Thursday, January 29, 2009

Sleeping with the sharks





http://www.flaquarium.org/

This past weekend Andrew and I joined the Cub Scouts on a campout at the Florida Aquarium. It was a great experience. I did not want to drive by myself in the dark to Tampa so we left early and met a couple of families for dinner. We were allowed in at 7 and they kept the kids busy until 10:30. We toured the Aquarium first, had pizza and lemonade outside, then they split into smaller groups and got to dissect a squid and have a backstage tour of the exhibits. We were then shown the area we were allowed to set up our sleeping bags. It was either in the large room in front of the floor to ceiling fish tank, down the hallway toward the shark tank or in front of the floor to ceiling shark tank. We were told that all lights would be off so we chose a nice side area in the hallway. Lights out was not until 11:30. The hallway was a much nicer space instead of being layed out like sardines in front of the tanks. Andrew slept fine and with the help of ear plugs and the air mattress I was able to sleep for about two hours at a time. We were up by 7 for a breakfast of a bowl of cereal then to the touch and feel tanks until the Aquarium opened at 9:30. We were also allowed to stay the next day and we did for a few hours. We saw the Penguin Promanade and we were about 1 foot away from seeing two of them! The drive was uneventful and we were both pretty tired Sunday night and I think Andrew is still trying to make up for lost sleep.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Strawberry picking



Our latest Florida adventure was to go strawberry picking. It took an hour to get there, but the kids enjoyed finding just the right ones to take home. We had the choice between a hybrid berry that was suppose to be sweeter but less strawberry taste or not as sweet with more strawberry taste and last longer. We picked some of each and will see what we like better.

At least he did not burn down the church



Today Andrew had his first experience of being an acolyte. He and another girl carried the torches in the processional. Then, the big test, besides not setting the church or himself on fire, was to sit relatively still on the alter for over an hour! He did so well, remembered when to close and open the gate and to bow at the alter each time. I can not say as much for his partner, she rather pranced about up there, but was cute none-the-less. In her defense, she and her family regularly attend the contemporary services in the Parrish hall which is much less formal.

Orlando Science Center




Over Christmas my parents purchased annual passes to the science center. The kids love the 4 floor building and all the exhibits that it offers. Since Friday was a no school day and it was all of 58 degrees outside we took a drive over to see what was going on. This is the weekend of gaming. All types of video games were there, including the Wii. I called Brent at one point to tell him we had to drive all the way into Orlando for Nathan to play the Wii... which we have at home. Anyway, Andrew found out that he likes to sculpt, this is stuff that graphic artists use to make creatures for movies that the animators then make real on the movie screen. They also had a display of all Mac's from the beginning of time, Brent would have loved this display. All in all we spent 5 hours there and the kids were wore out since I make them use the stairs instead of the extreemly slow elevator.

Free Pre-K starts




This is the first of a few posts since I have not kept up very well. After taking a year off from all day preschool, Nathan is now back to school for the day....ALL DAY, everyday 9-3! Well, he has only had one day so far, but he seemed quite happy and excited to be at the big school with Andrew. Florida has a Voluntary Pre-K program that schools can adopt that allows residents to use one time for their children to go prior to entering kindergarten. We ahve finally found something that we like that Florida does. Windermere Elementary chose to run two sessions in the year and we chose to enroll Nathan is the second one so that he only has summer as a break before starting Kindergarten. The best part is that it is completly FREE! We have not had a monthly daycare bill since March 2002, however, since I am not working we are not really bringing in more money, but as I keep telling Brent I can never get this time back to be with my kids. Very soon they will be too busy to want to be home with us. Already they beg to play outside with a neighbor for a couple of hours everyday. It is strange to have the house so quiet for that time. Brent is actually watching a football game.