Dr. Seuss Day 2010

The annual Dr. Seuss Day at my house was a big success again this year. We had 6 moms and 13 kids participating: Andrea Taylor & 2 kids, Stephanie Harless & 3 kids, Kelly Battles & 3 kids, Krisite & 2 kids, Kim Cannon & 1 kid, Myself and my 2 boys.

Mikie is wearing my Horton Hears A Who shirt and Zachary is wearing a Horton shirt that used to fit Mikie two years ago.

The "quiet audience"

1st book: THE FOOT BOOK

Activities:

"The Footy Dooty" played like hokey pokey but all actions involved our feet.

Matching animal footprints. Using a ruler to measure how many feet it takes to cross the room
Creating their own unique foot.

2nd Book: ONE FISH, TWO FISH, RED FISH, BLUE FISH

Activities:
Ring the Gack ring toss.Create your own fish art activity

3rd Book: HORTON HATCHES THE EGG

Activities:


Painting elephantbirds and attaching feathers for wings. Then making them fly out of koozies that I found which were red and white spotted just like Horton's egg.

While reading the book, I used our Horton puppet to act out some of the scenes and at the end when the elephant bird pops out I made ours "fly" out too.

Kim planned science experiments with eggs: eggs floating in salt water and getting an egg sucked into a bottle.

It was a great morning that ended with a pizza delivery and a lot of smiling children! I'm already looking forward to next year and think I may get started planning my activity now.... :)

T-REX Cafe

"Vacation?" Part VII (Final chapter in the epic saga)

Besides the field trip to the Titanic, this was the other main attraction Mikie and I were looking forward to. Due to all the sickness, I had to reschedule our reservations 3 times. We finally made it to the T-REX CAFE on our last day in FL. In case you don't know, the restaurant is very similar to the Rainforest Cafe, but obviously has a dinosaur theme.

Mikie out front with the Parasaurolophus.

Inside, they had a Build-A-Dino workshop where the boys each made a new best friend:

Mikie chose a Parasaurolophus.

Giving them a wash.

Zachary chose a Stegosaurus. Of course, (just like build-a-bear) you can dress your dinos in clothes and accessories, but Michael didn't want them to do that so instead they each got to choose a baby dinosaur to match their big one. As soon as Zachary saw the baby stegosaurus, he started kissing and hugging it and wouldn't let go. He promptly dropped the big one and hasn't touched it since.

In front of the animatronic dinos
Video of them petting the baby brontosaurus:

Michael's eyes are still very red as you can tell in this picture:

There were three dining rooms and only 2 are open during the day. The third one, where most of the animatronic dinos are, was closed during lunch, but as you can tell from the pictures above we still got to go look at them. The dining room we sat in was the ice cave that changed colors every few minutes and flashed when the meteor shower hit every 20 minutes.

It was pink....now it's blue....

Playing with the baby dinos.

Mikie was so cute with his Parasaurolophus. He was talking to it.....

and hugging it.....

and loving it for the rest of the trip. It's still one of his favorites that he has to sleep with at night.

We walked a little through downtown Disney and saw the Lego dogs:

Then, once more before we left for home the boys played mini-golf.

THE END!!!!!

Magic Kingdom

"Vacation?" Part VI (see previous posts)

Michael had decided that we were going to extend our trip by two extra days which meant we now had time to go to the Magic Kingdom. Overall, it was a great day but two things made it not so "magical." The first was when Michael awoke with pink eye. I didn't think to grab the eye drops from the hotel when we left. By the end of the day, his eyes were so red and swollen it looked as if he was stung by bees. I am happy to report that is our last recorded sickness of the trip.

The second circumstance that hindered our ability to fully enjoy the happiest place on earth was the crowd of people. The park wasn't just crowded, it was CROWDED! At certain points in the day, we were stuck shoulder to shoulder in a sea of people that seriously wasn't moving for about 5 minutes; and, that wasn't in a line...that was in the streets trying to get from one place to the other. In my opinion they should only allow a certain number of guests into their park on any given day to help with the crowds. Since then, I have learned that Mondays tend to be the busiest days for the Magic Kingdom.

Zachary wanted to ride the "neigh, neighs"


The classic Dumbo pictures
Zachary is waiting for me to join him.

About 3 weeks ago, out of the blue, Mikie grabbed his baseball cap hanging on a hook in his room (I had it there for decoration) and decided to wear it. Most people would ask, "yeah, so what?" But let me tell you, for my child who hasn't worn a hat since before he was able to pull it off of his head by himself, this is a big deal! He was complaining about the sun in his eyes so we asked if he'd like to have a new hat. He said he wanted a Tigger one and so the summer of hat wearing has begun. We ate lunch in Pooh's Hundred Acre Woods on a bench because all the tables in a 1 mile (over exaggerating...just slightly) area were taken, and let the boys climb around for awhile since the crowds weren't as thick "in the forest."

We hopped on the last ferry to Tom Sawyer's island and spent the next 45 minutes meandering the paths, bridges, caves, and forts. This was the most enjoyable part of our Magic Kingdom day as there were hardly any people in sight. We wished we would have known about the shaded picnic tables on the island before we finished our lunch.

A few more rides and shows before the big parade.

We knew we'd be pressing our luck keeping the boys up so late, but we couldn't leave without seeing the lighted parade and the fireworks. Besides the island, the lighted parade was my favorite.

Even though they had their stroller, they wanted to sit on my lap to watch the parade.

It was after 11:00 when we left the park and close to midnight before we got to our room. The boys were real troopers!

Sea World on Sunday

"Vacation?" Part V (see previous posts)

All my guys were feeling better on Sunday, so we took advantage of the free military tickets and enjoyed a relaxing day with Shamu. The first thing Zachary wanted to do was ride the carousel. Mikie was throwing a fit about something so he wasn't allowed to ride with us. It is always a struggle to get my littlest guy to smile for the camera. See what I mean:Take 2....
Take 3...
He's so cute when he finally does crack a smile!

Zachary was also really excited to see all the characters today and was eager to give each one a hug. Mikie, on the other hand, wouldn't have anything to do with them.

Hugging some funny turtle.

We experienced the second random act of kindness while the boys were playing skiball in the game area. A young man had just won two gigantic neon frogs and asked if our boys would like them. Mikie's eyes lit up as he said "Yes! Please!" (I wish I would have gotten a picture)

Both boys enjoyed the VERY large climbing/tunnel structure. This one was much too large to let them explore on their own, so Michael and I had the pleasure of crawling around with them.

Zachary was willing to have his picture with a skunk, but Mikie refused.
Most of our time at Sea World was spent hopping from one show to the next. This was a perfect way to spend the day while they all recovered. The dolphin show was my favorite, but I think my boys enjoyed the pet show the best. Cats, dogs, birds, and pigs all performed tricks on a cute stage decorated like a beach town.

After walking through the shark exhibit, we thought it would be fun to eat in the restaurant with the gigantic aquarium. We had a table right next to the glass and enjoyed identifying every shark that swam by.

Then it was time to visit the manatees...

and the dolphins....

I could have stayed there all day watching them. They truly fascinate me!

Zachary was thrilled when we found a stuffed "mingo" for his souvenir. Mikie chose to fill a box with plastic sea creatures to take home.

Zachary really loved watching those "mingoes"

When we left Sea World, guess what we found right down the street?

And since they were all relatively healthy again, we played a round at Pirate's Cove.

This was the steepest hole we have ever played, so of course the boys had to "practice" this one many times!

The boys got a little prize bag at the end. When we pulled out the eye patch Zachary wanted to try it on right away, and he didn't fuss about putting the hat on either. Even though Zachary is more stubborn and strong willed than I remember Mikie being, at least he is willing to try new things (even if it did only stay on for about 2 minutes).

This was our one and only completely healthy day in Orlando.......tomorrow it starts to go downhill again.......stay tuned.......