Yesterday we had a super fun Disney trip (what Disney trip isn't super fun?!) Usually, about once per year (pass) we go to the Animal Kingdom. There aren't a lot of rides there, and the boys don't usually ask to go- but I like to make the trip every once in awhile.
When we were headed back to Kilimanjaro Safari's, Peyton spotted a big Wilderness Explorer booth. Of course, having just been Wilderness Explorers for Halloween, the boys wanted to see what it was all about. Apparently, there's a Wilderness Explorer handbook in which you can earn badges (stickers) all throughout the park. It's super awesome, and actually pretty educational (you can bet some Jeopardy questions this month will be coming from the things the boys learned during these activities). After picking up the (totally free) handbooks, we earned our Wilderness Explorer call badge and headed out.
Our first stop was to earn our Flamingo badge (did you know a bunch of flamingos is actually called a flamboyance, not a flock?), where the boys learned about flamingos and found the correctly tagged one, so it would get the correct feeding and medication.
The spots where you can earn badges are marked throughout the park, we had some fastpasses, so we skipped some, but it's incentive to come back more than just once per year, the boys were TOTALLY into this.
While Asa, Peyton, and Calib headed off to ride Mount Everest, Hayden and I went to look at some animals. There was an animal find badge, where you circled all the animals you saw and returned to the original booth at the end of your day to report back on your findings, so as we found animals, he checked them off.
We met back up for a trip on Kilimanjaro Safari, the tour itself has gone through different variations, but I love this one they have going on now. It's really informative and educational.
We learned male elephants generally live by themselves, Giraffes have black tongues because they spend at least 18 hours a day eating and the black keeps their tongues from getting sun burnt, and you call a bunch of zebras together a dazzle, rhinos a crash, and giraffes a tower.
We also got to see lots of animals out and about this time around, which was pretty awesome.
At the exit, the boys earned their Safari Badge, and got a brief lesson on Africa from the nice cast member who is from Nambia, earning their African Culture Badge.
I think in our many years as passholders, we've taken the train (the only way to get there) back to Rafiki's Planet Watch. There were quite a few badges to be earned back at the petting zoo and the conservation station, so the boys really wanted to go.
They went on a habitat hunt to find various hidden animals and earned their habitat badge (from a guy who I am convinced voiced Fix it Felix, I don't care if Disney claims it was that guy from 30 rock). We also learned there is a rabbit in Florida that loves to swim!
We headed back to the conservation station where the boys used the signs to answer some questions earning their Animal Nutrition Badge.
The sea turtle xray gave the boys information to write their diagnosis on the animal in distress card, earning their Veterinary Badge.
Earning their Recycling Badge was as easy as decoding the message left for them by the troop leader on the recycling bin in the Conservation Center.
The previous three badges together made them conservation hero's, earning them the Conservation Badge.
It was after 2, and we decided we should probably head out if we wanted to make it to the water park (don't you hate when the time changes and it's so dark so early?!? I do!) So, we tucked away our Wilderness Explorer books and promised the boys we'd make some more trips to the Animal Kingdom. The books are awesome, the park was hardly crowded at all, and the weather was lovely. I could have stayed there all day!
But off to Blizzard Beach we went. It'd been awhile since we'd been here too, as the boys tend to favor Typhoon Lagoon. But, with Typhoon Lagoon closed for refurbishment until January, the decision was made for us.
We walked in with only two hours left before the park closed, and we knew it was a good sign when plenty of people were walking out, and nobody else was walking in!
It was a warm 85 degrees or so. The water wasn't too bad either, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't cold. I told Asa I think us all walking around shivering in 85 degree weather talking about how it was a little too cold to swim might make us official Floridians.
We did get an ice cream bucket, though.. because what's a trip to Blizzard Beach without eating ice cream on a shovel out of a pail?
We did some swimming, and some climbing and some water sliding. One of these days, I'm going to get myself a water proof camera. I'll need it for when I eventually make it to Hawaii anyway.
Calib and Asa also braved the gigantic Summit Plummet. I don't know how well you can see him, but that is Calib going down the slide.
We had packed our usual PB&J sandwich packs and had a quick dinner before heading over to Hollywood Studios.
The problem with Hollywood Studios is there isn't a ton for Hayden to do, so we decided to window shop while the bigger kids went on the bigger rides. We found Sven from Frozen, and a couple of other things he put on his Christmas list. (he totally wants this whole Snow White "action figure" dress up set, and I'm all about getting it for him!)
He's also been into the power rangers, since Asa put all kinds of it on Plex for him, so he was pretty excited to see them.
He also wanted to wear the Aerosmith hat, but it may have been just a little too big for his head (note: he was not amused when I took this picture- he said "mom, help... mom, are you taking a picture? I need some help here!")
Then we waited for everyone else, and got to see the park lights come on. I love amusement parks at night!
We also finally got to see Fantasmic. It'd been years since we'd seen the Hollywood Studios night time Wishes equivalent, but with it being dark so early the show starts at 6:30 these days, so we could squeeze it in, no problem!
I took one picture of the show, and it didn't turn out well- but whatever, the show is awesome, if you're ever at Disney you should totally go see it. It also had Peyton asking about watching all kinds of Classic Disney movies this morning, which is awesome.
That was it for our Disney day. We ended it a little earlier than usual, but it was nice to have such a full Disney day and be home by 9 pm.
I did snap this funny picture of Calib while we were waiting for everyone else to use the bathroom. He was standing on one of the lights on the ground and had no idea how funny he looked.
Besides our Disney trip, we've been keeping busy this week. There was of course the Sunday Bucs game, in which it went pretty well to begin with.
And while I love our season tickets, there is something to be said for spending a (cool!) Sunday cuddled up on the couch, watching football, eating chili.
But then, it all took a turn for the worse, and the Bucs lost to the Browns. Ugh, beyond heartbreaking. This actually led to us selling our Season Tickets for one of the remaining four games. We play the Packers late in December, and tickets were going for over twice what we paid for them, so we decided to put them on Stub Hub to see what happened- we sold all five in a matter of a day. I'm not about selling our tickets, but when you can get back the cost of two games, and when you've been losing this much, it really was a no brainer. Plus, now we have $250 on it's way.
Home school was full of lots of little fun projects. Who knew some water, alka seltzer and film canisters would be so entertaining AND educational?
First of all, the lesson on what a film canister was resulted in me feeling terribly old. But after that we talked about how the alka selzter would react with the water, releasing carbon dioxide bubbles. When the film canster was sealed and turned upside down that gas would eventually fill the canister resulting in the top being popped with enough force to shoot the canister up in the air.
So the boys got to filling their canisters and flipping them upside down.
Then they popped. I didn't get any good action shots, but this one was SO. MUCH. FUN. You really should try it sometime. But they do shoot up VERY HIGH, so make sure you're outside with lots of space.
We also took some time and played the Geography game. Hayden was being a poor sport, and was sent to his room shortly after this picture was taken.
We also continued our election coverage, where we talked about all the offices that we were voting on, along with the three issues on the ballot. I did quick snapshots of all the candidates, and the boys all got to fill out sample ballots I had printed out online. Our winners are denoted by the W.
Asa and I, of course, got our 'I voted' stickers on Tuesday. (Though we were less than pleased with the outcome, but even more so less than pleased with voter turn-out.... Come on people, you need to VOTE!)
The boys votes didn't match up too well with Florida though, they only elected two candidates that won and they passed all three issues, while Florida only passed one. I'm less than pleased with the results, but I voted- so I have earned my right to complain for the next four years. And, crazy true fact: next time Florida elects a Governor, Calib will be voting.
Oh and our raisins...
They're totally like real actual raisins! (That only took forever to dry)
Asa also passed another class, I still owe him rootbeer floats, so I'm hoping to get to that tonight. But way to go Asa! He'll be a college graduate in no time.
In arts and crafts this week, we made the Sorting Hat. Since Target had all things Halloween up to 90 percent off, I grabbed a witches hat super cheap knowing we could turn it into the famous hat from Harry Potter. First, we added some texture with some paper mache.
We dried it outside on the line from the donuts (see last blog), and I used some clothes pins to make it into the shape I wanted.
Once it dried, we added the eyebrow and the nose, and did a second layer of the paper mache.
Once it dried we did a couple coats of various shades of brown paint. I think it turned out pretty awesome, and it'll be great for whenever we get to Harry Potter week. I was hoping it'd be this month, but with trips and holidays, it just might have to be put on hold yet again.
The other news from the week is the pillow pool! When I was cleaning up from our fall activities outside, I noticed the pool was on it's last legs. It had leaked out nearly all the water in one day, and it wasn't going to stick around for another summer of weird activities that we needed for next summer. So, I decided we should turn it into a pillow pool. Because who wouldn't love a pool full of blankets and pillows to do their daily reading?
It became pretty popular for not only reading, but really anything. It just gets dragged around to different places in the house.
The kids aren't the only ones enjoying it either.
I'm pretty sure at one point every pet in the house (minus the tortoise, but including the rats) have spent some time in it.
Some more than others.
The last big news of the week: I ordered tickets for me and Peyton to go see Peyton Manning play in Saint Louis on Sunday the 16th. I managed to get tickets 6 rows up from the field, and I can't even tell you how excited my Peyton is about the whole thing.
Next Up: We've got a home game Sunday, a Build n Grow and a couple library events.. then we're off to Saint Louis next Thursday!
A group of male zebras is called zebros.
ReplyDelete