Here are some pics that I forgot to post earlier when I was creating my Florida entry. Some of these I just don't want to lose in case of a computer crash, others I just find humorous (like the 'official Walt Disney World 100% UV Protection glasses' with no lenses!)
For the past several years, I've been taking the several kids trick or treating in Princeton the night before Halloween (which is part of the town's 'official' trick or treating times). Apparently, this is a tradition no one else in the area has ever heard of! I guess P'ton people just like candy, LOL! Anyway, this year, we took Gracie & Julia and got a great deal on a hotel. The kids had fun swimming and the next day, Heather, Mary, & Sophia joined us for a morning swim before checkout.
Jeff's parents treated us all to dinner at the famous "Paula Deen's Lady & Sons" restaurant in Savannah. We had the buffet, and it was just as delicious as I had hoped it would be!
We didn't do a lot of sightseeing around Savannah, but we did manage to make it to Bonaventure cemetery where "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" was filmed. Very cool, but creepy trees!
On our way back from Florida, we stayed a couple of nights in Savannah, GA, with Jeff's brother, Brian, his wife, Tiawannia, & her kids Shay & Jujuan. Jeff's parents were there and had brought Alex with them. Alex had a blast with their German Shepherd, Max; while Nick couldn't get enough of Shay. I think he was glued to her side the whole time!
Over Jeff's birthday (November), we did our obligatory once-in-a-childhood trip to visit the rat in Orlando. As if you couldn't tell, I am NOT a Disney person! As much as I am all in favor of capitalism, I think Disney is the biggest ripoff known to man! Anyway, the last time we went, Rachael was under two. Jeff thinks that every kid should have the memory of Disneyworld at least once during childhood. We had a wonderful time just being together as a family. In hindsight, we all agree that we would have had just as much fun just going to Universal like we did during our previous 2 trips to Florida. Neither of my kids were all that excited about the characters, and with the exception of the test track at Epcot, the rides weren't much to speak of. The kids did enjoy "It's a Small World", though. It was always my favorite, too! I really had high hopes for the different countries at Epcot, but was hugely disappointed. For some reason I thought they would really learn something about the different cultures. I didn't realize it was just another scam to sell more junk packaged in a Disney label! Like Jeff said, if I was looking for a learning experience, I should have gone to a museum, LOL!
We had a really nice Christmas this year. We celebrated Christmas Eve at home as usual. Jeff made a HUGE breakfast followed by movies and chilling out at home. Christmas morning we headed to Jeff's parents' house for dinner. My parents joined us there which made the holiday especially nice to have everyone together! After dinner, we headed to my parents house and opened gifts with Jill & Paul who announced they were getting married!
Yes, I'm still among the living. I know it's been forever since I've updated my blog, but I promise my entire 3 person viewing audience that I will be posting more often! I need to upload a bunch of pictures anyway so that I don't lose them to another computer crash.
Today was a great day! Rachael & Julia's Rose-Hulman bridge building project won the engineering competition. The bridge was just about the ugliest thing you ever saw, but it withstood 40 lbs. of force, which surpassed the old record by a full 28 lbs!
After riding my evening high with their win, I was enjoying my computer time alone after everyone else went to bed. Nick came downstairs and brought me a "romance story" that he had written. For those of you who need translation, it says... "Once upon a time... One day, the flowers bloomed and then it was romance. Then they got married. The End" Anyone who knows my struggles will realize what a HUGE feat this was for him! With Nick's cerebral palsy, teaching him writing has been the bane of my existence. He is an amazing reader, spells really well for a 5 year old, and is doing pretty well in math. Writing, on the other hand, has been the tear-filled subject every day. Yes, there are misspelled words, 'interesting' punctuation, backwards letters, etc. but he wrote this on his own, for my enjoyment. In my eyes, this is the SWEETEST story ever written!!!!
Rachael's love of playing in the creek is directly proportional to Nick & Alex's hatred of the swampy water. They both lasted about 30 seconds until they were finished. Alex dozed in the grass while Nick played in the van. No nature lovers there!
This afternoon, Darla, Diana, & I met at the creek near our church to let the kids play and hunt crawdads. Fortunately, I took the old van because by the time we left, Rachael was drenched!
Yesterday, Diana & I took the kids to the Chinese restaurant for lunch. With us having been on the run for the past few weeks, it seemed like we haven't had much time to talk. After lunch and a few errands, I invited Thomas, Ross, Gracie, Josh, & Julia over to the house. I hid out upstairs while I finished folding the laundry that has been sitting in our room for several weeks. After about an hour, I heard the fire alarm go off. As I ran to the stairs, Rachael yelled that it was just the oven, and that nothing was on fire. (Our oven is notorious for setting off the alarm.) When I came downstairs, she showed me what she had made. It seems the kids wanted to have a tea party, and wanted some dessert to go with their tea. I guess Rachael's hours of watching Food Network have paid off!
The last time we went bowling, Ross had baseball and couldn't join us. Since Diana had a quilting class to attend, I decided to take the kids back to Mr. Gatti's & bowling. Rachael won the 1st game, & miraculously, I won the 2nd!
We had a co-op field trip to the Children's Museum to see the King Tut exhibit this afternoon. It's the same exhibit that we saw a few years ago in Chicago, but it's amazing how much difference a few years makes. The last time, Nick was just a toddler, but it was the event that sparked his passion for all things Egyptian. This time, he asked questions, absorbing everything that he could. The last time Rachael meandered through the rooms, taking only a cursory look at each item. This time, she read every description, watched every animation, and studied all of the background information surrounding the items.
The kids loved that Jeff took off work to come with us. He misses out on a lot of our field trips, because most of them are scheduled during the workday. Another bonus for Rachael was that Claudia was able to join the group. We hadn't seen her for ages!
After the museum, Jeff & I took the kids back to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Always a good meal!
Rachael actually got a bit braver today, riding a few of the rides that she wouldn't have even considered yesterday. Then again, she is noticeably absent from the clown picture - yet another phobia that we'll have to work on!
We met Heather and her girls for a day at the fair. We bought all of the kids $20 wristbands which are good for 3 days of rides. Still expensive, but a much better deal than $1.50 per ride or an $18 one day band! Rachael, ever the chicken, didn't ride many of the rides, but she had fun nonetheless. Nick was a little upset because I didn't let him ride some of the larger rides (the ones that went upside down). I was afraid that, being so small, he might hurt himself. With the price of admission, rides, and food, we spent a small fortune, but it was nice being able to just hang out and have a fun day with friends.
After leaving the hotel, we took advantage of our Children's Museum membership by visiting for a little while. The kids & I have been there numerous times, but Jeff hasn't been there in years. Of course, we'll be heading back later this week for the King Tut tour, so I didn't want to get him too sick of it before next week!
The kids enjoyed swimming in the hotel pool the next day. As irritated as I get with my kids bickering, it's always nice to see how sweet they are to each other when they need to depend on one another. Rachael was incredibly patient with Nick while swimming. He is somewhat afraid of the water, and with his CP, his fear is often displayed as total muscle rigidity - his entire body becomes as stiff as a board - not an easy condition to try to work with in the water! It all worked out, though. She was able to coax him into relaxing, and they had a great time.
We went with a group of homeschool families to the local fireworks display, which happened to be on the 3rd of July (go figure!) On the afternoon of the 4th, we were trying to decide what to do that evening. Jeff asked me to look on Priceline to see if we could get a cheap room in Indy. We ended up staying at the Hyatt Regency in downtown for $45. We've stayed there before, and it's one of Rachael's favorites due to the waterfall elevator. Upon check-in, the gentleman asked us if we had a floor preference, so Jeff chose the highest available - the 19th. Most of these photos were taken from just outside our room looking down on the lobby below.
We ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner, and drove to a perfect spot to see the fireworks that were to be set off atop the Regions Bank building downtown. Unfortunately, due to the rain, the fireworks were cancelled...but not until half an hour AFTER they were supposed to have begun. Grrrrr...
I signed the kids (Thomas & Ross included) up for free bowling throughout the summer. We've only taken advantage of it once so far, but the kids enjoyed themselves. Rachael won, having scored two strikes in a row. Since Nick was there, they put the bumpers up in the lane. Of course, even with the bumpers, I still couldn't score over 100!
The seal on our freezer is somewhat inadequate. I have to be ever vigilant about making sure it's completely sealed. In the rush to get out of the house on Friday, I guess I didn't check it, because we came home to a Winter Wonderland inside our freezer! I'm hoping that since it was almost sealed that the electric bill won't be astronomical!
Of course, there is a silver lining to all of this. As any homeschool mom knows...if all else fails, turn it into a science project! What better way to study crystalline structure! ;-D
Alex usually sleeps with Rachael or Jeff & me. One of the perks of vacation for Nick is that he gets to sleep with Alex. Apparently, he did more cuddling than sleeping because he was out cold for the entire trip home!
On Saturday, we attended the Summers family reunion. It's always a good time, but this year was disgustingly HOT!!!! I did, however, get some genealogical information that I had been seeking, and also got a great lead on someone who has already done extensive research into the Summers family lineage.
The first three pictures above are of my father-in-law and some of his siblings (there are a couple missing). The last picture is my sister-in-law, Tiawannia, with Nick.
On Friday, we headed to the St. Louis airport to pick up my brother-in-law, Brian, and his wife Tiawannia. While crossing the bridge into Missouri, I noticed this building that I hadn't ever noticed before. A very cool addition to the STL skyline!
Last week was VBS at our church. Rachael was too old this year, so she helped with the crafts while I worked on the website. Nick enjoyed seeing all of his AWANA friends again!
On Saturday the 20th, we headed down south and had the 'grandparent party.' The kids had so much fun riding the rides and playing the games! My parents got Nick a Wii Fit, my grandma got him a drill/screwdriver playset, and Jeff's parents gave him some money. I'll post some game pictures in the next posting...
On the 19th, Nick's actual birthday, we bought a little cake and let him open the gifts from Jeff, Rachael, & me. Rachael got him a huge bouncy ball, and Jeff & I got him a plasma car. We had been loking for something for him to ride on, but with his CP, everything that required 'pedal power' was just too difficult. The plasma car is perfect because it requires only upper body strength/coordination.
On Thursday, June 18th, Thomas & Ross took Nick out for his birthday. We went to the movies, Mr. Gatti's, and then to the mall where they bought him a Build-a-Bear. He had been wanting one for awhile, so he was thrilled! While at the mall, we also stopped by the pet store where all the kids were able to play with the animals.
No pictures today, but I wanted to post before I forget...
I received a phone call today from ITT Technical Institute. The man gave his name and asked for "Summers." I responded saying that I was Amy Summers. He then proceeded to tell me that he received an internet request for more information on their online degree program. I told him that I really wasn't interested. He said, "Well, I have your e-mail address as: 'Ross.' Does that mean anything to you?" As soon as he mentioned that I immediately knew the culprit...NICK!!!!! Apparently, he had filled out a form on Yahoo. As soon as I asked him about it, he laughed maniacally and exclaimed, "AHA! My plan worked. They CALLED you!!!!" (What the heck?!?!?!)
In the past few months, he's been ordering different things off our Tivo. He was ecstatic when we received our Oracea information in the mail. He proudly told me that it was for our red itchy skin called rosacea. (Nevermind that no one in our family actually HAS rosacea!) Fortunately, he doesn't have access to our debit card!
Then, this evening, as we were eating dinner, Rachael was telling us about one of her male friends who was upset because his mom sold his favorite barbie doll. Without missing a beat, Nick says, "That is wrong on SO many levels..."
Well, at least I can honestly say that life is NEVER boring in our household!
Name: Amy Home: Indiana, United States About Me: I am a Homeschool Mom of 2 awesome children. This is my attempt at Project 365 - to chronicle our world through daily photos... See my complete profile
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