Spring Break - Sunday

Sunday we had some time before we had we had to take Michael to the airport so we were able to spend it in the pool. The pool is heated, but really it was unnecessary as the weather was hot and perfect for a cool swim.
Doesn't he look like he is ready to go in. He begged for a pair of goggles like the big kids and then refuse to get in the water.
This is pretty much where he spent his time. We proceeded to drop him in anyway but he screamed his head off. By Wednesday though at the end of the day he was finally enjoying the pool. Oh well I guess we'll have to try again at our pool at home.

These two I couldn't get out of the pool.

After we dropped Michael off at the airport the rest of us went to the Disney Market to visit the Lego store and the Toy Store. Of course there is a large Buzz Light year and Mr. Potato Head outside of the store. Well Jaden kept trying to press all the buttons on the giant statue and was fascinated by it.

Of course trying to get picture with all five kids was down right impossible.

You pick the one that came out the best....LOL..

My nephew is in the back behind Buzz trying to hide.

And the same thing happened with Mr. Potato Head.

I finally just gave up.

While the big kids were in the Lego store I took the little kids to the carousel. They love carousels.
It was a fun start to a good week.

Spring Break - Saturday

Since we were in GA the week before and my parents had invited us to vacation with them at their time share in FL during spring break, and it's only about 7.5 hours away, we decided to take a trip. Michael unfortunately had to get back to work, his travel schedule is crazy again! However, he was able to enjoy a couple of days with us. We traveled down on Saturday and he left Sunday Night.


We went to dinner at this beautiful hotel called the Gaylord Palms Resort...yes there is a full size boat in the middle of the hotel that serves as part of the restaurant we ate it. It's a fun place to visit. I'm almost interested in seeing the one they have here in DC.
My parents brought my nephew, you can imagine how excited the girls were, two weeks spent with cousins and family. They loved it.
You can see the boat behind the kids, and you can see Madison is not happy, she didn't want anything to do with this picture especially because she didn't want to be near that dead fish.


Also in this hotel they have a live alligator and turtle pond.
Beady eyes floating in the water. Yes those are alligators.

Atlanta Aquarium

Michael had a business trip to Atlanta so we thought why not tag along and see the family bring school with us and do a field trip. We were able to do some school work in the morning and play in the afternoon. We took the older girls to see Soul Surfer the movie, which one loved and one hated....I'll let you figure out which one...and we loved going to the Aquarium.

The Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta is the largest Aquarium in the world click here if you want to check it out... AT&T built the dolphin exhibit which was not what I expected. Think Disneyesque and you might try to understand what it was like. You don't expect singing, dancing and a light and water show, though it was entertaining, the kids really liked it....it definitely wasn't Disney. But I thoroughly enjoyed myself. This place is huge and so well put together. We had a little trouble with our little guys once they were getting tired, we had some meltdowns....I wasn't too happy about, but all in all it was a great experience, one I highly recommend if you ever head south.

Here is the front of the dolphin exhibit when you walk in, it's hard to appreciate how big it really is unless you are there. The dolphins are from Hawaii...and they show you the whole thing about building the exhibit and bringing the dolphins from Hawaii, it's interesting for grown ups but the kids were ready to move on. The one thing that Kaleigh learned that she can remember well is that the Killer Whale...Orca is a dolphin...did not know this. She was excited to tell everyone.

I think this was his favorite part. The penguin exhibit. He loved it when he tapped on the window and penguin came to the glass. Madison on the other hand would not get anywhere near the glass.
They loved this mermaid. Can't tell you why but it was something to sit on and take a picture.
It's right in front of the gift shop of course to draw the kids in.
This was part of one of those tunnels that is water on all sides except the floor. It is so cool, unfortunately Jordan and Madison wanted nothing to do with it, so I had to be quick with my pictures.
All the fish are swimming above my head that's why you are looking at the bottom of them.
This picture does not do the size of this grouper justice. The thing was the size of a good sized pig.
Don't remember what kind of shark this was, but it was cool looking.
He actually liked the tunnel, and wanted to stay with me in it.
This is part of the whale shark they had at the aquarium. I couldn't get a good picture of him but he was huge.
This gives you a good idea of the scope of the size of the entrance to the tunnel exhibit. The tank is massive.

Sting ray touch pool.

They were curious, and even tried to stick their hand in it but were a little too nervous.
This was close for her....she wasn't getting any closer to it.

Sea horses.

Jellyfish.

No it's not Nemo it's Deepo, the aquarium's mascot. It's what I meant by Disneyesque. We had a great time and one day I hope to go back and take Michael with us. He would really like it.

Magic Tree House Event

We LOVE...love...love to read books. Some of our favorite kids writers are Cynthia Rylant and Stan and Jan Berenstien and we are really learning about bilingual authors like Diane Gonzales Bertrand she's great. Mary Pope Osborne writes a series of books called the Magic Tree House there are 44 books in the series and we have read or heard a few of them. They are mystery book adventures with an 8 year old boy and his 7 year old sister. The girls love them, they are a pretty easy chapter book read. It was definitely a change after the Rainbow Fairy series that I was tired of reading.. We must have read at least 30 of those..I was glad when they found a new series to read.

Our local Borders was hosting a Magic Tree House event. They promoting literacy. Michael took the girls Saturday evening while I had some special time with the little kids. He told me there were people there two hours before the event. They got there about 45 minutes before the event but at least they were able to get a seat.

They waited in line for 45 minutes before they got to meet the people who were playing Jack and Annie, but they loved it and now want to keep reading more and more books.

Laser Tag

Over the last couple of years we really tried to be selective about what activities we do, especially because homeschooling does require a lot from us as parents. So we didn't do AWANA, which is a Sunday evening group activity that is social and teaches scripture. Jordan had a hard time doing it in 1st grade so we decided not to add any extra pressure to her. However because we were doing Financial Peace University the church offered the kids to AWANA and we decided we would do it and not put any pressure on the kids. Well Jordan and Kaleigh loved it, we started in January and Jordan went through about 1/3 of the book ...and it's a long book....and because she got as far as she did she was able to go to Laser Tag. She wanted to go so badly, she worked so hard. We were so proud of her. A lot of the kids finished their books and a lot didn't get as far as they needed but they had a turn out of about 50 kids. She was very excited.

These are the kids getting the instructions from TOM the Laser guy, he was a little rough around the edges but he got them started and continued to explain it as they went a long.

Getting their equipment.

They played 4 rounds. Red team against the green team - 2 times and adults vs. kids ... By the way all the adults were trying to get me to get out there and join them....but uh uh this city girl is not going in the woods with deer ticks crouching down climbing limbs etc....it's just not for me.

But I really enjoyed watching them play.

Once they were shot they had to go to the graveyard. I was holding down the fort at the graveyard reminding them they could not talk to their team mates.
She had such a great time! She loved it and now wants to have a laser tag party for her birthday and then a sleep over. She wants to have the laser tag party so she can invite her friends who are boys and a sleep over so her girl friends can sleep over. A tom boy/girly..I love this kid.