I probably should have following this whole "Patriots let air out of the balls" story that broke on Monday morning.  And since it's Sabbath now (thank goodness) I'm not going to get into it all right now.  I will just say that I listened to inordinate amount of sports radio out of Boston on Tune In Radio on my phone...so much so that Calleigh came in this afternoon, caught me listening to it, and said "I really hate when you listen to that." This from a girl who has taken a much bigger interest in football the last few weeks.  I guess that sums it up!  Oh, and if I wasn't following this story, I was most likely on my phone playing Trivia Crack.  The name sums it up.  Shawn introduced me to the app about a week ago and I'm totally addicted.  At least it's trivia and not a mindless game.  That's what I tell myself when I'm playing it instead of cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, and parenting.  Get the app (it's free!) and we can play each other!

Our week actually got started off with the Patriots though.  As many know, I only like to have fellow Patriots fans over for games when we get to the playoffs.  I have invited the McGuires over for games in the past but it finally worked out for them to come on Sunday for the Pats/Colts game.  It was really great to have them here...Norman, Kristin, and two of their four kids (others are at college), Shawn and Gavin.  Ron and Elaine also joined us.  The game was a complete blowout (NOT because of deflated balls) so it was considerably less stressful than the week before against the Ravens. We were actually able to have some nice conversation while watching.


Monday was Martin Luther King Day so Duncan had the day off work.  I took the girls to gymnastics while he stayed home with the boys.  Our big project of the day was cleaning out the garage (we never really finished it back some months ago when I had dropped that bottle of juice on my foot) which we successfully accomplished.  Man, it feels good at the end of the day when you finish a big job.  Duncan also hung up a bunch of remaining art work that needed to go up (yes, after 2+ years) and some shelving in the downstairs bathrooms.  It was a good day.  We also watched a short documentary on MLK and talked to the kids about racism, etc.  It's so interesting when you explain to them about Rosa Parks, etc and what happened to people because they were black.  The kids look at you like you have two heads when you try to explain it.  Calleigh says "But they're the same as us except they have darker skin." Yes, my love.  It's that simple.

Last week I had seen on Facebook that this amusement park called The Fun Spot was having a groundbreaking event on Tuesday.  Gatorland, another Orlando attraction, was going to be building a small attraction at The Fun Spot...joining forces so to speak.  The good news was that for this event, the park would be free for the day if you arrived between 10:00 - 10:20.  The park was open until midnight so a good deal for sure.  I didn't know the price to get in but knew it wasn't cheap.  Anywho, there is no way I could go to something like this alone because an adult would have to go on many of the rides with a kid Brady's size and possibly Aubree's.  Fortunately Jennifer, Vasti, and Dawn Brown and their respective children were up for joining us.  We chuckled at the fact that it was on a Tuesday because it would probably be just homeschoolers but we were still fearful it would be really packed. The good news it was only a 20 minute drive away so no big deal if it was too crowded.

Oh the fun we parents can have.  I didn't tell the kids where we were going but I told them I was taking them to "a fun spot." Hahahaha.  I really cracked myself up with that one.  We were almost there, getting onto 1-4 off the Turnpike, and what do we see but a billboard for the place we are going. Smarty pants Aubree in the backseat says "HEEEYYYY, are we going to THE Fun Spot?  I just saw it on the sign!!" So the cat was out of the bag.  But I sure had fun with it.




There was indeed a very long line to get in when we arrived at 9:45 but it moved quickly.  It turned out they didn't actually open the rides until 11:00 because they were having a ribbon cutting ceremony complete with the mayor of Orlando and some other political folks. I will say I was impressed when someone (the owner?) had a prayer before they cut the ribbon.  That really surprised me.  The kids were getting pretty impatient but they were up and running before too long.  I traded off with Jennifer taking Brady on a small roller coaster while she watched Colby and vice versa with Addison and London.  Brady was not impressed.  He said his stomach hurt when we got off and he definitely didn't want to do that again.

This helicopter came in and tried to land in the parking lot while we were waiting in line but aborted the mission in the end.  Kind of scary I have to admit.

The groundbreaking.  We didn't get too close.

One of the other rides in the kiddie area was one of those swing rides where each kid sits in their own swing and then the whole thing goes around and around.  I noticed the height minimum was 24 inches which meant Colby could go on it.  But there aren't actual straps on the seats so that struck me as odd since obviously a parent wasn't on the ride with the kid.  I muttered all this to Jennifer and then I noticed another kid about Colby's age on the ride as it was going and they were just sitting there having a grand time.  So I though, "Hmm, maybe it's not a big deal." What was I thinking??? I put Brady in a swing and then put Colby in the next one and put the bar down (which doesn't actually do anything).  I then exited that area and went around to where I could take a picture.  Well, the attendant then starting helping some other kid in a swing and then slowly started checking other swings on the other side.  Colby started getting bored and what does he do but start trying to stand up...in a swing.  NOT GOOD!  I started completely freaking out and screaming for the attendant who appeared to be deaf or something.  Other people started trying to get his attention, pointing and all that but he was so oblivious.  I started running trying to get to where I could get to him but there were so many kids in the way.  It felt like it was in slow motion. I was yelling at Colby to sit down as loudly as I could.  He would try to stand and then sit and then do it again.  After what felt like FOREVER but was probably like 60 seconds, the attendant finally realized what was happening and went over and got him out as I made my to his side too.  Seriously, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack.  THE WORST.  Right up there with Brady falling out of the cart at Costco.  Lesson learned.  I'm sure he would have been fine while the ride was actually going but yeah, a 16-month old isn't going to just sit there peacefully for five minutes waiting for it to start.  And really, what in the world is The Fun Spot thinking?  Can you say lawsuit??

I should have known he was already plotting to get out when I took this picture.

Other than that slight hiccup, we had a blast.  The park turned out to not be crowded at all.  We maybe waited at the most 10 minutes for some rides, less for many.  Vasti took the girls with her and her boys to do some of the roller coasters and other stuff while I did stuff with my boys.  We had brought a picnic for lunch which we ate in the restaurant with the rest of the group.  Right before lunch, we got to do a "backstage tour" which was the marketing manager telling us all about the park and letting us ask questions.  Of course, Calleigh raised her hand several times and was all into it.

Colby did get to go on this ride at least.

Brady with Addison.

You had to pay for this one so it was a no go.  But Brady wanted his picture with the "bad guy," of course.

Listening to the facts about the park.

This was what Brady did for most of that time with Dawn's Jonathan.  It's a popular name.

Calleigh took some kind of poll at lunch.  You can barely see it but Colby had his hand raised too.

Last ride of the day....the double decker caroussel.

A big thing that Brady got to do was the bumper cars.  He had missed out at Edaville Railroad but you only had to be 36 inches to ride them here with an adult.  He is juuuusssst 36 inches.  He road with Jennifer while I went with Aubree and Calleigh was able to drive them by herself.  A great time! The highlight for me though was go-carts.  They had four different courses and they looked SO fun. Unfortunately you had to be 54 inches to ride by yourself, which none of my crew are at yet.  We were at the mercy of the other ladies to stay with Colby while I took each kid but of course, each of the ladies had their own kid to take.  But, we finally got it figured out.  Brady went with me on the second round.  I tried to go pretty slowly for him but there was no smile of any sort as we went up the ramp and over a hill.  When we went by the starting point he said "We're doing it again???  I don't want to!!" So then I had to go REALLY slowly for the next lap and then just pull in and stop once we got around again.  Not too fun for me as I was itching to go fast but maybe next time.  That was my answer to the kids.  "We'll do it next time." What I didn't say was that there most likely wouldn't be a next time because it's $45 for adults and $35 for kids.  I suppose that's cheap compared to Disney but still...Anyway, a fun day was had by all and best of all it was free!

Not too much going on the last couple of days.  We are still taking it easy with the school...finding other educational stuff to do besides "school." Today we were back out at yard sales after about a seven week hiatus so that felt good even though it's pretty light (only about five sales).  At our first stop, the lady (probably my dad's age) took a huge liking to Colby (the other kids were in the van) and followed him around everywhere.  She had a big smile on her face and told me "I just love little boys." Colby found a particular truck to play with and she told me that Colby could have it.  She said that her son died and it made her feel good to see little boys and do nice things for them.  I thought she was going to say he son died many years ago as a kid but when I asked her about him she said that he had just died at the age or 38 from pancreatic cancer and that this was his house where they were having the sale.  That hit close to home being 38 and all.  At any rate, I felt happy we were able to bring her a little bit of joy.

We have not been formally potty training at all because...well, because Brady still really isn't ready to take it seriously.  But he does like to wear the underwear every now and then so every few weeks he gets into a mood to put the underwear on.  And then usually a few hours later he has a pee accident some random place.  Oh, he goes through the motions and gets my hopes up by sitting on the potty but NOTHING EVER HAPPENS.  Ever.  But when it does...or should that be "if" because that's how I feel at this point...it looks like it has the potential to be very messy.  He has a potty seat that he sits on but I ask you, how do you keep the boy part in the proper place so that pee doesn't spray all over the room?  I can see how the next 18 years or whatever have the potential to be very messy ones. Anyway, that's what prompted this conversation as he sat on the potty seat today:

Brady: "MOM!  I can't keep it down.  It keeps coming up."
Me:"Brady, just put it down so that it's underneath that little ridge on the seat.  You might have to just hold it like that."
Brady (a few seconds later):"It popped up again.  It won't stay down.  I guess I'm going to have to just cut my ding dong off."

Yup!  That's sure to solve it!

We just finished this great book Naya Nuki about an 11-year old Indian girl who is captured in the early 1800's in Montana and manages to escape by herself and walk back to her tribe...by foot over 1,000 miles.  Amazing story.  Anyway, since we have been doing a lot about Indians this school year it has prompted all kinds of Indian things like pretending their hot dogs for lunch today were really buffalo meat and then there was this:

Me: "Um, girls, why is everyone outside playing in their underwear?"
Calleigh:"Because we're playing Indians!"

And the connection is?  No, really.  I'm asking YOU because I have no idea what it is.

It's kind of hard to tell but I'm pretty certain she is clothed here.

I'm hesitant to say this but I think Colby might have been slightly less crabby this week.  Hmmm. I hope I haven't jinxed myself.  His talking is continuing to expand.  After he got up from his nap yesterday and we were hanging around outside he started saying something like "Cah,cah." I thought, ah ha!  I know what he's saying.  I let him inside, he ran to the pantry which was open, and went right to the crackers to get some out.

A couple of other pictures...

Soccer started again on Sunday.  The crowd has gotten bigger.

Calleigh hanging out with Fonta, Caroline, and Caroline's brother.

While Colby hangs out with Braelyn

The girls were doing some kind of show, wearing my boots...but thankfully clothed.

We watched a great documentary on Net Flix called "Living on One Dollar" about four college guys who go to Guatemala for 2 months to live as they do on one dollar a day.  Very, very insightful especially since Ana is from Guatemala.  Not sure Brady got much out of it though.

Have a wonderful weekend.  I know I will (info on that next time!).

Monday was my 39th birthday which means - - drumroll please - - I'm now in the last year of my 30's.  Not sure how I feel about that.  Actually, that's a lie.  I'm not pleased at all.  But, I have a wonderful life so really, it shouldn't be that big a deal.  And hey, if a year from now Colby is no longer a whiny toddler than I say bring it!  

At Grandma and Grandpa's

Trying out a Pocahontas wig I got at Goodwill

Ditto on the space suit.

Lining the kids up for a picture.  Colby was VERY confused.

Calleigh gave me the card and Aubree made me the dinosaur.

This was from Brady.  A hammer maybe?  It may not look like much but he seriously had no interest in drawing, coloring, even holding a writing utensil until about two months ago.  I've never even had him pick one up...just waited for him to decide to do it on his own.

Kelly in the pool with all the kids.  I was actually in too but got out to take the picture.

Okay, so it was pretty cold when you got out.

Calleigh got to go down three times but would have stayed there all afternoon if allowed.

The girls got to meet Levi for the first time since they didn't get to see him at the Cape during Christmas.

I forgot how good this feeling was...to be World Champions!  The Patriots took on the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX (which stands for 49...the L stands for 50 and the X is 10 but when you put the X in front of the L, it makes it 40 rather than 60...I looked it up because I might need to know it for Trivia Crack!) on Sunday, February 1 in Phoenix, Arizona.  This was the same venue where they lost to the Giants in the 2007 season.

It was kind of hard for me to get too excited about the game because of the Deflategate saga going on. Did Brady have someone deflate the footballs?  Did Belichick know anything about it?  We knew very little hard facts but to try to defend the Pats made one look like such a homer and just desperate to have them be innocent.  It really wasn't a good feeling.  Now with all that has come out (only one ball was deflated significantly and it was the one turned over from the Colts possession) it seems like the story was all a bunch of hot air but again, I will hold judgement until all the facts come out...if they do.  Of course, everyone will just call them cheaters no matter what but hey, that's what happens when you're good I guess!

Anywho, the most exciting thing for me was getting to watch the game with a bunch of family that just happened to be coming down this way.  All told we had 22 people here for the game and it was a grand time.  It was us, Ron and Elaine, Uncle Terry and Aunt Toni, Uncle Charlie and Aunt Lori, Kelly (Steve had to work on Monday and left in the afternoon), Caleb, Rad (Jen had a stomach bug and didn't come), the Hazens, Bruce McDougall, and Megan.  It's been a while since I watched a big game with Rad and I forgot how intense he is.  All the more fun!  I wanted to get all the food preparation out of the way first so we had subs and then people could just munch on snacks during the game.

There is nothing like watching the game with family and friends when you're all rooting for the same team!

Rad and I.  The oldest and youngest of the 10 cousins.  If you want to be polite, please ask which is which.

This cracked me up.  Rad wearing a Gostkowski jersey.  You don't often see people sporting the kicker's jersey.  Aunt Lori had called Rad and excitedly told him that she had found a Gronkoswki jersey at a yard sale.  This was it.  A few letters off, Aunt Lori!

What a game!  The first half I had to deal with Colby but he was actually pretty good and didn't distract me too much.  When your team is in it though, you don't want to miss a single play, a single second.  It's all so crucial.  We were feeling good pretty much the whole half until the Seahawks tied it up going into half time.  Not good especially since Rad and I may or may not have had a friendly wager on the score at the end of the half.  If the score ended with a 4 for the AFC and a 7 for the NFC, well, things were looking rosy for us.  And that was what it was with 33 seconds left (14 - 7 Patriots).  But then, those stinking Seahawks had to score a touchdown and it was a double whammy.

Things went downhill pretty quickly in the second half and the Seahawks went up by 10.  We had our usual texting marathon going on with Rick, Shawn, Rad, David, and myself.  I won't lie..there was a lot of negativity going on in those texts although I am proud to say it wasn't coming from me.  I had to remind them that the game wasn't over.  And sure enough, it wasn't.  Brady became the stud that he is and put up too very impressive drives and the Pats went ahead by four points.  It was right before then that I texted Ricky and said "Didn't you tell me that in the Madden Super Bowl simulation game that the Patriots won 28 - 24 after coming from behind and Edelman scored the winning touchdown?" Indeed that was the case.  Honestly, this was one of the most eerie things ever.  The passing yards for Brady were almost exactly on.  It correctly predicted two interceptions for Brady.  It predicted the correct final score and the correct person scoring the winning touchdown.  Anyway, after Ricky confirmed that, I was feeling pretty good.  Because if Madden predicted it, it must be true!

Not sure what Uncle Terry was doing here.  I think he had to get up and pace and then couldn't see clearly from the kitchen.

In the third quarter, Duncan got too nervous and went outside with the kids to start a fire.  He ended up watching the game through the window when someone opened the blind.  He finally came in once the Pats went ahead.

But then the Seahawks went on their drive with a little over two minutes left and then we all let out a collective gasp or utter dismay  - - no, terror - - when Kearse made that amazing catch.  It honestly felt like the 2007 Giants game again.  How could this happen again???  I think we all thought at that point that are chances were very dim.  The Seahawks had the ball on like the five yard line and had plenty of time to score the go ahead touchdown.  On their first down they made it to the one and with 50 seconds left, most of us were expecting Belichick to call a time out to conserve the clock except he didn't.  What was going on??!!  It all happened so fast.  I don't think some people realized what even happened right away but I did.  INTERCEPTION!!!  The crowd was going crazy.  We were all jumping on couches and dislocating peoples' shoulders with the high fives.  Calaubra was still up and they had been sitting there and they were like "What the heck is going on?" Everyone was hugging each other even if they just met that night.  It was insane but so insanely good.  I have probably seen the replay of Malcolm Butler intercepting that ball like a hundred times now and I could keep watching it over and over again.  One of the top moments in my life as a Boston sports fan, for sure.

Shortly after the interception.  I'm hugging Rad, people are bonkers! Not sure who Aunt Lori is texting as the most important people are in the room.  Photo courtesy of Leslie Hazen who had the foresight to take one.

Watching the replay again.  Calleigh is holding on to Aunt Toni.

YES!!!

 Calleigh seemed to be the kid most excited about it all...I'm sure because she's older.  She knows a lot of the players now and I noticed that towards the end of the game Lindsey asked her if she wanted to go upstairs and play American Girl dolls and Calleigh said no because she wanted to watch. The next morning, she came up to me and in a quiet voice says "I know why the Patriots won." I was thinking maybe she had some insight like "They intercepted the ball." Instead, she says, "Because I prayed." Oh boy!

Other stuff did happen last week.  On Monday our new piano teacher, Ethan, came over to meet the girls and go over how things work.  He seems very nice and talked about how much he loves teaching piano.  Interestingly enough, while he is not an SDA, he is a PK and was home schooled all the way through high school.  He also has a son who is 15-months old so we seem to have quite a bit in common.  It looks like the lessons will be on Wednesday mornings starting this week.  I'm excited to see how it goes!

On Wednesday we did a field trip to the Florida Living History Festival which was in Christmas.  Did you know we had a town here with that name?  The kids didn't and got a big kick out of it.  It's clear across town past even our old stomping grounds but it was less than 45 minutes because you just take the highway most of the way out.  We went with Vasti and her boys and Jennifer, Evan, Addison, and London.  The subtitle was "Experience the 1400's - 1800's" and they had 15 different stations set up.  You went to a station for 15 minutes and they had people dressed in appropriate garb acting like people from that time period.  We saw a pirate, English soldiers, Indians, Spanish fighters, a cannon firing, etc.  It was really, really impressive and I was even more impressed that the girls stayed engaged the whole time and in fact, didn't want to leave.  My only regret was that I had the boys too so I couldn't pay attention the entire time myself.  It was only $6 to get in and apparently this was the 10th annual so we will be back for sure next year.  A great time and so educational.

First station was an Indian.

Some kind of animal pelt.

The Spanish fighters.  They were very entertaining.

This is what the boys were more interested in doing.

Had to get this picture with some English soldiers to show Grandma.

A Black Seminole Indian

This guy showed how he skinned animals and made different stuff with the animal parts.

A lady making soap.  You could actually buy some for $4 but I had no cash and I suppose if they whipped out a credit card machine it would take away from the authenticity!

Jonathan made some "weapons" for Brady who was thrilled to carry them around in his pockets.

In other news, I've had a few busy nights over the weekend.  Colby came down with a fever on Friday night which caused him to wake up in the middle of the night each night since then.  My guess has been teething since he had no other symptoms but who knows.  All I know is that I've been forced to sleep in the guest room with him (under normal conditions I would let him cry it out but I have some mercy because of the fever) which is torturous.  Last night was particularly bad because he kept throwing his binky between the end of the bed and the headboard.  I would have to turn the light on and crawl under the bed trying to find it (I didn't know where others were).  So frustrating.  The night before that had also been incredibly tiring...so much so that I actually went to bed last night at 8:00 pm which is unheard of for me.  Even when I have a headache it isn't usually that early. Then this morning I couldn't find my glasses when I was trying to look for something or other.  I finally found them, took a shower, came out and went to put my contacts in only to discover they weren't in the case.  Yup, that's right.  They were already in.  I have no idea how I was wearing glasses and contacts at the same time but apparently it was so.  Geesh.  The good news is that there was no fever today so I better not be getting a 2:00 am wake up call again.  Party is over, fella.

This was him taking a nap yesterday morning in my bed.  Notice his hand in my hair.  He is so obsessed with my hair...even in his sleep he has his hand in it.

I will let the pictures below fill you in on the rest of what we were up to for the week.

Went to family game night for the Adventurers on Saturday night 1/31 at the church.  This was some sort of game.

They had this little machine where you use a claw to get toys out and the girls were obsessed.

Passing around a musical toy.  If it stopped on you, you were out.

Aubree ended up winning!

Calleigh having a go.

Colby probably "played" this game for 20 minutes straight.  Just kept putting the marbles down the path over and over again.

The girls on Sabbath morning, 1/31.

My crew.  Bowties courtesy of Aunt Camille.  Dresses courtesy of Grandma.

Aubree reading to Jen (the Case clan came over for Sabbath lunch, 1/31).

 

Stopped over the Escobar's house for a house warming get together last week.  They recently moved...one town over.

Boys taking a nap before the big game.

Kelly and Caleb stayed over on Sunday night so Caleb could be in bed during the Super Bowl.  They were supposed to leave on Monday but stayed until Tuesday (although not at our place) because of all the snow back in MA.

Aubree pretending to cut Brady's hair.

The kids have really been into building forts this week.

It's evolved every day.  They are seriously probably outside playing for at least three hours, if not more, each day.  Love it!

Daddy took the kids to JoJo's for frozen yogurt on Friday afternoon.  I couldn't argue with the dessert before supper thing since I had a quiet house to clean.

Hanging out at World Market.

Saw this car at a yard sale on Friday.  I'm sure $60 was a good deal but we weren't in the market.

Had time on Friday to make a run to Trader Joe's to stock up on some Indian food.

A sight no one ever thought they would see again...Duncan reading an actual newspaper.  This is the West Orange Times (our local paper).

Movie night at the church on Saturday night.  Duncan stayed home with Colby (due to the fever he didn't go to church either) while I took Calaubra.

Got a membership at the zoo again and we went yesterday afternoon.  We can tell it's been awhile because they now have giraffes.

Saw the caretaker scratching this monkey's back which we thought was pretty humerous.

No post is complete without a shot of my boy sleeping.  This was tonight.  Duncan gave him a much shorter haircut a couple of days ago.

This week the kids and I had to endure the week without our beloved husband and father around. Duncan left on Monday for a business trip to San Francisco/Silicon Valley and didn't return until today at about 5:00 pm.  Oh what a joy all around to see him come through that door.  The kids couldn't get down the stairs fast enough to greet him and the sight of them all in a big bear hug was enough to warm my cold heart.  What, you ask?  Cold heart?  Only because it didn't get out of the 50's today here in Florida and my teeth were chattering at one point!

The best part of the party was getting to ride the horse or pony.

Even Colby got in on the action.

Waiting for our turn to get some food.  Brady looks like he's wearing an umpire chest protector.

You can tell he's getting a little cold. Well, I can at least.

Going through all the Valentine's at home.  They put everything together and organized it into piles.

Having it in a bowl.  Yup, a righty.  Boo!!

Just like the other kids now with their bowls.

Drinking from a glass.

This week Aubree got the bright idea to make flags.  Our map of the world has all the flags on it so she'd take a picture of one with me phone to refer to while she sat at the table coloring it.  Do you know any of these countries?

Some science experiments that didn't work.  A dented ping pong ball was supposed to pop the dent out when submerged in warm water.  Nope.

The coin on the mouth (hard to see) of this bottle was supposed to lift off the bottle when warm water was dumped around the bottle.  Another nope.

The sides of the bottle were supposed to collapse in when you shook the ice that I put in the bottle.  Pretty sure those sides were already bent in a little before I started.  So not a good day for Science.

Umm, so apparently a kid snuck downstairs during quiet time and took this picture of me while I was diligently cleaning the house, working on lesson plans, and cooking a gourmet meal for supper that night.  Wait, how did this get in here?

Supper at Target last night.  We love to live the high life when Daddy's gone!

This week was a busy week due to our various field trips.  Monday morning we had gymnastics and then I was planning to do our school work in the afternoon.  As I was enjoying a little bit of quiet time after I lunch, I decided I should look in my email for details on our tour of Z88.3 (Christian radio station) that was taking place the next afternoon.  But then, holy cow!  It was Monday, not Tuesday.  I keep my schedule in my brain but I guess we see first hand that this method is not fool proof!

Elaine was supposed to come over and watch the boys because you had to be five and up to do the tour (I assume because of noise?).  That wasn't going to happen at this late of a notice.  Fortunately I recalled that a friend, Kat, from gymnastics is part of this group so I sent a text to her as to whether the girls could tag along with her and she said that was fine.  So we were saved.  I had to wake Colby up early but it was all good.

The girls kind of cracked me up because they were all like "Oh, a radio station?  We've been ON the radio so this is no big deal!" That was when they did a snippet on the meaning of Christmas on my dad's radio program the last couple of years.  The tour was really neat though.  When you walk in the front door, you immediately see the personalities broadcasting in their booth.  The two on in the afternoons are Suzanne and Deano.  Admittedly I did not know them from Adam because although I do listen to the "Z" on occasion, I mostly listen to kid's stuff while I'm in the car.  Everyone working there was really, really nice and they even let Brady and Colby come on the tour since it was such a small group.  Some things that I thought were interesting is that they plan what songs and the order of playing them days and sometimes a week in advance.  Also, they have a room that is entirely wall to wall with thousands of CD.  It's, of course, all digital now but they have them there for back up...just in case. When we left, they gave the kids posters, bumper stickers, etc and they thought that was pretty cool.

Behind the kids is the ON AIR studio.  The lady you see sitting there, Suzanne, came out on commercial break and took a picture with the kids.

She's a natural!

Tuesday was a home day and then Wednesday we were off again to the homeschool day at the Central Florida Zoo.  The topic this time was turtles and tortoises.  We chose a table to sit at that had a guy and his son sitting at it.  No sooner did we sit down than Calleigh tells the boy, "Hey, you play soccer with me." Sure enough, the kid, Joshua, plays on the other team and the dad, Jonathan Hillock (sp?) works at AHS.  Small world!  The mom was also there with the younger son and it was nice to chat with them as we went to each of the stations.  They do a great job putting on these education classes and we really enjoyed ourselves.  My favorite part was seeing one of the giant tortoises that lives to be a 150 years old.  People have them as pets and have to put them in their wills because they will outlive their owners.  The only downside to the morning was that the train was broken.  As we were leaving, Aubree says to me, "But YOU SAID we could ride the train." Hold on, Aubs.  Let me wave my magic wand and make it magically fixed.  I mean, really!

Getting details about box turtles.

Took a little quiz at the end and got them all correct.

Okay, it's an "Inja" turtle but it IS a turtle!

"When I'm five can I watch "Inja" turtles??!!" What do the Ninja turtles actually do on that show, anyway?

This lady asked questions and then whoever hit their buzzer first got to answer.  Do turtles have ears?  No!

Making an "enrichment," a sweet potato/carrot pizza, for the giant tortoise.

At one point, they were all crawling right for Brady but he kept his composure.

Wednesday evening the girls had Adventurers.  Duncan made it home in time and volunteered to take the boys while I took the girls.  Win for me!! After I dropped them off I had to make a last minute run to Publix to pick up some more packages of Morningstar Farms veggie food.  I have been waiting forever for it go on sale (Buy One Get One Free) again and I wasn't going to be in the predicament again of having to pay $4.19 for a box of stripples.  Nothing makes me feel dirtier than paying full price for that stuff. So I probably bought about 60 boxes of various things and hopefully this will last until the next sale.  By the way, I highly recommend the Baja Black Bean pizza.  Delicious!

Yesterday morning our homeschool group had a field trip to a nursery in Apopka....a wholesale nursery that sells to other nurseries and not directly to retailers.  Of course, it was basically the coldest morning of the year in Orlando (30's) so I had to go dig up our jackets, gloves, mittens, etc since we would be outside some of the time.  I wasn't expecting to see that stuff again until next year and I can't say it was an all together happy task.  Colby started being a pill, surprise, surprise, and Brady kept yanking on my hand asking when we were going to go.  Apparently they weren't appreciating the beauty of all the plants like the we girls were.  Fortunately Kat came to my rescue again and pushed the stroller while I was holding Colby as he fell asleep.  Thank goodness for friends around to help because this is why I haven't wanted to do any field trips until Colby is more manageable.

The lady, Heather, giving the tour.

These folks were taking tiny pieces of a plant and putting it into a small pot to grow a new plant.  What tedious work!  Heather told us that almost 100% of the workers are woman for whatever reason.

I thought this was interesting.  These are pepper plants.  But they don't sell them because of the peppers.  They get bad bugs and put them on the plants.  Then they get good bugs and put them on the plants to eat the bad bugs.  Then other nurseries buy these plants so that the good bugs will spread to their plants.  Very clever.

Venus Flytraps.  Amazing little plants, for sure.

Incidentally, not sure if I mentioned it but this homeschool group is one that I came upon while looking at the FPEA's (Florida Parent Educators Association) website.  The FPEA is the group that puts on the big homeschool convention each year, FYI.  Because of Calleigh's big disinterest in most of school, a few weeks ago I started researching field trips, homeschool groups, etc and saw this group that is not far away in Winter Garden.  It's through the First United Methodist Church but anyone can join the group.  After I joined is when I discovered Kat from gymnastics was a member. So far, it's been really great and the good thing is that the field trips AREN'T on Fridays so I don't have to miss yard sales.

Other than the field trips, this week wasn't exactly a stellar week for school but we did get some learning in watching the show "How the States Got Their Shape." The title is pretty self explanatory. It's a documentary series that originally aired on the History Channel (I believe) and is now on Netflix.  Calleigh is addicted to it and begs me to watch it every day.  Did you know Mormonism started in New York and not Utah?  Did you know that Wisconsin was originally known for their beaver furs and not for cheese?  Did you know that the first oil boom happened in Pennsylvania? How do these facts relate to how states got their shapes?  I guess you'll have to watch out.  But seriously, she is glued to the TV while this show is on.  So she may not be a whiz at math, spelling, reading, etc. but she knows her history!

In closing, one conversation with Calleigh while we were up in her room getting ready for bed.  She bought a new Lego set with her money and she has to watch it like a hawk so it doesn't get wrecked. Of course, leaving it on the floor doesn't help so it was no surprise when we noticed someone stepped on it, most likely Brady.
Calleigh: "Brady!!  You wrecked my Lego set!!"
Me: "Calleigh, I don't think he did it on purpose."
Calleigh:"Yes, he did."
Me:"No, I don't think so.  I think he would have been laughing about it if he did.  Look at him.  He doesn't even realize what happened."
Calleigh: "If you knew him as well as I do...if you hung out with him in the afternoons...you would know."

Some other pictures to close:

Visiting Aunt Wanda at church last Sabbath on Valentine's Day.

I know this wastes electricity but he was having so much fun I couldn't stop it.

Then he carried everything over here.

Fell asleep eating a lollipop (thanks Valentine's Day) and was still chewing in his sleep.

See? I took a video of him and asked in the video if he was awake or asleep and he said awake.  When I asked why his eyes were closed, he said "I'm cold."

So I love this.  He puts underwear on over his diaper since he's not potty trained, as you know.  And then,, he sticks batteries into the hole where the, you know, comes out.  It's actually kind of a little pocket that you can store stuff in.  He's at least resourceful!

For some men, it might be socks.  For others, it's batteries.

Just don't dribble any pee on it says Grandma!

Maybe we should make a calendar.

"What are you doing?" I ask.  "I'm texting."

Proof that it does get cold in Florida.  The green towel in Calleigh's hand was wet and froze into that shape!

At a yard sale.  "Look Mom!!  I found a sword!!" Good try, buddy.

Have a Happy Sabbath!