Test your World Geography

Ok, found this on another blog. There are 12 different levels but you have to score a certain amount to move on to the next level. I started it and then had to pause to put the kids to bed (yeah that is my excuse). Final Score: 187,595 Final Level: 6 Traveller IQ: 93 [I needed 30,000 to move on to level and 7 and I had 29,000+ so I was really close] how did you do?

ok, tried to embed it and it didn't work, I will keep trying, but in the meantime here a link so you can take the test: traveler-iq

Don't Forget...

to check out my other blog occasionally. I have had a busy weekend, one session yesterday, three today and one more tomorrow.

So Proud I Might Burst!

A week or so before Christmas Jessica mentioned that she was thinking about donating some of her money to kids who don't have any money. I told her I thought that was nice idea and we should think about where she wants her money to go. We didn't really talk about it again, I wanted to see if she brought it up again on her own. Well last week, after she lost her tooth, she came downstairs and told me that her piggy bank was full and we needed to decide where she should give her money. We decided that since she loves going to the YMCA camp it would be nice if she gave her money to help another child attend camp. Here she is counting her money yesterday. She decided to give half to the YMCA and keep half of her money. So we made two piles, one to keep and one to give away. She had a total of $6.05, so we decided to give $3.02 and Marc and I told her we would match her donation.

I called the YMCA today to set it up before we arrived. I really wanted there to be someone to take her money and make a big deal about her gesture. Judy, the Executive Director, met us when we arrived. She told Jessica a story about two little boys who go to camp and live with their grandparents. Recently their grandfather died and Jessica's donation would go to helping them attend camp again this summer.

While we would love to take credit for her generousity I don't know if we can. I think it is just who Jessica is, a caring, kind and generous person. I wasn't sure where she got the idea but she told Judy that a girl in dance class mentioned that she gave food to people and Jessica thought it would be a good idea to give money. As some of you know we have debated giving her an allowance. Marc's big argument is "why does she need money?", well if this is what she is going to do with her money than I think an allowance may be in her future.

Last Day in Florida

We just hung out on Monday. Jessica and Rebecca were very excited to play with all the new Pony stuff they got at Disney. I wanted to try to get some pics of R & R but it was tough. They didn't want to stop and play. Next time we will actually schedule a shoot- ooh and maybe remove my kids because I think there is a reason I never bring my own children to photo shoots. Here is a sweet one of Jess and Rebecca, due to crazy dress up clothes I put it in B&W. I think it is funny that they both decided to do the non-smiley thing.

Check out those fangs!
This picture cracks me up. This is Justin's smile when you say, smile please! Doesn't he look in pain?
Every time I tried to take pictures of Rebecca she would begin with the head tilt. This cracks me up because this is Kathy's signature photo move. Her faces would then quickly devolve....

Ryan had NO interest in slowing down for a second. We could these on the fly.

I did get this one of Rebecca. memo to self: fair child, light clothing, light background not a good idea.

Can't decide if I like this one better in color or B&W- what do you think?

This is for Grandmommy. All 4 grandchildren in the same picture- enjoy!

Overall we had a great time. The kids had a lot of fun. Justin and Ryan butted heads a few times, but you know that old joke about when women fight it is all emotional/ teary/ and lasts forever, but when men fight they knock each other out and then go get a beer? well that was true here. Ryan did seem to push Justin's buttons, but as we all know that isn't too hard to do and it did give the girls lots of tattling opportunities :)

The biggest downer was Marc's health. He went down there thinking that he had a torn rotator cuff in his shoulder, a result of an aggressive grab for the ball during basketball a week or so back. But as the weekend progressed and he paid more attention to his symptoms he believes it might be another disc issue. He did see his doctor today and the doctor has ordered an MRI. Marc will start therapy in a week or so to hopefully help it correct itself.

That is our news for now.

Disney Day!

First off, the following pictures are less than stellar to say the least- but it is the memory that matters right? We got to Disney around 10am and Kathy said she had never seen it busier. It seems we weren't the only ones that decided to skip going on Saturday and choose Sunday instead. Justin has been talking about the Buzz Lightyear ride for the past year so we headed there first. It did not disappoint and he is already talking about going again.

The Indy 500 Speedway- always a huge hit.

I decided to take Jessica on Space Mountain. She loves roller coasters and she was tall enough. She was definitely nervous as we approached. I was glad I fastpassed it so that she wasn't waiting in the dark for 80+ minutes. She decided to go in front of me. We both agreed that we would scream because that helps get our nervousness out. After the first few things and lots of screaming I heard this little voice echoing throughout Space Mountain, "This is AWESOME!" It was the highlight of her trip. Here is a picture of her just before we boarded. Sorry no pics in flight I was too busy screaming and holding on for dear life.

Aunt Kathy took the girls to meet some princesses. They met Belle and Cinderella. They were so enthralled. Kathy reports that Rebecca was nearly silent but Jessica chatted them up quite a bit. Here is a picture of Cinderella showing the girls how to be princesses- too cute!

Just outside the area where you meet the princesses is a HUGE toy store. They had a special My Little Pony area. You could grab a box and for one price you could get as much stuff as you could fit in the box and have it still close. Both girls got two ponies, a bed, and TONS of clothes for the ponies. This is cool because they don't really sell clothes for ponies, and now she has hats, capes, skirts, bows and crowns. Kathy and I made sure the girls got our money's worth, we kept shoving stuff in those boxes until they almost burst.

Just was so absorbed in all the voyage type rides. He just looked around and barely spoke in any of them. His favorite one is the Peter Pan ride because you feel like you are flying in pirate ship. But he enjoyed Winnie the Pooh and Pirates of the Carribean as well. Here is Justin in It's a Small World.

One of the last rides we went on was the jungle cruise. Now we have been on this one before. The guide has a script of puns and jokes they usually go through. Most times the guide is beyond lame and totally not fun at all. Not this time, we had a great guide and she even got us adults to laugh at the jokes. At one point she asked the girls if they wanted to drive the boat. Jessica declined but Rebecca stepped up. She took her job so seriously. She did a great job making sure we was moving the wheel the right way at the right time. She finally decided she wasn't so interested anymore as we approached some crocodiles but refused to leave the wheel until the guide took over. Everyone was very impressed with the job she did and gave her a big round of applause.

We stayed until after the light up parade and didn't leave until 10pm. A VERY long day, but very fun. I think we only left one or two rides untouched.

Day One in Florida

Our original plan had been to arrive on Friday spend the night in Orlando and do Disney on Saturday. Well due to the expected thunderstorms we scrapped that plan. We went straight to Gainesville on Friday. We just hung out on Saturday. The kids were pretty excited to see their cousins. This was the best visit ever for Jessica and Rebecca. They really had a wonderful time playing with their My Little Ponies and Barbies together. The two of them would wake up in the morning and play in Rebecca's room until they heard someone else get up. Then they would periodically disappear and go to their own little pretend world. They had a great time and I don't think they had one fight. Unfortunately most of my good pictures of them together they seem to always have bed head. oh well. Here they are in Rebecca's loft bed.

We also had a playdoh party on the table.

Nothing is funnier than putting play-doh in your ear!

Uncle Art making the grownups yummy eggs!

Getting some of our wiggles out- notice everyone in sweatshirts and long pants.

Hi Grandmommy!

In the afternoon we decided to take the three oldest kids to the Roller Skating place. We left Ryan and Uncle Art to take nap (didn't quite work out that well for Art due to locking himself in the room with Ryan at nap time, but that is another story). There was a rock climbing wall, a play structure, roller skating, games and mini-golf.

Kathy, the amazing ticket winner!

We went to Disney on Sunday and that will be in the next post.

A Little Artsy

I took this pic of Miss S hiding in the corner of the Dance Studio. Not the best pic, but I had fun playing around with it a little.

Jessica's Dance Class

Jessica is taking Dance at a new place this year. We decided to see if she actually wanted to learn to dance. She was a little bummed in the beginning when she found out that they don't do trophies at this place until you are older. But once we got her over that bump she seems to be doing well. I snuck in today to take a few pictures. Lighting is tough in the dance studio so ignore those issues.




And what does Justin do while Jessica is in dance? Well some days we bring games/ toys/ and or puzzles. But other days he gets to play with his Gamegirl (yes thank you Julia Hartzog for naming your silver Gameboy a Gamegirl, Justin is adamant that it is a Gamegirl).

It's Gone!

Finally I got my wish! That pathetic tooth that was hanging on by a thread came out this morning. I was really worried it would wait until Friday and we would have to fly to Florida with the tooth. She has a big gap now and if you look closely you can see the two new ones on their way in.

Snow Day!

Yesterday was a snow day! We had a playdate already scheduled with Jack and Emma, since they were supposed to have a half day. Our playdate was then changed to a snow date, the roads were cleared by lunch so they headed over. Our sledding hill, the big pile of snow that Marc snowblows in the backyard, was still workable from a previous storm. Our neighbor stopped by and all 5 kids were having a great time.

If Jessica tooth doesn't fall out soon I will seriously consider trying the tying it to the doorknob trick...
Love this action shot, not sure if there was a child originally on the snow tube or not.
Emma, always a good sport, agreed to be a human sled for Jessica and Jack.

Oops Justin got in on the action a little late. Pretty sure after he landed on top of them there was a rousing chorus of "Juuuuuuusstiiiiiiin!" oh and pretty sure he didn't care.

Mr. D humoring me.

Guess who came for dinner?

Jill was in town this past weekend from Washington State via Costa Rica. Since I have a new camera I annoy every person who enters my house by taking their picture- here is one of Jill.

My New Baby!

My new baby arrived yesterday- woo hoo! What is my new baby you ask? Why a new camera of course. I just got a Canon 40D and I am drooling over the LCD screen on the back it is HUGE, so awesome. Haven't had too much of a chance to play with it yet but here is one pic that I took this morning.

Candidate Matchmaker

with the primaries upon us here is a quick 20 question survey to match you to a candidate- so much easier than reading up on all the options :) candidate_matchmaker

Justin's New Obsession

Justin loves Star Wars Galactic Heroes. Before Christmas he only had the two that Jessica gave him last Christmas. Santa brought him and Jessica each 3 more. Then he got another set (2) more from Mimi on Sunday. Monday we went out to spend the Christmas money he got from Grandma and Grandpa and he bought 2 more sets (4 figures). On Wednesday we went to return some of his duplicate gifts at Target and you guessed it he bought one more set. He is still looking for the one with the double lightsaber, Darth Maul. He likes to separate them by lightsaber or gun. He and Jessica play pretend with them all the time. So here is his growing collection.