Hey, Mom...come look!

You never know what you're going to find when you hear, "Hey, Mom!  Come look!"  This time, the boys were so excited to show me the snake they'd caught in the back yard in the rocks.  Thankfully, I am not afraid of snakes; even more thankfully, it was just a harmless garden snake.  Even so, we had a little chat about maybe in the future, we should just leave snakes alone in the wild and watch them from a distance.  Since copperheads like to nest in rocks and all.  Sheesh.

Worn out

I'm not even sure why they were so exhausted here, but it had clearly been a long day!

 

Buddies

Rudy doesn't get to see as much of Mary Emma this year since they're not at the same school, but they have no problem picking up right where they left off when they do get together.  I'm so excited for them to be back in the same class together next year!

Might be time for a haircut...

School music nights

Both kids had music night at school last week to show off what they've learned so far this year.  Brady played the trumpet in the band.  He's also been learning the violin this year, but the sixth grade doesn't have a strings orchestra.  Considering that most of these kids hadn't ever even touched these instruments in August, I think the progress they've made is impressive!

Rudy's class has been working on rhythm and beat.  Their performance was cute...but even Rudy said after the event that the "fifth graders were SOOO much better."  He'll transition to a different music teacher for fifth grade, and I think that teacher really does a great job about getting the kids excited about  music and performing.  (There is a little clip of this year's fifth graders performing at the end of Rudy's video.  The sun was streaming in our eyes for most of their pieces, so the quality is pretty poor.)

All the places in the house she could sleep...

And she picks on top of James' white t-shirts...

Reading buddy

Spring break 2016: the neighbors!

We were so thrilled that Dave and Laura brought their family to meet up with us on our last night of vacation.  Dave and Laura were our very best couple friends in State College, and we hadn't seen them since our last trip to Florida.  They picked us up at the Cabana Bay and drove us over to the Orlando World Marriott, which was a pretty fantastic property.  Once we checked into our pool view rooms, we changed and headed straight out to the pools for an afternoon together.  

Teaching Dave how to play chopsticks and cowboy...

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to watch the laser light show at our pool and the fireworks at the nearby Disney resorts. 

It's wonderful to have friends like this, where we can just pick up where we left off even if we haven't seen each other in ages!  

Spring break 2016: Margaritaville and Mini Golf

Since we booked our trip with AAA, we got some additional deals upon arrival.  One was a resort credit, which we decided to cash in for passes to the Drive In Mini Golf.

On our last day at the park, we wrapped up early and went back to the hotel for the afternoon.  We made our way back into CityWalk for dinner at Margaritaville.  We entertained ourselves while waiting for our food by playing win-lose-or-draw with wiki-stix.  Can you guess the creations?

 

(Minion, elephant, golden snitch)

There was a friendly balloon artist who made her way to our table to make fabulous hats for the boys.  Rudy was sound asleep when she came over, so was not all that convinced that his crazy hat was a good idea when he woke up!

After dinner, we headed to mini golf.  We chose the Invaders from Planet Putt course...

It was a good mix of kitschy theming and mini-golf fun.

 

 

 

 

 

Spring break 2016: Universal Studios - Everything else at the parks

 Our biggest reason for going to Universal Studios was to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but we certainly weren't going to miss all of the other attractions at the parks!  Everyone raves about the theming at WDW, but we were equally impressed with the details at Universal. 

Ready to go!

 We even saw sunrise the first morning!

 

 

The kids have watched just enough Jimmy Fallon clips to think he's hilarious...

This roller coaster is the one that Jimmy Fallon took Kevin Hart on; if you haven't seen the clip, you should definitely take a look on YouTube!  On our third day in the parks, we didn't feel like we needed to rush back to the Harry Potter parts.  We lingered near the roller coaster and were among the very first to ride that morning.  The picture on the left is Rudy before the first ride, very nervous and not at all excited.  The picture on the right was taken after FOUR consecutive rides!

As we were getting in line, I said that I'd ride once but they wouldn't get me on twice in a row.  But....then there was no line, so I couldn't pass it up the second time.  James and I bowed out after that, but the boys wanted one more ride.  James and I waited at the bottom and James took their picture as they came through the last loop.  They weren't smiling, so we made them ride one more time - telling them to be sure to smile big!  If you can, you must zoom in on these pictures to see their faces!

 

 

We saw this big guy swimming in the water near Hogwarts...

Rudy wasn't sure about Free Fall.  Brady and I went first and convinced him that it was easy.  So then we had to take a few more turns each.  It's a slower descent than some of the other drop towers, so it worked for Rudy.

 

Like many of the rides in the parks, the Spiderman ride was a combination 3D movie and roller coaster.  We thought there were pretty amazing design concepts to put these attractions together!

 

There isn't nearly the focus on character meet and greets at Universal, but we did see a few.  Scooby Doo and Shaggy:

 

 

Doc Brown:

 

  

Men In Black.  This was the actual pup who played Frank the Pug!

 

 

Transformers...more than meets the eye...

 

 Minion Mayhem was a fun experience, but I was most impressed with the waiting area which was styled to look like the inside of Gru's mansion.

I insisted that we all ride the Cat in the Hat ride.  I did something similar with the Peter Pan ride at WDW; it just seemed like an iconic must-ride attraction!

 

 

Jurassic Park...

 

This building looked like a replica of the visitor's center from the movie.  

Someone (me) decided we should ride the water rides.  It was early-ish in the day, so I wanted to get it over with so we'd have time to dry out.  We got DRENCHED on the Jurassic Park boat ride, so then we figured we might was well go big and go on the flume ride too.  Rudy was MAD.  The boat ride was just like a ride might have been at the Jurassic Park theme park.  Well, without the actual dinosaurs...

 

Hahaha...

Another late night...

 

One of our best meals was at Cowfish.  Sushi and burgers sounds like an odd menu plan, but it worked.  And we convinced the boys that there is some sushi that they like!

You know that punchy feeling when you're really exhausted?  I think that's where they were the night we ate at Cowfish.  Fun with chopsticks...

 

 

 

 

 The hotel wasn't very far away at all, but it was too far for everyone to stay awake for the whole ride home: