Swampfest

Every year, the city of Waycross has a two day celebration called "Swampfest". The days are filled with competitions, demonstrations, and vendors. During the evenings, there are live bands. For the Saturday night grand finale, the festival-goers are treated to fireworks and an outdoor concert given by the Swingin' Medallions (our favorite). Since Swampfest usually falls during the week of Spring Break, we rarely get to go (because we are usually out of town). This year, however, we were in town and able to attend. It was so much fun! Granny Mel was visiting, so she and I took the kids. It didn't take long for us to spot my dad, brother, and two of my sisters. My brother Sam was working the door as a bouncer at KDs. We stopped to say a little something to him, and daddy went inside for a moment. Seeing how uncle Sam was at the door and Papa was going in, Owen thought that he should go in, too. He tried, and he got bounced- by his own uncle! What's that about? Getting bounced didn't hurt Owen's self esteem, though. It wasn't long before both and Olivia were cutting a rug on the "dancefloor". The kids had such a good time. We stayed for one entire set by the band and for the fireworks that followed. It was lots of fun.

Spring at the Zoo

The kids and I took a trip to the Jacksonville Zoo during Spring Break last week. We haven't been to the zoo in about two years, and I must admit that I am impressed with the improvements that continue to be made. It is really becoming a great place. Since our last visit, the zoo has added several new attractions and exhibits- including a magellenic penguin exhibit with an underwater viewing area just for kids. The zoo itself is arranged in "loops"- most named for the different continents. My favorite loop is "South America". The jaguar exhibit is fantastic (kind of has to be since the jaguar is the mascot of Jacksonville football team).






















I always enjoy seeing which animals the kids are the most interested in. It changes with each trip. On this particular day, the kids were most impressed by the penguins, reptiles (all), and gorillas. The silverback was probably the favorite animal of the day because when we walked up he had his butt straight up in the air and pointed at the viewing glass. The kids thougt this was hilarious, and insisted that we see "the gorilla with his booty in the air" from several different viewing platforms and angles. I'm actually glad that we did because that gave us more time on the "Great Apes" loop. It was great to be in this part of the zoo on this particular day because the siamangs were going crazy. I did not know that they could be so loud- and I learned that they have little puffy things (like a frog) on their chins that puff out when they shreik. It seemed like everyone visiting the zoo was crowded around this exhibit because their noise and antics were simply amazing. I felt like I was in a jungle in Africa with wild, crazy monkeys all around me.




Before leaving the zoo, we visited the kids water-play area. We didn't bring bathing suites, but the kids still wanted to get in and splash a little. I said that it would be okay, but told them not to get too wet because we didn't have extra clothes. My advice was totally ignored. Thank goodness it was sunny enough to dry out their clothes before we left the zoo.

Silver Springs

This past week was our school system's Spring Break (hooray!). I kept the kids home with me all week and we had several "adventures". Our first adventure was to Silver Springs Park in Ocala, Florida. This is a nature park where the main attraction is- as the name suggests- a natural spring. According to our tour guide, the water that "springs" out of the ground here is 98% pure. I believe it- you could see straight to the bottom. There were several things to do at the park. The kids' favorite was the glass bottom boat tour of the springs. Their eyes were glued to the glass window for the duration of the tour. They would get so excited whenever they spotted fish or turtles. The weather was beautiful during our visit, and so there were several people kayaking in the springs.

Silver Springs offers a variety of activities including a jeep safari ride. For this activity, we loaded into a little trailer pulled by a jeep and ventured into "wild" florida to see various animals. The animals weren't that great, but the jeep ride was fun. The road was good and bumpy, and the kids liked getting bounced around in their seats. After the safari, we visited some of the other animal exhibits. We walked up to the giraffe pen during a designated snack time, and Owen was able to feed some crackers to the giraffe. Olivia wouldn't go near the giraffe. We also were able to see the alligator show. At the end of the show, the kids were able to touch an small alligator.

A Lesson in Life at the Easter Egg Hunt

This past Saturday was the Easter egg hunt at our church. It had been raining off and on all morning on Saturday, and I was afraid that the hunt was going to be cancelled. Thankfully, the skies cleared up for about three hours in the afternoon- just long enough for us to hunt for eggs outside. Although the weather did not cause the event to be cancelled, it did effect attendance. Still, the kids had a great time. The "hunters" were divided into two groups. Since neither of my kids are in Kindergarten, they were both in the younger group. Olivia was actually the oldest kid in the younger group, so she had no trouble getting a lot of eggs into her basket. She found the most eggs in the group, and she found one of the four "prize" eggs. Owen didn't find the most eggs nor did he find a prize egg. This event turned out to be a "learning opportunity" for Owen. If he looks like he's crying in the pictures below, that's because he is. He got upset first because he didn't find a prize egg. Olivia gave him hers so that he wouldn't be upset. This seemed to cheer him up a bit- that is until Olivia won the big chocolate bunny for having the most eggs. Owen then started crying again because he didn't get the grand prize. What Owen got instead were two lectures from Mama about sportsmanship (just what he wanted, I'm sure). Hopefully, he understood what I said and took it to heart. We still have one more egg hunt to go, and I'm hoping that we won't have this issue again.

My Spidey Sense is Tingling: Must be Owen's Birthday

Attention all bad guys, there is a new superhero in town. He's smart, tough, and four years old- so watch out. That's right, my little "superhero" is FOUR years old! I can't believe it. Owen and Olivia have recently discovered the old Spider Man cartoons, and they are hooked. So, it came as no surprise when Owen wanted a Spider Man cake and party. Not only did Owen get the Spider Man cake and decorations, but he also got a brand new Spider Man bike from Brian and I. He has already been around the neighborhood on it a few time with his daddy, and it is a big improvement over his old, smaller bike. Owen also received a lot of nice clothes and toys at his party. We had the party at Gigi and Papa's house this year. We ate pizza, opened gifts, and sang Happy Birthday to Owen. After cake and ice cream, Papa surprised the kids with a hay ride. This was a hit with everyone.

Swamp Run '12

Remember how I said that I would be doing a lot of running posts this spring? Well, here's some more proof that I was telling the truth. This morning, I participated in the Okefenokee Swamp Run 10K. This is a race that Brian and I usually take the kids to so that they can do the fun run. This didn't happen today because the weather called for thunderstorms, and we didn't want to drag the kids all the way out to the Swamp Park only to have them not be able to run. As it turned out, the weather was great (and I was mad at myself all morning for not having taken the kids to the race). Oh well. I still went because I was determined to run- rain or shine. It turned out to be neither rain nor shine but very cloudy and humid. The race was held at the Swamp Park again- and the gators were not the things to fear this year. The things to fear were the mosquitos. They were terrible. I even had one fly in my mouth while I was running. Yuck! Although these pests were at every turn, I enjoyed the run. I was delighted to see that the course had been changed. The race is now officially a trail run. I love those! My final time was 53:53, and that earned 1st in my age group. But, this is not the best news. Every single runner who was in our "group" placed!

Davis Farm Field Trip

Olivia's Pre-K class took a field trip to Davis Farm last week. This field trip wrapped up the unit on farm animals. The Davis family farm has an interesting hodgepodge of animals- including llamas, emus, peacocks, as well as "traditional" livestock. The kids were allowed to pet or feed several of the animals, but Olivia said that she only touched the emu. I think that some of the others freaked her out a little. Aunt Quincy went on the trip as Olivia's chaperone, and she said that all of the kids had a ball. Below are some of the pictures taken by Quincy during the field trip.