Around the World in 7 Hours

Whoo hoo! I won 8 tickets to Legoland from the hospital's competition. I picked up the tickets last week with plans to take the kids as soon as possible. One small issue...Joshua's broken arm is still in a cast, and I think Joshua would rather have full use of both arms to enjoy all of the hands-on aspects of the park. So after discussing it as a family (while Daniel and Pepper romance sleep together on the couch), we decided it was time to use our Christmas present from the Ketchums by going on a trip around the world.

We got to Epcot shortly after it opened, and made our way through the turnstiles as the kids oooh'd and aaah'd in anticipation.
The weather was perfect and the park was decorated for Christmas.

The first thing we rode was the ride in the big ball. I had the boys sitting with me and Keith had Megan. Daniel was very apprehensive of the dark areas, but we made it through once he realized the black light made his shoe laces glow. Nearing the end of the ride, there is a choose-your-own-adventure on the screen as we descended back to Earth. The boys chose all of the adventures, and the computer created a story in which Daniel breaks his arm snowboarding. It was very cute.
We enjoyed the Land and the Sea and all of the sights to see with both of those. The kids LOVED the manatees.

I asked them to make a scared face, like the shark was going to eat them. Megan's face is priceless!

Megan and Daddy are "ride buddies", and so they always seemed to sit in front of me and the boys.
A nine-pound lemon. Try squeezing that into your water glass!

We saw the Captain EO show starring Micheal Jackson from back in the 80's. Daniel freaked-out during the show, so I reached over and pulled his 3-D glasses off his head and scooped him into my lap, where he quietly sobbed into my shoulder for the rest of the performance. He doesn't like anything that's too graphically intense. He's also not a big fan of really loud sounds, and so when in Imagination, it sounds like a huge train is coming up from behind, he started crying again. I realize it sounds like he had a terrible time, but really he loved it, just a few small reminders of how much of a tender-hearted little boy he still is.

I was amazed at how much technology EPCOT uses now, compared to when I first went - which incidentally, I was in the 3rd grade just like Joshua. In the picture above, Joshua is using his body to make the figments on the screen do different things.

We also loved the fountains that jump across the walk-way. The kids played with these for a while...insert a shriek from me, "don't get your cast wet!".

What's different about this waterfall? The water flows up!! So cool.

Moving on to World Showcase...

We enjoyed each and every world. Some had rides, some had shows to watch outside. We enjoyed the movie Canada in the 360 degree theater. There was just so much to take in!

We came across Sleeping Beauty and Megan got in line for a picture.

Me: "Hey guys look this way"

And people wonder why we can't seem to send out photo cards for Christmas.

Every girls' dream....two beasts. They look so ferocious!

Hanging out in Morocco. Keith said, "get a picture of me near this sign". But I couldn't resist getting the kids in there, too. They just make themselves at home wherever we go!

Megan's getting hot, so a cool snack was in order...fast! But first, a historical show at the Hall of Presidents. I've always loved this show, and am so glad to see it maintain most of it's originality. About 2 minutes into the show, Daniel was not only sleeping, but snoring. The family sitting beside me were chuckling.

We got a little distracted by the train, and all the small buildings. So cool! The little houses were all decorated for Christmas.

We sat down to watch the Chinese acrobats. Not only did we sit where we got attacked by the flag, but I managed to get the kids the messiest ice cream ever. Ugh...it was such a bad combination, but at least the show was awesome.

On to Norway to look for trolls on the boat ride.

The huge troll in the gift shop was so adorable. I wanted to take him home and find a place for him in our backyard.

The kids had other plans.

After checking out a few other cool things, we hit the gift shop. We got our obligatory magnet for the refrigerator, and I picked up two new pins.

It was a really fun day! Thanks, Ketchums - this was such a thoughtful gift, the only thing missing was having you guys here to enjoy it with us!

Happy Veteran's Day!

The kids' school had a big Veteran's Day celebration on Friday.

It was cold (for Florida) at about 65 degrees, and the program was outside in the front of the school.

The Altamonte Springs Police Department Color Guard came to present the colors. A stilt-walker dressed as Uncle Sam came from EPCOT Center.

There were members from all branches dressed in uniform enjoying the production that the kids put on.

Megan (in glasses and pig-tails) held her part of the big flag the second and third graders created during their number.

A few community veterans spoke telling each of their stories. It was really great, and all the kids listened very intently.

Daniel with the Uncle Sam had pulled down over his eyes, listening to one of the speakers.

The AMERICA dancers.

Joshua listening with his class.

The area was packed and had such a sense of community.

Francis the bald eagle came out to visit with the students. Here he is bravely saying hello to the Kindergarten classes.

It was a really great program. The marching band, chorus and cheerleaders from Lake Brantley High School came to perform. As well as a fly-over from some military planes.

Joshua Breaks His Arm

I worked Saturday and Sunday of last weekend, and my assignment was incredibly challenging. While it is an amazing blessing to be able to help care for the tiniest patients in the hospital, it also extremely difficult some days. Sunday was one of those days. At around 6pm, I saw a text pop up on my phone from Keith telling me to call him right now. As I was putting the finishing touches on my charting for the day, I called Keith to hear that he's planning on loading up the kids and coming up to the hospital to have Joshua seen in the ER. It took a few minutes to sort things out, but I got some wise advice from some of the more experienced moms/nurses and called Keith back with a plan to go to Night Lite Pediatrics, a walk-in after hours clinic. By the time we had a plan, it was going to be about 20 minutes or so until I got home, so in the end, I ended up being the one to take Joshua up to the clinic.

So why this urgent care visit?

Joshua decided he was going to try to ride Grandma's beach bike, and when he started to topple over, the bike was too tall for him and he couldn't put his feet down, so right down he went. I came home and checked him out and was pleased with the ace wrap that Grandma had put on him. When I took the wrap off, he had some localized swelling accompanied by quite a bit of pain holding his arm up off the pillow. So off we went to the clinic.
While we waited in the exam room, we made up all sorts of silly ways that he could have hurt his arm, including being attacked by the scary looking zebra on the wall. Notice that right arm - he was fine with bending the wrist, but the arm itself was bothering him.

After a series of 3 xrays, and some tears with the karate chop view, the physician came in to reveal that he indeed has a fractured right radius. The medical assistant was fantastic and was teasing Joshua that he was going to have to give him a pink splint.

The next morning, we went to the pediatric orthopedist to have the arm properly casted.
I can't say enough great things about the doctor that saw Joshua on Monday morning. The entire office was so nice and we were in and out without feeling rushed.

The doctor showed Joshua his xrays and Joshua thought he had shattered his hand. :) Then after looking a little closer, he saw the fracture line. He picked out a blue cast, and will have to wear it for the next 28 days.

Joshua's cool short-arm cast. He can still write and use that had.

The ortho doc's office is in the medical plaza of the hospital, and so since we were in the area, we stopped by to see Grandma's office in the hospital and she gave Joshua a smiley face on his cast.

We also stopped by to see the lego creations in the gift shop. This creation is mine. The hospital is having a contest to win tickets to Legoland. I couldn't get any of my peers to enter the contest with me, so I entered all by myself. I was given a tote of legos and had to only use what was in that tote to create something based on the mission, vision or values of our hospital. The square thing is a crib with a mobile and a baby - since I work in the NICU. I had no idea the hospital was full of such creative people, there were lots of great submissions for the contest. I don't know when the final numbers will be tallied to see who has won the Legoland tickets.

Einstein Pumpkin Book Report

During the week of Halloween, Joshua's class had to turn in their fall book report. He had to read a biography, write a report and decorate a pumpkin to reflect the subject. Joshua chose to do his report on Albert Einstein.
Joshua wrote some equations and some hard math problems on the back of the pumpkin before putting on the messy hair.

He did a great job decorating his pumpkin. He earned a grade of an A on both the report and the pumpkin.
I couldn't resist adding this picture of Megan. Evidently, the cat and dog think my bed is their bed.