Holy geez, you guys, it's MAY! I'm a little bummed I am down to one month before we'll have to contend with the crowds (and one month until I have a driving teenager to contend with-- yikes!), but we are determined to make the most out of our next four weeks or so. We just finished up our weekend here, but the good news is we are heading into a work from home week, and we have lots of fun plans for next weekend, too.
With just a couple weeks left of the Flower and Garden Festival, we decided that would be our first stop on our Disney day on Wednesday. Asa and I had been, but the boys hadn't, and it is a can't miss event for sure.
We had a bit of an issue as Peyton's shoe broke "somehow" (mysteriously of course) in the parking lot. The material part disconnected from the sole, and it was pretty clear he wouldn't be able to walk the world with his shoe in that state. I wasn't pleased at the prospect of buying him a new pair of sandals at Disney (ugh, the prices!), but you gotta do what you gotta do. Only problem was, there were ZERO shoes in Peyton's size, or really anywhere near it. The men's were all way too big, and the kids were all too small. So, we went to guest services and they hooked us up with some duct tape. But really Disney, whats with the shoes? Not cool.
Duct taped all together, we were ready to walk the world. Our first stop was Mexico for some nachos!
And Norway for some school bread (Hayden got a whole lunch, we knew he wouldn't be adventurous enough for around the world eating to fill him up).
Steamed buns, spring rolls, and...
Beijing style candied strawberries in China.
A stop in Africa to play around..
And lots of sights to see... Sand sculptures..
And topiaries! I love the topiaries!
Miss Piggy!
These are my favorite ones every year. Lady's ears are awesome!
Now, the nice guy who gave us the duct tape also gave us a pencil to wrap some extra around in case the tape didn't last. Which was good, we did need to stop half way around to re-evaluate our duct tape strategy. I guess this is a lesson, always pack two pairs of shoes!
Peyton didn't mind though, he had a good attitude about it, and was pleased with his frozen lemonade at the American Smokehouse.
We also got the burnt ends hash, the pulled pig slider, and the sausage with sauerkraut (which everyone likes much better than the James Buchanan stuff we had the other day).
Hey, I saw pineapples growing like this in Hawaii!
Japan is two of our favorites, a curried steam bun and frushi!
Peyton LOVES frushi, which is essentially fruit sushi.
Our fast pass times were up so we took the boat back to future world.
It's so pretty this time of year, I'm glad I got to see it twice!
More topiaries.
We had test track fast passes, so we designed our cars and took them for a test drive.
And a stop at Epcot isn't complete without a trip to Club Cool. (Everyone's still pretty mad they got ride of the Chinese Coke)
Oh, and don't drink Italy Coke, just gross.
We had some fast passes to Spaceship Earth too. That ride gets more fun every time because it's full of history that we're slowly but surely getting to with our lessons by dad series.
It was about 2:30, so we headed out of Epcot and on to our next destination.
Typhoon Lagoon! I really would like a waterproof camera, but until I get one, I won't have too many waterpark pictures. We did float along the lazy river, swim with the sharks, ride some slides, and catch some waves though. It wasn't crowded at all, which was awesome. The boys all went on the Crush N Gusher three times in a row.
We didn't want to leave Disney just yet because we'd just get stuck in traffic, so instead we decided to head over to Disney Quest. (Peyton was all "mom, look, Henry Clay has his own video game!)
We went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, and the five of us were the only ones in the bumper cars. It was kind of crazy dead, usually you have to wait a bit for these.
And we all got to ride racing games together...
which is also usually impossible. We've never been able to get five cars or motorcycles in a row before. So fun!
There were basketball games, Deal or No Deal games, we pretty much had the run of the place, and it was awesome.
On our way out we decided to stop at the House of Blues window for some nachos. I had packed our snack packs for dinner, and the boys did end up eating those on the way home, since we had split food and snacked all day, that was pretty much their only meal. We started the day with nachos, and we finished the day with nachos.
Isn't living in Florida & going to Disney just THE BEST? I think so. Days like Wednesday you can't help but feel pretty happy just to live here.
Thursday, Asa and I ran some errands in the morning. We stopped by Lowes to get the rest of the mulch for the garden, the library, and went out to Panera for lunch.
Then we went home to watch hours upon hours of draft coverage. We decided not to go down to the stadium, and we didn't have a party. Calib was bummed and told me 'we have to do SOMETHING to celebrate?' Look what I've started, we have to celebrate everything here. (Who am I kidding, I love it!)
So, he came up with the idea of making the NFL inspired pizzas like we do for Championship Sunday. Instead of doing the top four teams, he proposed we do the top four picks. I thought it was a pretty good idea, after all, I'm not sure when we'll get the chance to make these teams pizzas for Championship Sunday.
Pick One: TAMPA BAY! (we finally get to reap the benefits of sucking so much last year!)
The Pizza: The Cuban Pizza
The consensus: I should have made two, instead I just used one pizza crust and cut it in half for the top and bottom. Peyton's favorite. (So, Tampa's pizza was supposed to be a key lime pizza, but we didn't want two desert pizzas, and Cubans are pretty popular here, so we stole Miami's recipe)
Pick Two: Tennessee Titans
The pizza: The Fried Chicken Pizza
The consensus: Delicious! But, heavy. It has gravy, mashed potatoes, chicken and cheese. So filling, but probably my favorite.
Pick Three: Jacksonville Jaguars
The Pizza: Fruit Tart Pizza
The verdict: Awesome. Light and fresh. I didn't exactly use the same recipe for this one, as I found a crust recipe I thought would be better, and I was right. Hayden's favorite.
Pick four: Oakland Raiders
Pizza: Asian Chicken
The verdict: The first pizza gone, everyone loved it. It was sweet and spicy, and awesome. Calib and Asa fought over the last piece, and Peyton was bummed when they were gone.
I always make these pizzas and think, there's no way we're going to eat that all. But, this is what was left before the first pick was even made. Eventually, there was nothing left as the last few pieces were eaten eventually.
Then there was the draft! And the Bucs, in no surprise to anyone, picked Famous Jameis. Everyone knows I've been a Mariota fan, but sometimes you just have to get on board. So, we'll see how this goes.
In other news, we have a new project starting here at the Waterstrauts. It's a Where in the World type game where the boys will be given information (that they receive in the top secret mailbox) on seven criminals to try and track down. There is one brother from the Fenderson mob on each continent, and we'll spend a week on each.
The first step was to figure out which brother was on which continent with a logic puzzle. They sent that back to the home office, and will be hearing how well they did soon.
In the meantime they had some resources to use along the way in the mailbox this morning along with a file on the crimes committed.
We have taken down the April board, and got up the May birthdays. We only have two: Harry Truman and JFK.
I am making a point this summer not to complain about the heat. We live in Florida, it gets hot. I get it, that comes with the territory. It's ponytail season now, thats all there is to it. But, hey, this weather the last two days? LOVE IT. I have the screen door open, and everyone is loving it.
Plus the boys and I ate lunch outside. I hope this breeze and low humidity won't last forever, we have to appreciate it while it's here!
Asa joined via speaker phone (ugh, office days). Oh, and you see Gracie over there? Poor girl may have lost her eye sight completely, but she hasn't lost her ability to beg, or find food.
Oh my gosh, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Lightning. Did ya'll see game seven?! Holy smokes, I'm not even a hockey fan, but I can get on the bandwagon and support my home town team for the Stanley Cup. I mean, it's exciting stuff. (I am sorry to all my Red Wings fan friends though, truly, because you guys are much bigger fans than me for sure, I don't want to rub your nose in it at all.)
Anyway, I'm off to fold some laundry and maybe work on Harry Truman's birthday, and then tonight we get more draft (here's hoping we do something about that offensive line!)
Next Up: Work from home week & more summer vacay!
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