Todays blog title is brought to you by Hayden, who has now lived through two named tropical storms coming through the area. Apparently, we weren't clear enough when Debbie hit last summer. He thought Debbie was the name for all of them, so he was very confused when Andrea made an appearance this week. Neither storm was too bad, lots and lots of rain, and some wind. But overall, I was unimpressed. Andrea was even less rain than Debbie, and this time we were only stuck inside Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Still enough to get us all a little stir crazy. We contemplated Disney Wednesday night, because really? Who would go to Disney during a tropical storm. The lines would be non-existent. But after the wind picked up and we realized our car only weighs about 4 pounds, we decided against it. The worst damage in my neighborhood was the palm tree that fell. No worries though, it's already back up.
This week was super busy though. Saturday was of course, Calib's 13th birthday. I really would have liked to have done something really special: Like take him to Universal, he's been DYING to go, but it's just too expensive. But he was really happy with the day we had planned for him anyway. And his birthday was on a Saturday, so nobody had work or school.
Peyton, Asa and I had all done the Mosi ropes course at various times. Calib always missed out for whatever reason, so he asked if we could finally all go do it for his birthday. We got up early in the hopes of making it on the course before it poured down rain. It was very ominous looking, and we had a few sprinkles on the way; but the rain held off long enough for all the boys to spend about an hour on the course.
Hayden even did it for the very first time. There are three levels to the course, and Asa and I thought Hayden would MAYBE go up to the second level, but certainly not the third. He totally surprised us though, and happily did even some the hardest obstacles. You're strapped in, of course, so you can't really fall. You can fall off the rope and dangle, though, and Hayden did that about three times. Each time making me gasp. I knew he couldn't fall, but for a spilt second when you see him falling off the rope, it gets a little frightening.
Let me just take a second to say how awesome the Mosi ropes course employees were too. There were a ton of them out there because in the same courtyard, Mosi was having its annual hurricane expo (As Calib's birthday also marks the first week of hurricane season) and they were expecting a big crowd. But, we were the only one's on the course at the time and they were all very encouraging and helpful. We made sure to file a compliment at guest services before we left. Gotta reward and notice good work, after all.
After the ropes course, we went out to lunch. Calib had picked Burger 21. My favorite part about the place: The dipping sauce for the fries. Apple Cider and Toasted Marshmallow are the best, but they are all really good. Calib and Peyton also got milkshakes, which are beyond delicious. And Asa got the Cinco Burger which he said was the best burger he's ever had.
The rain was still holding off after lunch, so we decided to use the remaining tickets Asa still had in his wallet for Grand Prix for Hayden's birthday. There were 7 left, so I skipped the go-karts in favor of being the picture taker. (Calib was excited he got car #13 for his 13th birthday)
After they used the four tickets for the go-karts, the boys did the turbo bungee dome. Basically you're hooked up to bungee cords and get jumping super high on the trampoline. Peyton is super good at it, the guy working said it was the highest he'd ever seen a kid go.
We drove home, stopping at Publix to pick out some birthday ice cream. With the weather still holding off, a quick trip to the pool was in order. But not without giving Calib his first present: new goggles. He still had not gotten new ones since he lost them at soak city last summer.
After our short, but refreshing pool trip Calib, Asa, and Peyton went out to see Iron Man 3, while Hayden and I stayed home. They called when it was over so I could have dinner waiting for them when they got home. Then we opened his other present; his new cell phone. He'd really wanted one at Christmas, and we said no. But with football practice in the fall, and the amount he borrows my phone to go out with his friends, we decided 13 was a good age for it. So if you're now getting texts from Calib, sorry about that!
We watched the Heat play and lose (but thats ok, they won two nights later), and had cake and ice cream. We got a 2 for 1 deal on grandma's with the usual birthday skype call. This was all followed by a family sleepover in the living room, and a late night boys trip to Taco Bell.
Sunday was clean the house day. I also decided it was move furniture around day, which added to the cleaning, but that's probably for the best. My house is nearly dust and animal fur free, which is saying something. The good part about James coming to visit, Taco Fiesta Night, and Mom being here all in a three week time span, is I should really only need to super clean the one time. We even rented the carpet cleaner. Plus we still have Justin's airplane fan so it helped dry the carpets super fast. Phenom was a fan of the wind blowing in his face too.
Tuesday was the last day of school. It was hard to do my last day of school hoopla with every kid coming and going at different times, but I made sure to be awake when Calib and Hayden left. Asa and I even walked Hayden to the bus stop together, which I think has only happened once or twice this year. I let Peyton sleep in and I made a couple of signs around the house before waking him up.
I put him on the summer academic plan, making Tuesday, Two-fer Tuesday in which we take on Geography and History. We went over the timeline rewinding it back to the beginning, because he's going to be sharing it with his brothers over the summer; and we went over his flag flash cards. I then promoted him on to 6th grade. He noted that since Calib was still in school, and he was done they were technically in the same grade for a few hours. After that, we went out to lunch at Panera, to the library to pick up a couple books, and You Say When Yogurt for a small treat.
We got home just in time for Calib to get home. We surprised him with some home made confetti, but it didn't quite go as planned. He more just got a bunch in the face. We re-worked our strategy for Hayden two hours later (the bus was super late due to the POURING down rain), and it went much better.
After making snacks, we realized we couldn't have our usual end of the year cookout, so we hung out and caught up on some of our dvr and let the kids stay up ridiculously late. I've had a hard time getting into the summer routine because so much has been going on. Our new couch was delivered Wednesday (and the boys made sure to buy the Freeloader card so they could be the first ones to sleep on it), making it impossible to do our usual first day of summer whole house record breaking blanket fort, and Thursday the guy was here to fix the washer (yay warranty!) Plus with the whole tropical storm and not being able to go outside thing.
However, it was still somewhere builders week. So, though were postponing the blanket fort to a newly freed up weekend the end of this month, we did build an awesome chain reaction with craft sticks. I'm not sure if I can post a video here, but it's on my facebook.
We also made some slime, read some books, and watched some more TV in an effort to stave off the boredom.
Thursday night I finally gave up on our end of the year cookout happening (with plans every day following), so we instead settled for a picnic dinner.... in the family room.
Friday, Asa was working, and we were trying to keep the house clean for our Taco Fiesta night Friday night so I took the boys to the pool. The water was super high and not as warm, but we were thrilled to get out of the house finally.
After the pool trip, we went out to the library for our Friday scavenger hunt. Basically the boys were given various books to find, from as vague as 'find a book over 500 pages' to 'find Of Mice and Men'. I've learned Calib has no idea how to find library books, so we'll have to work on that. Peyton did the best, but thats really no surprise since we find ourselves at the library once a week or so. We stopped by Sonic for some ice cream on the way home.
Friday night we had Taco Fiesta with some of our friends. Taco Fiesta night was born back in Huron, Ohio when I worked at Cedar Point and I would have firends over for a taco night with some games. I had totally forgotten about them until a friend had brought them up and then I couldn't believe we never hosted a Taco Fiesta night with our Florida family before, so after one reschedule we were able to fit it in.
Everyone brought various toppings, and it really came together. Except for the cheese Kevin forgot, but Justin and Calib saved the day.
Katie, Kevin, Angela, JD, Tracy, Johnny, Fico, Justin, and the 5 of us apparently can eat over five pounds of taco meat. I'll be more prepared next time. And Rex and Hannah made an appearance via skype, so at least we all got to see them.
Kevin brought tequila, and the boys were on a mission to find something that mixed well with it. I'm pretty sure the orange pop was a no go, the lemonade was ok, and the Gatorade was disgusting.
We played some games, and some rock band. Katie and Kevin brought their dogs too, so with 6 dogs and 5 children thing we're a little crazy! But it was a good time, a must do again soon.
And, I can say that at least 4 grown adults fit nicely on the new couch. (All 5 of us can sit together comfortably too!) Though, Katie broke the 'no eating on the new couch' rule, I can say it's still in perfect condition.
Today, James flew in! We're all thrilled he's here visiting until next Sunday, but we're all taking it easy today since we all got an unusually low amount of sleep.
Other things worth noting:
Calib shaved for the first time this week, but I didn't get to take any good actual pictures of Asa teaching him, as even my attempts to be inconspicuous failed.
Favorite Part of the School Year:
Calib: Science
Peyton: History Timeline, with the Candy Election being a close second
Hayden: Math
Next Up: James is here all week!
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