Day Three - Children's Museum

Today started out a bit rough with everyone waking around 6:30 am.  By 8:00 am we were ready to go but our destination (the hands on children's museum) didn't open until 9:30.  So we had to hang out for a bit in the hotel room which can be trying. The museum is just a few minutes down the road and everyone had fun!  Jackson made me earn my keep trying to do EVERYTHING Elli did - he is so brave and that is not always a good thing.  Still we played for two hours.  Apparently we can get back in with our morning payment so we may go back after nap if Elli says she would like that.

Already copying Elli

This was an awesome toy! Laser Pegs - definitely on Christmas list for future years.

Playing veterinarian

One of our favorite places, the fire trucks

Something that looks like a shovel...Jackson is happy

Day Two - Zoo

With Daddy at work, we decided to try out the Jacksonville Zoo today.  Seriously one of the best zoos I have ever been to.  The animals were so close so Elli was really able to see everything, even Jackson could spot the rhino,elephant, and giraffe.  There was also a carousel, play ground, and splash park.  I was very impressed.  The kids did great.  Jackson did sleep for 20 minutes on the way home so as I am typing this, he is really fighting against taking his afternoon nap.  I'm hoping he'll fall out soon (as so is everyone else in the hotel I am sure!)

Trying out our new sit and stand - LOVED IT!

Lions...

Ever heard of a Bongo?  Me neither but it was super close to us!  Looks like a cross between a zebra and deer.

Do you SEE how close we are?  And there was a baby giraffe!!

If you know me from my teaching years..you know why I loved this!
I finally saw penguins up close!!!
This little guy played and played with us.  This was Jackson's favorite part.

Guess who took these pictures?!?

Good job Elli!

Jackson isn't too much into splash parks,but he loved the cones they had set up.

This happened almost as soon as I shut the van door.  Please note - shovel in hand. 

Ocean Trip!

So we made it!  An eight hour trip took ten hours but that's ok.  We had two good stops to get out and stretch our legs.  I mean, it wasn't like a big ball of fun or anything, but we made it here to Jacksonville Florida.  This first day Jacob has been hanging with us and he'll start working tomorrow so that will change things a bit.  Everyone (including Mommy) was cranky this morning with a lack of good sleep but after naps, things turned around a bit.  It hasn't been "smooth sailing" (you know I'm all about honesty) but I think we will be glad we did this together.  Here are some photos from our first day.

Trying out the hotel pool.  This went quite well as Jackson really liked his float!

Of course then Elli had to use the float

Ocean size sorting...

Counting out spikes for our sea urchins

These pictures capture the first time we have ever really been to the beach to play.  Let me tell you - it was a hit!  Jackson did JUST what I thought he would do, sit in the sand and dig.  Elli did just what I thought she would do, run around like a crazy person.

What could be better?  An entire beach to dig dig dig!

Jumping the waves 

Pirate Party Day

Well, I just wasn't motivated enough to take Elli down to Beaufort so we did the Pirate Party here.  We all went to the Four C's downtown and picked out a pirate prize (she picked a hook).  FYI:  She wasn't interested in the hook really and wanted a bracelet instead and then proceeded to tell me she was a princess, not a pirate.  So maybe not going to ride on the pirate ship was the best idea.  We went down to the pirate ship playground where we all played and had ice cream.  Final surprise?  Splash pad!  We didn't plan on this so she had to play in her clothes, but she didn't mind!

Man Overboard!!!

 She is always more interested in the showers than the park...not sure why that is!

Jackson was not quite as sure about this...

Next camp theme?

Oceans!

Thumper

I just wanted to get it down in writing that Jackson loves his Thumper.  Right around the time we were making Elli give up her paci, my parents went to Disney World.  They came back with prizes for everyone and Jackson's prize was a Thumper bunny.  Elli decided that Jackson could not have a paci if she could not have one.  I wasn't too worried about this for two reason:  1.  Jackson didn't really like a paci anyways.  2.  I wouldn't have to wean him from it like I had to do with Elli.  I decided to let Jackson sleep with this new Thumper for comfort. I wasn't sure if he would like it, I just started putting it in his crib at nap time and bed time.  Well, he LOVES Thumper.  It is his source of comfort. He giggles when he sees it, points to it when he is sad, and HAS to have it to sleep.  I always find him at night with his little arm wrapped around him.  Last night I found him using Thumper as a pillow.  Little Thumper - buddies!

Ahoy Thar Mateys!!!

We are finishing up our Pirate Week at Summer Camp by Mom.  I was hoping to take Elli on a pirate ship Saturday that was coming to New Bern, but the company cancelled the tour so I'm not sure how to end our pirate week. We may all haul in the car and meet the pirate ship in Beaufort, or we may get creative here in New Bern. We'll see how we feel tomorrow (more importantly...how Daddy feels).  

Summer camp could be better - I would appreciate a little more routine but that may be too much to ask from a 3 year old.  She did great with all of our work.  We focused on patterns, beginning sounds, sorting, coin names, added a new sight word "look."  Some days we did our work after nap, sometimes after breakfast, sometimes while we ate lunch.  Jackson has been sick all week so we had to work around his needs (and he had a lot of them!)

We won't do a theme next week since we have VBS and then the following week we will study Oceans (with a trip to Jacksonville Florida with Daddy's work!!!!)

Created a Storm in a Bottle

Adding rocks for the bottom of the sea...

Putting in "treasure" from our treasure chest.

The different levels of food coloring gave opportunity to talk about how the bottom of the ocean was dark since it was far away from the sun.

Patterns

Sorting our treasure