January (first half)

Eventually, all good things must come to an end. Such as it was with Christmas break. We are now about three weeks back into the work/school routine. Kara has rehearsals 2-3x a week for theater (she is student director); Jack has band rehearsal after school 1x week and basketball 3x/week; Anna has skating 2x a week; and Luke has Battle of the Books on Wednesdays and baseball 2-4x/week. I can't remember if I wrote this last year, but in recent months I have been feeling grateful for all the driving to and from activities. I am very happy that our kids have good activities that they enjoy and about which they feel passionate. It is certainly not always easy, and in some cases I know they wish they could do more (additional activities or more days of the activities they are already in), but I am glad we are able to make so much work. 

Baseball games and tournaments don't start until February, so it has been nice to have our weekends partially free. One Saturday, my family (Kim, Dave, Amanda, Kevin, my Dad and Maggie) came up for lunch. We had a nice visit. Unfortunately, Kara missed out because she spent the day, from 730am until 10pm, at the Junior Thespian State competition. She had an amazing time and got a Superior for her monologue. Her group received an Excellent. Jack has basketball games on Saturdays. They only have 6 kids on their team. His first game, only 5 showed up, so there was no rest for them. The next week, all 6 came. They lost both games, but are working hard and being good sports.

We got annual passes for Fun Spot. It is a small amusement park with two Orlando locations and one Atlanta location. The annual passes are inexpensive and they have go carts and some fun rides. Anna did not want to go, but the rest of us enjoyed it. We went to the smaller Orlando park which is at Old Town. I frequented Old Town as a kid. As a teenager, I would go there often with my siblings and/or friends. We would play miniature golf and laser tag, have dinner and walk around the shops. I had such good memories of that place! Fun Spot wasn't there then and only a couple of the stores are still the same. But, it was still very nostalgic for me. And, Jack and Luke had their fortunes told by Elvis :)

On MLK Jr weekend, I know we did something every day, but I am having a hard time remembering everything. Anna went to Universal with a friend. And, I know that one day we went to Fort Christmas. The Fort was closed, but the pioneer houses were open and we enjoyed walking around. Then, we went to Steak n Shake for lunch. One of my resolutions was to not have any added sugar in January. So far, I have stuck to it, but it was hard not to get a shake. And, if you are wondering, I am not yet seeing any positive results from withholding the sugar. 

It was a beautiful day to be outside.

On Friday, Jack stayed home sick from school. He had a sore throat, but said he was mostly tired. He was fine by the end of the day. Luke had to do evaluations for baseball. He is returning to the same team, so that is nice. On Thursday, when Anna was walking home from the bus stop, she thought maybe a bug flew into her eye, but she didn't see anything. On Friday morning, she woke up and her eye really hurt. This time, we saw the tiny bug and she got it out. But, her eye still hurt and was very watery. We offered to let her stay home, but she had a test and wanted to go to school. I ended up picking her up after 4th period. Her eye was crazy red and watery. We determined she had scratched it. It was a little better Saturday and a lot better Sunday. 

Anna took this picture on Saturday afternoon and told me this was for my blog :)

Saturday morning, Thomas, Jack and I went to Leu Gardens. We enjoyed taking our time and walking the gardens. Afterward, we stopped at Target and went to PDQ for lunch. It was nice that the kids who didn't want to go didn't have to. I think they would have happily gone to the lunch part and the girls definitely would have gone to Target, but they didn't feel like getting up and going to the Gardens. Which, I completely understand. And, it is wonderful to have kids old enough to stay home alone (and, who are willing to let their little brother stay with them).

Leu Gardens is an amazing oasis close to Downtown Orlando.

Today we went to Volcano Bay.  I love going to a water park in January! It is one of the benefits of living in Florida. It got a tiny bit busy after lunch, but was very empty all morning. We had a lot of fun. Kara woke up with a headache and decided to stay home. When we came home, we saw she had done a bunch of cleaning. She vacuumed and swept and straightened the kitchen. It was such a nice surprise!