Vacation!

Wehad a wonderful time at Vero Beach.  We were at Disney's Vacation Club Resort.  We planned this vacation as a "Hooray, John's Retired!" vacation, since he planned on being fully retired on October first.  But as the summer wore on, John changed the date to November fifth.  We kept the vacation date and had a blast.  The best part?  I didn't see John on the phone with work the entire time.  (He may have called when I wasn't looking, but I didn't see that--so different from every other time we've had time away from home.)  We really had his attention.  I loved that, and so did the kids.

Our condo had two bedrooms plus a fold-out couch and chair in the living room.  Plus, with the full kitchen and washer/dryer, you can vacation pretty cheaply.   The programs for the kids are a lot of fun, and quite a few of them are totally free.  Some cost a little bit, and some are expensive.  This trip we stayed with the free and low-cost items, plus John and I had one night out on a date, so very little money was spent all together. 

We had a great time just being together and taking it easy.  Disney World is fun, but we are always scattered, running and TIRED.  Vero Beach was just fun, swimming, and games as you will see:

What Do You Do at Vero Beach?

First you need a good water slide.

and a 14 year-old dare devil who WON the slide contest with the fastest run!

You simply must go to a tea party (and the un-birthday party! I can't remember which one Luci is headed to here).  All week the counselors would greet Luci with, "Hi, Luci, also known as Belle, and also known as Ariel the Mermaid!" Because she was in the pool whenever she wasn't dressed as Belle. 

You go to archery lessons...

and watch Mom's arrow fall to the ground IN FRONT OF the target!  Yes, that's my arrow on the ground--that stick-looking thing in the middle of the picture.  Thanks for recording that, JT.  You are so sweet (not!).

You make new friends!  Here Luci is with new friends from Kentucky and Florida, at the campfire one evening.

And, you must eat SMORES!

Peek-a-Boo!  Taking a bath in the "indoor swimming pool."  That's what Luci calls it.

You go to Mickey Chef Classes.

You watch Daddy fall asleep before supper.

You wonder if the 18 year old will ever get out and get some sun.

You get embarrassed by your Dad.

Especially when he gets chosen at the campfire to act silly during one of the songs (come on, John, first place in the SMORE line is hanging in the balance!).  Campfire that night was an "un-campfire" because of the high winds.  We were on the porch of the main building for this frivolity.

And you still wonder if Bryan ever got any sun.

You watch Mom go bonkers trying to play Boggle.  And catch Luci sneaking into the freezer!  Can you see her arm behind me?  She ate more that week than she ever had.  Lots of swimming will make a girl hungry.

And watch Luci conk out before bedtime.  This, along with the good eating, rarely happens at home.

You get to make crafts with Miss Rita!  This was one of Luci's creations.  Miss Rita is the one who inspired this post.

You get your whole family to build a sand castle!  Luci had this as her only "must-do" for the entire week.  She'd been talking about it for a whole year.

You bury your brother in the sand.  And look!  Bryan did get out in the sun after all.

What a great sand castle! 

We love it at Vero.

One of these days...

I'm going to ask someone,

What was your rationalization for choosing your local public school for your children?

Today the woman who asked me that about our choosing to homeschool didn't even have children.  She's older than I am and has a dog and a cat.  

And she's critical.

Fancy Vittles

Okay, so on our Disney Cruise, every time we sat down to supper (because I don't call it "dinner"), I wished for a Cracker Barrel menu.  That's my kind of food.  Watching shows like "Iron Chef" (even the American version) make me queasy.  Some of the restaurants in China were a challenge for me.

Here we are at a resort and John wants to go out for dinner and leave the boys in charge of Luci.  We will only be a hundred yards or so away.  The boys can take Luci to play Disney's version of Bingo while we go out.  Yippee for them!

But me?  I don't like seafood, and John's taking me to a seafood buffet.  So I asked if I could see an alternative menu--there are only three items on it that are not seafood and contain sides such as "Truffle-infused Macaroni and Cheese," "Crimini Mushrooms," "Meyers Rum Spiked Boniato and Plantain Mash."  Did I mention that I prefer plain foods? 

Those entrees cost almost twice as much as the seafood buffet (which is very nice and has things on it that I actually recognize).  So I think I will go ahead and have the seafood buffet, too.  Because as much as I am not crazy about sea food, I am less crazy about spending money.

Logistician Extraordinaire

That's me.  I am the planner in our household.

We are on vacation right now.  Vero Beach.  Had the whole trip planned for months. 

Reservations, hotel on the way (it's a 14 hour trip), saved up gas money, map (TomTom does that now--I used to get a AAA triptik).

The lists were all in my head until Friday night (we left Saturday morning).  Everyone was given a list of things to bring to me to put in the suitcases: so many t-shirts, shorts, swimsuit, underwear.  Meals for supper were pre-cooked, frozen and packed in the ice chest; just buy a few things like milk, eggs and sandwich meats when we get to town.  All John had to do himself was put his laptop and shaving kit in the van.

Last night, JT asked me if I had nail clippers. 

I told him, "Go ask Daddy."

JT was incensed!  "Mo-o-o-m!  He has no clue what you packed!"

"Yes, but he has a shaving kit.  There might be some clippers in there."

"oh."

Dreams

Luci woke up crying early Monday morning. 

What's the matter?  Come sit with me in the recliner.

I dreamed you got rid of me.

I would give anything to stop her bad dreams.

Daisy, Daisy...

I'm half crazy, all for the love of you...

Uniforms were passed out today.  She's thrilled, can you tell? 

It's a new record!

Luci kept her clothes on FOUR days this week!  Fully dressed each one of those four days.  Usually she peels off her clothes the moment we get home from karate and the other places we go (you'd think homeschoolers stayed home.  We don't!), but four days this week she kept her clothes on past suppertime.  Way to go, Luci!

JT and Luci washed the van for me today.  It was the first day in MONTHS that the temperature was below 90*.  They were told to not squirt each other on purpose.  Luci showed up at the back door, sopping wet and boots full of water (squishing as she walked!) to tell me that "JT did not squirt me, Momma. I did this all by myself!" 

Kalyn Turns FIVE

Baby Jack. Our favorite little Jack in the world. He's a JT, too. :)

Kalyn is Luci's bestest friend.  Luci is 11 months older than Kalyn, so for one month of the year they share the same age.  Luci made a card for Kalyn and dictated this (among other things), "Now you are getting older like me."

Friday night was the big party.  Luci and I both had a great time.

Luci and Kalyn

Getting ready for a fun ride

That little car jets across the whole store!

I wondered if usually-timid Luci would like this ride:

What do you think?  Did she like it?

Kalyn invited Luci to help her. This year, Luci actually let Kalyn open her own presents. A big relief to me!

Seen this week

These are just some shots from this week.  These things made me happy.

This flag is on our garage wall.  The signs are what Luci and JT held when John came home for R&R in May, 2009.

Math-U-See

First, let me say how much I love Math-U-See.  This is our first year with M-U-S.  I wish we had started this particular curriculum years ago with the boys.  All three kids are using the program with no problems at all at this point in the year.  We are almost finished with the first quarter of the year.

Luci is working on Kindergarten stuff, with the Primer program.  Here she is learning place value of hundreds, tens and ones.  Amazing. 

Math-U-See is one of those things I wish I had thought of first. :)

When I grow up

 I used to pretend I was a teacher.  And I became a teacher, both in public school and here at home.
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Luci pretends to be  a "Biz-Niz Woman."
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Here she is interviewing JT for a job as an Army Guy. (I think he's trying out for Beetle Bailey's job, in that outfit.)
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Luci even has a cup with lollipops in it for "the people who bring their kids into  my office."  (Feingold friends, they are Yummy Earth lollis!)

We have no doubt that she will be running a major corporation someday.  She sure runs our household!  I've seen her walk through groups of older girls at soccer practice and in a minute or two, she will have all of them doing whatever she wants. 
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I think she'd make a great President of this country, but that law about being born on US soil has to change first.  So major corporation, it is.

Luci-isms

comments  similarities; as in:  I was telling Luci about another Lucy at our church, whose daddy is in Afghanistan.  Mama, we have lots in comments.

hippobottomus  do I really need to tell you what this one means?

fraid  I got this note on FaceBook today from our Super-Duper Librarian, Mrs. Jessica: 

Susan- I have a new Luci-ism for you :) We talked about the letter and sound for F today. I had the children tell me words they knew that started with the letter. Luci raised her hand and said "fraid." I didn't quite understand so I asked her to say it again, and she say " "fraid"...you know Mrs. Jessica- I am "fraid" ...of monsters :)

 Mrs. Jessica making nametags at the first K4-K5 class this year.   We love Jessica.  She is a "natural" teacher.  Luci with Kenzi and Sidney, all homeschool friends. (I love that Dalmatian outfit!)

 

Luci working on her assignment, and later, reading among the stacks.

 

 

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue...

and this week, two of his ships ended up in Florence Harbor.

Today Luci and I toured the Nina and the Pinta.

This is our tour guide, Nancy, a sailor on the Nina. 

Luci on September 15, 2010 and September 25, 2006 on a previous tour of the Nina, looking into the hold of the ship.

Video Games

A big, new video game came out today.  The boys pre-ordered it at GameStop in our mall.  So, of course they had to be there at midnight to pick it up.   How nice of the shop to have a "game party," which the other moms and I thought should have been labeled a "torture your parents by keeping them up late" party.

Bryan and his 4 gaming buddies got there by 3 p.m. yesterday afternoon and secured the first places in line.  They had fun!  JT got there around 10:45 p.m. (he didn't get there on his own, Mommy had to got to drive him).  As soon as Luci got to sleep, we headed out the door.  John got to go to bed at a decent time.  Lucky him.

Bryan and JT were nice enough to let me snap their picture with my cell phone, and they even talked to me a little bit.  I was not totally shunned.  However, I nearly got my arm broken when I tried to take my photo with the boys. 

Got it!  Bryan (the blurry one) and JT head out through the mall after getting their ridiculously priced precious game.

When you have two big brothers...

and your Daddy's a former Army guy, this is what you do for fun:

Sunday John's sister Ellen and her husband Gary were here for a nice, long lunch.  While we were talking away, I saw Luci run past the window with her toy gun.  So I had to take a photo.

Here she is with JT.  They were playing Army.  Of course.

Monday, Luci joined a local Daisy group, a part of the Girl Scouts.  Here she is with the Supreme Leader  uh, I mean the Troop Leader.  And on the right is Luci's "new best friend."

Who's Who?

Nana and Papa, do you remember these masks?  Luci discovered them yesterday and has had lots of fun.

Luci thinks she is pretty well disguised in this photo.  She's posed with all of our build-a-bear buddies. 

Snaggle Tooth!

This was two weeks ago...Luci's second tooth was very loose, so I talked her into letting me pull it.  But...it didn't budge!  I nearly gave Luci whiplash. 

Ever since, she's been scared to even let me look at the inside of her mouth, even from across the room with my hands clasped behind my back.

Until today.  I cornered her, me holding a length of dental floss and Luci holding onto her mouth.  She managed to scream quite loudly, even with her hand over her mouth!

Luci wiggled her tooth and said, "It's not loose!"  but as she wiggled it, it nearly fell out!  So I told her I wouldn't touch it, but she should just wiggle it one more time and see what happens.

That teeny tiny tooth fell out!  And there was B-L-O-O-D!

Which made a really neat story to tell Daddy at supper.




Snaggle-Tooth and J.T.

Devotionals

Every Wednesday night, we have a family devotional. One of the boys (this includes John) leads a Bible study.  We all get to choose songs from our song books (leftovers from church  when the church got new song books) and of course, there is prayer.

John and I sing and you can sometimes hear the boys' voices in song.  Luci also tries to keep up, and is usually a beat or two behind as she repeats the words we are singing.

The last devo was quite funny, but it wasn't meant to be.  I started laughing during one of the songs and couldn't stop.  Luci was singing her own words...

John:  What's so funny?

Me:  Luci is singing her own version:  "Peas, carrots, peaches."

Luci:  Don't forget Bread!  I sang, "Bread," too.

This one is just for fun~

Teenagers are God's revenge