Olivia's Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Olivia's class recently took a field trip to a local pumpkin patch. There they participated in many "farm-themed" activities.  Olivia's favorites were the corn pit, ninja warrior course, bouncy "thing", and feeding the goats.  Olivia was chaperoned by Granny Mel who also had a good time.  I actually sent a camera on the field trip with Olivia so that she could take pictures, but when I went to look at them I saw that the only pictures she had taken were selfies of herself and her friends on the bus- not exactly what I had in mind when I sent the camera.

Owen's St. Augustine Field Trip

Owen recently took a field trip to St. Augustine with his WINGS class.  During the trip they saw an IMAX movie about Lewis and Clark, took a narrated trolley tour of historic St. Augustine, and visited Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth.  Owen was chaperoned by the lovely Gigi, who took pictures.  Both Owen and Gigi reported that they had a great time.

Halloween, I choose you!

It has finally happened.  The kids have reached the age where they want to pick the theme of our family Halloween costumes.  And so, we dressed as Pokémon characters this year.  At first I wasn't sure how this theme would come out, but it actually ended up being pretty cute.  If you can't tell, Owen and Brian are the Pokémon trainers (Ash Ketchum and Brock) while Olivia and I are Pokémon (Eevie and Pikachu).  We had a lot of fun trick-or-treating with our family.  The inflatable Pikachu costume was hard to walk around in, so I spent a lot of time riding on the back of Kelly's golf cart.  Pikachu got a lot of attention, though.  I took pictures with, high-fived and hugged dozens of kids as we went around the neighborhood.  I even had a couple of not-so-nice kids come up and punch my Pikachu costume in the back (one kid did so repeatedly).  They better be glad that I could barely walk in or see out of my costume.  Our crew was successful in acquiring loads of treats and spent the last part of the evening swapping candy.  I love Halloween.  It is definitely one of my favorite days of the year.

Soccer

The kids have just completed their soccer season, and they really enjoyed it.  Our local rec department began a soccer program this year, so we played with them.  The league was well-run and the teams were pretty evenly matched.  The games were always exciting.  Owen played for the black team in the 10u division.  He was the goalie and really enjoyed this position.

Olivia played for the white team in the 12u division and played both offensive and defensive positions at times.

The kids really enjoyed playing this fall, and are interested in playing again in the future.

Olivia is 11

 Olivia's birthday occurred while we were at SeaWorld, so we celebrated with family this weekend.  Olivia received many nice and much-needed dress clothes.  She chose a strawberry cheesecake as her birthday cake, and it was delicious.  I am so pleased with the sweet girl that Olivia is becoming.  Here are a few facts about my little princess at age 11:

• She loves to read and write.  These are her favorite subjects in school this year.  
• Some of her favorite book series are the "I Survived" and "Wimpy Kid" books.  She also reads a lot of non-fiction.
• She decides whether or not she will wear an article of clothing based on how it feels-  she still refuses to wear jeans.
• She will take a million baths a day (and use a different towel every time) if I don't watch her.  
• She likes to watch film theory videos on Youtube and has gotten into gaming and comics as well.  She prefers DC to Marvel.
• She likes to have her back scratched. (She asks me to scratch her back every single day).
• She is very loving.  We've given her the nickname "Eileen" (I lean) because she is always trying to snuggle in (lean) right up under us. 

We sure do love our girl.  She is so precious to us.

SeaWorld Day 2

We weren't able to see everything at SeaWorld in one day, so we returned to that park on our last day of vacation.  By spending two days at the park we were able to see all that we wanted to see and were also able to return to some of our favorite attractions for a second time.

Olivia's favorite animal in the world is the beluga whale, so we spent lots of time watching the two on hand in the Wild Arctic building.

We also signed up for the Behind the Scenes Tour, and it was fantastic.  We met near the manatee area, and our guide told us about the many challenges the manatees face and what SeaWorld does to help them.  We also visited the manatee intensive care area, and saw some patients.  Some of them had been struck by boats and were in grave condition.  I really felt bad for these animals and am glad that SeaWorld is capable of helping them.

We were then escorted through employee-only areas to see other rescue and rehabilitation facilities.  We also learned about the water quality and filtration systems at SeaWorld.  It was very interesting.

 We made a stop at one tank to touch a bamboo shark.






















One cool thing that we learned was that there are many animals at SeaWorld that the public never sees.  The dolphins that are rescued from the wild, for example, are housed in an entirely different building and are never mixed in with the SeaWorld dolphins because they have viruses and bacteria that the SeaWorld dolphins aren't accustomed to.  SeaWorld also has a bunch of magellanic penguins that do not appear in the regular penguin exhibit because they live in a warmer climate then other types of penguins.  The only way to see the magellanic penguins is to do the tour that we were on.  For the grand finale of the tour, we got to touch a penguin.  Owen loves penguins.  Penguins and pandas are his favorite animals.  I will never forget the expression on his face when the tour guide said that we would be touching a penguin.  He could barely contain himself. 

This day at SeaWorld wrapped up our Orlando vacation.  We had a great time.

Busch Gardens

On our fourth day in Orlando, we made a side trip to Tampa to visit Busch Gardens.  I haven't been to this park since Brian and I were first married, and it has changed a lot.  It is still as good as it always was, but many of the old rides have been replaced with new ones and several of the animal habitats have been updated.  We enjoyed all of the roller coasters, but our favorite was a diving coaster called Sheikra.   Another stand-out was the drop tower because it tilted you forward before the drop. Once again, we are glad to have visited in October- lovely weather and light crowds.

 The animal habitats at Busch Gardens are large and as nice if not nicer than many zoo's.  A lot of the animals were hanging out by the viewing window on the day that we visited so we got a close up view of lions...

 ...and tigers...

 ...and kangaroos.  They let you pet and feed the kangaroos, which I have never seen done before.  We were all over that.  Our overall impression of Busch Gardens is that it is a nice park.  It appears that they take good care of their animals, and that is always a big plus.