But, there's no fun worldly events to celebrate this year. No presidential elections, no Olympics, not even a Leap Day. So, I decided to come up with another plan. I know I've talked about it, but since it's January now, we're officially kicking it off. This year, we're celebrating all the President's birthdays. Up first on January 7th- Millard Fillmore. We'll finish up December 30 with Andrew Johnson. I'm pretty excited about the whole things, and besides just being lots of good history lessons, I have some other fun projects to go along with some fun facts about the Presidents. I've been working on my file folders, and have them made up through February.
We've got a couple of other fun home school projects on tap, and lots of Mosi and aquarium classes scheduled, along with Calib planning a trip to Hawaii for another big project. I've planned in some STEAM days, lessons by dad, a monthly book report day, and an unplugged day. Never a dull moment as our calendar is pretty packed for the next six weeks or so.
But, before we can get to all of that, we need to fill you in on how the last week of 2014 went around here. Despite the germs, we've been having a pretty relaxing week. Though, truth be told, I am looking forward to getting back to our normal routine. Since mid-November, it's been vacation, holiday, vacation, holiday. So, the boys are running a little wild, and we need to get some structure back in our lives!
Friday, Asa went into work for a couple of hours, but because of the holiday pay on Thursday he was back home before lunchtime. We had lovely weather, so we headed outside to use some fun new Christmas presents.
Everyone in the neighborhood was out and about, using new bikes, scooters, and even a new popcorn maker the boys across the street got for Christmas. They set up a little lemonade stand. They tried not to charge Hayden (they play together a lot at the park, so I guess they were giving him the friend discount), but I told Hayden to make sure he paid.
I do really like our neighborhood, despite really wanting to buy a farm and get a lot more land. Our neighbors here are pretty great though, so if we have to be here for a little while longer my only complaint is the small house and yard.
Calib even got in on the scooter. If I knew how popular Hayden's was going to be, I would have gotten everyone one, since I got such a good deal on it.
We picked up mom from the airport around 8, and had a few last presents to open when she arrived.
Peyton got more presidential pez dispensers (we want them all!), and Calib got a whole Hobbit collection. We really get our Disney passes for Christmas, and mom claims she's not going to get us anything else, but she always does. I got a penguin hat and some great fuzzy socks!
Saturday we headed out for a Costco trip, mom's treat- and a stop by Kohl's. When I was in Ohio, I went along with mom on a trip to Kohl's and she gave me all her Kohl's cash, which was $40 worth. I told Calib I would use it to buy him new shoes, which he really needed. Coupled that with the sale on the shoes, and a $10 off $30 coupon I had, and I didn't pay ANYTHING for his new Nike shoes.
As a matter of fact, I had a second $10 off coupon, so when Hayden wanted to spend his Christmas money on this boat for $20, and I still had about $6 left on my Kohl's cash, I figured we might as well pick up something else to use the coupon.
Since, in my illness, I never got around to picking up the boys ornaments, I had them pick some out- which were already on clearance. Peyton didn't get one, because he wanted a Bronco's one to commemorate the year he saw Peyton Manning. I ordered his online a couple of days ago, so it should be here just in time to take the tree down. Better late than never, I suppose.
We also got spoiled on our Costco trip. Mom got us lots of groceries, and we all picked out some books. Peyton was THRILLED when he got the entire Harry Potter series.
I, on the other hand, got the Roald Dahl collection, and we all got some fun home school books too.
Asa, meanwhile, got a whole collection of alcohol.
Mom also brought our cookie box with her. Someone added a little holiday cheer to my box, so thanks whoever it was! I was so excited (instert sarcasm here) to see I was going to be getting a whole box of cherry slices.
But, I actually got a whole collection of yummy cookies. Sadly, we only got one pinwheel and two buckeyes though. I guess I need to place a more specific order next year.
We've been playing lots of games that we got for Christmas, but we still haven't gotten to all of them. Spy Alley has quickly become a favorite. After the first game, I thought it might be the fastest game to retirement ever, but Asa won the second, and a couple even after that- so this one might be sticking around for awhile. It's kind of like Clue, only lots more fun!
Sunday was the last Bucs game of the season, and even though it was a home game- we didn't go to it. Asa having to work Sundays, coupled with selling the tickets for more than we paid for them meant one more taco bar at home to close out the season.
And thank goodness they lost. I've never cheered for them to lose before, it was a new feeling for sure (especially since that kind of meant rooting for the Saints to win), but now we have the first overall pick- and we're hoping we draft Oregon's QB, Marcus Mariota. Because if there's anything we need, it's a quarterback. Though, an offensive line would be helpful too.
There just wasn't enough Sangria in the world for this season. Zero wins at home. Brutal.
Hayden got some cool K'nex toys for Christmas too. He got one designed for using gears to make all kinds of working models. He needed a little help on his windmill, but did it all pretty much on his own.
And leave it to Hayden to still enjoy the boxes to things more than the toy. He used a couple of boxes to make his own board game.
Monday night we played our end of the year Jeopardy (think end of the year exams), and I put together questions from all year long. Our categories were: I probably wasn't paying attention, That was forever ago, These United States, Things you should know but almost certainly don't, and The hardest Jeopardy re-do in the history of Jeopardy re-dos.
And, of course our final Jeopardy category "You're probably screwed"
(Asa, the host, needed pie to prepare)
I don't know why the pets feel the need to lay on the questions, but someone always does. Hey, kudos to the boys though, they did better than I thought they would.
Tuesday we headed up to Brooksville to eat lunch with one of mom's friends from AMATYC. Hayden somehow beat the triangle peg game they have at Cracker Barrel, while Calib wasn't too good at it. (Hayden was quite proud of himself)
Tuesday I was also discussing laminating something when Asa had a lightbulb moment. Apparently, he had gotten me this brand new (awesome) laminator for Christmas, and had hidden it in the garage where he completely forgot about it, until I was talking about laminating. So, I got one last Christmas present.
Peyton got one more gift card in the mail, and so when we went out to target to grab a couple odds and ends he spent his giftcard on some more Nerf guns, because you apparently can never have enough of them.
Yet another game of spy alley ended our Tuesday.
And poor Asa had come down with whatever it is I have (or had, I'm getting over it, I think). Excuse his monitors in the background, he moved his work computer out to the family room as not to disturb mom in the mornings while she's here.
Wednesday, for New Years Eve, we headed down to Venice. I've spent a lot of New Year's Eves in the town where my grandparents used to live, and it's become quite the tradition for us the last couple of years to go down there anyway. It's about an hour and half drive from home, so after lunch, and a trip to the library, we arrived in Venice for our first stop: the downtown ice cream shop!
Then we went over to the store where I used to spend my vacation money as a kid: Sea Pleasures and Treasures.
Grandma gave each of the boys $5 to spend, so they all chose some souvenir shells.
The weather wasn't fabulous, we had clouds and sprinkles, and it wasn't even all that warm. But, we made do. The boys also found a fun tree to climb.
(I might have climbed it too)
Then we were off to the beach at Sharky's. You can't quite find the sharks teeth like you could when I was kid, but it's still a nice beach to visit, and it's never all that crowded.
Pictured here: my beach reading.
Meanwhile, Calib and Peyton buried Hayden in the sand.
And then we played some football.
Around 4, we headed up to Sharky's on the pier for an early dinner.
Peyton got a chicken sandwich.
Asa had the kobe beef and shrimp burger he loves so much, mom had the shrimp and crab au gratin.
Calib went with a crabcake sandwich, Hayden ordered the hot dog, and I had the gulf shrimp basket. So good, all of it!
After dinner, we took a nice walk out to the end of the pier.
And then we waited for the 5:45pm sunset.
But really, for the second year in a row, this is all we got. We haven't had a good New Years Eve sunset since 2012!
We got back to the house a little before 8, and had some celebratory drinks.
New Years Eve here is pretty much just like the fourth of July. People have fireworks everywhere. We got to see lots being set off in our neighborhood, but we just did some sparklers.
And my jello molds came in the mail yesterday. I got Gators ones, and Oregon ones (Um, how can I not be a fan, we made all the mistakes for Mariota! I'm actually watching the Rose Bowl right now and rooting for the Ducks instead of Florida State, can you believe it?!) Plus, I mean, it was $5 for both of them together, shipped right to my door and I got four molds (two of each team), and 8 boxes of jello.
We played some games, another game of Spy Alley where Asa dominated, and we tried the new card game, Nuts, that my mom got for us. It's pretty funny.
Then we sat around and waited to ring in the new year!
This morning my Jello was all ready to be out of the molds, in time for the Rose Bowl.
Asa worked today for the overtime. Not only is it a Happy New Year, but it's also Happy Vacation & Personal time! Asa ran out of his in August when we were in Ohio, so it's nice to have the time again. Although if the trip to D.C, Ohio and Hawaii all happen, he'll have to hold on to as much as possible.
On Tuesday we had hoped to go bowling, but Asa and I both weren't feeling all that well after our trip to Brooksville, so we postponed it for a New Years Day activity.
Then it was home for some football, and our annual New Years Cookout. We had to get rid of our grill, so we settled for using our little tailgating one. But, it worked just fine.
My mom is heading back home tomorrow. No worries, we'll see her again in just over a month at Disney. But it's back to a routine for us here at the Waterstrauts, and I couldn't be more excited. I'm off to watch this Mariota guy, and hope to goodness the Buccaneer front office is smart enough to draft this guy.
Up Next: Back to School!
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