Beach and Back to School

Last weekend we took the kids to the beach to celebrate the boys birthdays. it was a lot of fun. Although the chlorine in the pool was a bit strong for my taste. The cousins and Gail came down and I think almost everyone had a great time. Poor Chloe got hit with a stomach bug while we were there. Rob took beautiful photos and he may inset a link in a bit, but I'm feeling too lazy to do it.

Beth had a stressful week this week. She was stressed about taking a standardized test at school. On top of that the science fair is coming up in the next week and a half and she has been working on the project. She wants to do it on hurricanes and flooding. She built a city out of paper and then put it completely underwater. While her effort was great, the accuracy and information wasn't quite right, so we will be working on a another model this week. However she can spout random facts about how much each category of hurricane will typically flood, and things about storm surge. She has been doing the research on the project.

Caleb turned six this week. He's doing well in school, and is overall happy. He came down with a little bug on Tuesday and missed school on Wednesday. It was just a little bug, but he slept a lot on Wednesday. His big gift for his birthday was a Flying Turtle. This video convinced him that the Flying Turtle was the right choice for him. There are some awesome videos of teenagers flying down hills in California that Rob showed to me too. We warned Caleb he might get hurt, and Rob said one of the biggest drawbacks was that he might get bloody knuckles. Caleb would randomly talk about it during the week, and be very excited about his opportunity to get bloody knuckles.

Well yesterday we took the kids out to the park to play on their toys--Jacob got something similar which I will describe in a minute-- and Caleb was riding on his Flying Turtle. To be honest Rob was just as keen to sit on the Flying Turtle, and he went down this hill on the walk to one park, and laughed the whole time. He got going pretty fast on it. There is a ramp that Rob wanted to ride down on the way back. The ramp leads up to a bridget that goes over the interstate and cuts back and forth several times with really sharp turns and huge drop offs over the side, with a fence that the Flying Turtle would just slide under. To be honest I wasn't too crazy about Rob riding it down that ramp because I just saw an emergency room trip with broken limbs, and trying to figure out how to get Rob to the car all busted up and broken. So when we got back to the ramp Rob decided not to ride it, and the next thing I know Caleb is going down it. He almost made it but flipped the Flying Turtle on the last turn and scraped up one arm pretty badly. But that's all he did thank goodness. Helmets are mandatory.

So Jacob got his present this week too. He got a plasma car. This is a video of the thing. Rob has been wanting to get one of these for the kids for years. Instead of the typical wheels featured on the fairly tame video--Rob upgraded to skateboard wheels. I took Jacob to the bus stop and let him ride it and I couldn't keep up with him running as fast as I could. There is a slight (very slight) hill and it took off super fast. If you ask Jacob how old he is he will hold up his fingers and say four and then he will count his fingers for you. I think it is quite cute. He also refers to himself in third person, but as Jacob Caldwell, not just Jacob. So he may come to me and say Mom, Jacob Caldwell wants some ice cream or Mom Jacob Caldwell is sleepy. Also if you ask him his name he will tell you Jacob Caldwell Joshua. Very fun.

Rob is having fun, and loved riding the Flying Turtle. I think he would have ridden the plasma car, but the thing won't hold his weight right now.

Take care!

Catch the Biggest Films This Year

As soon as I showed the kids the new movie trailer feature in iMovie 11, they just had to make a few. So save up your pocket change for tickets and popcorn, cause these films are Academy Award material. Well, maybe just a Golden Globe or two .....

The Pizza Sandwich

Jacob just came to me complaining of hunger.

Me: Do you want a peanut butter sandwich or a meat sandwich?

Jacob: A peanut butter and JAM sandwich

Me just realizing we have leftover pizza: Do you want a peanut butter JAM sandwich or a piece of pizza?

Jacob: A peanut butter jam PIZZA sandwich

Me: Peanut butter and pizza wouldn't be very good together

Jacob: A Pizza Sandwich

Me: No

Jacob: You just take two pieces of bread and put a pizza in between

Me: I'm not making it

Jacob: I will

He went and got the bread, and the pizza and made it himself--and ate most of it.

Christmas and Disney World

A busy Christmas vacation. We drove to Florida on Christmas day. The roads were pretty empty most of the day--still not my favorite thing to do on Christmas. We had the kids open presents the day before complete with a visit from Santa. So they still got Christmas, and a Christmas Eve celebration the night before where we acted out the nativity.

The big present for everyone were Razer scooters. The kids are doing great on them. Although they've only ridden them three times. It's been too cold and icky. Even Jacob has mastered balancing and going. They have a lot of fun on them.

Rob got Caleb a marble roller coaster, which is actually pretty awesome. There have been many coasters built with short tempers and rising frustration. I think this happens when someone gets a toy he really wants to play with himself, but gives it to his kid instead. Happily today was the first built roller coaster with no yelling, snapping or frustration. It was an out and back coaster and a lot of fun. Rob is already talking expansion kits (notice the plural) and a goal of filling the entire house with a huge roller coaster.

Beth got mostly crafts and a circuit set. In her letter to Santa with the cookies she requested some photos of Santa and the elves. Well Santa delivered and it cemented her faith in him. She showed those pictures off as often as she could the next few days.

Jacob got a Batman castle since he is so fascinated by Batman currently. He is in a Batman suit complete with cape and mask more than he is in normal clothes. He's enjoyed playing with it. Rob got Jacob dressed for church today by convincing him that he needed to be Bruce Wayne for awhile and disguise himself in a suit and tie. He gave him the entire spiel and had Jacob repeat back his name and profession. "Bruce Wayne --millionaire playboy" in the hopes that Jacob would introduce himself that way at church. When I picked him up from Sunbeams he was talking about Batman with his teachers, so it may have worked.

So my baby started Sunbeams today. It's hard to believe. I look at him and he's not a baby anymore. He looks grown up, and has a fun personality all his own. Sometimes it makes me so proud other times I'm sad since I won't have another little one at home. Still I'm so proud of him--his transition was smooth and he can be mature when he wants to be.

Disney World was fun, but crowded and cold. We went early, and got there when it had just opened. And managed to squeeze in five rides in less than three hours. That was good time considering walking. It got crowded around lunch time and the lines got long. Rob was looking at an article talking about crowd control in Disney World during the busiest times and how they've managed to get the average number of rides ridden up to 10 for the day. Well we put that number to shame we counted everything we did and we got up over fifteen. That's not shabby considering we went on one of the most crowded days of the year.

Also consensus on best rides were roller coasters. Jacob rode the Barnstormer twice in a row and whoo hooed the whole way! Chloe loved Space Mountain. Caleb's and Beth's favorite was Big Thunder Mountain hands down. Beth only rode it because Kim agreed to ride with her, and they were both nervous about the ride. Now Beth wants to go back to Busch Gardens to ride Loch Ness.

It was nice to see family in Florida. They had fun playing with the kids down there. They are close to our kids age. We call them cousins, though I don't know what they are technically. Rob's cousin's son's kids.

Now we are ready - okay I'm ready - to send the kids back to school. It's been a nice week and half off, but the troops are getting restless and the weather hasn't let us get the kids out to play as much as I like.

Have a great 2011!