Florida Vacation 2012

We drove to Florida this year for vacation! We were supposed to fly but Direct Air grounded their planes until May 15th. So drive it was :) After some great advice from friends we were underway. The kiddos had a laptop each, books, iPads and various other things to pass the 24 hour drive. It was a really great drive and I honestly couldn't believe how good the kiddos were!

We enjoyed 2 days at Busch Gardens and another 2 at the Adventure Island Water Park down the road. It was a whirlwind couple days but we enjoyed both locations very much. We drove to Punta Gorda to the in-laws and enjoyed the scorching heat there! The kiddos swam in their pool on the grounds, it ALWAYS felt like a bath tub LOL We visited the Shell Museum as well as a few Nature Preserves in the area. Also on the list was Sanibel Beach and that was a wonderful day! Soooo many shells and we also saw dolphins in the not so far distance!

It was a lovely vacation and one we hope to enjoy next year! Here are just a few pictures!

All set to go go go!

Appalachian Mountans

Performer at Busch Gardens

Weee!  At Adventure Island Busch Gardens

The Little Miss is daring too!

Pretending to be eaten at the Shell Factory

Enjoying the warm sand at Sanibel Beach

They didn't mind the cooler water :)

Soo many turtles and HUGE fish!

Tennis for Dad, The Boy and Grampa

Happy Family!

Maple Syrup Tour!

Today we took part in a Maple Syrup Tour! We were lucky to have gone today as the syrup industry has been hit hard with the temperatures we've experienced here in Ontario and we may not have seen the reducing if we waited any longer! The tour guide told us most companies will be happy to meet 50% of their usual harvest given the weather. So it's a tough year for those in the business!

The children got to take a look at the lines coming from the trees, buckets in most big operations are not used anymore. After the tour they enjoyed a yummy pancake breakfast! Amazing weather again :)

Spring Fling!

A homeschooler in the area has a lovely piece of land that she invited us all over to enjoy. The children loved walking through the forest, using the fallen tree bridge, playing on straw bales and feeding the horses! The weather was outstanding and it was so nice to be outdoors!

Book Making - Habourfront Centre

Our friend Carol organized a really fun trip at the Harbourfront Centre! The children got to take part in creating wild and crazy creatures seen below, using different artistic techniques.

In the afternoon they made accordion books, very easy to make with a lovely result!

No pictures of Little Miss as she was sick that day and wasn't able to take part :(

Journey North

Here are a couple pictures of 2 weeks ago and last week :) We now have our mystery classes divided into their quadrants :)

2 weeks ago

Last week!

Iditarod 2012

This Saturday the 2012 Iditarod Dog Sled Race Started off in Anchorage, Alaska. We will be doing a few fun activities this week to celebrate the once a year race.

This year the mushers are following the North Trail. They alternate between the North and South yearly. More info can be found here at the new website: http://iditarod.com/

Our friends over at You're Not Lost, You're Here have a great listing of things to do during the race: http://jkcck.blogspot.com/2012/03/eiditarod-2012-is-almost-here.html

We are going to track our mushers using charts and our brand new map given to us by our friends!

Our Mushers:
Rohn Buser - Mr. Monkey's pick
Karin Henderickson - Little Miss' Pick
Hank Debruin - from Ontario Yay! - Mine

We are also going to make these for an artsy type thing, using the word Alaska: http://www.thatartistwoman.org/2012/02/how-to-make-acrostic-book.html

Our new map, much better than the white garbage bag I had last year LOL

Where were they for the bird count?!?!

Sheesh!!