Slices of Life

We decided that we'd start at Islands of Adventure; ride any last rides we wanted, finish casting spells all around Hogsmeade and then head over to Universal Studios on the Hogwarts Express and finish out the second park.   Our first stop was the Pteranodon Flyers.  Alec, Evan and myself all rode up in the sky hanging from the track like a Pteranodon.  It was lots of fun and the ride emptied out into a dinosaur themed play area.  I told the boys they could play for a little bit but reminded them that if they wanted to ride Flight of the Hippogriff again we needed to get to Hogsmeade before it got too crowded. They ran around for a while up rope bridges, through look out towers and down slides.  They  had fun until Evan thought he was lost and started to cry.  Luckily he was nearby and I could hear him so I popped into view and assured him he was fine. Pteranadon flyers The fort Learning about dinosaurs in Jurassic park ...

It's funny, but on a day like today, where I feel like a total failure, I can look back through our day and marvel at how I FEEL that way even though our day was not a failure. Perception is everything and I really did feel like we failed. We did so much today and yet I felt like it was one of those days where nothing went right, no one was in a great mood and we didn't have a wonderful day. Thinking back through our day I realize that most of those feelings belong to me. The boys were mostly happy and if asked I'm sure that they'd say they had a great day (until the very end when our Wii died).   I woke up tired and kept adding things to my list that I wanted to get done today. I don't know why I always have so much on my list and I try really hard to keep it realistic but today I just didn't.  I wanted to get in a full day of school with the boys, go run errands, bake pies, clean the house, and really the list just went on and on.   As I s...

My husband and the boys remembered our last trip to Medieval Times in Orlando  (you can read about our last trip to Medieval Times here)   and decided they really wanted to go again.  It was very last minute and we weren't even sure if any tickets would be available so we called ahead and found that we could in fact join in that night's events.  We packed up and headed out. Checking out the suits of armor I knew the boys hadn't really liked much of the food that was available last time and I wasn't sure what they were going to eat but they were beyond excited. Ian was really excited to find out that we were sitting in the red section this time and Evan loved that "our" knights symbol was the griffin.  We sat in the front row and Ian immediately made friends with the guy sitting next to him.  They chatted through the show and Ian even ended up getting an extra dessert out of it! Our knight We enjoyed watching the horses, the falcon, and...

When we woke to no rain we decided to head out and check a local spring. Florida has many natural springs and we had a ball at Rock Springs Run a few years ago ( you can read about it here ) and decided to check out another one. We first needed to get some supplies.  We always bring a picnic lunch, buy a cheap Styrofoam cooler and some ice and make a day of it. This year Ian was asking for a strainer to bring with us.  Last year's spring was pretty shallow and we found one boy searching through the small stones for shark teeth.  We stopped at the Dollar Store, Subway, and Wal-mart and we were on our way.  We arrived at Wekiwa Springs State Park and walked around to check it out.  We could rent kayaks and canoes and paddle up river/stream, swim in the spring, and they even check out the nature center. My husband and I thought it sounded like a lot of fun and looked really neat.  Ian and Alec were not so sure.  They were sa...