Candice & Todd's blog: February was, well, just WOW!

More science stuff for Cub Scouts took place in February.

On a Saturday in early February, Mercer and I went back up to the museum (our 4th trip since Christmas!) and went to an "Earth Rocks" event they held. We watched a fantastic film on Super Volcanoes. We then went to a rock-testing activity followed by a rock-sorting activity. There was an activity where the kids panned for gems and stones followed by an investigation using a lighted microscope. The final activity was a scavenger hunt in the geology section of the museum. The timing of this was PERFECT - literally - as I was launching the geology unit at school that next week!

Another benefit to this -- Mercer (and these other kids in the photos) will be taking Earth Science next year in school / they will have a leg up in the area, as they have been exposed to some hands-on geology activities!

As mentioned in the previous post - we hosted a STEM event for Mercer's den. This is partly because he missed a STEM event with the entire pack in the fall due to sports..... and.... because for his SuperNOVA medal that he's attempting to earn, he had to explore circuits.

I have all sorts of circuit stuff left over from after-school science clubs at my last school that we used for the event + some mini-robot things I used to use. In a different part of the house, we let kids explore energy by building a marble roller coaster. We pulled in something that I did at my new school too: creating a hologram with plastic and a cell phone video. It was a bit of work to plan, but was actually a lot of fun for both the kids and the adults. (The dads enjoyed playing with the circuit stuff!)

I was happy to do some of the fun activities from my past and share them with the Cub Scout kiddos. This is something that I really miss: the after school clubs that I was able to host for any topic / activity that was of interest while I was at my last school. Unfortunately, there are no photos of this Cub Scout event. As hosts -- we were quite busy running different activities!

Valentine's day came and went. We got the kids a little bag with some candy and little toys in it. Mercer went to tutoring - as normal - on Thursdays. The highlight of the day was that Todd made his delicious ham and mushroom crepes for the family.

The next evening was a much bigger celebration: we started celebrating Mercer's birthday early!

Friday was the last day of school before break. We had planned to take the kids to Disney over winter break, so we weren't planning anything for Mercer...

until he asked for a birthday party. He asked for a simple, specific kind of birthday party. We didn't want to tell him no, but we also didn't want to let on to our surprise. So, we hosted a small gathering of some of his friends to play with a toy called a BeyBlade.

It's basically a spinning top that you "launch" into a dish / arena and try to win the battle by either exploding your opponent's BeyBlade OR have the one that is the last to stop spinning in case none of them burst. It is so low-tech and REFRESHING to see boys just having fun with toys instead of doing something with electronics!

They ate pizza, cookie ice-cream cake, and played another game with gross-tasting jelly beans. We took one of his friends home and in the car Mercer was beaming -- saying that this was the most fun birthday he ever had. There were multiple points throughout the party where we caught him in a state of just sheer joy. (Many of the photos are fuzzy because he/ the others were in a constant state of movement... but you can see his awesome smile shine through!)

As mentioned, we didn't want to originally have a party.... but.... this low-key party was the PERFECT way to start our winter break. And - as a mom - it made my heart full to see how happy he was!!

The next morning (Saturday) we told the kids about the trip to Florida by letting them open a gift bag with Disney tees and a "Kid's Guide to Disney" book.

We had a bunch of errands to run Saturday, then hit the road on Sunday morning.

On Monday of our break, we went to LEGO land. We took Mercer about 6 years ago. As it turns out, this will probably be his last time as he's "aging out" of it. (The park's website says it's designed for 2 - 12 year olds.)

There were a handful of things that Isabella couldn't do, so Todd and Mercer mostly went to older kid rides and she/I stayed in the more juvenile area. She did start to ride some of the more moderate roller coasters there and really liked them!

Of course, they had the really cool LEGO built-objects there + the cars that the kids could drive. (This time Mercer didn't crash.)

Overall, we had a great time. We shut down the park -- staying 'til the sun set and the park closed!

Tuesday, we went to the Orlando Science museum (that we liked so much last year) and did the activities in their new exhibit on aviation.

There was an interesting interactive "flying like a bird" exhibit that we did as a family.

Each of us also got to fly in a flight simulator.

Mercer visited the kinetic (movement) area that he liked so much last time too.

Mercer and I went to the MakerSpace that we were not able to go to last time we were there. He worked on a little hydraulics project while Todd took Isabella to the children's area.

We didn't stay at the museum long, but enjoyed our time there! We then had a low-key afternoon/ evening around the hotel complex. We bought a 3 day activity pass so the kids could go down the inflatable water slide and play putt-putt as much as they wanted while we were staying there.

Isabella had a wiggly tooth that was on the verge of falling out. Todd worked on it for awhile before we went to the pool so she wouldn't lose it IN the pool. She was sooooo excited to have finally lost a tooth!

We made dinner, headed to the pool, then played glow-in-the-dark putt-putt. What a day it was!

The tooth was certainly the highlight for Isabella!

Wednesday, we went to Disney's Magic Kingdom. I am glad to report that Isabella did not vomit this time! (I wasn't feeling well by the end of the day, but made it through.)

We rode quite a bit of the rides together at this park.... it seemed that the age / height requirements were more forgiving at Disney.

We did not take many photos, as we were pretty actively riding rides.

We spent a bit of time in Tomorrowland - doing Toy Story activities, an Astro Orbiter at the top of a building and the people-mover ride that gave us a glimpse of a bunch of different rides.

We rode the following rides: Peter Pan, it's a Small World, Haunted Mansion, the Barnstormer, viewed the 4D Mickey's Philharmonic, went through the Swiss Family Robinson tree house, rode Pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and wrapped up -- at around 10pm -- on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.... which turned out to be our favorite ride overall.

We were constantly on the move.

The only time we were sitting was to watch the parade mid-day, to eat dinner and to watch the fireworks.

The next morning, we tried to get the kids to sleep in, but... they were up early! (ugh) We had breakfast at a restaurant in a hotel that my old company designed: Wilderness Lodge. Mercer got his first all-you-can-eat breakfast! Not sure that he ate enough to justify the price but I see more of this style of eating in his future! Here's a photo of the lobby of the hotel and a Disney totem pole.

Back at our complex, the kids slid down the inflatable water slide 20 or more times + we played putt-putt at a different course. (We were being harassed and followed by some mating squirrels all along the course!) We went to a different pool at the complex which had a water slide.

We stayed until dinnertime, then Isabella and I went to bed while Todd and Mercer went out for another fun adventure: riding on the 400' tall ferris wheel at night & grabbing fro-yo for dessert. Sliding is a theme. Even the "handrail" at the step in the hotel was a slide for this little one on the move!

Our final day at a theme park was at Disney's Hollywood Studios. This park was quite a bit different. Sure there were rides, but not as many as Magic Kingdom. Also, the feel of this park was more about "productions" and behind-the-scenes movie stuff.

It was pretty interesting (to us) but I don't think this park was as much fun for the kids. One of the productions showed how the Raiders of the Lost arc rolling boulder scene was done, then they changed the set by driving giant pieces away to reveal another scene behind.

They did this several times and did stunts. There was a giant pyrotechnic show at the end too. We watched a Little Mermaid 4D kind of puppet show production where we were inside a theater, but they sprayed water above the audience and streamed lights across it to make it look like we were under water. (Yes, we got wet). There was a cool virtual reality Star Wars show that we all liked.

Isabella had a couple of melt-downs while there. (one melt-down was so bad that a Disney "Cast Member" escorted us to a quiet alley in the park, then checked on us 10 minutes later with a bottle of water for Isabella.)

The rides were mostly in the Toy Story area / we stood in long lines for the couple of rides we actually got to go on. At this park, the kids wanted to meet different characters. Mercer met his hero: Goofy.

They both met Mickey and Minnie mouse (Todd and I were surprised at how many adults were there in line to meet the characters... without kids!) Mercer wanted to go meet Monster Inc. characters and Sully too while I took Isabella to a Disney Junior dance party.

The grand finale was a show called Fantasmic with animatronics, boats, fire, lasers, music and fireworks. The other big thing that happened at that show was Isabella lost another tooth! 2 teeth total on this trip. She got a letter from her tooth fairy, Aurora, plus 3 gold coins for her first tooth. The second tooth yielded 2 gold coins!

We did not realize - but this park closed 2 hours earlier than Magic Kingdom, so we took Mercer out for one final Disney treat.

We left the Hollywood Studios park and drove to an adjacent Disney resort with an "Atlantic City" style boardwalk, activities + restaurants. The particular spot we were headed: an old-fashioned soda shoppe that had a special dessert called the "Kitchen Sink."

It was a giant bowl of ice cream (4 flavors - chocolate, oreo, strawberry and mint chip) + every topping they had + an entire can of whipped cream. Obviously, this was a dish to share -- and is something for a special occasion. It was memorable! Mercer still mentions it every now and then that he "needs" a kitchen sink. ha!

The following day - Saturday - was Mercer's actual birthday. We made breakfast and he opened a couple of gifts (including a build-it-yourself mini computer kit).

We had a family reunion to go to at my dad and Charlie's house later in the day. Somehow, we did not get any pictures during the reunion. There were some kids there, so Mercer was happy. There were lizards there as well, so Isabella was happy. (In fact, there was one poor / half-dead lizard (by the time she finished playing with it) that basically baby-sat her the entire reunion. She sat and played with that thing for more than 2 hours!

After the reunion and after celebrating the birthday with them, we headed back to our hotel complex for ONE FINAL time at the pool with the water slide. This was Mercer's choice - he wanted to get pizza from the pool's restaurant + swim. We closed down the pool, leaving at 10 pm!!

We left behind an entire week of torrential down-pours when we left Marietta. Literally - it rained at home all week. We hit unseasonably warm, beautiful weather in Florida. The day after we left, it was to have rained all week in Florida! We could not have planned it any better. (What luck!) It was the perfect way to ring in Mercer's 11th year!

We packed up / hit the road Sunday morning; we made it home in time to make it to Mercer's basketball practice as they made the playoffs. He had a game later in the week (between baseball practices which started right after winter break). They played well on Wednesday which landed them in the final game on Friday.

Friday night's game was a nail-biter. Mercer really started to come into his own the latter part of the season. He was all over the basket and he made a significant amount of rebounds / scored half of the team's points (and he was only in for a little over 1/2 of the game). They came in 2nd overall out of the 10-12 teams in this age bracket.