A Fun Florida Weekend & Luke's First Fieldtrip

As I mentioned in my last post, we finally went to the beach! We met up with Marta and Frank in Melbourne. The high was in the mid-60s, so we did not anticipate the kids would go in the water. Everyone wore pants and sweatshirts and it was a little cool at the beach, but not too bad. Everyone wanted to put their feet in the water. After that, no one stayed dried. Luke was completely soaked. The rest of us got wet to varying degrees. I learned that no matter what time of year we visit the beach, we should bring a change of clothes. But, we had so much fun! We brought all our sand toys and the adults sat on the beach and enjoyed the sound of the crashing waves while the kids built fun creations. The girls also collected shells that they are going to use to make crafts. We walked along with Frank, who unfortunately did not find anything with his metal detector and had lunch at a restaurant on the beach. In all, we stayed for about 4 hours. We could have stayed longer, but it did eventually start to feel a little chilly. And, we had our next event to go to--the neighborhood fall party.

The party was nice, they had bouncy houses and a catered dinner. There was a hay ride and a clown/dog show. The kids had fun, and I enjoyed getting a free meal.

Sunday, we visited Fort Christmas. It was nice to see a little bit of history. It has a collection of houses from the 1800s and early 1900s. It also had a little school house that was in use from  1906-1969. They had some written stories from the schools attendees and it was cute and interesting. The Fort was originally built in 1837 by the United States Army. But, the current building was recreated in 1977.  The fort was a supply fort used during a war against the Seminole Indians and was used for less than a year. But, it was really neat to see and we enjoyed being outside and exploring. The area was free and also had a playground and pavilion.

This was my only picture, inside the one-room school. Luke read us a "Dick and Jane" book.

From there, the kids had their first visit to a Steak and Shake. We all enjoyed the Seasonal Shakes (White Chocolate and Peppermint). The weekend was proclaimed a great success!

The week itself was just okay. Except for Tuesday. Tuesday, I got to go with Luke on his first ever field trip! We went to the Orlando Science Center. It was overall very fun. They had a good parent/student ratio, so I was only in charge of Luke and one other boy. Both were very well-behaved and cooperative. The only problem was there wasn't enough time to explore. We got there and watched a show about electricity. Then, we had about 10 minutes in a dinosaur area, then it was time for lunch. After lunch, we watched a one-hour documentary in their dome theater about the moon landing. It was full of actual video and was interesting, however, it was an hour. And, these were kindergartners. But, most did very well. Following the movie, we had about 15 minutes in another play area and then another 10 in the final play area. It was structured by the museum and I wish they had tailored it a bit better to the 5/6 year old crowd. But, all the kids still had a lot of fun and Luke proclaimed it "awesome." We will definitely have to go back and explore a little more. I was super glad that I got to experience his first field trip!

This was a fun one, they had a camera and life-sized dinosaurs would "walk" right next to you. It was interesting to see scale.

First Half of November

The weather has finally been a little cooler! As a direct result, I am finding myself more happy in Florida. I don't mind the heat, but it really did seem to drag on forever. Next year we will know there is an end in sight, so maybe we won't feel as forlorn.

Anna and Kara both won their class spelling bees and get to go on to their grade-wide events. For Anna, she had to do a paper test of 10 words (she got 9 right, the highest in her class). Then, the top 5 in her class from the written exam had to do an oral spelling bee. She only got one word--misdemeanor. She spelled it correctly and somehow finished first in her class. Kara's class just did the oral portion and she won in her class too. They were both very excited. They had made flash cards and studied and would have been very disappointed to not advance. Hopefully, the next competition will be a good experience.

Thomas and I had a date day. We were off from work on Veteran's Day, but the kids still had school. We had planned to go to Target and out to lunch. Then, at the last minute, I decided to spend 15 minutes trying to get fast passes at Animal Kingdom. I managed to get three in a row--Flight of Passage, Everest, and Dinosaur. So, we changed our plans. We got peppermint soft serve and had a great time. But, somehow Thomas lost his license and credit card. They still haven't turned up. No one ever tried using the credit card, so we aren't sure what could have happened. He is the one who always holds everyone's stuff (cargo shorts!), sot the whole thing is super unusual. He gave it 5 days and they never turned up. So, yesterday he went to go get another license. He went through the whole DMV process. Then, when it was time to pay, he gave them his back-up credit card. However, it had my name on it and they wouldn't accept it (and, they weren't the least bit nice about it). Somehow, we had switched cards. He has another appointment on Monday, so hopefully it will get taken care of. Oh, and, I figured out why twice FOP has been awesome and twice it has been mediocre. It all depends on where you sit! If you are on the bottom, it is just okay. If you are in the middle or top--completely amazing!

We had a family date night last night. We went to Epcot Food and Wine. And, we had the best time! We let the kids each choose 2 items (they ended up sharing so that they could taste more). Everyone was patient and cooperative and nice--a very rare unanimous trifecta! We rode Test Track and Spaceship Earth and saw some of a BBMak concert. We also saw a super entertaining German Polka Band. It was a great night! We actually had to wear sweatshirts!

Lest you think all we do is theme parks, we are getting ready to make our first beach trip this morning. We are going to meet Frank and Marta in Melbourne and test out Frank's new metal detector. Should be fun! Although, the high today is 64 (significantly cooler than the average temperature this time of year of 77). So, no one will be going in the water. But, we think it will be nice to just walk along the beach. This trip has been postponed due to rain a few times, so I am excited it is finally happening.

Work has been incredibly busy for me. That has not been fun, although the days are going by quickly. Unfortunately, I feel like I am not doing a good job. That is also not fun. But, like the weather, there is an end in sight. My last big event will be December 5th. Then, it should be calm for a month or two. But, I am not looking forward to the next three work weeks. Normally, I take off the week of Thanksgiving, I can't even do that this year, which is disappointing.

And, that is the quick summary for the first half of November.

Halloween 2019!

Halloween has turned into such an event. I have probably written about this in years past, but it is longer a one night activity. Now there are seemingly pre-activities for the pre-activites. Being new to the area, we tried a couple out. We did trick-or-treating at Sea World and went to the YMCA Spooktacular. We planned on going to the big library one Saturday morning and when I was looking up the hours, I saw they were having a Halloween event the same day we were already planning to go. So, we did that too. All of it was fun and the kids enjoyed the massive amounts of candy they they received.

Here are a few pictures from the library. The kids did a scavenger hunt and there were several themed rooms with games and crafts:

The Addams Family room

In this room, they had to find the name of the Pirate (One-Eyed Willy). I appreciated the nostalgia factor.

Like their former elementary school in Maryland, they gave kids the option to go in costume as their favorite book character. Unfortunately, this only extended to K-3rd graders. Kara's classroom did nothing, in fact, she had a difficult Science test that day, so she was not at all excited to go to school. But, Luke was. And, he wanted to be Pete the Cat. He also said he wanted to be Pete the Cat for actual Halloween, so I started looking for a costume. The only one I could find was $60 for his size! The other sizes were $40, which is still ridiculous, but more palatable. I imagine his size is the target age range for Pete fans, so it made me mad and I vowed to never give the company making it a $1 of my money! I get supply and demand, but I also get greedy and to me, that definitely seemed more like that latter. In revenge, I opted to make his costume. I found a simple hat pattern, dusted off the old sewing machine and went to work making his hat and tail. Grandpa Frank made his shirt and we bought some blue long johns for his fur. He was very happy and I think it turned out cute. Plus, it was fun for me to have a project to work on. Especially one that was very simple.

Frank and Marta drove up to deliver the shirt and have dinner with us. Luke is introducing her to Pete the Cat.

The actual day was Thursday. I teleworked so that I could go into Luke's classroom and volunteer for a couple of hours. It was exhausting! Kindergarten teachers are a special, amazing breed! But, it was nice to meet some of his classmates and spend time in his classroom. I also had lunch with him and then with Kara.

We had a Halloween themed dinner of bats and cobwebs (baked bowtie pasta and mozzarella) and then started trick-or-treating. The neighborhood page said it was from 6-8:20, so we were out at 6. But, no one else was. It didn't really ramp up until probably 6:30. Maybe because it was 100 degrees out. Well, not quite, but almost. It was 90, with a "feels like" temperature of 95. At 6pm. Ugh! It was another record-breaking day (the high was 91, the previous was 90 in 1922). In fact, it was a record breaking May, June and October. I am so very tired of the hot, hot, weather. This weekend has been a little nicer, but there are a few more days forecasted in the high 80s next week. I am starting to think we will never see a high below 78 (the lowest high we've experienced since we got here at the end of May).

But, I digress. Jack and Kara went off with their new friends for the first hour. Anna was invited, but wanted to stay with me and Luke. Thomas stayed home and handed out candy. The neighborhood was really decked out with lots of well-decorated houses. My favorite was themed to "The Purge" and had music playing, spotlights, a crashed motorcycle and other decorations. It was very impressive. Lots of adults were dressed up and it felt festive and fun. Plus, since the yards are smaller, we could go to a lot of houses. The only drawback was it was so stinking hot! Even after the sun went down were pouring in sweat.

In other news, Kara has strep throat. Again!!!! Since late-August this will be her second case. Luke has had it twice and Jack once. It is crazy! I think this will be the most antibiotics they have ever taken in a single year (in fact, if we took out the year Anna had the recurrent strep, we could probably combine the last 6 years and this would still win). I try to avoid the doctor, and maybe it would go away on its own, but they keep having bad cases where they can't eat or do anything. Kara was dizzy and didn't even want to stand up. It is hard to let something like that continue. We gave it one day to improve, but I took a look on Saturday and brought her in when they opened. And, in a case of terrible timing, on Halloween night (the night before she got sick) 4 of us drank from the same water bottle. Anna was smart enough to bring some nice ice water in a large thermos. We just couldn't help ourselves! How could I have guessed someone was infectious. It is so frustrating! Now, I am just biding my time, confident that Luke and Anna (and maybe me) will be coming down with it again in near future (fortunately, Jack and Thomas are safe, at least from exposure by water bottle). I asked the doctor why everyone keeps getting sick here, if there are different germs for which we need to build our immunity. She said that it wasn't an immunity issue, but that allergies are generally worse in Florida, leading to more mucus in the throat and more places for the bacteria to stick and fester. So, umm, yay for that?

I took a picture to show Kara and thought I would share the grossness here. At least you can't see how disgusting the tonsils looked. The doctor said she wished she had a student with her, because it was a textbook look for strep.

Friday, I took Jack to the pediatric orthopedist. They did another set of x-rays and said he should be free of the cast in two weeks. And, they gave him a waterproof cast. No more excuses to avoid the shower! They took off the old cast to do the x-rays and there was a lot of bruising on his wrist. There was no visible bruising when they put it on, and now it has been more than 2 weeks since the break, so I was surprised. Fortunately, he said it doesn't hurt.

The office was in the downtown Orlando area, right near a Super Target. Of course, we had to go in. I miss Target! The closest one is about 25 minutes away, so we generally find ourselves at Walmart. And, I usually just do grocery pick-up, so it was so nice to browse in a bright, clean store. I will say the Walmart here is much better than in Maryland, they actually have multiple cashiers working! But, I still miss my Target shopping trips. This Target had something we had never seen before--a cart escalator for the parking garage. Jack and I were so intrigued, we had to take a picture.