Our Disney Vacation - 2013

We have just returned from a fantastic family vacation! My mom treated us all --- our family, my sisters and their families - to a fun-filled adventure at Walt Disney World in Florida AND a Disney cruise! This was a very special - and greatly anticipated - Christmas present.... truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

When the departure day finally arrived, we got up early and headed to the airport.....

 

... only to discover that our flight was delayed and then later cancelled. We ended up taking taxis back to my mom's place and spending the day swimming and hanging out there. We were really bummed to miss our first day at the Disney parks. We were supposed to arrive in Orlando at 12:30, spend the day at Magic Kingdom, and have dinner together at the Crystal Palace. But it was not meant to be. We ended up not being able to fly out until 7:00pm.... didn't arrive at the hotel until about 11:00pm. We were all amazed at the patience and good attitude of the kids. They definitely "rolled with it" better than the adults. Fortunately, my mom had purchased the travel insurance that will refund her for the cost of the park tickets AND we each received a free voucher for international air fare! We're already busy planning our next adventures!

 

Here we are getting ready to board the plane the SECOND time....

We stayed at the All Star Music Resort. It worked pretty well for our needs.... had family suites, fun pools, an arcade, and cafeteria. However, it also had roughly 32,547 Brazilian teenagers running around. ;)

 

 

We spent our first full vacation day at the Magic Kingdom. We had a blast.... truly a fun day of rides and discoveries. I got to ride Space Mountain with my sister, brother-in-law, and niece. We all rode "It's a Small World" as a family. The updates to Fantasyland are really great. We love the new Dumbo ride. You'll see us wearing different outfits in the pictures because we returned to the hotel and went swimming in the afternoon and then went back for the evening. We loved the electrical light parade.... and Adam and I stayed for the final show at the castle and fireworks. So fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the next day at Epcot. Again, we had a total blast! We loved the Nemo ride and exhibit, Spaceship Earth, and Soarin. Jon, Carter, and Adam really enjoyed Test Track. Unfortunately, we did not get to explore the country exhibits as much as I had hoped, because of rain. Throughout our time in Orlando, we had overcast skies (which was actually good) and sporadic rain showers. But in mid-afternoon at Epcot, it stormed and poured rain. Our group had to hunker down at various places and eventually make our way to each other. By that point we were drenched and so tired. We headed back to the hotel early. We would definitely like to have more time there on future trips. Epcot has so much to see and do.

 

And that was basically it for our time in Orlando. We never got to go to the other parks, but I honestly don't know if our feet could have handled it. It's a TON of walking. We knew we were going at the busiest and hottest time of the year, but it really didn't feel that bad. The weather was actually hotter here in Columbus than down there.

We did take a quick taxi ride to Our Lady Queen of the Universe Shrine for the early Sunday Mass. We love attending Mass there whenever we go to Orlando. It's absolutely beautiful!

Stay tuned for the next post..... all about our Disney Cruise!

 

Summer Science

Some friends and I have joined up to plan and lead some summer science fun with our kids. So far we've had really bad luck with rain on our scheduled days. We've only been able to do two sessions, but they've been fun.

 

At our first session we decorated science notebooks/journals. We talked about the force of gravity and why/how things can fly. We made paper airplanes and played with some stomp rocket toys. But the biggest hit was the egg drop experiment. We gave each child one egg and had them use various materials to wrap the eggs up and cushion them. Then we dropped them on the ground from higher and higher levels. It was great fun.... and only two eggs survived all of our tests.

 

Check out Adam's "egg box." The egg was in the shoe box.
I'm not sure what the purpose was for the nest on top... but he sure was proud of it!

Yes.... we let the children throw things out of my bedroom window.
Be assured that I was standing right beside them....
making sure only the eggs went crashing down.

The owners of the surviving eggs.
Their "prize" was the opportunity to throw them against a board and watch them splat. ;)

This week's science topic was "Patriotic Potions. We completed several "Chemistry" experiments and learned about physical vs. chemical reactions. It was very messy and very fun! We had Carter and Ava with us too! The kids rotated around to different stations so they got to do all of the experiments.

 

 

"Pop Rocks" Science

We learned about how pop rocks are made, what makes them pop (CO2), and how they mix with a variety of liquids.

 

 

 

"Fireworks in a Jar"

We learned about density and how liquids react when mixed together.

 

 

 

"Goop"

Corn starch + Baking soda + Water + Pop Rocks

Is it a liquid? A solid? Both? Neither?

 "Ice Cream in a Baggie"

Yum! After a pizza lunch, we made our own dessert.

It turns out that you've got to know chemistry when you want to cook!

"Soda Pop Geysers"



What's more fun than exploding sticky pop all over the yard?

We had to do a few rounds of the old mentos + soda trick.

The learning never ends around here.... and neither does the mess! We can't wait until our next summer science day!