West Virginia Vacation, Day 1

Our good friends, Kayce and Trevor, have access to a family cabin in West Virginia. When the weather is nice, they go up fairly regularly to take advantage of the mountain air and relaxing pace. A few months ago, Kayce asked if my family would be interested in joining them for a visit. We readily agreed and picked a date that happened to coincide with the last weekend of school. We made our packing and shopping lists and my family excitedly looked forward to the date.

The home is about 7 hours away, so we picked up the kids early from school on Friday. They didn't even mind missing out on last day fun--they were so anxious to get on the road. The drive went very smoothly, right up until the end, when our navigation stranded us in the middle of a mountain on a one-lane gravel/dirt road. Thanks to a slight cell signal and the ability to share locations, we were able to navigate our way to the home. The good thing about the detour/alternate path was that it took us right next to some giant windmills. We have seen giant windmills on top of mountains before, most recently on a drive to Pennsylvania, but on this drive we were literally right beneath them. They are as massive as they look!

Eventually, we made it to the cabin.  However, "cabin" is not the right word. Massive historic home would be more accurate. At one point, we sent Kara off to do a survey and count the bedrooms. She determined that there were enough beds to comfortably sleep 13, and that isn't counting the "new house" addition, which was built in the early 1900s and had another 4 bedrooms. The first part was built (they think) in the 1870s. It was filled with antiques and original artifacts. We loved talking to the relatives who stopped in to say hi to Kayce and Trevor and were able to fill us in on a bit of the history.

Thomas and I took a lower level bedroom and set Luke up with us. The rest of the kids camped together on air mattresses in one of the living rooms. We explored a bit and then roasted hot dogs for dinner. The house sits on a large property and we had fun walking around the meadows and looking animal tracks. When it got dark, we made s'mores and the kids ran around with sparklers. They didn't make it to bed until 10! Our vacation was off to a great start!

I LOVE this picture of Anna. She was humming to the snail, trying to entice him out of his shell. 

The girls were enjoying a peaceful walk when suddenly we were ambushed by these ruffians!

The girls loved finding walking sticks

Everyone enjoyed the sparklers

End of Another School Year

The kids wrapped up another successful school year. They all had outstanding teachers who made learning fun (or at least not unpleasant) and each one enjoyed going to school. Oddly enough, for Kara, it was often the specials that dictated how happy she was to go in the morning. She didn't like PE, I think because she had to wear sneakers).

They did great grades wise. Jack almost made it the whole year with straight A's, but on his last report card, he brought home a single B. It was in writing and unfortunately, they didn't do a lot of writing in the last quarter, so a few low grades had a huge effect on the overall grade. Anna had one B on each of her report cards, and it bounced between subjects. Second grade has a weird grading system, but Kara met or exceeded all benchmarks. All three are outstanding readers who are well-above grade level. So, academic wise, we were very pleased.

Behavior wise, they also had a good year. Jack had one minor incident early in the school year, but his teacher was really great about keeping him out of trouble. He sometimes gets frustrated with classmates who are too loud or slow or whatever rubs him the wrong way. His second grade teacher allowed him to separate himself from the group when he felt himself getting annoyed and his third grade teacher continued the practice. She was also great with positive reinforcement. He came home many days clipped to the top of the behavior chart and always felt so proud.

Kara only clipped down on her behavior chart once all year and that was by a sub who apparently didn't understand usual classroom practices. Kara was devastated! She didn't even want to go to school the next day. We had to write her regular teacher a note explaining what happened and her teacher kindly reassured her that she still thought Kara was wonderful and would excuse the clip down. Anna clipped down a couple of times, generally for talking out of turn, but overall, she was also excellent. We really could not have asked for a better group of teachers. I pray that the trend continues!

Now, here is what this post is all about: the last day photos, complete with comparison shots! The girls found the clothes they wore on the first day, but Jack has no interest in that ridiculousness :)

We didn't tell them how to hold their hands, but Kara and Anna did similar poses naturally.

A week (or two) in Pictures

Jack and Anna had their final violin concert. The concert was good enough, but overall I was disappointed that Jack and Anna showed very little initiative when it came to practicing at home.

We went to the park a couple of times to practice baseball. Luke insists on being in the thick of things. Jack is wrapping up his first season of kid-pitch. He's made good progress and we are glad he enjoys it so much.

Girls aren't the only ones who can have cute matching clothes.

Kara had her final soccer game Saturday. She spent 3/4 quarters as goalie. She does a good job and enjoys soccer, but thinks she might want to try something different in the fall.

We had an eventful Memorial Day weekend. We (of course) checked out a battlefield--Chancellorsville. And, also managed to go to a baseball game. We went to see the Nationals "A" league team. We had lots of fun, watched the entire game and even stayed for fireworks.

The kids had field day, fortunately, scheduled on the only non-rainy day that week. The ground was muddy, but they had so much fun!

Luke doesn't mind the rain, he likes his "brella" and rain boots.

This picture makes me laugh. The girls were playing Guardians of the Galaxy (which they haven't seen). Kara was Rocket the raccoon and Anna was Groot.

Kara being awarded her medal and joining the "100 Book Club" at Hollywood. It wasn't just any 100 books, she had to read chapter books and lots of nonfiction and other special requirements. 

Anna officially enrolling in the STEM academy. I'm not thrilled to be having my kids at two different schools next year, but I am hopeful she will enjoy the curriculum and extra opportunities.

Anna getting her face painted during the third grade picnic. We had a great time!

Follow That Rabbit!

Anna, Jack and Kara recently performed in the school play, "Follow That Rabbit!" (Alice in Wonderland). The auditions were held back in December and the casting made shortly thereafter. As a second grader, Kara was only eligible for the chorus type roles of either a card soldier or a flower. She thought the card soldier sounded like more fun and happily took on the part of the 3 of Hearts.

As third-graders, Jack and Anna had the entire play open to them. Shortly after they auditioned, the director e-mailed me to see if they would be willing to play Tweedledee and Tweedledum. She liked the idea of having twins in the role and thought they would be perfect. Jack hadn't sung at his audition and the role involved a song, so she wanted to make sure he'd be willing to sing and that they were both willing to work together. They were excited about the idea, although there was some fighting about who had to be Tweedledum.  Jack lost.

Like most of Alice and Wonderland, their part was a lot of nonsensical nonsense. They had a very long song (4:30) with speaking parts before and after the song. In total, it was about a 7-minute performance. It was a difficult role and it took a lot of practice. Essentially, the song involves telling Alice the story of the Curious Oysters as the Walrus (Jack) and the Carpenter (Anna), so it was almost like a part within a part. The Walrus and Carpenter lure some oysters out of their oyster bed with the promise of adventure and then the Walrus eats them all and the Carpenter gets mad. The moral being that curiosity can lead to trouble (and, the oysters should have listened to their mother!).

Rehearsals at school started in January. Initially, they all had practice once a week, and then the frequency increased for Jack and Anna's group. About a month before the play, we started really working on it at home. The song has a lot of instrumental sections and the cues for them to sing weren't always obvious. Plus, they had to figure out what to do during those instrumental moments. In the movie, there is a cartoon interlude showing all the action of the walrus, carpenter and oysters. But, they had to find a way to communicate it to the audience. I'm not going to lie--it was a mess in the beginning. I was worried. But, like everything else, lots of practice turned the tide. By the day of the show, they were awesome!!!

Meanwhile, Kara had perfected the soldier's march and song and was ready to go. I also had a role in the play--on the scenery committee. It was a committee of three. We met once or twice a week and took projects home in the interim. The head of the committee (who happened to be Alice's mom) was a true artist. Honestly, she did about three times as much as I did. But, it was still a major time commitment on my part. It was also a commitment for Thomas, since it meant many nights he came home from work, got dinner ready, fed all four kids and then had to drag everyone out to Jack's baseball or Kara's soccer. My biggest project was probably making giant paper flowers. I did it at home and it probably took me about 5-6 hours to make 16 flowers (that includes watching many YouTube tutorials).

Some of my giant flowers. These decorated the flower garden risers.

A few more flowers

The benefit of being on the scenery committee was that we were the only parents allowed to come to the school day performance. We also had reserved front row seats for the evening show. That was pretty nice. In the morning show, Anna was very nervous and more reserved than she had been in practice. They were still really good and multiple teachers made a point of telling me how much they enjoyed their performance. But by that night they had worked all the jitters out and they were amazing! Jack is just a natural performer. He was never nervous and really enjoyed being on stage and hamming it up. Anna had to work a bit harder, but she was willing to put forth the effort and in the end, she was awesome! Most of the cast was fantastic (there were a couple who were impossible to hear, even in the front row), but in my biased opinion, Jack and Anna were among the best. If I were giving out the Tony, they would have been definite contenders!

Two stars are born!

Anna's favorite part was probably hitting Jack with her carpenter's hammer :)

Kara also performed perfectly. She sang and painted the roses red and did the card soldiers march with aplomb. We were very proud parents!

Card soldiers shouldn't smile!

Painting the roses red (those boxes were another scenery project).

Everyone woke up a bit sad Saturday morning, knowing it was over. After months and months of rehearsals, it was all over with 2 performances. Since they enjoyed it so much, I am hoping they will all continue with school plays.

Dutch Wonderland Trip, Day 2

We stayed at the Country Inn and Suites, which is right across the street from Dutch Wonderland. It is our hotel of choice when we visit, the price is good, the hotel is clean, there's an indoor pool and a nice breakfast. What more could one want?

Unfortunately, no one slept very well (except Luke, he was wiped out!). The first night in a new place is always tough. I woke at 5 and stayed in bed for a while trying to fall back asleep before deciding to go the exercise room. I set a goal to exercise 100 days in a row and it was day 56. so I didn't want to ruin my streak. Unfortunately, I have only lost like 5 pounds, but that's a whole other blog.

So, after my workout, I returned to the room to the kids just waking up. Everyone loves a hotel breakfast, so they were happy to get dressed and go to the lobby. We enjoyed our waffles, eggs, and muffins. The kids really wanted to go back to the pool and we had some time before the park opened, so Thomas and I were happy to oblige. The pool was surprisingly crowded, but we still had fun. The kids swam for about an hour. We staggered our return to the room, so we weren't all trying to get changed at once.

Everyone loves a breakfast buffet, even a small hotel one.

Hanging out poolside

We checked out, and went across the street to Dutch Wonderland. We walked in the park at exactly 10AM. Perfect timing!

We went through the park and rode all the rides again. Kara decided she was ready to try out the roller coasters. Back story time! When Kara was 3, she was fearless. She loved all rides, but I pushed her too far too fast on our first trip to Disney World. After that, she became much more timid on amusement park rides. However, during our trip to Universal Studios this year, she decided to try new, more exciting rides and was surprised to find she actually enjoyed them. However, she wasn't tall enough for their roller coasters, which were probably too intense anyway. So, today was her day. She started off on the little kid one, before she decided she was ready for the Kingdom Coaster, which is a good-sized wooden roller coaster. She loved it! She went on it twice in a row and would have gone on more, if we had let her. We have our 5th Wilson coaster aficionado! 

No good photo on the big coaster, but here she is rocking it in the front row of the smaller one!

Pressing our luck, we brought Luke onto the log flume. He did not like it. After we got off, he ran to the ride attendant to tell her, "that was scary, I did not like it!" So, it looks like we might have another long road ahead of us. All I want is a photo of the six of us on Splash Mountain, with everyone looking happy. Is that too much to ask???

Luke insisted I hold him tight throughout the whole ride

But, I digress. The park wasn't as crowded as the previous day, we did all the rides again, some of them multiple times. We walked through the dinosaur area and saw the diving show. We have always enjoyed the diving show and make sure to catch it on each visit. Thomas and I were ready to call it a day by 3. It is never as much fun to make the drive home and we had it looming in front of us. The kids were agreeable, so we rode a few more rides and then left the park. Luke napped for most of the drive and we made it home in time for everyone to shower and relax for a bit before bed (and, for me to write these blogs!).

We lost a drink taking this shadowy shot, so it's not for nothing, it gains a spot in the blog

It was another successful trip to Lancaster and our favorite little amusement park!

Dutch Wonderland, Day 1!

It has been a couple of years since our last visit (last year's weekend was cancelled for weather, I am not sure what happened in 2015), but everyone was excited to return to Dutch Wonderland. The kids knew it was happening at some point this season, since the tickets were a Christmas gift, but they didn't know exactly when. Friday was a big night in our house--the three older kids all performed in a school play (blog to follow). They didn't get to bed until almost 10, which is late for our kiddos. However, they were all up by 8. Kara was actually up around 7. Thomas told her about our plans. We wanted her to decide if she wanted to go to her soccer game before we headed to Lancaster. She was happy to skip it and get on the road as soon as possible. Anna was super excited and everyone immediately began gathering bags for the car. We had already packed their clothes and essentials.

By 9:15 we were in the car and on our way, we stopped once at a Pennsylvania Welcome Center for a bathroom break and rolled into the Lancaster Cracker Barrel at 12:30. We had a leisurely lunch and let everyone choose if they wanted a dessert at Cracker Barrel or if they wanted to wait and get a treat at the park. Everyone wisely chose Coke Cake and our (very mini) vacation was off to a good start. After lunch, we browsed the outlets. Jack and Luke played on a small playground while the girls and I went to Children's Place. Anna and Kara have reached the age where they love trying on clothes. They were having an amazing sale of 75% off clearance. We bought 2 dresses, 1 pair of pants, 2 headbands, sunglasses for Luke, and 2 earring cards for $20.15!!! The boys then joined us to look at the Pottery Barn Outlet. We all love Pottery Barn, but they are so overpriced (in my opinion). Not the outlet! Prices were already reduced, and then the entire store was an additional 30% off! Unfortunately, we had the kids, which made browsing hard. We spent a lot of time chasing them around as they sat on chairs, laid on beds and opened and closed drawers. They had a lot of furniture I loved, there was a table and chairs I would have bought if we had any way to get it home. Sadly, the only thing we bought were new lunchboxes for the kids ($24 retail, $10 at the outlet). Still, it was fun.

After a restroom break, we were ready to head to Dutch Wonderland. They have a preview option, which allows you to go into the park 3 hours before closing on the day before your visit. This weekend, that meant we could enter at 3pm. We were at the gate at 2:58, The ticket taker gave me a dirty look and said, "the preview doesn't start until 3," as if we were trying to sneak in hours early. But, I was patient and polite and we calmly waited the remaining 2 minutes.

The park had a camping jamboree where girl scouts camped at their campground and then came to the park, so it was a bit more crowded than we expected for this time of year. But, we still managed to ride most of the rides in the park. Just like the girls had at his age, Luke adored the "whip it" ride, which for some reason, our kids have always called the bumper cars. In fact, he adored just about everything. At one point, he was really mad that he had to wait for the big kids to get off a ride and he threw himself on the ground crying. People just smiled and stepped around him as I waited for the fit to pass. After a minute, I decided to move him to a nearby bench. I picked him while he screamed and as we sat down, he suddenly stopped crying and said, in a very calm voice, "mom, what's that ride???" as something in the distance caught his attention. Just like that, the tantrum was over (to be fair to Luke, he doesn't have many fits, but this was a very long day for him).

The "bumper cars". Anna got off, saying, "it's still really fun!"

A favorite of all Wilson children, but the other 3 are way too tall now.

On the Turtle Whirl with Dad

The big kids still enjoy the little rides

We stayed until the park closed at 6. It took a while to get out of the parking lot. Our plan had been to go to Chick-Fil-A, but like every CFA, it was a zoo. We couldn't even find a parking spot. So, we drove across the street to a KFC. No one was happy. But, we were hungry and tired and didn't want to waste any more time (the hotel pool was calling our names). We ate a meal that no one liked and then went to the hotel. We checked in and then immediately changed into our bathing suits. By now, it was 7:15, so we told the kids they only had 45 minutes, which wasn't near enough time for them, but they were good sports when we told them it was time to go. We played Marco Polo and had a good time. Luke just jumped off the side of the pool into my or Thomas' arms over and over and over and over again.

We got back to the room and got everyone in bed.

Mother's Day Weekend

The celebration for our family began on Friday, when I went to a Mother's Day Tea at Luke's school. Luke made me a crown, a sun catcher, and a handprint photo. We had muffins and his class sang two songs. It was cute and fun.

Saturday, Thomas and I had a date night. We went to Sotterley Plantation for a wine/food tasting. We don't really drink wine, but we thought we would give it a try. We enjoyed the experience and there was some delicious food, including crab cakes, barbecue pork sliders, and chocolate covered strawberries. We also got to walk around the plantation house which we both enjoyed. It was very fun night!

Selfie from the portico

Sunday, we told the kids we had a fun surprise for them, but that it required they get up early because we had to be in Annapolis by 9. They had no trouble getting up and we left right on schedule. The surprise was a ride on the Chesapeake Pirate's Cruise! First, they got their pirate names (Lookout Luke, Jumpship Jack, Krazy Kara & Almighty Anna). Then, they got their pirate outfits and faces painted.  Anna wanted to be a mermaid, everyone else was a pirate. We took pictures and then climbed aboard the ship.

Luke loved the pirate garb!

which was followed by the painting process

Anna opted for a mermaid look, the rest of the kids were pirates. We were one happy family!

We sailed around the river looking for treasure. The kids got to shoot water canons at a scallywag pirate. They found the treasure, drank some grog and cruised around the harbor. The kids absolutely loved it. They all wanted to know when we could go again. Most of the other participants were in the 2-5 age range, but our big kids didn't mind and were very enthusiastic throughout the whole experience.

It was pretty cold for the thieving pirate. But, he was a good sport and even allowed us to knock him in the water. Luke loved this part and kept wanting to shoot the canons.

Drinking their grog as they wave at the people in the harbor.

Lookout Luke with Terrifying Thomas

From there, we went to the Annapolis Mall. We walked around and had lunch. On the drive home, I played the music I felt like listening to and then let everyone else have a say (and "You're Welcome" from Moana has been in my head ever since). We came home, I took a nap, talked with my sister for awhile and enjoyed my gifts. I love when the kids write what they think of me. It is fun to see where their minds are. For example, Kara apparently thinks I really like to nap. I actually don't nap very much, because I like to keep to the same sleep schedule, but apparently, she really notices when I do (honestly, today was probably the first nap I've taken in months). I do like to lay in bed and read, so maybe she assumes I've fallen asleep? Anyway, I had lots of gifts from each of them, here's a few:

From Kara

Kara, part two

Jack's

Little Lukey hands

And, sweet Anna's

I always feel a little sad seeing the Mother's Day stuff in the stores, I miss my own mom so much. But, I am extremely grateful for the family I have and that love that I feel for them, not just on Mother's Day, but every day.