Thursday: conferences

We had parent-teacher conferences tonight.

They both went very well.  Joshua seems to be harder on himself than I realized.  He's working hard, doing well, and participating appropriately.  A very normal conference for Joshua.

Isaac's conference seemed a little different than normal as we looked at his grade report, saw it was good, and moved on to other things.  In the past teachers have always had examples of work to show us.  (This wasn't good or bad, just different.)  The teacher has been keeping him sitting together with one other student because they're getting along well and they balance each other out: Isaac is quiet, the other kid is loud.  But apparently the other kid is also funny, and Isaac self-reported that he has to work on not laughing at inappropriate times.  Anyway, for the first time we heard that he's becoming more social which is amazing.  

One of the most interesting things of the night was as we were leaving the teacher across the hall was standing outside and mentioned that she loves Isaac too.  It's one thing for your own teacher to enjoy you, but it was surprising to have another teacher say it.

Wednesday: plugging away

I didn't get all my "I hope to finish" tasks finished today, but I was honestly kind of expecting that.  There was a lot more computer work than normal and that usually isn't quite as fun.

But a friend came over and we started a new puzzle, so that was nice.

vacation Wednesday: leaving

We had an evening flight so we had most of the day to enjoy.

We had a delicious breakfast first.  And saw some friends.

Afterwards we went back to the room and I took a nap.  I wasn't feeling terrible, but I also wasn't feeling normal.  The kids had some reading and screen time.

Around the time I woke up it was getting close to lunch.  We went to the pool for a while and ate there.  I came back about 20 minutes before everyone else and finished packing.  Packing to go home is so much easier because everything is close and all I have to do is find everything, not decide I need it and find it.

We flew out of the small Orlando airport and it definitely was a small regional airport!  There was no line for security.  There also weren't many food options, so we ended up getting a bunch of snacks.  The kids were excited about it.  This airport also had the coolest faucets I've ever seen.  They were wide, and on the left was the soap dispenser, then in the middle was the water, and the on the right was a blower.  The blower blew right into the sink which seemed so smart.

The flight was about 40 minutes late, but we didn't have a connection so it worked out.  I had pjs and toothbrushes in the carry ons, so the kids got ready before we left the airport.  They fell asleep in the car and only needed to move themselves to their beds once we got home.  It was around midnight when I crawled into bed.  I had been hoping for closer to 11pm, but it at least wasn't too far off.

Tuesday: students

Today I had a funny story about one student and a sad story about another student.  I don't really feel it's appropriate to write the funny story down (and especially not the sad story) so you'll just have to ask me when you see me.

vacation Tuesday: epcot

Today was our last park day. 

For breakfast Joshua convinced me to let him have his Mickey Rice Krispie treat.  (I had mine too.)  In hindsight, I should made him eat something else too, because he crashed around lunch time.

Since we were staying at the back of the park and could get in 30 minutes early, we were hoping to stand in line for Ratatouille.  However, as we were entering in we watched the long line and we changed our plans.  We headed to Soarin instead, hoping to get a lightening lane for Ratatouille later.

Soarin was good and actually helped to time everything just right, because next was Cosmic Rewind.  Which was amazing.  Joshua didn't love it, but Cheryl thought it might be her new favorite!  (Joshua did this one twice too...after seeing this picture I'm a bit surprised.)

I grabbed Isaac for a quick selfie under the Epcot ball.  We did this last time too.

Test track was next.  It was Ben and Isaac versus Cheryl, Joshua and I; we won by just a few points.

We had a bit of time before the next plan, so the boys and I went on the mission: space rides.  Green was pretty boring.  Orange was fun.  I felt a bit wobbly afterwards but not too bad.  Then the virtual queue for Cosmic Rewind was available!

For lunch we went to space 220 and it was really neat.  We traveled up to a space station.  Isaac and Joshua got drinks that included pop rocks in rocket ship cups.  It was also fun to watch outer space and see the sorted things coming and going.  Joshua had crashed right before lunch because lunch was a bit late and he only had sugar for breakfast.  While he was grumpy he still held it together well enough until he got some food in him, and he perked back up quickly.  I dropped my fork several more times than normal; it became a joke.

As is normal at Disney, by the time we got out of lunch it was already 3pm.  We hit Nemo and figment.  At this point Ben and Cheryl needed a break and Joshua and I wanted to do the Duck Tales app game.  The kids and I went to go search for clues and find secrets around Disney.  We got through three of the games when been and Cheryl were ready to join us again.  (The kids also really wanted their pictures by the water, so we did that during this time too.)

We joined them in Mexico for the water ride, then slowly worked our way back to France.  It was the art festival so they had a bunch of food booths.  Morocco had this dragon fruit moose that I loved!  Tangy and delicious.  We then got on Ratatouille (very fun!!) and did the Frozen ride.  Joshua loved the lights on the Epcot ball too.

Ben found a nice spot to watch the evening show.  Our fancy wristbands lit up in sync with the show.  Everyone enjoyed that feature, but Joshua was especially enthralled.

We then walked back to the hotel.  I sat down on the bed with 24982 steps.  While I well exceeded my goal of 20,004 steps, it seemed like a poor choice to stop the day there.  So I putzed around the room, plugging stuff in and reached 25,000!  That was about 10 miles.  (Really, that beat my goal by almost too much.  It'll be a hard goal to beat again.)

Monday: home

I was home by myself today and it was wonderful.  It also rained most of the day, which was lovely.  The downside was that I got groceries and loading the car while it's raining is not on my list of enjoyable things to do.

I did zip through my morning chores faster than expected and was able to clean another cabinet for O:CtH.  It's slow going, but as far as cleaning goes it's enjoyable.  I got rid of a medium amount of stuff, including some old food.  The shelves are deep and high and so while I did get rid of stuff it's rather hard to tell because there's a lot of space that I don't want to use.  The biggest change was the candy shelf.  It's still a candy shelf, but it's been organized better.

The rain was rather weird today and froze somewhat.  The deck slowly got covered in ice and our cove slowly accumulated ice throughout the day.  The ice looks weird too...it appears really dirty, although I'm guessing that's actually just the texture of it.

vacation Monday: down day

We had another down day scheduled.  It just helps keep everyone happier.

No one really slept in, but after breakfast the kids did some homework and then we went to visit a few playgrounds.  They weren't all that exciting, but they stayed a while at Pop Century, partially because there were a lot of pebbles to play with.

Then on to our dessert-lunch.  We all had little lunches so we could enjoy our dessert to the fullest!  My lunch was tater tots and bacon.  There were several tater tot options in the park and I loved all of them.  It makes me wonder if I could cook with tater tots more, but I'm sure it isn't very healthy either.

Then screen time and nap time...everyone took a nap.  Sometimes the kids don't fall asleep during mandatory nap time, but we knew it was going to be a late night and we had had some long days.

We hit up the pool next.  It was barely warm enough, but the kids had fun.

Lastly, we had dinner with Travis and his family.  It seems silly to come to Florida to meet up with people from Holland, yet there we were.  They had a great time on their vacation too.