Our "Minnie" Vacation

The kids and I decided to take a quick, 2-night "Minnie" vacation to attend Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party over fall break.   We were joined by Mandy and Jaxson- our friends from church.  (This is what happens when Bible study lets out early and you have to wait on your kids to get out of their lesson- conversations happen and Disney trips get planned)  It was Jaxson's first time at Disney, and I just loved watching his face light up over and over again.  We arrived in the early afternoon on Monday and checked in to our hotel, which was located right across the street from Disney Springs. We freshened up a bit and headed out to do some looking around at the stores.

 I haven't been to Disney Springs since it was called "Downtown Disney".  Some things were the same, but a lot had changed.  One new addition was the amphicar tours.  These cars go both on land and in water and the tour takes you around the lake at Disney Springs.  The kids thought the cars looked cool and there was no line, so we took the tour.  It was nice.

 After our amphicar tour, we walked over to Rainforest Cafe for our dinner reservation.  The kids haven't eaten here since they were small, so it was like new to them.  At the end of our meal we ordered a volcano cake in honor of Olivia's birthday which was the next day.

 After our meal, we did some more shopping.  We all got various souvenirs, Christmas ornaments, and Olivia got a Vera Bradley purse as a birthday gift.

There was a lot of live entertainment all around the Springs.  One particular performer caught our eye.  He was a DJ playing music and hosting games that onlookers could participate in.  The kids wanted to play the games, so we stopped here for about 45 minutes so that they could.  Our Disney Springs visit was a great start to our vacation.

September So Far

 September has been a busy month for us.  A lot of clubs and activities are now in full swing, and we are running here and there after school on most afternoons.  The month started off with Maren's dedication at church on Labor Day weekend.  I can't remember the last time that our whole family attended the same church at the same time, so it was nice to all be together.

While I have been spending most of my weekends at home doing tasks around the house, the kids have been going here and there.  They have attended a couple of  birthday parties and other events.

Both kids are doing robotics again this year.  Following the success of last year's teams, the elementary and middle school programs have grown exponentially.  The elementary coach said she sent out 28 team invitations and every single kid accepted.  Owen is one of the older kids on the elementary team, and he is excited to be on the "A" robot this year.  

Olivia has been working a lot with her team as well.  For the most part, the student teams have complete control of the robot design concept and execution at the middle school level.  This is different from the elementary level where students have more guidance in what type of robot to build.  Her team has come up with an interesting concept.  I am curious to see how successful (or not) her robot is this year.

In other news, Olivia is really liking middle school.  In addition to her regular classes, she has two exploratory classes- which are coding and band.  She has some experience in coding because of robotics, so she is really doing well in there.  She also likes band.  Her instrument is the french horn, and she's getting better at it (although we still have a ways to go).

I have made both of my kids take at least one year of cotillion  Olivia attended last year, and while she liked the balls she ultimately decided not to enroll in the second year of classes.  Owen began the first year classes, and he loves it so far.  He has already stated that he wants to do cotillion for as many years as possible.  I think that it made a difference that Claire and many of Owen's friends from school are in his class whereas last year Olivia only knew one other kid.  

September has certainly been busy, but it was hot and so I'm glad it's nearing the end.  We are looking forward to fall and cooler weather.

Reputation Tour

The kids and I had such a great time last weekend.  I received tickets for Taylor Swift's Reputation tour for Christmas, and the date finally rolled around.  This tour was every bit as good as her 1989 tour which Brian and I saw back in 2015.  Taylor Swift definitely knows how to put on a show.  There were large props, light up wrist bands, great choreography, and a fantastic music set.  The concert took place in the still new Mercedes Benz stadium- this was our first time here.  Wow, what a nice venue.  Taylor opened with "Are You Ready For It", closed with "This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things", and sang many of our favorites in between.  The kids and I were dancing and singing along throughout the entire show.  We are glad that we arrived early enough to catch the opening acts- Charlie XCX and Camilla Cabello- who were also very good.  This, along with the other Taylor Swift concert that I've attended, rank as my top two concert experiences ever.  

Since we were already in Atlanta, we decided to hit up White Water on Sunday morning before we headed home.  White Water is the stand-alone Six Flags water park, and we've never been there. We arrived early and stayed for about two and a half hours.  It wasn't busy when we arrived, so we were able to knock out a lot of the slides in a short amount of time.  This was a nice park.  It was shady and had a good variety of slides.  The kids and I all agree that we rank it the third best water park that we've been to after Schlitterbaun and Aquatica.  We were able to use our Six Flags passes here, so I didn't spend a dime in the park.  This brings our season pass total to:

Number of visits: 4

Number of parks visited: 4

The Big Chicken (KFC) was literally right down the road from White Water.  This is one one of those weird, well-known "only-in-your-state" places that always make the kitschy count-downs.  You can't tell from the picture, but the bird's beak opens and closes and its eyes roll around.  It was regular KFC fare, but they did have a little museum-like info area with history about the restaurant and inside.   After our meal, we began our journey home.  It really was a great weekend.

Live and Counting Crows

 The first full week of school ended on a high note as Brian and I attended a Live and Counting Crows concert at Daily's Place in Jacksonville.  These are two favorite bands from my younger days, and they haven't lost much with time.  Live sounded exactly like they did in the nineties, and the singer for Counting Crows still has a voice as well.  Brian and I had  seats that were front-and-center, and we had a fantastic time.

Movin' on Up to Middle School

Another school year has begun, and the big news here is that we have a middle schooler.  Olivia has had a great start to her year.  A lot of her friends are in her classes, and she likes all of her teachers.  She is really excited to be taking band and will be learning to play the french horn.  She is also on the middle school robotics team and has already attended a few practices.  I hope that the whole year goes as well for her as these first few weeks has.

Owen has also had a great start.  He is in fifth grade, so it is his turn to "rule the school".  He likes his teachers and has done well in his classes so far.   

Summer Break 2018

Well, it's that time again.  I have already gone back to work and the kids start school next week.  Summer break is on its last legs.  It has been a good one.  Even though we spent most days around the house, we were able to squeeze in some fun along the way.  Here is a breakdown of how we spent our summer vacation.













The city offered free snow cones in the park on the first day of summer.  That was a good start.

 This summer has been a scorcher, so we tried to stay indoors as much as possible.  We were able to squeeze in some hiking at Little River Canyon National Preserve on our way to Space Camp in early June.

As you know, the Valdosta Toys R Us closed its doors in April.  Brian drove to work at the store in Jacksonville through the month of June, and he had July off with us. He has never had this much time off with us in the summer. He was able to do things with us (like go bowling), and he was able to do things that he wanted to do (like play golf).  We also celebrated his birthday in July.  It will be back to work for him in August, but it was really nice to have him home with us this summer.

The kids learned how to play tennis at a night camp in June.  They were taught the basics of how to play, and both of them really liked the game.

They also participated in the summer reading program again this year, and they were able to attend two of the maker camps- one for animation and the other for perler beads.  We are lucky to have such fantastic programs available to us through our library. 

One of my favorite parts of being off is that I have more time available to spend with family.  We went up to visit Cassie, Nick, and the boys in the early part of summer and got to be some of the first to try out their pool.  

Poor Maren, she never gets any attention.





















We got to spend a lot of time with our friends this summer.  Olivia and her friend Hannah have been planning a sleepover since April.  The big thing that they wanted to do at the sleepover was build a box fort.  This has been a big deal.  One night in May I caught Olivia up after bedtime with a flashlight.  I thought she was playing on her ipod (which is a no-no), but she wasn't.  She was up after hours drafting a plan for the box fort.  Like I said, this was a big deal.  Hannah's mom Kim spent weeks collecting boxes for the fort.  The big night came and it did not disappoint.  Somehow, the whole thing took on a life of its own and became a 24 hour box fort challenge.  The girls stayed in the fort for a whole 24 hour period (they boxed in the bathroom too).  While this is not something that I would want to do, it was apparently a lot of fun for the girls.

 Owen also got to spend some time with his buddies this summer.  One of the coolest things that he got to do was try an escape room.  Their crew made it through and were rewarded with snow cones afterward.

I spent a part of my summer cooking and cleaning the house.  I don't know how many pots of peanuts I boiled.  My kids love boiled peanuts- they can eat a whole pot in a day.  

All in all, we had a great summer.  We rested, recovered, and now feel ready to begin this new school year which is ahead of us.