Do you see Abe Lincoln?

The past 2 weeks Mike has had to work 

down south in Del Ray Beach. 

This week he also had to work in Port Charlotte, 

which is on the gulf coast.

 Both times have been on Tues and Wed 

when Christina does not have school.

Since she doesn't have a job, and needs money, 

she has been babysitting the boys so I can go with Mike.

Its amazing how calm the gulf side is compared to the Atlantic.

The sea is almost like glass.

We thought this cloud looked like Abe Lincoln's profile with a beehive.
Or a elf.

What do you think?

As we walked on the coast we discovered this guy following us.

A baby stingray!

Caleb was supposed to have golf classes at his school on Tuesdays, 

but not enough kids signed up.  He is really bummed.

He is also the messiest kid I've ever known.

We had our friends Al and Diane over on Saturday night.

Their sons Kyle and Nick "helped" Caleb with his homework.

He LOVES homework.  Fridays he brings home the 

entire packet of homework for the next week,

 and he either does it Friday night, or over the weekend.

Then he is disappointed that there is no more homework 

during the school week.

Never fear! Mom has lots of school work!

 I pull out the big book of 1st grade papers 

and he will do several pages.

"I just love school work." he said.

Zachary thinks he crazy.

Speaking of Zachary, 

he is in only 1 picture! Why?

He spent the last two weekends at his friend Zachary's house.

 They usually alternate weekends,

 but his friend got a new big tv and really wanted Zachary

 to stay over so they could play video games on it.

Since Christina is usually gone on the weekends, 

its just been Mike, Caleb and I. 

We have been keeping Caleb busy and having fun.

Mike taught him how to ride his bike without training wheels.

 He had taught both boys a few months ago 

but the day after they learned it got hot and stayed hot.

 Caleb has crashed only a few times.

However, each time was into our mailbox.

I don't understand that. 

The boys got 'eye' glasses.

Caleb stayed in character even as he went to sleep. 

 Last night was the Boy Scout Pack meeting.

 Dads got their noses painted.

  Cubs got their faces painted.

 Zachary does not like getting his face painted, 

so he was glad that he didn't have to.

 What a cute pair.

 Calebs new den.

The love bugs have invaded Florida.

They are bugs that mate while flying.

They merge twice a year. May and Sept.

This is the worst we (and many others) have seen them.

They have huge swarms and when you hit them with your car,

 they do not wash off. You have to scrub them off.

If you leave them on too long, the acid in their bodies corrodes your paint.

The front of our white Avalon looked black after coming back from our trip.

The big one with the small head is female. Once they are done mating, he dies, 

she lays the eggs and then she dies.  What is the point???

They land on you, but when you try to wipe them off

 they are so fragile that they crush under your fingertips, 

leaving bug guts on you.

Our doors are covered in them.  

When I tried sweeping them off the front door 

all their bodies broke up and I had little pieces 

of love bug bodies all over the walkway.  

Everytime you open the door they fly in.

These are horrible bugs!

They die in Oct.  

Can't wait for Oct!

Christina and Ben had their
one year anniversary this month.

 Also a shout out to K&K

Happy Anniversary!

Harry Potter!!! FINALLY!!

Wed afternoons are great. 

The kids get out of school an hour early,

 and Christina doesn't have school.

Now that all the tourists have gone home,

 its time for us to head back to the theme parks.

On Wed, Mike, Christina, her friend Shannon, and I picked up the boys

 at the bus stop and headed to Universal Studios for the afternoon.

We only had one ride in mind.

Harry Potter!

You go behind Jurassic Park and there is the entrance to Hogsmead.

We bought a Butterbeer.  It was very good.

 Kind of reminds you of a rootbeer float, only with a butterscotchy taste.

  It took us forever to convince the boys that it was not Beer.

Once they tried it they really liked it.
We have not yet tried Bertie Botts Every Flavor Jelly Beans.
Maybe next time.

You can not bring any kind of bag, or loose item like sunglasses into the ride area, so either don't bring anything, or get lockers before heading to the ride. They have lockers inside, but it was packed, and all were full. To get your bag you have to come back thru the beginning of the line, so you can imagine how jam packed that is. The lockers by the train had plenty open.

There is Ollivanders Wand Shop where one member of the audience
 gets picked to come up and have a wand choose them. The line for that was long, and since we
 are planning on making many return trips, we decided to wait.

Our wait for Harry Potter was about 25 min long.

It was perfect timing to see all the wonderful displays and scenes that they have while you are in line.

The line winds thru a greenhouse where they have 'mandrakes' growing along with lots of other plants.

The pictures move and talk. You go thru Dumbledores office where he speaks to you. 

The 3D effects of it are almost real looking.

You then go to the Defense of the Dark Arts classroom where 

Harry, Ron and Hermione talk to you and make it snow.

The way you enter the ride is sort of like how the Haunted Mansion is.

The bench keeps moving on the platform and you climb on and they strap you in.

Now, I'm not going to give away any big secrets or anything,

 besides even if I did try to explain it in detail you'd still have to ride

 it to get the awesome effects of it.

Each bench seats 4 and is its own ride.

The ride is like an arm. Put your elbow on the desk and picture holding a bench in your hand.

Now swivel your elbow as well as your wrist and make the bench go in all kinds of directions.

The ride moves thru rooms that remind you of the Spiderman ride at IOA. 

Some of its a screen and you feel like how you feel in Soaring over California at Disney.

It's also a very long ride. 

I was afraid that one or both of the boys would cry or not like it, 

but the moment the ride stopped Caleb shouted,

 "OMG!! That was AWESOME! Lets go again!"

We couldn't agree more!

We have all dubbed it THE BEST RIDE EVER!

Universal redid the Flying Unicorn ride and turned it into the Hippogrif ride.
The boys loved it and went on it 5 times.
They also redid the entrance to Dueling Dragons and are calling it The Dragon Challenge.
The boys are not big enough for that, so Mike and I will go on it on date night.
Caleb was just barely big enough for Harry Potter. 48 in is the requirement.

Maybe you can tell, in this picture the boys are soaking wet.  We all were.
It started pouring rain just before the park closed, and when we checked
the weather map on Mikes phone, we knew the storms were going to be here for awhile.
We didn't bring our umbrella or parkas, so we had to walk all the way back to the truck in a down pour.
Of course, Harry Potter is all the way on the opposite side of the parking garages.
Thank goodness it was a warm rain!
We got up early the next morning, dropped Christina off at school,
 then the 4 of us went back to Universal.
There was no school on Thursday due to it being Rosh Hashanah.

Yesterday we had made a quick stop in the Jurassic Science Center, 

but they were closing, so we stopped here first on our way to Harry Potter.

They got to feel a 'dinosaur' egg. 

We talked the boys into going on Jurassic Ride. Ok, we bribed them.
Caleb got a NASCAR and Zachary gets to play 2 carnival games.
Caleb ended up LOVING Jurassic and wanted to go again and again,
Zachary 'put  up' with it.
Now Caleb wants to go on the Mummy.
I can't wait to go back and do that ride with him..
Zachary still doesn't really, but if Caleb will, he probably will too.
We are going to get as much use as possible this month out of our tickets because they expire on the 30th.
Then we will have to renew them, because
that Harry Potter ride is AWESOME!

They Blew Up A Pony

This story appeared in our local newspaper 

about a nearby neighborhood.

This story just cracked me up.

Here's the article:

A 'suspicious" toy pony was blown up after it was found

 abandoned in the middle of a cul-de-sac

 near an Orange County elementary school Tuesday morning.

The FurReal Pony -some models of which can cost

 hundreds of dollars and feature a head that moves

 and a tail that swishes-

 was investigated as a possible explosive device

 after someone called Orange County deputies to report it.

A robot inspected the toy before a pack of explosives 

was placed near the stuffed animal and detonated.

Students at nearby WaterBridge Elementary School 

were placed on a modified lockdown in which 

no one was allowed in or out of the building during the investigation.

The lockdown was lifted  after the pony was blown up.

Orange County Sheriff spokesman

 said the pony was later declared to be "non-threatening".

Tuesday afternoon, blackened pavement and

 bits of plastic littering Whisper Glen Court 

were all that was left of the pony.

Can you imagine? It was probably some little girl, who on the way to school, was skipping across the street with her favorite pony tucked in the pocket of her backpack, and didn't notice him fall out.  Man is she going to be bummed when she sees the remains of her poor little pony splattered across the street. And how about the parents? If I paid $200 for a toy and the county blew it up I'd be pretty ticked off.

Is our society so paranoid that you look out your kitchen window, see a toy in the street and automatically think: 

"AAAHHH Terrorists!! They're going to blow up my street!"??

Unbelievable!

Labor Day Weekend

Some neighborhood kids came over several days last week after school.

They all had fun playing in the pool and watching

 how far Caleb could hit the golf ball.

Another day they played Wii.

It gets really noisy, but its alot of fun listening to all the laughter.

Caleb came home from school and changed into his Fireman outfit.

Then he grabbed the hose and ran around the house

putting out the 'fire'.

After a few minutes he came in and said in a deep voice,

"There you go Ma'am, you are safe and sound."

Christina got her College ID this week.

She really likes her professors.

They are young and hot guys. 

We had homemade pizza on Friday night.

Since Ben is an expert, I asked him to knead out the dough.

It turned out perfectly.

Every few days the ducks come over asking

for our left over chips and crackers.

We always have some because in Florida, once a bag is opened

no matter how tight you close it,

a few days later your chips are moist.

Yuck!

But the ducks don't mind a bit.

Zachary had a fun filled Labor Day weekend.

Saturday afternoon he went over to Zachary's

for an over nighter.

Then on Sunday Avery called and reminded us that

Zachary had an over nighter planned there!

So we picked him up and took him to

Avery's for the night.

Poor Caleb was sad and missed Zachary.

It  was the first time they have spent 2 nights apart.

Zachary wrote Caleb this note

Mike and I kept Caleb busy tho.

It was the first time we had just the three of us.

Christina spent the weekend at Bens.

We got Caleb his fav food -shrimp-

and spent the days and nights

 playing games with him.

This is Gowling, or Bolf.

We played NASCAR playstation, and Wii games.

We watched several Net Flix movies on the Wii that he picked out.

Caleb got spoiled!

But once Zachary walked in the door,

Caleb has forgotten us!

He is very very happy his big brother is home.

Busy Busy Busy

Christina and Ben went camping this past weekend.

They rummaged thru our vast supplies of camping equipment

and had a little adventure.

They had no problem setting up the tent and preparing the campsite.

Ben chopped up firewood beforehand.

Then they learned we had a ton of firewood on our back patio.

They had some trouble starting the fire, so they sprayed bug spray on it and used test papers to get it going.

Mmmm! Hotdogs and marshmallow time.

Everything tastes so good when cooked over a campfire.

They had a really great time, 

and are looking forward to doing it again.

After they got back, Mike had to work in Stuart. 

Its several hours south of us.

We had Christina babysit the boys,

 so Mike and I could enjoy a romantic 2 night trip.

We didn't want to stay at a hotel that 

we stayed at with the kids,

so Mike found this one.

Its on Hutchinson Island.  Our room is on the top floor right side.

Since Mike is a platinum member of Marriott Hotels, 

every time he checks in, they upgrade him to a suite

 and offer him either extra reward points or a snack from their cafe. 

We usually get the points. 

But this time we were hungry and didn't know where to eat yet,

 so we said a snack.

This is what they brought us.

Chardonnay, Brie Cheese and Crackers.

Later we found a beach side cafe to eat oysters, crab cakes, and stuffed grouper.

We took long evening strolls on the beach.

It must be Blue Crab season because

 there were dozens of these guys 

all along the shore.

We found this raccoon eating out of the garbage can.

He just sat and stared at us like,
"Ok, your disturbing my dinner here, get your picture and leave."

We had a very nice time just us.

He worked during the day,
and I hung out at the beach,
 reading my book, 

playing my DSi and just enjoying
the peacefulness of the sound of the waves.

Christina started College this week!

She is officially a College Freshman!

So proud of her!

Mike laughs at the boys and I.

I can't imagine why he thinks this is funny.

I mean we ARE in the technology age right?

Our lives are getting very busy.

Monday nights are Zacharys Boy Scout meetings. 

He has 2 Den meetings a month, and 1 Pack meeting.

Then on several Saturdays a month are the

fun things the den leader has planned. 

Food drives, water parks, hikes, campouts (even one at Disneys Wilderness Camp)

Tuesdays Caleb has Golf classes.

Wednesdays are Calebs Cub Scout meetings.

Our calendar is filling up.

The boys are doing good in school.  Caleb's teacher has already called us to say how wonderful he is doing. He loves that he has homework now. In fact, the teacher sends home all the homework for the following week on Friday, and Caleb sits down and does it as soon as he walks in the door Friday afternoons.

In fact, several nights now, he complains because he doesn't have more homework, 

so I got out the book he did during the summer and he does several more pages a night.

He also loves reading.  He brings home a new book every night 

and then reads it once to Daddy, then once to me.

Zachary still doesn't like homework. And he has a ton this year. 

His teacher actually told us that she LOVES to give out homework,

and even gives it on the weekends.

I bet Caleb hopes he gets her in 4th grade.

Zachary has a new friend in his class. His name is Zachary Block.

If you drive to his house it takes 11 mins to get there.

But if you go out our backyard and walk down the fence line past one house,

turn right, walk past 3 houses, your at their house.

He came over and spent the night with the boys this weekend. 

They had a great time.

So what are Mike and I doing while the kids are in school?

Chasing away the vultures from our garbage.

Amongst other things.  *wink