Spring Break Fun

The kids and I packed up our bikes and headed to the metropark to hit the bike path today. As we headed there, the fog was just lifting from the fields, and it looked so beautiful. We had fun on the bike path. We biked a path that was just over a couple miles long, enjoyed the scenery and wildlife, paused to play on the playground, and explored the solar/wind energy thingys. On our ride we saw a red bellied woodpecker (they actually have white bellies), an Eastern bluebird, some fat squirrels, and heard (but didn't see) lots of frogs. We also saw this killdeer who was protecting her 4 little speckled eggs.

Danielle is chasing Tyler with a worm in the bottom picture.

Tuesday is usually my day to clean, and fortunately the kids were inspired to assist this afternoon. I'm not sure I'll actually be able to see out the bedroom windows they Windexed, but they weren't fighting and they did actually do some good. It has been nice to have the kids home this week (so far!).

Right to Read Week

The kids are celebrating Right to Read Week at school this week. They're supposed to keep track of the books they read and document their time. Tyler is up to 6 hours, and Danielle is up to 1 1/2 hours.


Tyler just likes to read. Most of the time I don't have to ask or encourage him. I just need to be sure I've got a good selection of books waiting for him on the end table. He read 5 of the 8 Captain Underpants books this weekend. He also finished the 3rd Harry Potter book and moved on to the 4th. He's reading the Fudge series by Judy Blume at school right now, but his favorite books are the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. I think he's read all of them at least twice. In this picture he's reading a Ripley's Believe It or Not book. He really enjoys non-fiction.


Danielle is doing a great job learning to read and is working very hard. It's hard for me to tell just how well she's doing because Tyler was so far ahead at her age. She can also easily memorize a book after reading it only once, so it's hard for me to tell what she really knows vs what she has memorized. I try to constantly change her supply of library books to keep her on her toes. She's still reading the Pre-Level 1 or Level 1 books but is quickly expanding her reading vocabulary. She especially likes reading about animals. I'm looking forward to her becoming a little stronger at reading because there are so many good "girly" books I think she'll really enjoy.


Anyway, both kids are doing well on their charts. I've been teasing them that maybe they'll both earn an "I love books" sign this year.

Cub Scout Fun

Tyler's Cub Scout pack had a cake auction fund raiser a couple weeks ago. It was kind of silly because we were auctioning off the cakes to ourselves. I mean, we're already paying for everything; it seemed kind of pointless to be trying to raise funds from the people who are already supporting the activities. Anyway, there were 34 cakes auctioned off and the pack made around $3000! This was our cake. It was middle of the road as far as decorations and such. There were some that were quite plain and/or ugly, and others that were decorated quite nicely. Our cake sold for $75. One cake sold for $205, and a couple others sold for $150. There really wasn't anything special about those cakes. The parents were just trying to buy their kids' cakes back and were getting into bidding wars with the other parents. We didn't expect the cakes to sell for so much and came unprepared. We ended up with a rather ugly $30 cake (which I refused to try because it was so ugly).

At the fundraiser Tyler was awarded his Wolf patch, which is what he's been working toward this entire school year. (I snatched this pic from someone's FB page since I didn't take my camera.)

This past weekend Tyler's pack went on a 3 mile hike together at a state park. Danielle had a birthday party to attend, so just the boys went. I sent my old camera with Tyler. For some reason, he was obsessed with taking pictures of signs. I counted 16 pictures of various signs! The no pets sign was his favorite, though. He also took a couple pictures of Ron's new (to him) car. I like the close up of the "RL" because you can clearly see Tyler's reflection. I think Ron took the camera at some point and got some pictures of the scenery. We've never been to this state park, but it looks beautiful. I'm sure this is some place we'll visit together this summer. The boys went to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid that evening, so they had a very nice father/son bonding weekend.

Enjoying the Sunshine

It has been so beautiful this week. The temps have been in the 60s by midday, the skies have been blue, and the sun has been shining. It has been a perfect week to be outside.

Danielle and I headed to the park with Clara this morning to enjoy the sunshine. We had a nice walk. I let her use my old camera. The first 2 pictures are mine. The next 4 are ones she picked for me to post, and here's what she had to say about each one:

These rocks were very shiny when I was up close. I liked the lake the way that it was behind the rocks.

I tried to get a picture of the geese but they kept moving. It was very hard and when they stopped I got a good picture.

My dog seems to like the water here. She was wet when she got out of the water.

This is a very pretty stream and the reason I like it is because of the rocks. It is pretty!

This afternoon we played with chalk in the driveway. Danielle wanted me to trace her, then she traced me. She forgot to trace my head, so she added a giant one afterward. This is what I turned into. We had a nice day. I will miss her next year when she's in school all day, every day. (Sigh.) School sure gets in the way.

And Still More Disney

We spent 2 more days at the Magic Kingdom. The 2nd day we were there, it stormed early in the morning but stopped shortly before the parks opened. It threatened to rain most of the day and was a little windy and cool, but the park was EMPTY! Notice the empty seats on some of the rides in the pictures. We walked on to almost every ride all day long. We didn't have to wait for anything, which you know is very rare if you've ever been to Disney. When we added it all up at the end of the day, we rode 36 rides that day! Ron & Tyler rode Space Mountain 6 times. It was a really good day.

We also had 2 sit-down meals that day. For lunch we went to the Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge. It was a lot of fun. The waiters are kind of rude (but not in a mean way). The kids thought our waiter was hilarious. When Tyler dropped his fork, our waiter brought him a giant one. When I needed a refill, I was given a giant one. The kids at the table behind us were being a little rowdy, so another waiter pushed them around the room in their chairs. It was a fun place. And even better, the food was great! It was only one of 2 places we ate on our whole trip that I would want to visit again for the food.

For dinner that night we ate at the Crystal Palace, which was a character buffet in the MK. We saw Tigger, Pooh, Piglet, & Eeyore. We didn't go there necessarily for the characters, but I have to say, Eeyore has got to be the cutest Disney character! He looked so cuddly.








On our last day we went to the Grand Floridian to have dinner at 1900 Park Fare. The hotel is absolutely beautiful, and the dinner was fun. Cinderella, Prince Charming, the step-sisters, and Cinderella's step-mother were all there. Danielle got to "waltz" with Prince Charming, and Tyler waltzed with Cinderella. It was cute and was a very nice way to finish off our vacation.

Still More Disney

We arrived in Florida early enough on Saturday to spend a couple hours at the Magic Kingdom that evening. We enjoyed dinner at Tony's, rode a couple rides, and enjoyed the SpectroMagic Light Parade.

We spent a full day at the Magic Kingdom on Monday. We rode some rides and then enjoyed lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table at the castle. Danielle (& Tyler) got to see Cinderella, Snow White, Jasmine, Aurora, & Belle. After lunch we rode a couple more rides and watched the afternoon parade. By that time, we had all broken a sweat, so we figured this would be the day to let the kids try swimming.

This was another time I was thankful to be at Disney with older children! To sum it up, I watched a mom hesitate and then carefully ease herself in the water with her 3 year old daughter. She looked at me and said, "I really don't want to do this, but since I paid a BILLION dollars for this vacation, we're all getting in !" It was warm out, but not warm enough for sane minded adults to swim! We were able to sit on the side and watch the kids swim. Danielle didn't last long, but Tyler enjoyed it.

We finished off the evening with a couple more rides and dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern. Our dinner reservations were close to the park's closing time, so by the time we left, the park was pretty empty. Without all the people around, we were able to spend some time enjoying the window displays. We've been to Disney 4 years in a row, but this was the first time we really noticed them. Some of them were really neat.

More MK pics to come...