Where have we gone???

Holy cow, where have we been?  Sometimes we ask ourselves that over and over.  Might be more like, where haven't we been.  :)  It certainly has been a busy couple of months but that doesn't always mean it is bad. 

The snowbird season has kicked in big time in our area.  Seeing the normal increase of out of state license plates around town.  That of course has caused the trips to and from work to be longer than normal.  Unfortunately that means Jenny fights a lot of traffic to come home.  Anyways, some of the things we have been doing:

Cody got the opportunity to participate in the Solo Ensemble for the Lee County District.  He practiced doing a solo trumpet performance (well, he had a volunteer playing piano as an accompaniment).  He was judged on his performance and skill based on his age/skill set.  He was only 1 of 5 band members that chose to participate (out of the 60+ in band total) but we felt it would be good for him.  Despite being nervous, he did great and earned a Superior rating.  The judge was very happy and impressed by his skill set.

The following weekend, both kids got to participate in the Fort Myers Edison Parade for Grace Church.  Cody got to help carry the banner for the church.  Amberlyn was asked to just wave and smile and provide energy.  Thankfully she is full of that.  :)

Both kids have been helping around the house and around.  Last weekend Cody had a science project to work on so he helped do some chores around the house (inclusive of doing some building) before tackling his science project. 

He needed to do a scale model of a plant cell.  Instead of doing a normal model, of course, his head went to the Lego option.  He took the model photo from doing research and plowed ahead.  One more step of labeling the parts and he'll be good to go.

Meanwhile, Amberlyn helped by going up to see Grandpa Chester and celebrating his 87th birthday.  We did some flea market shopping and Amberlyn has a good eye to help him find those small items he is always looking to add to his "war chest" of trinkets.

So all in all, we're staying busy.  Hopefully things give us a break at some point!

Building up to the holidays and beyond

You see what I did there at the end of the post.

Lots have been going on in the Wedge household.  We have been flying here and there and everywhere leading up to the holiday season.  Feels like that all the time occasionally.  That is the price though with a family. 

Anyways, one of the things we wanted to do for both the kids is give them a little bit of an early Christmas present by surprising them by going to Legoland outside of Orlando.  The new park just opened up around October and both kids have been very aware this is there.  Cody particularly has been aware of this since February or so.  It is Legos, what do you expect. 

So, we had decided this would be a perfect Christmas gift for them to take them to Legoland for the day and let them soak up the madness.  We got some of the one day passes and decided to surprise them the day before we went.  I hope they were amazed.  We certainly know they were thrilled.  Thankfully no tests or quizes that last day of school to distract them because we know there would be zero focus.  :)

One of the bonus things about going right before the holiday is that crowds were very...very...light.  It might have looked a bit busy but really, it wasn't bad at all.  We had nice weather (mid-70's) throughout the day.  Sunny with a nice breeze and lots of shady places to hide out.  With so much to take in, we knew we wouldn't be able to take it all in so we decided to do what we could (knowing full well we'd be coming back in the future).

We were able to hit all the roller coasters up.  While Cody wasn't exactly thrilled with those rides, he did manage to at least take one round on every coaster.  That old anxiety got the best of him.  Amberly however was a roller coaster nut.  With there being almost zero time wait for rides (yes, we got off and were able to immediately get back on some rides), she was pushing for a coaster at every turn.

They had everything from boat rides, to laser target rides, to hanging coasters (think Iron Dragon at Cedar Point), to a double carousel and of course, tons of Legos.  The Lego City area was dedicated to scale replicas of cities all over the United States.  From NY City, to San Fransciso to Florida and Vegas.  Lots of Florida places (obviously) and a neat space display.  They used over 300 million Legos to build it.  We walked through the basics of it but no way could we absorb everything.  More for next time.  The Cypress Gardens area was still availble for some cool nature walks and neat with all the Christmas themes going around.  It was a big win.

Then it was recovering enough to get the Christmas plans put in place.  Cody had a Christmas costume party at church where we convinced him to dress up like Charlie Brown (from the special).  He took 1st place with the costume.

Since they were getting the Legoland for their "big" present, we still had some misc. things to get around for them for some Christmas morning fun.  Lots of presents and gifts from up north (not the pole but close enough in OH) and they tore into them as quick as they could. 

So, a week off of school for them to recover and play to their hearts content (hopefully around some chores) and then back to the school grind.  Be tough for them to focus again but we can only hope!

Now...did you get the building joke?  You see what I did there was.....

Halloween Madness

Short and sweet but the kids enjoyed Halloween.  Amberlyn wanted to walk around and get the grub while Cody was intent on handing candy out in his massive Jedi way.

The odd dynamic duo.

Again, he even has the pose down correctly

Ready to fight crime....or those who don't give her candy.

At the church pumpkin patch.  Amberlyn got her bible this Sunday.

So, the pair was a handful.  More laters!!!

Son of the Beach

Seriously?  You knew I couldn't pass up that blog title.

Anyways, after an extremely busy week for everyone with work and after work/evening activities, we raced to the weekend.  After Jenny had a morning volunteer project at the church and another round of lawn mowing for me, we decided we were going to head to the beach for an afternoon/evening round of beach fun.

The benefit of the off season on the beach is that it is a gorgeous time to find an almost empty shore line and plenty of beach to play on.  The waves were moving pretty good but that also made for some good fun.  The kids broke out their life jackets and boogie boards and squirt guns for some fun.

The water was great, salty but warm.  The last forecast we saw said the water temperature was around 86 degrees and that was probably pretty accurate.  We were able to find some large...large shells in the water.  Unfortunately, stepping on them was not how I wanted to find them.  But, hoping we can clean them up and make some nice decorations out of them.

And to say the setting sun was a beautiful site to see would be a massive understatement.  Having the moon on one side and the sun setting on the other was awesome.

So all in all, after a way too busy week, it was great to have a peaceful and beautiful day to just relax.  Hopefully everyone gets to enjoy a little bit of the sunshine was saw!

Downtown Disney, fish, school and storms

Yikes, where has the time gone?  Seems like just yesterday, we were in the final weeks of school and cramming for the state tests.  Well, that time has come and gone.

Before school started, we decided to try to have one weekend of fun before the hectic school schedule started.  So we decided to head over to Downtown Disney again and see what kind of fun we can get into.  It was a hot but fun day for sure.  Busier than normal but enough of a gap to move around and see the stuff.  Of course, the Lego store and anything jewelry were the hits for each kid.  We were able to have a quick lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, so the kids could enjoy all the rain forest effects and all the fish tanks and animatronics.

But we didn't fill up too much on any food because we made sure to save room for supper.  We wanted to search our a Buca Di Beppo's resturant.  While it isn't a Biaggi's (oh, how we miss that), it was a blast going to Buca's.  Fun times and LOTS of food!!

The next day, on the way back home, we decided to take the kids to a fun, and hopefully educational, trip to the great Tampa Bay Aquarium.  We were able to snap some pictures from everything from the stingray tank, the swamp area with great birds, ducks, turtles and more.  After heading down into the deep past the deep sea fish, lobsters, sea horses and of course, sharks, that's when the camera died.  Poo.

Either way, it was a fun weekend that hopefully, they will remember down the road.  Sure we'll be hitting the T.B. Aquarium more and more, such a fun place.

The pair started school two weeks ago.  Cody moving into the 7 grade and Amberlyn into the 3th.  We went through the open house to meet all the applicable teachers and classrooms.  Hopefully this year goes as "smoothly" as last year, even without all the move.

This past weekend we had a great chance to work at the Grace Church Community Center and help with their food donation and community service day.  Each 3rd Saturday, the church will host an open center for those folks in need during these tough times.  Thankfully the whole family is able to find a part to help out when we can.  It is very rewarding and very eye opening at the same time. 

As we prep for the upcoming storm (Hurricane Irene), we're watching the TV and hoping it pushes to the East out to the sea.  We can handle the storms and the rain, it is the heavy stuff that we're not really thrilled with.  Of course, who would be? 

**Sorry to all for the delay in updating.  Hopefully a post-storm update will come soon!**

Oh, and GO BROWNS!!!

Has it been that long???

Holy cow, it has been awhile.

Well, yes, most of the delay is on our part.  Realistically, it is all our part, not most.  After a hectic week prior to our vacation back to the great state of OH, the long drive commenced.  Thankfully, the kids were good for us in the car.  Making the long, loooooooooooonnnnnnnnngggggggggg drive up we ran ourselves around and around.  After the looooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggg trip back, in which the kids were again great, we got back to the house.  Still standing, still maintaining and we all never realized how sleeping in your own bed will do wonders.  :)

The first week home, the kids got through a week of vacation bible school, Amberlyn attending and Cody volunteering during the week.  Both kids got the chance to shake the summer vacation up a bit by playing some fun games, learning some things, helping with other kids and making new friends.  Unfortunately, Cody managed to pick up a nasty sinus cold out of it.  Thankfully with a down week for both of them, they both have a week to recover from all the travel and excitement.

Mom and dad still feel like we are running at top speed after all the vacation prep, the vacation itself and then the dreaded week(s) of recovery just trying to make up from the time off from work.  We'll get there.  Thankfully these last few weekends have been catchup cleaning, haggling with the A/C unit (geckos plugging up the condensation line causes it to fail....note to self....not fun in the FL summer) and just fighting the rainy season for the yardwork.  But we'll still take it.

No new pictures to post this time.  Hopefully we'll get some up after we download the camera.

OK all, sorry for the delays in posting.  Promise we'll do better this month!

Not so crabby!!!

Yeah, yeah, it has been awhile.  Add a crippled computer, some hectic weeks and some nasty colds, that'll add up to some lengthy delays in getting some posts.  The last few weeks have certainly been busy.  Both of the kids have been gearing up for the end of the school year.  Sometimes that means lots and lots of projects to complete.  Coupled around field trips and such, it has been eventful.

Cody got the great chance to go to DisneyWorld for his band class.  He got the chance to perform at a band workshop at Disney Music Studios.  He spent a couple of hours at the studio where they got to play some of their songs for the instructors but then they learned to play some of the Beauty and the Beast musical score.  Then he got to spend the day in the park for the afternoon.  Evidently Thundermountain was a hit.  That was a long day however, at the school at 4:30am and back at 11:00pm  Yikes.  Added to that was a field trip the next day for school.  By the weekend, he was a worn out boy.  He worked on two big projects that took over two full weekends but turned out good grades for each of them  And he questions why his mom and dad have to hound him on his work all the time.  His choice of course would be to half @$$ the work.  :)

Amberlyn has been finishing up on her school activities, taking some of the Standford 10 standardization tests.  As we figured, she's not having any issues with school.  Yippee, one less battle!!  She's one of the few kids that actually enjoys school.  Her reading skills were where we were happiest.  She's reading about a 4th grade level right now.  She's finishing up work and programs at school for the end of the year.

Other than that, we've been very busy at work and trying to get things aligned for summer vacation and a trip back up to Ohio to visit everyone in a couple of weeks....wow, is it that soon?  The kids are looking forward to the trip!  Be a long drive but hopefully uneventful.

Onward and upward.