Me and the kids swimming at the hotel pool. Nana and Bill (my mom and step-dad) decided to come over to the Orlando area from Daytona Beach. They are most comfortable staying in one of the hotel's down the street, so we decided to crash their place and check out the pool. The kids were amazed at that concept - swimming inside!
At first, Daniel was very hesitant to get in the pool. After a little while, he was all over the place. 
We were only able to hang out in the gardens for about 30 minutes because the skies had opened and the rain drops were starting to fall fast!
Megan always asks about the butterfly garden. On this particular day, there were tons of butterflies in the air.
Learning about the caterpillar-to-butterfly process.
Gotta watch out for this one - he likes to pick the flowers.
We recently learned that our zoo pass also allows us free access to the gardens. What a deal! (Now if I can just remember to get to the zoo to renew our zoo pass!!)
I love the little brother is "helping" to unwrap presents. This year Keith and I got Joshua a gift certificate to Toys R Us for him to pick something out for himself. He had a blast going around the store with Daddy and Grandma.
Instead of a birthday cake, our waiter brought Joshua out a pastry of some sort. It was cinnamony and very yummy.
Megan being silly. The kids just saw this picture again and they all commented that they miss Ashley. 
Daniel and his broccoli. Given the choice between french fries or broccoli, and he'll pick broccoli every time. 
Our sweet cat, Meow-meow. We keep her partially shaved for everyone's sanity. She sheds quite a bit.
Silly Daniel and his flock of Mr. Potato heads. At any given time, there are at least 2 or 3 potato heads in various attire hanging out in his room.
Keith putting together a 3-D puzzle that Joshua talked me into buying. I thought it was going to be easy, but I was so wrong. It must be hard to put together, if Keith's reading the directions!
Megan playing www.starfall.com her favorite game to play on-line. She's becoming quite good at the reading games.
So now I'm back and ready to play catch-up on the stuff that every one's missed out on, and to share the fun of our homeschooling year ahead!
Fortunately for us, Ashley is still with us helping with the kids. It works out so great for us when we have one adult available for each child. We scored a great deal for park admission - it was just about $100 for all 6 of us! Keith got in free (yippee for places that give free admission to active duty military!), and the park is currently doing a special "buy an adult, inspire a child for free". 
We had such a great time on the drive out to KSC. There are so many things to see between our house and the Space Coast. 
I uploaded pictures all out of order, so I might ramble a bit describing our day. In the above picture, we were touring some real-sized models of the modules on the space station. Megan was asking why it was squishy on the outside. I didn't really have an answer, so I suggested that maybe in case anything hits it, it can stay safe. Little did I know she was going to punch the side of the model to test out that theory. It's even funnier that I caught her doing it in the picture, since I had just asked her to stand by the space station for a picture. 
There were so many awesome things in the gift shop. Daniel wanted a "NASA-naut" suit, but I just couldn't justify that purchase. I told him that he can have one if he gets a job at NASA. :) 
I have not been to KSC in at least 20 years. I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the center was indoors and air conditioned. We're still adjusting to summertime in Florida vs. summertime in Alaska!
Daniel was so adorable...he kept asking if we were getting on a space ship and going to the moon. 
We took the bus tour out to where the shuttle lifts off from. Joshua was stoked to see the press stands and the "official" count-down clock. There we climbed lots of stairs to see an amazing view of the surrounding grounds. 
On the bus trip out to the rocket launch site, Daniel caught a quick nap. 
On the bus tour, we learned about all the people behind-the-scenes that help keep the astronauts safe. 
Joshua really enjoyed all of the presentations. At the rocket launch pad, there was a simulation of one of the Apollo missions lifting off. Joshua loved it! He cheered and clapped when the rocket lifted off. 
Even my little Astronaut-Megan enjoyed herself. 
The kids running down the ramp pretending to board the space shuttle. 
Megan and me outside at the Rocket Garden. This was taken about 2 minutes before a huge downpour came out of nowhere and soaked all of us!
Hey, look! More Coast Guard stuff! 
Snoopy was the only cartoon character we saw all day!
There is an awesome children's play area at KSC. Even Daniel took off his shoes and ran in to play. Megan makes friends everywhere we go. She managed to find a couple of little girls to play with. 
Hmmm....one of my astronauts seems to be having some trouble seeing over his flight suit!!
That's better, thanks to some behind-the-scenes work from Daddy! Now everyone is ready to work!
Keith with another Coast Guard poster! He's so funny.
I think my sweetheart might be having a little "aircraft envy".
Daniel's new hat "Failure is not an option".
It was such a great time! We ended up hitting Ron Jon's Surf Shop since we were over on that side of the state. I hung out in the car with some of the tired kids while Keith and Ashley shopped. After a long ride home, we finally got everyone in bed TWO HOURS past bedtime! They were so exhausted, but it was so worth it!
