Blogging again so soon, I know. But, a couple of nights ago when I was looking at maps and working on our trip, I told Asa maybe we should leave a day early, and instead of going all the way to Richmond in one shot, we could go as far as Charlotte (you know, checking another stadium off my list), and then what do you know, Appomattox is right on the way! I'm lucky he puts up with my crazy plans. I'm changed them about 18,000 times for this trip. It's jut so hard to decide what to fit in, and see what gets left out. Overall, I'm happy with our plans- a little bummed we're not making it up to Philadelphia, and maybe having to cut Baltimore, but we're gaining Appomattox and Jamestowne!
I'm hoping we can skirt the rain Wednesday morning for a trip to Mount Vernon, and not have to leave D.C Friday to go, but we'll just see how the weather plays out. It looks like no matter where we are, Tuesday (and maybe Wednesday) will be a complete wash. We'll just have to make the best of it.
So, the Waterstraut chore Act of 2014 coupled with points being able to be cashed in for vacation, has my kids being SUPER helpful lately. Calib cooked a meal all on his own. I didn't have to do a thing!
He made pork loin, yellow rice, veggies, and strawberries. It was a pretty good meal too!
Speaking of how awesome my kids are, they've been getting along pretty well lately. I was particularly impressed that Calib and Hayden played with toys together a couple of times a week. I guess this is what happens when you don't have the normal teenage pressures of middle school. You still play with toys!
Tuesday was Earth Day, so we celebrated by making some dirt. Hayden did most of it on his own. We had planned on making it for the first day of Spring, but Calib and I went to see March Madness that day, so I had been promising Hayden that we would make it eventually.
We were missing gummy worms, though. I couldn't find them anywhere. Gummy bears? Everywhere. It just seemed too weird to throw those in, so we just left it out.
Also for Earth Day, we had a fun arts and crafts project and painted some rocks to put in our garden and label some of the plants.
A couple of trips to the park this week, and one ended in disaster for Calib's Seminoles shirt. He's pretty bummed about it. And, I had to discuss with Asa taking it slightly easier on the kids while playing with them. In all honesty though, Calib's near being able to take anyone in this house. The other day, we were screwing around, and I totally couldn't get past him.
We got lots of school work done this week, the boys had a couple of blue days, and we've completed nearly all our projects I set out to do before we left on vacation. (Things are getting very busy when we get back-- including Calib heading to Ohio for a couple weeks, so this is basically the end of their 'year') Such a hard life, doing school work in your pajamas at your computer with your loyal cat right by your side.
Shout out to my husband. I'm all "I could really go for some nachos", and these appear before me. Homemade cheese sauce, and freshly made avocado salsa. He even put black olives on it!
Thursday, Peyton and Hayden had their last class of the year at the aquarium. We got there about an hour and half before class to enjoy the exhibits.
The new Madagascar area is open!
Lemurs are the new feature animal of the Madagascar exhibit, which tied right into the Lemurs of Madagascar documentary we saw at the IMAX last week, so it was perfect!
Hayden's class finished a bit before Peytons, so he got to show me all the experiments he did.
I snapped a picture on the way home of Peyton reading. I swear, this is all he does lately. He's finally onto the last Harry Potter movie. Speaking of which, we watched the Half-Blood Prince this week. Hayden was devastated Dumbledore dies. Peyton will probably finish the book while we're on vacation, and then we'll watch the last two movies when we get home. Until then though, the hatred for Snape is ram pent in this house, and I can't tell everyone to hold on a minute. I almost told Hayden "you think Dumbledore dying is bad, wait till you see Dobby". I found that even sadder.
More news of the week: the NFL schedule FINALLY got released. We really look forward to it in this house, so we know when we're heading to games. I'm thrilled our first and last games are home games. But, we have zero home night games, which are just the best. Maybe we'll play really well and get flexed in. And, our first two home games are at 4, which helps a little with the heat. We don't have a 1 o'clock home game until October! Under the not awesome category: The Broncos play the Bengals on December 22nd at 8:30. I had so hoped to take Peyton to this game, but driving up there that time of year can be dicey, plus we have a home game on the 21st. Not to mention sitting out in the cold. We've set our sights on trying to go to Saint Louis in November instead, so Peyton can FINALLY see Peyton Manning play in person.
Also, super exciting, we found out we got our tickets to the White House. You have to request tickets way ahead of time, and I guess they are pretty hard to get.
Yesterday, Asa and I went out to get all kinds of pre-vacation errands done. We were going to pick up dinner at Publix, and the cooking demo station had this as it's feature recipe, so Asa made us some awesome Porkchops with bacon and onion jam, and some Alfredo potatoes. I told you, he's becoming quite the cook!
We're headed out tomorrow for vacation. And while we have a bunch to do today, I am (shockingly enough) procrastinating to fill you in on the last few days at the Waterstrauts. I do have a list of things to pack, food to cook to take along, and all our itineraries and tickets printed out. My organization skills have been on full display for this vacation! I even already put all the addresses into the gps. I'm so on top of things.
Next Up: Vacation! I might wait till we get home to fill you in, or I might do it while we're out and about. So stay tuned!
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