Spring Training

The Atlanta Braves hold their annual spring training at Disney's Wide World of Sports. This gives us the occasional opportunity to attend a Major League Baseball game in a world class facility at a fraction of the cost. For his 10th birthday, Lance wanted to attend a game, just as we did for his 8th birthday.  Jared and Lance's best friend Matthew came along and Titus made his Major League début.  He was so excited! This may have accounted for the number of times he had to visit the men's room. Although, he does have a tendency to want to "sample" the bathrooms where ever we go. :-)

As you can see from the picture below, the weather was questionable and the forecast called for heavy rain to hit right at game time. Spring Training games are rarely rescheduled, so we decided to head out and hope for the best. We are glad we did.

Because of the impending rain, the field was covered with the tarp. We arrived at the ballpark and found our seats, which were wet. We came prepared, with not only rain jackets, but I stashed a small towel in my pocket as well. Disney was prepared as well, with plenty of attendants on hand with towels galore to dry off seats for people before they sat down. The rain did come, but thankfully it was short down pours and not very heavy. We stayed very dry and with some time on our hands, we explored the ballpark. We went up as high as we could to look around. I noticed people were on the field and looking up at the sky and talking on hand held radios. Tina was at home checking radar, as was I on my iPhone. It looked like the clouds were breaking up and lo and behold, the game was on!!! Activity on the field was picking up and preparations were being made for the tarp to be rolled up.

From our crow's nest view, we all witnessed how the tarp is rolled up and watched the field being prepared for play. It was really neat to watch. Those guys really hussled. We are very thankful the game was only delayed 30 minutes and the rain held off for the entirety of the game. It turned out to be a great day for a ballgame!

We were all really excited to watch a game between two strong ball clubs - the Atlanta Braves and the Washington Nationals. The most exciting part was seeing the previous year's phenom in person - Bryce Harper. He did not disappoint. This seemingly benign chopper (a ground ball that first hits close to the plate) was hit so hard the 1st and 2nd baseman had no chance to catch it. And he really hustles! With my boys and Matthew wanting to play baseball and hoping to be in the Major's someday, it's important to watch the professionals play the game at 100% and also see how they do the same things I'm teaching them when warming up - fundamentals.

The weather turned out to be so nice, everyone shed the rain gear. The cloud cover kept the temperature quite nice.

We had some really great seats - just to the right of home plate and about 12 rows back.  Some foul balls came close and I know the boys had their hearts set on catching a ball. But alas no foul ball came quite close enough, but.....

Towards the end of the game, many people had left and we moved behind the Braves dugout. When the pitcher made the final out, the Braves congratulated each other on the field then made their way into the dugout. The ball used to make the final out was flipped on top of it right towards Matthew, whose quick reflexes caused him to snap it up.

Score!! A first for everyone! Gameball! And it made the final out too!

All-in-all, it was great day. Even the rain had a purpose, it allowed us to witness the set-up of a MLB quality field and watch warm-ups. The game was very exciting, with lots of hits, nice fielding, and scoring. And best of all, was sharing the excitment of the home team Braves winning with four enthusiastic boys!

Gatorland

The boys and I had an absolutely great time at Gatorland!  Even though it was a bit chilly by Florida standards, we went in February because of the Florida resident discount and Matthew could join us on President's Day.  Chris kindly stayed home with Amber, so I was free to just have fun with the boys, and fun we had!

We spent much of the day just talking with all the boys making observations and asking many questions.  

We walked around looking at the exhibits; cheered on the turtle that needing tipping over in the gator pond; watched people wrestle gators; road a train; shared our food with the birds; watched a comedy show with reptiles; tried to bean some gators with hotdogs (BTW the hotdogs are sold for that purpose - feeding the gators); and finally watched the handlers try to coax the cold gators to jump for their food (they weren't successful but it was funny to see them try).  It was a full and exciting day.  Most of all it was fun to just hang out with the boys listen to them talk to each other and join in the fun from time to time.

Would you take it? (Feng Shui Part 1)

Feng Shui-ing is a regular and on-going activity in our house.  We have a small house with lots of people, if we didn't we'd drown. 

To Feng Shui or Simplify I ask myself and my family two questions:  Does it bring positive emotions and memories?  Would we take it with us if we moved?  The latter clears out the most stuff.  If you wouldn't move it you probably don't need it now either.

The next step is what do you do with the stuff you don't want?  Here are some ideas:

Sell it on Craigslist
I look at Craigslist as a garage sale without the hassle of setting it all up in your front yard.  This winter I posted 12 ads on Craigslist and so far I've sold everything on 11 out of the 12.  We sold everything from old printers, to bikes, to wooden hampers, etc.  I find one of the keys is that you list things in multiples of $20 so you don't have to make change.  Then you can use the cash for new things you do need, which we in part did, the rest we save for lessons.  It's like making a trade, one thing out before something new comes in.

Amazon Trade-In
I find many people are unaware of this program Amazon has, it is not consignment sales but a program where Amazon directly buys your books and DVDs paying the shipping also.  Generally you'll get garage sale prices (ie. $1-$2 per DVD) but I did get up to $12 for one DVD.  The key I've learned with the program is sell it too them quick.  When I've waited the price they are willing to pay has gone down or in some cases they were no longer interested in buying it at all anymore.  They post the credit to your account and automatically apply it to your next purchase.

Look for Community Sales
In our area we have two big sales that I have boxed stuff aside to sell at in the coming months.  The first is Hannah's Closet Sale at First Methodist Church of Winter Park(week of 2/18 this year), where I can get rid of anything "Kid".  I will be mainly selling toys.  We've narrowed down our toys to four main types; legos, blocks, FP Little People, games & puzzles, the rest has to go.  The second type of sale for us is the used curricula sale in May and June.  In your areas it may be a community garage sale or a private one of your own followed by a call to Am Vets, which brings me to the next category.

Donate or just trash
We donated an entire car load of stuff and threw away another car load of stuff that really was just trash.  Some we donated to friends, some to organizations (i.e. the library or Am Vets (they'll take nearly anything).  As an in-between solution, I find too if you put your trash out early the night before the "gathers" will come by and pick it up stuff before the trashmen (like rugs others won't take), which I guess is donating/recycling in a way too.

Chris was in charge of clearing the garage and attics.  The rest of the house was my territory, of course we helped each other along the way.  

(Pictures coming soon)

The end result of Chris' efforts to sort and organize, was an accessible garage that now doubles for a baseball practice facility.  Titus is out there right now hitting the heavy bag with his bat.  Great for muscle building, skill building and frustration/energy release.  It will also assure that no matter what the weather this Spring, Lance and Matthew will always have baseball practice since they have their own personal batting/pitching cage.  And a side benefit is an ant free garage attic, apparently they were living in some cardboard boxes.

In the house we added foam tiles (which look like wood) to the entire back room for Amber's safety and the enjoyment of everyone.  The boys now wrestle and play without worry of clunking on the hard tile floor.  We also bought a cute little desk for me in the lego room, finally getting my computer and printer out of the coat closet, Yay!

The hardest things left are the little things, like boxes of photographs and old keepsakes.  I find those have to be done in small chunks over and over again over the years.  As I get older the memories I cherish change and I find I do not need so many things to remember them by.

The house now feels much lighter, literally and emotionally. Trust me its well worth the effort.

Make New Friends and Keep the Old!

The Famous Banyan Tree

On January 31st, we got a unique group of homeschooling friends together to go to Legoland as an official school group (school rates are greatly discounted).  We did this to have fun, celebrate Titus' birthday week, and finally meet - in person - our homeschooling friends from out of town.

In total, we had 19 children and 8 adults and what an awesome day we had!  All the kids (and adults) had a great time together.  The weather was perfect and being a Thursday, the park was sparsely populated. A perfect environment to experience LegoLand.

The boys wanted to go straight back to the "Driving School" but we were side tracked along the way.  First, we stopped at the carousel for a ride.  Then the Dino Rollercoaster, which I road with Titus while Amber made friends.  On the coaster, Titus and I were in the front seat and he did not ask to ride it again. LOL

Just before the "Driving School" are the boats and there we tried out the boys' boat driving skills.  The boats are free floating and there was, on occasion, boats going backwards, turning in circles and also going in the out, but we all made it back to shore with smiles on our faces.

Finally, we made it to the "Driving School" where the boys drove the cars again and again, giving us parents plenty of time to kabitz.  In fact we were talking so much, I forgot to take pictures!

After lunch, about half of us went to the ski show and the other half stayed to finish lunch.  Titus who was with us at first, somehow became lost but made it back to the restaurant to rejoin the group there.  Thankfully with modern technology where communication is quick, our friends told us they had Titus and Chris ran to fetch him. We were also thankful for friends that were happy to swap kids based on interests throughout the day.  After the ski show, Amber really wanted to walk through the old Cypress Gardens so we fell away from the group and I let her explore.  She spent a long time talking to the Cypress knees.

While we did that, the boys played the "Lumberjack" game/ride.  Amazingly, Jared pulled both him and Titus all the way up.

The kids ran around all day enjoying a variety of rides and shows.  For Titus the highlight of the day was being able to ride the horses this time; last year he was too young and very disappointed.

For me, it was hanging out and getting acquainted/reacquainted with old and new friends.  Can't remember when everyone had so many friends to hang out, play and talk with at one time!  It was a fun and beautiful day!

Happy Birthday Titus!

This year Titus didn't have a birth"day" as much as a birth"week".

It started the Thursday before.  On Thursday we went on a "school" trip to LegoLand with a bunch of friends (more on that in another post).

Friday, we took the day off school and enjoyed a true day of lounging around, I even got to lay around read a book and relax.  Everyone was in a great mood to just chill. Can't remember such a peaceful day.

On Saturday, one of the boys favorite show personalities, Martin and Chris from "Wild Kratts" were at Sea World so we had to go.  Boys had fun, but I'm glad we had a second motivation for going, we got to meet our friends from TN again before they left.

Each of my friends boys paired up perfectly with each of my own.  They ran about the habit trail and rides in pairs.  The remiss attendant at the mini-roller coaster even let Titus and Levi ride by themselves.  I was worried they might get scared, but Titus was fearless as usual.

After saying sad farewells to our friends.  We still had a few days left in the week.  Which we filled with cake with friends and a great afternoon with Grandpa Bob,shooting the BB gun and hearing stories.

Click to see video!

A busy birthday week, was an appropriate way to finish off quite the busy year for Titus.

Did I mention he's an individual.

He is a great helper, when I make smoothie, go shopping, or walk the dog.

A great big brother and playmate to his little sister.

He ready to hang with the big boys, and keeps up remarkably well.

He learns in his own time and his own way, which is only way he does anything.  He is an individual.  He likes to learn best when it involves, blocks, cars, Legos or especially sports.

He is a born athlete, in addition to his new year feat of eliminating his training wheels, he has successful participated in quite a few other sports.

He runs.

He swims. 

He bowls.

He golfs and often wins the contests against kids much older.  Just the other week he won the driving contest and when the coach asked him to do a quick speech about how he won he said "I hit the ball harder than Eva."  There you go, simple Titus logic. 

He plays tennis and rather well.  He was moved up with the 5-6 year old kids by his coach this month and is still among the best in the class at both tennis and listening.  He has quite a powerful and fairly accurate swing.  

I adore that awesome smile!

The other day at tennis class the coach asked them to tell how long they'd been playing tennis and what their favorite color was as a way to introduce a few new kids.  Titus said "Fifteen years and green."  That would be another charming part of Titus, his active imagination which includes his own language and concept of time.  For instance a banana is a "bowana" and "last year" means yesterday.  It's rather cute because Titus is rather cute.

We love you more than you can imagine Titus, and can't wait to see all the wonderful things you will do this year!
 

Homosassa Springs

What a wonderful day we had at the Springs!  We had not been there since Lance was very little.  It was so nice to see that it was even better than we remembered. This time had the added joy of going with friends.  

Between our families, we had nine children, and they all did wonderfully. There are two ways to get to the visitor's center and as luck would have it each family chose a different entrance. Our friends had arrived much earlier than we did and took the boat ride over. We drove directly to the "West Entrance" (skipping the boat ride) and we arrived at the visitor's center about the same time.

Upon arrival we went straight to the first demonstration, the "Wildlife Encounter".   The lady conducting this (and the rest throughout the day) was not only incredibly informative but friendly and cheerful as well; it set a wonderful tone for the rest of our day.

She had around her neck what appeared to be a very large opossum, but we learned they could be twice as large.  In fact, we learned a lot and the kids had very interesting questions.  Ben even stumped her by asking if they could swim.  The best part is we were able to pet the opossum, including Amber, which I think helped keep her interest throughout the talk. She was all smiles.

Afterwards, we began to explore.  I cannot convey how beautiful the grounds are; so natural and open.  If we lived closer, I think we would be regular visitors.  We ended up walking around the whole park twice.  The weather could not have been more perfect.

Jared enjoyed the American Eagle best; Titus liked the "fish in the underground fish place", Matthew like the bears ( I think Amber did too), and Lance liked the turkey and bobcat.  Strangely, no one chose the manatee or Lu the Hippopotamus as their favorite but I know they enjoyed seeing them all.  Lu was quite the character, thrashing about at times and gnawing at the iron underwater gates.

That's our crew next to the fence!

I learned quite a lot about the animals that day, unique things I did not know before.  Chris and I even learned where the term "snookered" comes from.  In the underwater viewing area, about all we could see were "Snook" fish. A fisherman explained how "smart" they were because even if hooked they would find a way to remove the hook and escape, and the light bulb went off.

We spent a long time in the Children's education center.  The kids enjoyed the exhibits, doing the rubbings and playing with the puzzles.  Jaime and I took a picture of this exhibit so we could use it to make our own.  Afterward the kids played some tag football in the big grassy area behind the center, before we started our second loop.  We stopped for lunch at the cafe in the visitor's center and the food was quite good.

The boys have all asked already when we are going back, and I too look forward to visiting again.  It would be neat to see the spring full of manatee but at the same time that would mean it would have to be a lot cooler for our visit.  As it was, we still saw quite a few from the river platform without needing to be all bundled up.