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.

Scottish Highland Festival

Knowing we were going to Homosassa Springs on Monday, we changed our mind about going to the festival Sunday and decided to attend the Scottish Highland Festival on Saturday to give us a day of rest in between.  As you can see only Amber dressed for the occasion.

We had very little in the way of expectations and as a result I think I we had a very enjoyable time.  There were a lot of vendors selling various Scottish sundries from food and drink, to jewelry, to clothes, but that really was not an interest to us.  What was nice was that there were at least three music stages set up in such a way that they never competed with each other yet you could almost always hear one playing no matter where you were at the festival.  I so enjoy Celtic music that this was a really nice back drop to our day.  Amber too enjoyed the music and would spontaneously stop and wiggle occasionally.

The first event we watched was the Australian Sheepdog Sheep herding demonstration with real live sheep!  The dogs are amazing.  Watching the interaction between handler, dog and sheep is something to behold, at least for me.

I think the boys enjoyed the hands on events a bit more.  They had miniature versions of all the different Athletics for the kids to try their hand at; the Haggis Hurl (Chris quipped that's what you do after eating it), the Caber toss, and something whose name escapes me where they used a shovel to throw a sack over a high jump backward. Click Here to see videos of the boys attempts. Little Amber enjoyed the miniature golf.

We grabbed some very large home made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (yummy) and wandered over to the adult Athletic field, where we also found the Archery.  The boys truly enjoyed this; all three tried their hand at the regular bow and the log throwing crossbow.  Both Jared and Titus hit the dummy with crossbow, but at different spots. Titus' shot hit the dummy directly in the head. On Jared's attempt, the projectile hit in spot that made all the men in a 20 yard radius take notice and cringe. :-)

We finished off our day laying in the nice perennial rye watching the Men's Caber Toss competition.  Even Amber joined in cheering.  It was amazing to see these men pick up, carry and try to flip what is essentially a telephone pole 180 degrees.  Towards the end of the competition, the crowd was very pleased when two were able to flip the Caber!

The festival continued way into the evening but we left after about five hours, plenty tired from a nice day outside.

Going to the Birds

One other gift pass from the boys Cub Scout popcorn sales that needed to be used by year-end was to the Brevard Zoo.  

This is one of our favorite zoos.  Its about an hour drive from our house but well worth it.  The weekends had been cold for the past couple weeks so we kept putting off going, in the end we just had to go on a cold day because there was no time left.

I wasn't so worried about the kids on a cold day, we could layer them up, I was worried about the animals not being very active.  As it turned out I had no need to worry.

This would be Amber's first visit and she really liked it.  She even offered her cracker to the willing deer (oops).

The giraffes too were eager to be fed (sweet potatoes instead of crackers now) and the cheetahs were active in their enclosure; as were the kids climbing around it.

Click Picture to Activate Video

We had one of the best times ever in the Aviary that day.  The Lorakeets were particularly friendly and hungry.  Everyone was able to really enjoy feeding them.  Some days its does not go as well.

After lunch we wandered into the petting zoo and play area.  The boys played while Amber met the Alpacas.  Chis had to laugh as he knew I'd start quoting the "I Love Alpacas" website.  I've been joking with him we need to buy an alpaca farm since before we had kids.  This was our first time really hanging out with one.  Boy are they soft!  Amber of course barked at them, she barks at anything with four legs.

While we petted, Lance build a large nest that the boys posed in before we left for the day.  It was a nice way to spend a cool day and finish off the year.

So Long 2012 - So Long Training Wheels!

 Titus decided to celebrate the last day of the year by having Chris remove his training wheels.  As you can tell by this short video, he was ready to ride.


This may appear like a sudden change but with Titus that's typical.  He walks to the beat of his own drummer.  Titus only does what Titus wants when Titus wants to and as a parent that means our job is to make him "want" to do what we want him to do.  Trust us, nothing else works and I'm glad it doesn't.  In the end its always been our goal to have the boys want to do the right thing because they want to, not to gain reward or avoid punishment.  Titus being Titus forces us to be better parents.

I love my little farmer boy!

UPDATE:  Then when we went to Sea World on New Years Day he decided he wanted to ride a roller coaster.  So he and I went on his first kiddie roller coaster.  Not sure what he thought.  He echoed my "whoo-hoos" but not very enthusiastically and he didn't ask to ride again :-P  BTW New Years Day is a great day to go its really empty.

FLORIDA ECOSAFARIS

 The boys had won passes to go to Florida EcoSafaris at Forever Florida, for all the popcorn the sold at CubScouts last year.

They were about to expire so at the very last minute last Sunday we made reservations. When I say the last minute, I mean at 9am while we were in route for the 10am tour.  We got there in time just by the skin of our teeth. I'm so glad we did!

They say its located in St. Cloud but that's just because everyone needs some city to put on their address.  It is WAY, WAY, WAY out in the middle of NO WHERE!

It is a working ranch with heritage horses, heritage cattle and a huge nature reserve.  The Coach Safari takes you on a trek through all these areas.  We were privileged to have an almost private tour; only us and one other couple.  This really added to the experience since then we could all interact directly and frequently with our guide; listening and asking LOTS of questions.

Before we headed out on our tour we watched a nice video about how the family had decided to start up the EcoSafaris in memory of their son who was an Ecologist and died too young.  He was a young man with a great attitude and life that was full till the end.

Next we learned about what "Heritage" breeds were; basically they are the cattle and horses that have been in Florida since the Spanish first started landing here.  The French breed looks like huge Golden Retrievers.  

Shortly into our tour we spotted our first alligator with a number of babies hiding around in the duck weed near her.  It would be one of quite a few it was awesome to be so close to them in the wild and discuss their habitat and habits.  The gentleman from the other couple asked about their digestion and our guide explained that their stomach had a very strong acid that broke down their food since they don't chew their food.  We learned about invasive species of plants and how they causing big problems for the gators and what was being done to counter their spread.

Then much to the boys enjoyment we saw an Golden Weaver Orb Spider.  They had recently learned all about these spiders and were thrilled to see them in person; me not so much. They saw quite a few throughout the tour and impressed the guide with their knowledge.

When we passed through area where the cattle were Amber got all excited and started barking, she thought they were huge dogs and wanted off to go pet them.  We were privileged to see a calf that had just been born, it even still had its umbilical cord hanging down.  It was so CUTE!

As we entered part of the reserve we went through an area that had recently had a controlled burn.  There we learned a lot about how quickly the vegetation grows back and the roll of the Gopher Tortoise in protecting all the animals during forest fires.  We wondered if after the fire passed and how long did the predators gave the prey before they renigged on the truce.

The tour lasted two hours and we all really had a great time.  The coach being empty was really helpful when Amber got a little antsy, I could escape to the back so she didn't disturb the other couple. At the end they even had a nice cafe where they serve the organic beef from the ranch.

I thought I took more pictures but I guess we were having too much fun!   If you've never gone on an EcoSafari, I highly recommend them one.