Busy week

It has been a busy week here.  But fun.  On Monday the kids and I took a load over to Pap's boat.
We planned to stay to fish and just hang with Pap.  Something came up and we couldn't stay as long as we liked.

2 Owls hang at the boat in the morning and at night.   They wait for you to catch a fish so they can take it back for their babies.  Every time I have been there so have the owls.  With no problems catching a fish.  Monday was different.  No fish.   The kids fished for about 45 minutes with no luck.  I was really bummed for them.  I can't wait until they see the owls swooping down from the tree, it's a pretty neat sit.
Pap did send me a picture of a fish he caught last night.   He is going to prepair this one for dinner.

Valerie has arrived

On Friday Pap and Valerie arrived in Jacksonville, Fl at 10 am. 

They both said sleep was awful because a man who sat across from them talked all night. 

Valerie got off the train dressed for Alaska.

The kids waited patiently for the train to arrive.  Ill tell ya its not like the airport at all!  No security what so ever.

We made flubber

So today we made Flubber! 
The kids had fun with only 1 hot pink spill on the floor.
I got just a little bit upset...but once I saw it came up pretty easy with bleach spray we marched on. 
I found the recipe on facebook.  I followed it to a T.  I dont know how to link while using my phone.
We used
3/4 cup cold water
1 cup elmer's glue
Liquid food coloring (as much or little as you want)
All in 1 bowl
Next bowl
1/2 cup hot water
1 teaspoon borax
Mix all together and dump extra water out

Guinness book of world records

On Tuesday our community pool took part in a an attempt at the largest swim lesson at one time.
So all over the United states at the same time people attended a swim lesson.  Which means our swim lessons were at 10:55 in CA they were swimming at 7:55. 
I haven't heard if the record was broken yet.  But the kids did enjoy the time.
They broke the beginners up from everyone else.  I stuck the kids in the beginner because of their age, size and I wasnt sure how many instructors there would be.  I am happy to report Austin and Savannah no longer fall into beginner!  I know they swim a lot but not the correct way.
They learned safety tips which made it all worth it.
A few pictures of the event...many more people where there I just tried to get my kidds!

Summer sleep overs

Both Austin and Savannah have been obsessed with sleep overs.  Every night they ask to have one.   They dont really care with who really.   We tried one last week and it ended badly.  
They are anxiously waiting for Ganny and Grampy to come in July. They promised to have one with both kids and Valerie. 
So tonight we tried again with great success.  
You see they were warned...if I had to come back up stairs to reprimand all sleep over for the rest of the summer were canceled.  Including Granny and Grampys.
We set them up in Savannah's room with their current movie-Wizard of Oz and this is how I found them. 
I wonder how the morning will go??

Summer learning

This summer I have both kids writing in journals.  I tried this last year and Austin gave me such a hard time I just gave up.
We know writing is his weak point in school.  It has been since kindergarten.   So this year I told him his teacher said he could move to 2nd grade if he worked on his writing over the summer.
Last year I was trying to have him do it each night.  This year it is only 3 times a week.  Last year I didnt pay attention to lines, Capitols or punctuation.
This year I googled age appropriate spacing and stuff to get him thinking before he writes.
So far so good.  I only have him write 1-2 sentences. 
Savannah just wants to be a part.  Which is good.  So I made her a book with just her name.  I am hoping she can write her name for the start of the year. I have her name in dotted leters the first 2 lines, then have her try to write her name without any guidance.
They each have a book for a month then we will make more for each month.  I can't wait to see the progress.

Pap is going to PA

Today we took Pap to the train station.  Any other day it might be a sad day...but today everyone is excited.  You see when Pap comes back in a week he will be bringing Valerie home for the summer.  

Savannah will be upset in the morning...she thinks Pap and Valerie will be here.  It will be a long week.  But everyone is excited.

Jukebox

With Pap moving into a house boat we have inherited some new toys.  They are still Pap's but he doesn't have the room so we are keeping them for him.  One of the lucky items is a 45 rpm Juke box. 

Rob and I are slowly filling it up with songs that we like. So far the newest songs seem to be 2004.  You can get any song put on a 45 however it will coast you.  Just a quick price check took me to about $85 and I am sure there are hidden coast in there someplace. 

We listen to it pretty much everyday.  Savannah has her songs...Milkshake and girls just want to have fun.  Right now Austin's is Sweet Caroline. 

Bricks 4 kids

Our school district gets out early every Wednesday for teacher planning day.  So the school holds programs (at a fee) for kids to stay an extra hr for parents that work.  We didn't use it last year, but this year a lot of Austin's friends were doing Bricks 4 kids.  It's a company outside of school that comes into the school after hours.  We let him do it for a 6 week session and he loved it of course.  It's all about legos.  Each week they have different themes.  The session Austin was in was called heros.

We just had a branch open up about 5 miles from the house.  As a grand opening they had a durby race.  Kids came and got to build cars and race them.  They got to do 3 test runs and off they went.  Gavin from down the street went with Rob and Austin.  Austin's buddy Sebastian meet him there.  All 3 were out in the first run.  But it was 2 hours of building that the kids enjoyed.  They didn't have age groups which kinda stunk.  Rob said the judges called Austin's wrong and the girl that beat Austin went to the finals.  

Baseball spring 2013

Baseball this year was much more excited and enjoyable for everyone. 
Austin really got into it this time around. 
Daddy helped coach as usual.  He even Pitched a game.  I'm pretty sure daddy was a little more excited about it than Austin. 
In Florida they split the season into 2 a spring and fall.  Because the weather is so hot.  We skip fall mostly because of football.  Austin doesn't seem to mind.

He had lots of great hits, some outs and good catching.  Savannah and I would always leave right after, but Rob would let Austin stay and play.  Which of course Austin thought was great.  They were late nights, but good ones.

Austin thought was great.  They were late nights, but good ones.

Savannah's 1st Dance recital

Savannah had her first Dance recital...they called it a showcase.  Basically they hold a small show during the day for the smaller children.  They hope it helps them get use to the big events of a true recital.  She did very well. 
Not to sure she will continue though.  She told me no about 2 weeks ago, but she is already missing it.  We are gonna wait and see.  Let her take the summer off and go from there.

 I think she liked this part best...getting all dolled up

 almost there

 Her teacher

I was the bad mom...I turned in the order form to late for her trophy.  But, I recovered.  I ordered one from a local place and got one in time.  She didn't even notice hers was different.  As it turned out most moms didn't order them anyway.  I was nervous not to order one since Austin has so many from biking. 

Mud Run

I asked Austin in April of 2012 if he wanted to do a Mud Run with me, without hesitation he was on it.  At the last minute Savannah decided she wanted to do it too.  About a week before that Grampy agreed to do it too.  It was a blast and I'm so glad everyone did it.

Mothers Day

I was pretty excited for Mothers Day this year.
Austin was all about planning something for me.  Up until now I had to always remind him Mothers Day was coming.  This year I kept hearing him talking to Savannah about wanting to do something for me. 
At one point he asked me if he took me to dinner could Daddy drive because he wanted to surprise me (I usually drive). 
So on Mothers day he gave me a book he made in school.  He and Savannah made me something out of his craft basket.  I love that he has supplies to make things from...Then time same and he took me to Clarks fishing camp.  It's a restaurant on the inter-coastal we have been to many times.  The kids love it because they have taxidermy all over, a live Alligator inside and you can feed the turtles and alligators in the open water. 

I guess anticipating big crowds they had face painting set up while you wait. 

It was a really nice day for me, even though I was missing my big kid!

Disney

This year thanks to Beam and Poppy we did Disney again.  I'm just gonna put them into one post.  As I stay on top of the blog again more details and separate post will be better:)
I think it's funny how they say it's the happiest place on earth.  Each time we go I say I'm going to take real photos and show all the melt downs.  But to be honest since this trip in November the trips have gotten better. 

We have done more day trips this season than weekends...but we love it all the same.  It's nice because we are now doing different rides and seeing different parts of Disney. 

Savannah has become the ride Queen and the only thing holding her back is her height.  Austin doesn't want his sister to show him up so he usually goes but not with a big smile on his face. 

We went last weekend on June 2nd before our season ended for summer and it was a blast.  We now know where to park for free, how to use the fast passes to our advantage and the kids rode a roller coaster that Austin rode for the 1st time a year and a half ago that he said he never wanted to go on again...not once but 2 times




Pictures from November... This sits right outside of star wars in Hollywood studio's 

 Doing this training is so hard to get in...we got to the park using Magic hours...so an hr early then he didn't even get in until 4pm.  We did what we needed left went back to the room to get lunch and came back so he could do the training.

 Pretty happy little girl

 This was downtown Disney...They are from near Altoona!  Rob got pretty excited about it.

 We had a trip planned in March and it just happen to turn into the coldest weekend in Florida history.  The good part it wasn't overly crowded, the bad we lost all our orange and limes because we couldn't protect our trees since we were not home for the frost.

 This is at Animal Kingdome...pretty cool the kids had a blast and didn't want to leave once they found an area to dig up dinasor bones

 This guy is in Downtown Disney (they have different characters).  He moves and interacts with the person stand next to him

 We finaly took advantage of the Disney photo guys/girls that will take photos with your camera for free

 getting cold

 She didn't make it...and yes it was this cold.  By the end of the night both kids were tucked in and sleeping.  I usually take my sling so I can put her on my back for the bus ride since they can't stay in the stroller...but forgot it this night.  At this point it might be easier to carry Austin:)

Austin likes to dress up too.  Right now he only has Peter Pan and Buzz.  I think I'm gonna work on Jack Sparow (spelling)  for our trip in August.  Which they have both requested birthdays at Disney this year.

This is from a Day trip I took with the kids.  I was a little nervouse taking them by myself but it was a great day. 

June trip....




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right after the roller coaster

If the weather is bad for Jeti training they take you on tour and you have your picture taken