Summer Activities Post #4

 The best part of our summer was our trip to Arkansas and Missouri. Ryan had to be in Arkansas for his job, so we joined him.

 

It was really great hanging out at my parents' pool,

 

and it was made even greater sharing the fun with aunts and cousins.

 We felt like we were staying at a resort.

 

 

Meanwhile, the kids each got to attend a camp during one of the weeks we were there. Sis attended Around the World Art Camp and...

 

Triple Threat Camp, which culminated in their performance of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We love Blackbird Academy.

Dash spent his mornings at Lego Robotics Camp. So cool!

 

I don't have a photo to use of Tornado at Camp Connect, but here are a few of his crafts he made. This is a camp for special needs (mainly autism and related) kids. He attended two years ago and had talked about it ever since. I was really happy he got to go again, and so was he. He won the "Happy-Go-Camper Award" for always being "cheerful and happy, even when he hurt his leg." It's the exact award I would have wanted him to win.

 

Sis and her BFF were so happy to be reunited. Her friend brought her this Build-a-Bear shirt from her recent trip to England, and it fit Sadie quite nicely. The girls got to play with each other a few times, making up for lost time. Dash has also gotten to know her older brother, and now the two of them are able to join in on the playdates, too.

 

We got to hang out with a few of our other Arkansas friends - definitely not enough of them, though. It's so hard to see everybody we want to see during our visits. :( We had a great time hanging out at the pool with these guys.

Ryan had to leave Arkansas to head to Georgia for a few days. While he was there, we were in Missouri, staying with my brother and his family. My aunt joined us for our visit, which was great. We also met up with my uncle, grandma, and family friends, so we were able to squeeze in as much as possible. At my brother's, there was a lot of this kind of stuff going on.

And a lot of this. O is one patient older cousin. He's one of the greatest kids I've ever met. All of my nieces and nephews are!

We even experienced an early morning fire alarm incident which resulted in a lot of laughs (after the all clear was given) and...

...turns sitting in the fire truck!

While we were in Missouri, we finally got to experience the Askinosie Chocolate Tour in Springfield. We love factory tours! This is Tornado, tasting cocoa nibs.

We really enjoyed it!

We also had a great day at Crane Park with some of my best friends from highschool and some of their kids.

It was just the kind of day I had been needing, and I was so happy to share a little of my old world with my kids.

 

I was also thrilled to get to watch two of my nephews play ball.

I HATE missing out on their lives,

being so far away.

I got to soak in as much delight as I could while I was there.

 These girls got a hold of my phone.

 And one particular almost-teenage girl wouldn't let me get her photo here.

 

During our stay in MO, somehow Little Brother developed a bad case of hives. I still have no idea what caused this. It looked so bad, poor guy; none of my kids have ever done this before. We made a quick trip to urgent care to rule out any possible bad causes.

 

Then it was back to Googie and Papaw's house for a day or two more of fun,

before heading back to Florida until next time.

We can't wait to visit again.



Summer Activities 2014 Post #2

We finally got to use our groupons for Safari Wilderness Ranch. It was about an hour drive for us, near Lakeland, Florida.

 

The best part of our day was feeding lemurs. They were unbelievable. I want one.

There were two lemur areas, one was a large netted/fenced area, and there were others in a barn with outside access.

They were so sweet the way they'd hold the kids' arms while they were waiting for another piece of a grape. They were very gentle.

 

 

The bummer part of the day was after spending a little time in this barn area, we moved on to the other lemur area. Little One here had just loved feeding them, and he did a perfect job. But the lady in the other area wouldn't let him. I told her I was letting him use my ticket (because he got in free), but she said tickets were not transferrable. She added that they don't really let kids his age feed them anyway. He was sad and confused about why he couldn't feed them anymore, and why the lady was making me hold him. This made taking pictures of the other kids nearly impossible. Anyway, it just made me sad and put a damper on my day. I hate (what I deem to be) arbitrary rules.

 

 They were so, so cute and just looked like little kids sitting around.

After feeding the lemurs and oohing over the colony of guinea pigs, we loaded onto the safari vehicle for our tour.

 

water buffalo

 

They also were able to feed the water buffaloes that came right up to the vehicle. Sissy said they were a little slobbery.

Tornado loves zebras (I think because black and white are two of his favorite colors.), so these were a treat - especially seeing the baby and momma (who even stopped to nurse).

I'm sure there will be a trip advisor review show up one day from someone who would have really enjoyed the tour if it weren't for the obnoxious poop smell. My kid felt it was an appropriate time to dirty his diaper amidst the warm air and breeze created when the vehicle was in motion. Hopefully, they thought it was just the water buffaloes.



A lot of the animals came right up to the jeep. There were so many animals that I didn't photograph. It was sweet to listen to the kids' excited chatter all day. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and told us plenty of information at many different stops. The kids were impressed with the z-donks and learning that they are good at border control, even once fighting off an alligator.

 

It started raining at the very end of our tour (which is a typical thing to happen on a summer day in Florida). The covered vehicle kept us fairly dry. It was so hot out, the kids were dreaming about the popsicles they had seen by the cash register in the gift shop. They hit the spot.

 

The woman who was working in the gift shop, the one who had taken our tickets, gave them the popsicles as a gift because a goat had head butted Little One (in the stomach I think) making him cry. He was fine, and it was really nice of her and helped ease my poutiness over the other lady and the lemur feeding injustice.

Overall, I know the kids really appreciated this day and would love to go back anytime!

List of Summer Activities Post #1

I told the kids we were going to discuss and make our "Summer Bucket List." One or more of them vaguely knew what a "bucket list" was - they'd heard of it before. But they wanted further explanation. I explained that a bucket list includes the things you want to do before you die. It was met with reactions such as, "What?! We're going to die?! What do you mean?" Ultimately, I said, "Let's just call it our List of Summer Activities."

Rather than post our list, I'll post the activities as we complete them.

The middle kids were out of school a full week before their oldest brother (who got to celebrate his June birthday at school the day before school was out).

The day after those two were out of school, I gave them their first summer reading bag which contained an assortment of books I'd been finding cheaply here and there and putting away. And they started their summer reading logs. My kids like books, but they need a little motivation and encouragement to follow through.

 

After we picked Tornado up from school, we headed for lunch at Kaleisia Tea Lounge, one of my favorite places in Tampa. We brought our books and sat in the quiet room where you take off your shoes and sit on the floor. We were only able to do this because Baby (Toddler) Brother was at his preschool (which he attends a day or two a week) at the time. I wish we could sip tea and read books at Kaleisia Tea Lounge every day.



Finally, summer for all officially began on Monday the 9th when Tornado was dismissed at 11:30 a.m. I was ready for a break from being on the road every day picking up kids at designated times.

 

We chose another lunch date to celebrate summer, this time at Fresh, Healthy Café at The Shops at Wiregrass, a fun spot to eat, shop, sit, or walk around. The kids hadn't eaten there before, and it was a huge hit.

 





We joined in on a local homeschool group's park day one day this week. It was hot out! That's Little One carrying a large stick like it's a weapon. He is all about making "q, q" (gun?) sounds while attacking us with his stick or toy of the day.

 

Sis made a friend, and I caught this glimpse of them playing princess (Sis was Anna, and her friend was Elsa.) under this tree.

We also joined the group for a Pokémon party one day, which consisted of a couple of hours of Pokémon games and card trading. Tornado enjoyed making deals with people even though he really isn't that interested in Pokémon.

The whole Pokémon thing is beyond my comprehension, but it was nice for them to share their interest with other kids (who had huge binders full of cards versus my kids' measly sandwich baggies full). They had been looking forward to this play date for weeks.