School Away From Home

The Wynn - our gorgeous school away from home.

For the past week we've lived, schooled, and worked away from home.  Every year handsome hubby has a trade-show in Las Vegas, and since it's close enough for us to all drive and his hotel expenses are covered by work we've always gone along.  My thinking a few years ago was that even though he was super busy with work and we hardly saw him... it was easier to be there doing something different with little ones than to just stay home and be alone for the week.  Now that they are older they enjoy going becuase we can swim, shop, and play during the day and they are much easier to handle regardless of where we are.  Daddy is still busy and going from morning until the wee hours of night, but us girls have fun girl time and enjoyed our week. 

 I brought along a mini white-board which was perfect for our lessons.

I brought our school stuff along and we just pounded through our work which took about an hour each morning and then we were off to enjoy our day.  I did our reading in the afternoon to give us something to do during the heat of the day and break things up a bit.  Poor peanuts came down with a cold the day before we left so we couldn't swim as much as I had wanted, but I'm glad we went because while they still had a cough they were feeling much better after a few days and really enjoyed the trip.  It's always nice to change up the routine a bit but now it's back the grind.  We're home now and I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend before it all starts again!

Summer Lovin!

Our spring and summer has been crazy, busy, and fun.  We kicked off summer with an amazing 2 week family vacation to Maui and have been going non stop since we got home.  It's hitting me though that our school year is going to start in a month.  I'm both excited to be starting, and sad that after 5 years our lives will now somewhat revolve around the school calendar.   We had a successful year of preschool last year and I'm excited to become an official homeschool mama by starting Kindergarten this year with the girls.  I've just gotten the last of our curriculum picked out and ordered and can't wait to get it in and start our year.  I'm thinking we'll begin in August so we have a little flexibility at the end of the year.  That leaves us just under a month to enjoy the rest of our summer and get ready for school.  Can't believe it's gone by so quickly.

My cuties on vacation in Maui!  Oh how I wish we could have stayed there forever!!!

Just Keep Swimming...

I haven't been good at updating, and we've had a busy February. I had friends in town the first 2 weeks in February and didn't end up doing school with the girls. Bad, I know. I'm thinking of it as an early and extra long spring break. ;-)

We did take a trip to SeaWorld on a gorgeous warm day, which we of course used as a learning experience. I love that we can use a trip to SeaWorld as a school day, and get more out of it than had we read about it in a book or watched a videos for a week. The girls are still reciting facts about orcas and the many different fish we saw. I'm so thankful we have passes so we can go back whenever we want throughout the year! Here's a little recap of our favorite moments of the day...

We started the day with the Shamu show. The girls loved the orca's and have enjoyed playing SeaWorld trainer ever since our trip.


One of my favorite shows of the day... the dolphins!


They all waved goodbye at the same time. :-)


This is one of my favorite exhibits in the entire park. A little Sea Lion Love!!! <3

Sea Turtles!!!


The girls loved feeling the starfish and were so brave at the touch pool.


We got so lucky and walked through the beluga whale exhibit right when they were feeding them. I had no idea the beluga whales could do all of shamu's tricks. This is when the trainer had her spit at us.


This was the most hilarious walrus. He was sitting in shallow water right up against the glass and eating a squid (or fish or something equally squishy.) He would spit it against the glass and then suck it back in over and over again.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

We are lucky to live close enough to have season passes to Disneyland. We try to go a couple times a month to make our passes worth it, and these trips usually fall on Sunday's since our passes are blacked out on Saturdays. (Good thing our church has Saturday night service so we don't miss out each time we go!) A few times a year we get a hotel for a night or two to make a mini vacation out of it rather than just going up for the day. It's great becuase it changes the entire feel of Disneyland and allows us to stay late for the night shows. (fireworks, world of color, etc.)

We almost forgot we had a free night at Marriott that expired the end of this month and we wanted to utilize the less busy weekdays since we normally go on busy weekends. We decided last minute to go up Thursday and stayed overnight doing the park again Friday. This meant a second break from our school schedule just a few weeks into the year. We had an amazing time though and I suppose that's the perk of Pre-K... no need to feel like you HAVE to do school everyday! We made some amazing family memories and I'm so glad we are able to take advantage of these moments while they are still little and find the magic in everything!

My cute girls cheezin it up!


Believe it or not in our almost 3 years of going to Disneyland we've never taken a picture in front of the huge flower Mickey at the front gate. He's in a mask because the whole park is already decorated for Halloween.


The girls got to meet Rapunzel and Flynn for the second time. It's the same Rapunzel as before and amazingly she remembered the girls from the first time almost a year ago. The girls were the very last ones to get to meet them before they closed for the day and they had the entire room laughing when Avalyn exclaimed that "Guess what Rapunzel, we have you at home on Netflix!" They made jokes about that for the entire rest of our visit!


This morning we started out in Fantasyland and got to enjoy one of the girls favorite rides... Dumbo! The girls both wanted purple and they both got lucky enough to get the two purples that were in a row.


I almost teared up here... the girls are big enough that they can ride alone together in the same row. We went on this ride as a family for the first time on their first birthday... and they had to sit on our laps. This was the first time they ever rode together alone, on one of their other favorite rides Alice in Wonderland! *sniff sniff*


This was the sweetest Aurora ever! She spent a good 6 minutes with the girls and the entire room was already cleared out before they moved on. They were so happy and I will never get tired of seeing the sheer joy and excitement they get EVERY SINGLE TIME they meet these princesses!


Belle is Av's favorite princess so she's always so excited when she gets to meet her. She spends more time hugging her than anything else. So cute!


Mulan was amazing and also spent a ton of time with the girls. She even spent a few minutes showing them an awesome Chinese dance that they did along with her.


We were heading along our way when we saw Minnie Mouse. We don't always stop for every character, but they were so excited and the line was short so we hopped in and they were beyond excited to meet Minnie. The girls kept hugging and kissing her so she danced around with them and twirled them around.


Random story... We were headed back to the car and waiting for the tram... and we had to wait for three different ones until we finally got one with an open row. (We were waiting for the front row so we didn't have to collapse the stroller but it was already filled on the few trams that came by.) We didn't think we were going to get on the next tram but the first row was only half full so we ended up getting on. Then 2 minutes into the ride with perfectly sunny skies it just started to rain... big drops. It was so out of the blue and we were SO GLAD we were on that tram! As soon as the tram stopped the rain had lifted and we were able to get to our car without a drop of rain on us. Pretty crazy!

Vacation... Kinda

So after a week of school... we totally need a break! Kidding Kidding

Every year the hubby has to go to a tradeshow in Vegas for a week at this time of year. Rather than stay home alone for a week we've always opted to drive out with him and enjoy Vegas for the week. Each year that the girls have gotten older has been easier and easier. This year should be lots of fun since they have learned to swim a bit and we'll be spending lots of time at the pool.

I figure since this is only Preschool and it's the last year we really have the freedom to miss school I would be okay with us missing a week of school. I plan to bring along a few activities, crafts, and some books... and we'd call it good. Can't wait for a fun week out of town. See you all next week!