The 100th day of school

Jackson's school celebrates the 100th day of school each year with the First Grade sponsoring the "100 day museum" where each member of each class is encouraged to prepare some sort of a project or display of 100 items. Kind of random but I guess they have been doing this for years and it has stuck. The 100 day museum also always seems to fall at the end of Catholic Schools week so it is a fun day for the kids. Here are some pictures of Jackson's project this year! Last year he and Jon did 100 army men in a really neat set up, this year in honor of OSU winning the national championship, we did a set up of OSU vs. Michigan players on a football field!! Leave it to Jon!! Following the 100 day museum Jackson and I had a fun afternoon together "best day ever phrase" was used which is what Jackson coins any great day in his opinion. I picked him up at school for the early noon dismissal and we headed to his lunch place of choice, Subway, and then on to the skating rink that his school had rented out just for kids and their families from his school that entire afternoon. What kid would not love a skating party with all of their friends, teachers, complete with pizza, soda, snacks, and games, tickets,and prizes??!! I fought through it all with the worst darn cold and then came home and took a nap for an hour or so before it was time for Ann to head home for the weekend. This weekend we are laying low, hoping to get better!!

Jon's 35th Birthday

We celebrated Jon's 35th birthday over a long weekend at Disney last weekend. We stayed at Disney's Fort Wilderness Campgrounds and rented a cabin once again. This is something we enjoy doing each year around this time of year. The Fort Wilderness property alone is entertaining, never mind it is just a boat ride away from Magic Kingdom!! We picked Jackson up early from school the Thursday before Jon's birthday which was the following Friday and headed up there golf cart and trailer and all of our "camping" aka "glamping" gear in tow to have a great weekend. We got set up Thursday afternoon and caught the last warm afternoon and night Florida would see for over a week!! Temps were in the high 70's when we arrived and it was perfect to set up "camp" and to explore the pony and horse area and to visit Chip and Dale that night at their sing along and campfire!! I think this was the best part of the trip! Friday we had a fun day planned at Animal Kingdom complete with lunch at the indoor Yak and Yeti restaurant, one of our favorite Disney places to dine in honor of Jon's birthday. That afternoon we had a big surprise after Animal Kingdom and lunch, we headed over to the Disney Race Track for Jon to drive a black Ferrari Italia as part of the Disney Exotic Driving Experience! We were worried about the weather as skies were threatening rain but it held off and he and about 8 others got to participate in their scheduled class and then driving of the fancy cars!! Jon went 6 laps and we got to sit in the spectator area and watch. Jackson loved it, Sarabeth said it was "too loud"! That night we met up with another family that had rented the cabin next to ours for more fun. We ate dinner at the Trails End restaurant there at Fort Wilderness and then went back to the cabins to settle the kids in and hang out. Unfortunately Jon started to feel a bit lousy that evening and Saturday woke with a full blown cold. We did not know it but he ended up having the flu, what a nightmare and was not well at all the rest of the weekend but at least he had a great birthday and we had fun Thursday. We packed up and came home Sunday after some time at Magic kindgom and breakfast at Ohana on Saturday. I got a bit of a spin off of Jon's plague as we are calling it and we have both been down for the count most of the week, all while managing work and life, ugh. I wonder who infected Jon, had to be someone he met with before we left because it came on less than 24 hours after arriving at Disney and we had not even gone to a park yet when he started feeling bad. So much for those flu shots we got this year, gee whiz!!! Here are some pictures of the fun we did have last weekend despite the onset of the flu!! As you can see, Jackson is still a ham for the characters and jumps right up to take a picture with them! Sarabeth is still afraid of them....look at her body language in the one picture she did allow me to carry her close to the character!!

long weekend at home!

We have spent this long weekend at home finishing our organizational projects for the beginning of the year! I can now report that all closets are cleaned out and better organized, the garage is cleaned out and...drumroll...the storage unit in Sebastian is nearly empty and the new storage unit is ORGANIZED REALLY WELL complete with shelves Jon built into it so we can access things easier and actually keep track of what is there this has been a very long project that we've been wanting to complete for years and it has taken several phases to get it complete!! The weather has been picture perfect here this weekend with lows in the 50's (cool for us) and cool mornings that turn into warm sunny afternoons with highs in the low 70s, PERFECT for lots of play time outside and just about anything down here. Yesterday I took the kids to our local botanical gardens to walk around in the sunshine and to see a lego exhibit they just got in for the next few months. The kids really enjoyed exploring the trails and seeing the lego nature themed art amidst the gardens. We completed our trip with lunch at the local cafe...100% ORGANIC lunch, perfect day! Last night we had a babysitter and Jon and I went to see the new movie American Sniper...NOT for the faint of heart, I was a bit stressed feeling after the movie, you could have heard a pin drop in the theater as everyone filed out but it is a very good movie and worth seeing and a true story!! Amazing what our service people and their families go through for all of our safety. After the movie we enjoyed a late dinner at a good local spot where I had a gift card to from one of my clients. Today we are home continuing our projects, preparing for our trip to Disney this coming weekend and Daddy's birthday, and because it is a long weekend I let Jackson invite a school friend over. They play well together but having a friend over I always forget is still a lot of work for me, phew! I am glad I do not have 6 year old boy twins is all I can say...Dennis the Menace and his side-kick lol!!! Luckily Jon got the crazy/great idea to build a sand box into teh bottom area of the swingset play fort so they have all been thoroughly entertained with that this weekend! In the midst of the clean up projects...a sand box got installed!! Hope everyone else is enjoying this long weekend. Normally I work on MLK day but with no banks or mail, it is kind of pointless so this year I decided to close and enjoy the day with the kids!!