groundspeed

Ft Myers Imaginarium

This time last week we were on the west coast with my dad at the Fort Myers Imaginarium.

A big hit of the day was the area where you chose a sport, and then threw the appropriate ball or whacked the appropriate puck or whatever at a screen and then it told you if you had a good pitch or got the shot (or whatever).

They could have stayed in this spot forever.

The second big hit was the sting rays. During the feeding time they splash all over the place expecting to get food from all the little hands, even the ones just trying to pet them.

There was were also horseshoe crabs.

But we were there about four hours so we covered a lot of ground...

They had a blast. They got wore out. Mission accomplished.

Crazy Campers

Friday night we headed down to Jonathan Dickinson State Park for a one night camping trip.

Kevin and I had some big camping adventures pre-kids. 

We went tent camping once when it was just Kaden.

Kevin took Kaden and Blue a few times last year.

This was the first time we went with all five of us. 

It was... a good decent first try. We were all set to book a site in the Keys/Bahia Honda  for a longer family camping trip later this year, but now we're thinking we're gonna wait on that.

Set up in the evening was fine. Picnic dinner. Tossing around the baseball. Roasting marshmallows. The boys inviting a stranger for some marshmallows (they did, we shared, it was fine). Kaden read the littler boys a few stories.

Blue eating attacking a marshmallow.

Reading in the tent time.

I'm so talented.  I can hold a flashlight and take pictures.

Aside from some sand fleas and the fact that Kevin beat me at Scrabble, it was a nice evening.

And then came bedtime.

Toby just didn't sleep. First he wouldn't go to sleep. Luckily our tent is so big it actually has two rooms, so finally we zipped him into his own room and let him cry and fuss until he passed out. That was around 9:30pm. He slept soundly till about 2am and then that was it. He woke up and thought it was time to get up.  Blue slept through everything. The rest of us? Notsomuch.

Finally around 6am he crashed again for about an hour.

And then, big surprise, we had a cranky fussy Toby the next day.

We went on a short walk to a river overlook.

Some of the time Toby was into it and walking.

Most of the time he decided to stop. Because, you know, pine needles and sand are so fascinating.

So we took turns carrying him. This worked when Mom did the carrying, but if Daddy tried it was all squiggles and shouting for Mommy.

So that didn't work, but we still made it.



But then, for some reason (oh right, no sleep) Toby threw a big fit when it was time to walk back. Sadly for me, big fits these days involve scratching and hair pulling.  Finally, beyond frustrated, I threw him in Daddy's arms and ran ahead on the path. Without me to act up for, he chilled and came along. 

In addition to Toby's tired-two-year-old temper, there was another big hazard to this walk. Apparently there was a giant on the path ahead of us. He left some crazy tracks.

I did find it a little suspicious that the word "giant" was written in the middle of this print and that Kaden was walking ahead of us with a stick in his hand, but... you never know. If you go for a walk at Jonathan Dickinson and you come across a giant on the path, don't say I didn't warn you.

We survived.

We had a little playground time where Kaden and Blue played happily and Toby stomped around uber cranky at one point even breaking Daddy's sunglasses when Kevin went to fetch him because he'd stomped too far away. Oy.

Then Toby and I sent Kevin, Kaden and Blue off into the Loxahatchee river (we borrowed a canoe from one of Kevin's coworkers) and Toby and I continued on to a birthday party in West Palm.

Wait. What?

In that state I took Toby to a birthday party? Am I CRAZY?

Yes. There's that. 

It still seemed a better option then sticking the kid in a canoe.

Also, I figured he'd get a needed nap during the 40 minute drive and if worse came to worse I'd just let him sleep. 

He did nap, but I didn't let him keep sleeping. He wasn't happy about being woken up and right away getting a diaper change, but he was soothed by Teddy Grahams and a fruit bar and I got him composed before we entered the bounce house! kids! snow cones! and petting zoo! birthday hoopla.

Actually the petty zoo was what I'd known would be our saving grace. Toby loves "anmals."

There were baby chicks, bunnies, a piglet, a rooster, two ducks, a mini cow, a goat and two baby goats. I didn't take many pictures because I was too busy making sure Toby was being gentle.

Yup, a traveling petting zoo for a barnyard themed birthday party. LOVE it.

After leaving the party we returned to the park to fetch the rest of the fam. Poor Kevin... About twenty minutes before we got back it had started POURING. Kaden and Blue didn't mind because they love to play in the rain. Kevin was a bit grumpy, and of course it didn't let up for the packing up, canoe mounting, but by the time we were out of the car and gassing up? Clear skies.

Is there any better way to end a camping trip? 

Cousins and Captions

One Spring Break evening in Tampa at Gran and Papa Stratton's house, Kevin Stratton's three (minus Kevin) and Matt Stratton's three come together for a birthday dinner party...

Stella, I know you're only a baby, but yes, exactly, you're only a baby and I'm bigger so I'm taking this toy!

These two are in no way biologically related and yet their facial expressions here are the EXACT same. I also love how Chloe only has one shoe.

Our attempt at a March-birthdays picture.

Our attempt at an all-the-cousins-in-the-house picture.

Oh the fun of trying to take a picture with the twins. 

Reading Chloe her new book. Why Blue, you're awfully interested in these princesses.

Colton, is that your reading chair? Oxford shirt? Surrounded by books? Positively scholarly.

 

Um, yeah. This is a ridiculously fantastic bunch.

Spring Break Ate My Camera

Spring Break came crazy early this year and totally snuck up on me.

About two weeks ago when I was looking at the school calendar I realized just how close it was so I emailed my mother-in-law and offered her my kids. :-)

It ended up that Kevin's parents came to Kaden's bowling party last Friday night (the 3rd) and then on Saturday brought Blue and Kaden back to Tampa with them. Monday afternoon Toby and I joined them and we had a Tampa birthday dinner for Kaden and my niece/nephew (twins) who turned two this Friday (the 9th).

We took a bunch of pictures of the cousins at said dinner but... see post title.

On Tuesday morning it was off to Lehigh Acres for the day/one night at my dad's. We spent about 4 hours at the Ft Pierce Imaginarium. I took a ton of pictures, but...

On Wednesday, Kaden's birthday, my dad made pancakes and then made some cookies to send along with the boys. He stuck a candle in one and we sang to Kaden. I took a picture, but...

Wednesday mid morning we came on home. We played at the Tradition playground and that night went out to Chili's (Kaden's pick) for his birthday dinner. Thursday I took the boys to the mall so Kaden could pick out new flip flops, a promised bday gift. We were thrilled to discover they'd built a new play place in the food court (where we ate lunch while we were there) and the boys loved running around with all the other kids (Spring break = PACKED).

No pictures of any of these things.

I forgot my camera at my dad's. It's supposedly insured and en route. Aside from the fact that I really want my Tampa/Ft Pierce Imaginarium pictures I kinda want it to get lost and collect the insurance money.  Stupid camera has been acting up.  Always saying BUSY instead of taking a picture. It used to do this for the flash sometimes, as though the flash needed to recharge or something, but now it does it for the flash ALL the time, and even sometimes without flash.  There is no point of having an SLR if it won't take the picture RIGHT when you want the picture taken.

So right now I don't have my camera but when I get it back I have to figure out what's wrong with it.

Boo.

But hey! I have an iphone now (The 3G, so no flash... It was cheap! As in $1 cheap!) So you do get this one silly picture of Toby (all askew because I took it while driving from Tampa to LeHigh):

Also, the other day when I was making my bed, I couldn't help but notice a new, Toby shaped pillow, had joined the decor:

Yes, I know we need a headboard, but that's so not a priority project I haven't even started a pinterest board for it. 

Then Friday/Saturday we spent a night at Jonathan Dickinson State Part and for that I grabbed our 17mm point and shoot and I'll get those pics up on the computer soonish.

So. Eventually. There will be Spring Break pictures.

I hope.

Pajamas and Boots

Our kids have a thing for wearing boots with pajamas.

First it was Kaden... he got boots as a Christmas present and put 'em right on with his pajamas.

That was December of 2006.

Then Blue had a pajama day at school and wanted to wear the boots long since handed down by Kaden. (We have other pairs of boots but these were pretty popular.)

December 2011

And then Toby. Toby hasn't seemed coordinated enough for a pair of clunky boots, and recently when pulling stuff to be consigned I grabbed the smallest pair of boots and added them to the pile.

They'd been in his closet forever entirely ignored but once in the consignment pile they became an object of interest.

On a night when he was already in his pajamas of course...

Don't talk to me, Mom. These boots were made for walking.

And climbing...

and walking some more.

Is that the two-step?

All done...

Haircut Flashback

Shoveling fruit strips Toby's way in order to get him through his first "pro" haircut reminded me of another little boy...

This was in February of 2006, a few weeks before Kaden turned 2.

And it wasn't fruit strips we shoveled but goldfish.

Look at those chubby cheeks!

Is this really the same kid?!
 

8 Year Old Birthday Bowling Party

Kaden turns eight on Wednesday and he had his party last night. Gone are the days of silly safaris (3) and Blues Clues clue following (4) or even Super Hero Training Camp (5). It's all big boy stuff now and this year it came down to bowling vs baseball. He picked bowling.

The invites:

I found a fun bowling pin font online for the top, printed it on white cardstock and then cut into the shape of a bowling pin. I made it to the fit the long white envelopes that come with photo cards. For some reason we always have tons of those in our office.

The back explained our usual "in lieu of presents" charity this year.

The place:
Our bowling alley is a Superplay and they have a pretty inclusive party package: 2 hours unlimited bowling, food and drinks, all set up and broken down for you, extra paper goods for cake, tokens for every kid for the arcade, and a party hostess who did the set up and clean up, fetched all our food including our cake which we ordered from the ice cream shop at the other end of the building, got the kids their shoes, etc. etc.

Also, I ordered an extra lane and an extra pizza for the adults that wanted to stay. I'm all about everyone having a place to hang.

We went with cheese pizza for the food and lemonade and water for drinks because we roll vegetarian these days and don't believe in giving kids soda. I asked Kaden if he wanted anything other than pizza and cake and he said Twizzlers. Totally random, but ok, easily done. Also, this mama can't handle there not being a single healthy food option in sight so I had bowls of strawberries (gobbled up fast) on each table plus carrots and celery (pretty much ignored).

The set up:

I used baby food jars for the twizzlers and veggies and decorated by mod podging on scrap book paper, had the 8s cut on my friend's cricut (I want one!). I also had a bag at every seat labeled with each kid's name. This was because...

Making Things Silly:
Every time a kid rolled an 8 in a frame (as in 7 the first throw and 1 the next, or 8 and then leaving the frame open... etc.) they got to pull a prize from my big prize bag. I had gum, stuff from the $1 bins at Target, Hot Wheels, stickers, etc. Winner of the game also got a prize.  At the end we made sure everyone had at least gotten one grab (they had) and then they had bags to keep their prize and tokens/tickets etc when they went to the arcade after bowling.

The kids loved this. I got 4 and 4! I bowled 8 and didn't get a spare! Not much of a math excercise for the big kids but it was for Blue and another little brother his age.

Another silly thing we tried was that during the 8th frame the birthday boy got to pick a "silly bowling walk" for his friends. Our particular birthday boy isn't the most creative so he went with Mom's example for everyone - walk up to the line, spin around, hop and then bowl. 

Checking out scores.

Some quick tips from Dad.

Ah man! Got nuthin'

The whole crew minus Toby and one other friend.*

Cake time! 

Blow!

Oh Blue...

Once our two hours were up, we told the kids to leave their shoes on their seats, grab their bags and line up for tokens. Then it was off to the arcade.

Tickets! From Skee Ball!

Yes, the sight of Blue casually sucking on a lollipop while holding a gigantic gun kinda freaks me out too.

The invitations said that we had the lanes till 8pm but would then go to the arcade and asked parents to find us there by 8:30.

All kids were eventually claimed.  

As he waited in line for tokens Kaden looked over at me and said, "This is the greatest night ever."

Yup, we'll call that a good party.

Also! We raised $69.55 for World Vision.

For this year's charity I presented World Vision as an option or collecting new books for his school library. Kaden went with World Vision. In February our kids ministry at church started taking up offering for the first time since we've been there. They will raise throughout the year and then put all the funds collected toward farm animals from World Vision. Kaden is excited to add his birthday donations to the fund.

* The asterisk under the group shot is because of Fragile X (Toby) and Aspergers (Guest).

Toby didn't make it into the group photo because Toby wasn't having it and went home early with Oma. Well, Toby was all about the bowling party so long as he was on Mommy's hip.  Um. The kid will be three in May. I can't be carrying him for two hours.  He bowled with me three times which is to say that I held his hand and the ball. We walked up to the line and I tried to get him to help me to "push the ball away" and then we stood there and watched the ball and he said, "Bye bye, ball. Bye-byyyyeeeee!"

This is great except this was Kaden's party and in spite of our hostess, I still viewed myself as the hostess and wanted to do the prize bag, take pictures, refill drinks etc. Not possible with the Toby attachment. In fact, the one time in the beginning when I did take a few pics of Kaden and Blue bowling their first frame, Toby followed me, walked onto the lane and promptly had his feet slip up in the air landing with a good thud. He was not happy.

There were three grandparents and a daddy also available for Toby-watching but in that new environment only Mom would do. So, he went home. We tried. Didn't work, but we did take one family picture.

Only because Mom was holding him. When we tried a brothers picture where Dad was the photographer while Mom was busy setting some stuff up, he was not having it.

See? Our brothers picture is missing a brother.

Unless you count this one:

Which... I do not.

As for the one guest not in our group shot... He's a friend from church who has Aspergers. It was important to me that we include him. He bounced around and pretty much did his own thing but seemed to be having a great time. He wouldn't do the group picture and I knew better then to push him. I asked him. He said no. We took it without him, but then not ten minutes later he came up and told me he was ready for the picture. I wasn't going to do that to the rest of the kids, so I asked him if it would be ok if he just took it with Kaden, the birthday boy. He agreed. We got the two together and T promptly closed his eyes tight. Again, I know better than to comment so I just said smile and clicked the pic.

Too cute. I then asked if a hug were possible. (Thinking side hug for a more together picture.) And T said, "Not possible," and walked away. So that was that! T's mom and I had a laugh.

And now for turning 8 Kaden gets to be on Spring Break! The first few days of which he will be in Tampa with Gran and Papa and then it will be over to Poppy's in Lehigh Acres for a night. No doubt he will be celebrated each leg of the trip. 

I think he's up for it.

It only took 33 months...

But I finally took Toby to get a "real" haircut.

There's a kids haircut place only about 5 minutes away in the small plaza at PSL Blvd and Parr, and part of me has thought I should take Toby there because maybe, just maybe he'd be happily distracted or maybe it would work because they are used to screamy, fidgety kids and can work under those conditions. Another part of me thought it would just be ridiculously overwhelming.  A haircut PLUS sitting in some crazy car PLUS toys PLUS books PLUS videos etc. AUUUUGGGGHHHHHH.

The optimistic part of me that thinks, let's just try it and see what happens, won out today.

It went well... enough.

I didn't think to take a before picture, so here's the most recent picture I have pre-haircut (taken on Tuesday).

That is one shaggy boy. And yes he is making a huge mess out of a tomato. And yes he is eating it like an apple. In fact, when I came upon him (after deciding to check on why suddenly Toby had gotten so quiet after I knew he had  walked into the kitchen) and asked him what he was eating he said it was an apple. Silly kid.

I didn't get very many pictures during the cut because most of the time I was keeping the fruit strips (I tend to have a bunch of these in my car and purse at all times.) coming. That or I was hugging Toby and trying to keep him in his car/chair.  This freaked the hairdresser out as she was convinced she was going to end up cutting me. I survived.

Every station had a mini DVD player so that's where he's looking.

Almost there. Poor guy was getting so itchy. No drape because once we got him in and buckled the goal was just to go fast. Next time we'll go a little slower at the beginning because the cut itself didn't seem to annoy him and the clippers which were a brand new experience didn't phase him even though I expected them to totally freak him out. So next time the priority will be to cut down the itch factor. 

The whole time he kept calling out, "Yay, I did it!" and then standing up as if he was all done. So I, while pressing him back down, kept saying, "You almost did it. Little bit more..."

Post-cut:

He was instantly happy once I brushed him down and released him back to the toys.

And before we left he got a balloon. Here he is telling me that it's yellow. It was a dog but he untwisted part of it right away.





All the boys got shorn so here they are before we left. 

I now have a very clean-cut crew!