It's been a good week at the Waterstrauts! (isn't it always?) Wednesday was our planned Disney day, and despite a few coughs, sneezes, and a mild-ear ache, we headed out. My kids are troopers!
I had gotten a coupon for free ice cream cones at Burger King, but we don't have one close to us, and I knew there was one right off the last exit before Disney on I-4, so we brought the coupons along and collected our free ice cream cones. (No free donuts this week for us for National Donut Day, Dunkin Donuts is near us, and was giving out a free donut with a drink purchase, but times five that isn't such a great deal! Drinks are expensive!)
Our first Disney stop was Typhoon Lagoon. We're hitting that time of year when the only thing you want to do outside mid-day is water related.
It wasn't even overcast like it had been the last couple of days, but we reapplied the sunscreen three times and nobody got burnt.
Oh, and this is how you tell a seasoned Floridian from tourists. We Floridians know to flip our flip-flops upside down so they don't burn your feet when it's time to put them back on!
A couple of hours later we dried off, I forgot the towels so we had to lay out for a bit.
And then it was goodbye Typhoon Lagoon, hello Disney quest.
The boys rode the Buzz Lightyear ride.
While I checked in on our fast passes for the day. We were good to go. When I knew we couldn't go to opening day of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (Calib was flying home that day), I looked for the first available day with fast passes. As a passholder, I can book them 30 days out, so thats what I went with.
We went upstairs to the kids area to play some games.
I might have beaten Asa at Connect Four, if you couldn't tell.
And we played some air hockey.
We weren't there too long, as we had to head over to the Magic Kingdom in time for our fast passes. I had packed us Pb and Js for dinner in our sandwich packs (seriously you guys, I LOVE these things, so handy!)
Unfortunatly, when we got to the Magic Kingdom, Space Mountain was down, so we headed over to Dumbo. The kids love this line because there is a little play area to play in while you wait. While we were there, we had an alert on our Disney app, since Space Mountain was unavailable during our fastpass time we could either take advantage of a different ride (certain ones listed), or just go to Space Mountain any time after it opened back up. Way to be on top of things, Disney!
We had a very delightful trip on Dumbo, and Asa and I even got to ride together. That's a rarity.
What worked out great about Space Mountain being down was being able to pick a different fast pass. Hayden had decided he wanted to sit out of Space Mountain, so his and mine would have just gone to waste. When the ride came back up, Asa took Calib and Peyton to Space Mountain and Hayden and I used our fast pass to go on Space Ranger Spin!
Then it was time for the Seven Dwarf's Mine Train. But, the ride was also down. By the time we got back there, though, they were running test trains. We hopped in the fast pass line and waited, hoping it would come back up again soon.
I think we probably waited about half and hour, and then they opened it back up. Since we had been standing in the fast pass line the whole time, we got on the third train they ran!
It is SUCH a fun ride. It's so smooth, and cute, and everything I hoped it would be! We LOVE it. It's going to be a new fast-pass must.
Justin was in Orlando getting tickets for when his mom comes to visit later this month, and met up with us.
Another fast pass must: Big Thunder Railroad!
And of course a late night stop for a Dole Whip Pineapple Float.
Calib wanted to spend some of his birthday money on a new pillow pet. He couldn't decide between Eeyore, Pumba, or Sulley.
We were headed out just as the electrical light parade was beginning. It was so crowded, and Hayden's ear was bothering him, so we decided not to stay for it this go around.
Oh, and in case you were wondering what pillow pet Calib went with-- we all voted for Pumba, so of course he picked Sulley.
Thursday we decided Hayden's ear ache wasn't getting better, so we needed to head out to the doctors. The word was no infection, but he had to have his ear irrigated. And, no swimming for a few days. He did prescribe some drops. (Expensive ones at that! We had like 100 problems with the Target Pharmacy and after insurance they still wanted over 80 dollars for ear drops, eventually gave up and transferred it to Publix, and they had it done in 30 minutes, with a discount code applied and it was only $25. Thank you Publix, for being so awesome!)
Friday was payday, and boy was it pay day! Remember how Asa worked all those hours the week of Memorial Day? And killed himself on overnights? Well, those 19 hours of overtime translated to the biggest check we'd ever gotten (aside from the bonus check). While our fridge and freezer is still pretty well stocked from the week Target had the $10 off $50 coupon, I did need all kinds of odds and ends for summer theme weeks, and produce. I spent the morning out and about going to Aldi's (great for produce, baking supplies, and milk! You wouldn't believe the haul I got for $28!), spending my Kohls cash, getting all my crafting supplies at Walmart, some more supplies at the Dollar store, and then rounding out with a good couponing trip to Publix. I had some great coupons this week too. Coupled with sales, I loaded up on toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, and body wash. Everything I got was good brands, and all of it came out to just over $1 a piece. I also got noosa yogurt for 45 cents a container!
One of the things I needed for lots of events/activities this summer was a baby pool. We filled it up when I got home and the dogs all took turns in it, though Gracie couldn't be convinced to get in, and Porkchop refused to stay in it.
Phenom and Sophie seemed ok with it. But, to be fair, those two will follow Asa anywhere. They love him.
The happiest for the baby pool was probably Deleno. He got to have his bath in here, out in the sun instead of in a dish pan.
Friday night Asa and I also went out for date night, now that our babysitter is back from Ohio. We went to red robin and split the mini wedge salad, small stack of onion rings and a burger.
I also finally got our picture-in picture-in picture picture (you got that?) printed for our anniversary. I was either 10 days ahead of schedule or 355 days too late. Either way, it's printed so we'll have it for our new picture a week from Tuesday. This Tuesday is the anniversary of the day we met-- ELEVEN years ago I met Asa. Now that's crazy.
Summer has eventually kicked off here. I know public school kids got out this week, and it's hard to kind of separate the seasons for kids who don't have the traditional school schedule. But, something we always do to kick off summer is an epic blanket fort. I hate this activity (it's messy, it makes a ton of laundry, you have to crawl everywhere, and you can't do anything productive) but they love it, so we will continue to do it as long as they ask for it. I never want to stifle their childhood because it might make a mess.
So we dug out all the sheets and some blankets, and started building.
I liked how Asa tied the sheets to the kitchen sprayer.
The blanket fort gets built from the family room, through the kitchen and up to the living room.
The completed structure: half the living room
The other half of the living room.
Through the kitchen..
And then the boys enjoy the blanket fort. They even spend the night in it.
This is the view of the blanket fort from the back door.
Asa and I crawl through it for a bit, too.
Since Asa was working the next morning, we had to move his computer into our room. He hasn't moved it back yet, I think he's enjoying it being in there.
Hayden has been a trooper this week with the drops in his ear. He asks everyday when we can go swimming again, though.
Last night Calib and Peyton went to the lock-in at the library to kick off the teen summer reading program. They'd been excited about it for weeks, talking about how they were going to stay up all nights and play video games, hang out, and eat pizza. That left Hayden, Asa, and I here last night. We also hung out, ate snacks, and watched TV.
We, however, didn't stay up all night. Calib and Peyton did apparently. Asa went to get them at 8 this morning, and they slept until about 1:30. They're still walking around like zombies, but they had a great time. Peyton won't stop talking about how much fun it was. I guess he had lots of pop, played nerf guns, video games, and had snacks and pizza all night long. They even brought in donuts for the kids this morning. The whole event was totally free, so shout out to the library for being so awesome!
I took my quiet time this morning and I've been getting a lot done. I cut everyone's hair, I'm on my fourth load of laundry, I am just three weeks away from having all the summer theme weeks done and planned out, and I've gotten the blog written. Not bad for just after 2. Hoping to get the weeks done before I make dinner tonight, and get things started for tomorrow's 1930's day. It's decades week!!
Which brings me to my last point: I think for the summer, I'm going to try and blog about each day. If I wait until the end of the week, I'll surely forget a lot and have so much to say it'll take forever to get it written. Some weeks are days are pretty full (Decades week is a biggy, so is Reality Show week, and Disney week), some weeks are only one activity each night (like Game Week). That's good though because it'll give us some time to get our some of our summer buckets completed.
So, the plan is to see ya'll tomorrow. Until then!
Next Up: It' the 1930's!
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