The Waterstraut Waterspout: Happy 31st or 32nd or maybe 33rd Birthday, Asa Waterstraut!

Did you miss your Waterstraut updates? I feel like it's been awhile since I've written one, and tonight as Asa's Birthday Weekend Extravaganza comes to a close, I am trying to catch up on things. I just finished up Jeopardy questions for Super Saturday tomorrow, I'm 90% of the way through John Tyler's birthday, which is Sunday, and if I get my blog done, I'll be sitting pretty to plan for our TWO upcoming theme weeks. (I know, it's a never ending job, but I love it!)

So, it's Asa's birthday week. We used to celebrate with Birthday Weekend Extravaganza's, but our weekends now run Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. That was perfect since his actual birthday fell on Wednesday. But, we kicked it up a notch this year, and started celebrating Monday evening, and just wrapped up today. So, Asa's Birthday Weekend Extravaganza didn't fall on an actual weekend, and actually lasted five days. But, who's counting?

If anyone deserves five days of birthday fun, it's Asa (and me, so get to your planning Asa!), even if he's not big on birthdays, and even if he can't remember how old he is. I guess you're really getting up there when you have to do the math to figure it out. I think I reminded him 82,000 times in the last week that he was turning 32. We're not big on public displays of written affection, but you guys know what an awesome dad/husband/best friend he is, so I don't need to tell you. Anyway, the Happiest of Birthday's to this guy.

I had asked him a few weeks ago what he wanted to do for his birthday, and he really just wanted to stay home. I don't know if you remember Asa's birthday last year, but I was sick and we just stayed at home and played like 8 hours of Lego Harry Potter. This was apparently his favorite birthday ever, so he really just wanted to do nothing this year too. I have a hard time being ok with this, because on my birthday, I would HATE doing nothing and just staying home. But, it was Asa's day not mine. I told him we could go out around his birthday, but stay home on his actual day, and he liked that plan. But, he did ask if we could play our version of True American on his birthday. He also wanted Nancy Reagan's Mac & Cheese, and he wanted to watch Avengers. All totally doable.

So Monday, I had the boys make their 'cheat sheets'/president pictures for their True American islands. I made Asa's as an example, and the boys did theirs on their own.

Asa's president was Andrew Jackson.

The boys loved that this was a check list item, since usually checklists are just book work, boards, and reading assignments.

And Dipper loved that everyone was at the table crafting. He likes to mess with the crayons.

First they constructed their presidents. The bodies of the president we're just cardstock tri-folded. They got to write anything they thought was important on the inside.

Hayden picked James Madison.

Peyton picked FDR (and made the wheelchair!)

And Calib picked Grover Cleveland, and thought he was funny by giving him fat arms and a beer.

I clipped them all up in the laundry room. I think they're almost cuter than the hanger presidents.

I also made all the labels for their rootbeers. My favorite was Andrew Jackson's. It said "Henry Clay rips away your election, destroy all his hopes and dreams as president."

Monday when Asa was done with work, we went out to PDQ. They are having $5 three piece meals every Monday in March.

And it was such a lovely day, we stopped on the way home for some ice cream.

Tuesday we went out for some strawberry picking, since the fields opened at the farm we pick out last weekend.

The field seemed so empty on a weekday. (We'd previously only been picking on weekends).

Some of us spent more time eating than picking...

Ahem, Peyton.

We only picked 14 quarts this year. Partly because I didn't want to have to clean more than that, and partly because I only had $7 in cash on me.

After strawberry picking, we came home and made our first trip to the pool since October (or maybe November, either way, it's been awhile). I would have pictures, but the batteries fell out of my camera when it was in my purse. Lame. Anyway, the water was freezing, but we did all get in, even if it was just for a little bit. As a bonus, nobody else was there, so we had the pool all to ourselves.

Per Asa's request we had chili for dinner on Tuesday night. He wanted to make it, so I asked him if I could make him a desert or something, and we ended up with some monkey bread.

Tuesday we got up around 10, and I made sure to limit what Asa had to do around the house. I made us panini's for lunch, and then we watched Avengers. Full disclosure, I worked on some stuff while they watched it; but I have seen it before. You know, when Gerald McCoy took me.

Then, I set up True American. True American actually is a drinking game the characters on New Girl once played. But, the boys have seen the clip, and they were like 'we have to play that game!' (somehow, obviously without the alcohol part). They do get prohibition cocktails though! And (root)beer at the end. Anyway, if you don't know how it works here at the Waterstrauts, you can check out the way we played True American by clicking on the link. I don't want to have to explain it all over again. Leave it to me to turn a drinking game into an educational one.

Here's our categories this time around.

We added a baby Ruth in honor of Grover Cleveland's daughter. We also had the pez, the president cookies, our patriotic jello, and Lincoln hats.

Everyone put on their first category, and it was time to start.

I didn't take many pictures this time around, but I thought it was funny when Asa was using the binoculars Hayden had made at a Build N Grow to try and see what was still on the board from Andrew Jackson's birthday.

And, I thought it was hilarious when Phenom ended up with Calib's 'Eleanor Roosevelt'.

They all had a good time. When we first played it, I said it was going to strictly be a President's Day thing, but if Asa wanted it, then I'd do it again. Now I'm thinking it's an awesome review and we might do it for special occasions, like Memorial Day and Labor Day. (Not the fourth of July, of course, that's reserved for the Waterstraut Olympics)

Asa's birthday dinner was Nancy Reagan's Mac & Cheese (this was his helping, and he asked for more, so I guess I did a good job making it), Caesar salad, bread, and strawberries.

And we had his usual funfetti cake.

And mom was there, of course!

Thursday Asa and I headed out for a date day, while Calib held down the fort at home. We'd been trying to get to a Disney date day for awhile, and Asa's birthday seemed like a great reason to finally get to it. We had breakfast at Trails End.

If you're going to Disney , I cannot recommend this place for breakfast enough. First of all, it's the best bang for your buck buffet there is, it has to be one of the cheapest on Disney property. There aren't any characters or over the top themes, but the food is awesome. It's very southern, and my favorite thing on the whole buffet has to be the pulled pork eggs Benedict. (I know, right?!?) A close second though is the french toast bread pudding. The citrus quinoa salad was awesome too, and the roasted potato and beef hash was awesome too. Of course you get to wash it all down with a Mickey Waffle (with pecan syrup!)

Plus, you get the added bonus of being at Fort Wilderness, one of our favorite places on Disney property. We went over to say hello to the ponies, and this one was particularly interested in Asa.

Then we helped ourselves to the use of the Fort Wilderness pool.

So relaxing.

Really, if you've never been to Fort Wilderness, you're missing out. It's so pretty, and peaceful and there is so much to do!

We headed over to Downtown Disney to pick up our tickets to La Nouba at will call, and do a little shopping. Asa had gotten a Disney gift card for his birthday, so we looked around.

Asa is particularly excited about this Super Hero store coming soon.

Best Mickey ears I've seen yet.

Then we were off to Disney Quest to play some arcade games!

Ha! Yea, right, I don't even own a pair of high heels!

You guys, it's Henry Clay! He has his own video game.

After some ski ball, air hockey, pinball, basketball, and Lets Go Jungle among other things, we were off to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We had reservations there for dinner, but they weren't for awhile, so we made use of their pool, water slide, and hot tub. As an added bonus, you're swimming right next to a flamboyance of flamingos!

Just as we were getting out of the pool to dry off and change, it started POURING. Pretty good timing, since we had dinner plans anyway. Boma is an African food buffet, and I've only ever heard great things about it. We've been wanting to eat here for awhile.

Since we had tickets to the six o'clock Cirque, we were among the very first people when they opened for dinner. We were greeted with a few other families with bongos, and a line of servers greeting us, it was pretty awesome.

As an added bonus, all the food still looked pretty when we were there. They have all kinds of weird things, and we wanted to try it all. We started with the soups and dished up one small spoonful of each to share.

The sides were awesome. Samp and beans? Couscous? Broccoli? All kinds of weird rice? Yes please. But my favorite HAD to be the FuFu. It's a mix of mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, and it was amazing. I am a potato person, for sure. And these might be my favorite kind, ever.

The salads were weird and amazing. I think there were at least seven different kinds. There was also a make your own salad bar with all kinds of weird African toppings.

And the hummus bar was AWESOME.

Of course there's meat and fish too, all different kinds from chicken to salmon to steak. But what makes them so interesting was all the different sauces you can drizzle on top. They also had bobotie and mealie bread, which we made during Africa day when we were doing the Olympics. All excellent. (Oh, and that grapefruit, papaya, avocado salad was weird, but I tried it!)

And the deserts. Those white and brown things are called zebra domes, and they are the star of the show, for sure.

But if cupcakes, brownies, and cookies are more your thing, they have that too.

The bread pudding with salted caramel sauce was the perfect blend of sweet and salty.

Asa and I tried a little of everything.

We were so full, but it was so good. If you ever have the chance, go to Boma too.

And you get to go to the Animal Kingdom Lodge which is awesome in and of itself.

Then we were off to Cirque Du Soleil, La Nouba. You can't take pictures, and you probably wouldn't want the distraction anyway, you'll be captivated for 90 minutes. We've been to see it twice now, and both times it went by SO fast. I'd love to take the boys someday, but it is pricey.

After the show we had some drinks at the House of Blues before heading home.

We stopped by Sonic on the way home, since they had half-priced milkshakes after 8pm, and we told the boys we would bring them some if they kept the house clean and were good while we were gone.

Asa worked this morning, but he took a half-day so we could go to the last weekend of the Renaissance Festival. It's only on the weekends, except for this one Friday, and since Asa works all weekend, that didn't work too well for us, but we had the free tickets from the Fairy Gardens we submitted.

My camera was apparently lacking batteries when I grabbed it off the counter before we left. Asa had put them in to charge, and I didn't realize it. The boys had a turkey leg, and threw axes before I realized I could take pictures on Asa's tablet.

The Ren Fest was tons of fun, but we wouldn't have gone without the free tickets. It's pretty pricey otherwise. Calib in the car on the way there, kept saying his one thing he wanted to do was throw tomatoes at someone. I was like 'that's probably not a thing'. Well, turns out I was wrong. So, we did that (Calib actually hit the guy whose head is in the hole back there)

Asa got meade which is his favorite, at the Queens Pub.

And there were all kinds of fun things for the boys to do.

Calib played in the dodgeball arena.

We watched the Mud Show.

And Asa, Peyton and Hayden FENCED!

They decided they wanted to do 3-on-1 and face the fencer instead of each other.

When the balloons on their head popped, they were out.

Hayden was out first.

And then Asa, so only Peyton remained.

Peyton won eventually!

We spotted our fairy houses that got us the free tickets!

And hit the petting zoo.

And we all shot some arrows.

Also worth noting, Asa passed another class on Tuesday. We've had so many deserts lately, we didn't get around to Rootbeer floats until today. But it was a nice way to cap off a pretty awesome week. It felt like we were on a vacation; one of the perks of living in Florida.