Canada Trip August 2013

Okay, I am going to go through my drafts folder and get some things posted before 2013 is over!  Aaaaand GO!


We went to Canada in August, staying in a cabin with my parents and my uncle, stopping overnight in Niagara Falls on the way up.  We had read books and watched videos about Niagara Falls before going, and the boys enjoyed seeing the stuff we'd learned about in person.

The hotel we stayed at was right across the street from the whirlpool aero car ride, so it was the first place we went.  Shane was not interested in riding the car (His response when asked if he wanted to ride it:  F#ck NO!) but we still enjoyed the views from the observation deck.

A kind stranger offered to take our picture.  I wish he'd have gotten more of the falls and less of the sidewalk in the pic but oh well.

The boys with the American Falls in the background

After strolling along the walkway near the falls, the boys started to lose interest.  After hours and hours of me painstakingly researching and planning which activities we were going to do, we scrapped my plans and decided to go up in the Skylon Tower instead.  (Except for Shane - see his response above to the aero car ride.)

There's the Rainbow Bridge in the distance.

Looking down at the Horseshoe Falls

View of the American Falls from the top of the tower.

View of the Horseshoe Falls from the top of the tower.  You can see the Maid of the Mist down be below.

After arriving at the cabin, the boys were ready to have some lake fun!

Boat ride with Grandma & Grandpa

Fishing with Daddy

and more fishing, this time with Grandpa...

and more fishing...

and more fishing...

Love that smile!

and more fishing...

Monkey lost a tooth while we were up there and we learned that the Canadian tooth fairy leaves loonies instead of silver dollars like the U.S. tooth fairy does.  We decided each country has its own tooth fairy.

All we had was one bathroom with a stall shower, so we had to improvise a bathtub for Bug.  He was okay with that.

My favorite misty morning shot.

My little fishie

Family pic right before we got on the road to leave.

The trip was a lot of fun, but also exhausting.  By Thursday the boys were really acting up - which we realized was their way of saying that they were homesick and missing the routine of home.  So we decided to leave a day early, so the other adults could have one day of peace, and so we could get back to home sweet home.

On the way there, we were detained while going through customs for a little over an hour.  We were directed to park our van and told to go into a waiting area which was absolutely crammed full of people.  I have never experienced being deprived of my freedom and I did not like it one bit.  My heart was hammering as I worried about how the kids were going to behave while waiting and wondering why we were there and how long it would be.  Amazingly, the kids did very well.  Finally we were called to the counter.  It turned out that another car near us had set off the radiation detector and they weren't sure if it was them or us, but it wasn't us so we were free to go.  Words cannot describe the relief we felt as we drove away and crossed the border back into our home country!


PS.  Good grief, I can't believe how long it took me to get around to posting this!

Teaching Grandma How To Play Minecraft

My mom had the day off work for President's Day, so she came over to hang out for awhile yesterday morning.  Monkey has been wanting her to play Minecraft with him (since she has a Kindle, too) and they finally got a chance.  Much hilarity ensued as Monkey literally ran circles around her with his avatar.  He patiently showed her how all of the controls worked, and they proceeded to play together in ways that hadn't occurred to me as being possible; follow the leader, tag, hide and seek, etc.  Monkey also proudly showed her all of his creations in his virtual world, which were actually pretty impressive.  They played for the better part of an hour.  There was much laughter and one happy little boy who got some special playtime with Grandma.

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas: A Ridiculously Overdue Update

Pumpkin carving...

He drew a sketch of what he wanted his pumpkin to look like and I did my best to carve it for him.  He was pleased with the results.  :)

Costumes...

I made this working railroad crossing costumer for Monkey when he was little, and I was so excited to dig it out again for Bug!

Found the shirt, hat, and gloves with glow-in-the-dark bones at Walmart.  I painted the arm bones on the sleeves, and leg bones on black sweatpants, also with glow-in-the-dark paint.

A week at the beach - Outer Banks, NC - Oct. 2012

Bear with me here, I'm catching up.

My kids got to see the ocean for the first time in October.  It was wonderful.  We went to the Outer Banks with my parents and my aunt, and we shared a house right on the oceanfront that would have cost $3800 a week if we'd have gone in the middle of summer during the busy season... but which only cost $1200 a week (which we then split three ways) during the off season.  Boom, suddenly a beach trip became feasible!  The weather was a bit chilly and rainy the first two days, but it was absolutely perfect for the rest of the week, with temps in the upper 70's/low 80's. 

Home sweet home for a week

Text from my mom:  "I am Sheldon and have picked my spot.  The yellow chair is mine."

Our room.  Aaaaahhh, I LOVE sleeping to the sound of the ocean!

The top deck offered lovely views.

Our view...

 

Happy (now quite belated) Birthday Monkeyman!

Okay, I have a bunch of posts in my drafts folder, so I'm going to make them short & sweet and power through so I can get them posted and get caught up.

So, two months ago, Monkeyman turned 6.  All I will say about his birthday is this:

We had a LEGO-themed party...

But apparently, we should have had an Angry Birds-themed party instead!

Just kidding - a good time was had by all!  We crammed many family members into our tiny house... because of limited space, Monkeyman was only allowed to invite two outside-the-family friends.  One was his longtime buddy, S., and the other was a new homeschooling friend, E.  He brought Monkey a handmade card that said "You are my best friend.  The end."  So sweet!  Totally melted my heart.

Kalahari Resort trip

We made our second trip to the Kalahari Resort (read about our first trip here) in early February, once again with a group of homeschoolers (and great discounted rates - woot!).  My parents also went with us this time, and it was really nice to have a couple extra sets of hands to help wrangle the kiddos.  Also, the boys really enjoyed getting to spend some extended time with Grandma & Grandpa!  The only drawback was that Bug woke up the morning we were supposed to leave with a fever.  Monkeyman would have been crushed if we cancelled the trip, so I decided if I had to sit in the hotel room with a sick Bug while Monkeyman had fun in the park with Daddy and his grandparents, then that's what I'd do.  And that's largely how I spent the two days we were there.  I alternated giving him Tylenol / Ibuprofen throughout the day, which kept his periodically spiking fever mostly under control, but he still felt kinda crummy & clingy most of the time.  But Monkeyman had an absolutely wonderful time, which made the trip totally worth it for me.  He had fun showing Grandma & Grandpa around the park like a seasoned pro, and he got to play with his new buddy, fellow homeschooler E. a little bit too.  We will definitely be going back to this paradise-for-children again in the future!

Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of pics - and absolutely none in the water park (!) - but this blurry one is special to me because it was Monkeyman's first time bowling and he LOVED it!  This was a really cool coin-operated mini-bowling thing - perfect for a first timer.  Can't wait to take him to a full-sized bowling alley sometime soon!

During a brief period of Bug's fever going down and his spirits perking up, we decided to check out the indoor playground, which we missed the first time we went.  CONFESSION:  One of the coolest things about having a 2-year-old is being allowed inside these cool playground structures even though I'm over 52 inches tall.  I secretly LOVE going into these things!  Anyone else feel this way or am I just a freak?

So FUN!

This is what it looks like in the center of the play structure.  It's three stories tall, with air guns on the floor and on each balcony that shoot foam balls.  You can aim at that big guy's mouth up at the top, or just shoot at each other.  Pretty awesome - Monkeyman really dug it.

Up next:  Medina Ice Festival and Putting Thru the Ages...