June Potpourri

Not to brag about my genius kids or anything, BUT Jake and Emma achieved Triple Honor Roll status last year in school. They had a special awards night back in early June. I think I remember Emma spending lots of time getting ready for it.

Emma got a lot of recognition during her 6th grade awards assembly. I was a proud mama!



Jacob was also promoted from the 8th grade to high school.

Rick and I updated the landscaping in our front yard. Here are a couple BEFORE pictures:



 

 

And AFTER:

 

 

For Mother's Day, Rick gave me some raised planter boxes from Costco, so I decided to try my hand at gardening over the summer. I got a handful of anemic tomatoes, tons of cilantro, different varieties of lettuce, and zucchinni. The stawberries and a blackberry bush will hopefully yield something next summer. I totally failed at carrots, sugar snap peas, green peppers, and green onion.

Sadly, I'm the only one who really ate the stuff from the garden. A lot of veggies and WATER went to waste I'm afraid. I'm not sure it was worth it...

One plant that's easy to grow at my house:

 

Emma said goodby to her cute friend Maryn by having one last sleepover before the big move to Utah.

 

They consoled themselves by taking hundreds of pictures of the Chloe and eating half a pan of brownies.

 

 to be continued...



A Day I Felt Especially Old

The kids have been ready to head back to school for weeks. Unfortunately, they had to wait until TODAY to start. It's been a long, boring August for 'em, that's for darn sure!

 

On the eve of TFDOS, everyone got tucked into bed by 9:30 (a respectable bedtime in our household). For 2 1/2 hours Jake and Em tried to fall asleep, but with no luck. My bedroom saw a lot traffic because of our family insomnia. I finally had to resort to giving them Melatonin so I could get this ready:

 

A "love note" from Mom



Old-school metal lunch boxes filled with candies and treats (see above note)

The goodies inside

 

6:00 came all to soon after our rough night. I was proud of the kids for getting up an ready on their own though. Since I didn't have to drag them kicking and screaming from their beds, I could focus on making their one and only hot breakfast for the school year: french toast.

 

I noticed Jacob wasn't tucking into his breakfast with his usual teenage gusto. I assumed it was my poor cooking again, but found that it was the Freshman butterflies instead. Poor guy! I'm sure visions of swirlies and locker stuffings danced in his head. I excused him from the table and fixed him up with a tummy-taming cocktail of meds. (Yep, I believe there's a pill for everything).

 

With only a little prodding I got a pictures of the kids to commemorate TFDOS.

 



Emma wouldn't show her braces at first!

Luckily I wore her down and got a REAL smile!

Here's Jacob. He's humoring me.

Ain't he 'andsome?

We didn't quite leave for school when we intended, so the drop off line of cars at Emma' junior high was backed up a quarter mile. I dropped her off at the back of the line so she could walk the rest of the way. I ducked down a side road and fled that crazy scene.

I thought I knew of a tricky way to unload Jake at the high school, but ended up having a Mr. Mom moment instead. Remember that scene when Michael Keaton drives the wrong way in the student drop off zone? Ya, that was me. I ended up in the back of another long line at the opposite side of the high school. Yeesh! Poor Jake was so frustrated with me by the time I dropped him at the right place. To his credit though, he did mumble an "I love you" before he scurried off to find his first class.

I was a little nervous for my chickens all day, especially my high school aged one. I also felt a little weary as I considered the fact that they'll both have flown the coop in 6 short years! How is that even possible?

Fortunately the kids came home happy and excited about their schedules. They liked most of their teachers too! Sure, they didn't get to all their classes on time, but they'll have it down by the end of the year, right?

My darling babies

Islands of Adventure

The Islands of Adventure was the theme park I most wanted to visit in Orlando. For years we've dreamed of drinking Butterbeer and taking in a Quiddich match. Universal made our dream a reality.

On the bridge overlooking Hogwarts

When we stepped into Hogsmeade, we found the place completely overrun with Muggles.

A little sample of the crowds we had to condend with that day.

Emma’s wheelchair became too cumbersome to maneuver through the crowds so we parked it across from Platform 9 ¾.

That "snow" on the roof is deceiving. It was HOT that day!

We slowly made our way through Diagon Alley, craning our necks to catch a glimpse of Zonko’s, Honeydukes, and the Three Broomsticks. Everywhere we looked there were lines, lines, and more lines. In order to buy a wand at Olivander’s we would have had to wait for over 80 minutes in the heat! We bagged that idea in favor of standing in a much shorter 70 minute line to experience The Forbidden Journey at Hogwarts.

Emma made a little snail friend while waiting in that LONG line.

The grounds at Hogwarts are lovely.

In the Greenhouse, still waiting to ride.

Mandrake root

Sounds like the perfect ride for me, right?

The ride was amazing! At times we were following Harry and Ron on their broomsticks, and then we were staring down the snout of a fire breathing dragon. The dementors almost got us, but Harry held them back with his Patronus. The castle was pretty incredible too. Dumbledore let us into his office, the artwork spoke to us, and Ron made it snow!

Emma wanted to buy her own owl.

Later, we got to swing by Hagrid’s place for a ride on a Hippogriff. It was a lot tamer than we’d imagined. We rode it multiple times to make good use of the Express Passes Rick purchased. All that flying around made us thirsty, so we stood in another long line to buy chilled Butterbeer. It was truly delicious, sort of a mixture between butterscotch and cream soda. We also slipped into Honeydukes so that Emma could purchase some of Dumbledore’s favorite lemon drops and such. Refreshed, we rode upon a dragon that looped and whirled at top speed. I nearly vomited slugs after that one!

Hagrid's place

Hippogriff

We rode this one a few times.

Mmmmm...Butterbeer.

This place smelled awesome!

Is that Emma's real tongue?

Nope! It's a gag from Zonko's.

It was hard to leave that magical world behind, but we had other places to explore. The humidity and heat was starting to get to us so we made our way to Jurassic Park for The River Adventure. Rick outfitted us with ponchos so we wouldn’t get soaked through our clothes during the 85-foot plunge down a waterfall. We got a little wet there, and then wetter still at Toon Lagoon with a couple more water rides.

Look out for that T-Rex!

Jacob’s favorite thrill of the day was The Hulk roller coaster. He totally overcame his fear of heights and loops. Emma did not. She sat out on most of the bigger rides, so we spent some time in Seuss Landing riding the chilled out Trolley Train and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (think Dumbo). I guess some kids never grow up…

I don't get it...

Daddy got sprayed by the Red Fish...or was it the Blue Fish?

Once again, when darkness fell, the park cleared out. We had a much better time once the crowds really died down. We flew around Hogwarts again, which totally did me in. I booted Em out of her wheelchair at that point so that Rick could push me back to the parking garage. On our way out, we stopped by and some a taping of NBA Live. We were just a few feet behind Shaq and Charles Barkley. Maybe you saw us on ESPN Thursday night?

Shaq's bald head

It was a FULL week to be sure! However, we were happy to get back to Perrysburg to our comfortable beds and cuddly pets. It’s always fun to go on vacation, but it’s GREAT to come home.

Disney Hollywood Studios

Disney Hollywood Studios. Is that like Universal Studios? Are we going to feel like we've been there and done that already?

These were my questions on Wednesday of our super vacay, but I shouldn't have worried. It was soooooo fun! Plus, it rained, making the experience even better because a bunch of people left.

Here's a break-down of our day:

We Loved

• Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! - We barely snuck into this jam-packed show, thanks to Em's wheelchair. While we waited, we dined on our  homemade PB&Js and played Words With Friends. The scope of the show totally exceeded our expectations. They re-enacted some of my favorite scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark like the rolling stone, the chase through the marketplace, and the fight on the airplane. It was a feast for the eyes! I couldn't believe what they did by way of stunts and effects. Wow!
• Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show - Dang! There were some crazy ol' drivers in that show! We saw some amazing stunts that totally made up for the deafening noise and smell of burnt tires.
• Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage  - Beautiful sets, beautiful costumes, beautiful singing. It was top-notch. Plus, we got 2nd row seats.
• Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith - An indoor limo-type roller coaster? Sign us up! Emma didn't go, but the rest of us rocked out.
• The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror - I didn't get nauseous! Neither did the kids, 'cuz they were too chicken to go on it. I expected one big long free fall, but the ride took us up and down several times at random. It was fun AND exhillerating!
• Star Tours: The Adventures Continue - They've re-done Star Tours, and it's even more realistic. I bet you can guess how I did on this ride! The gift shop is almost as fun as the ride. We spent quite awhile in there. Jake and Emma even got to build their own light sabers. Cool!

 

We Liked

• Muppet Vision 3-D - I propbably like this more than the rest of the family. I grew up on the Muppets. Those guys are just silly!
• Voyage of the Little Mermaid - There were some neat effects that made us feel like we were underwater. The glow-in-the-dark puppets were cool too. It was a really cute show.

 We Could Have Done Without

The Great Movie Ride - snore

 We Missed

• The American Idol Experience - We totally ran out of time because of the rain storm. Bummer!
• Sounds Dangerous! - We never walked by it.
• Jedi Training Academy - We figured it was for little kids. 
• Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: Movie Set Adventure - We've seen something like it at Disneyland,
• Studio Backlot Tour - It was closed.
• Walt Disney: One Man's Dream - The kids weren't interested.
• Toy Story Midway Mania! - ridiculously long wait in line.
• The Magic of Disney Animation - Again, the kids were not interested.
• Disney Junior - Live on Stage! - Eh. That was for little kids.
• Fantasmic! - We've seen it before at Disneyland.

It's too bad the park closed at 8:00 because we could have stayed longer. We really enjoyed ourselves after we ate and the crowds died down. A rain storm arrived around dinnertime, so we chose to dine at the park. We ducked into this restaurant that feels like a drive-in movie. The booths are designed to look like cars that face a big screen playing old sci-fi movie clips. It was a great way to wait out the rain.

We would have taken more pictures on this day, but we were too busy having fun! We highly recommend Hollywood Studios to families with older kids like ours.

The Magic Kingdom

"Let the Memories Begin" is Disney's slogan at the entrance of Magic Kingdom. They don't tell you what kind of memories to make, however. Maybe they should be more specific. After a warm morning of fighting crowds and listening to families argue I wasn't feeling the magic, ya know? Jacob summed things up well by saying, "There are just too many families here making too many memories."

To me, Magic Kingdom was very much like Disneyland, without the warm fuzzy feelings. They have Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland...yada yada yada. It just didn't feel the same though. Can you tell that the crowds really got to me that day?

I loved the new Space Mountain ride and Cinderella's castle. The Haunted Mansion was just as funny as I remembered, and they did a good job with keeping us entertained while waiting in line. There were so many funny things to read and look at. Plus, the workers kept saying things like, "be sure to fill in all the DEAD space" and stuff. Ha!

I was particularly excited to try out The Pirates of the Caribbean since I haven't seen how they've added Jack Sparrow. The lines moved quickly. We hardly had to wait at all, which should have clued me in about something. It just wasn't the same! There was no Blue Bayou Restaurant or creepy swamp. We missed a few waterfalls that I could swear were there at DisneyLAND. It seemed like we got through the ride in half the time. Did I imagine that?

We pushed through the afternoon, but realized we weren't having much fun. Chalking up our sour moods to heat and hunger, we bailed and hit Red Lobster for respite. We would try again when it got dark and the little ones left.

Our gamble paid off. Folks really cleared out after the Electric Parade. Magic Kingdom was a completely different place at night. Lucky for us, the park didn't close until 1:00 am. We had the run of Fantasyland, though some of it was closed for repairs and expansion.

Emma was totally stoked to ride the teacups. It had no heights or quick drops, just spinning. Jake and I rode separately so that we could avoid the wild ride Rick gave her.

We capped off the night by returning to Tomorrowland. A second trip to Space Mountain did me in stomach-wise, so I made Jake ride the People Mover with me while Emma did some spinny rocket ride. She couldn't handle the coasters, but she had a stomach of iron when it came to the whirly twirly stuff!

We had a night and day experience at Magic Kingdom, literally. We should have skipped the park while the sun and young children were up. Nothing beats Disney at night. It's waaaaaay more fun!