Field Trip

Yesterday, Wildman’s class joined the other 1st/2nd combined class and the other second grade classes at Cocoa Beach Jr/Sr High Auditorium for a 3D interactive show about making healthy eating choices.  I tagged along as a chaparone and got to experience Wildman’s first school bus ride with him.  It’s been his dream to ride a school bus and he totally thinks he is getting robbed by not having to ride one.  I’ve tried to explain to him that he’s extremely lucky to be able to live within walking and biking distance of his school.  He doesn’t believe me 🙂

The show was put on by Kid Power and was really quite entertaining.  It probably wasn’t as exciting as visiting Greenmeadows Farm like the other first graders got to do but it was still pretty darn cool and LOCAL.  Parts of the show were in 3D and parts of the show were in a one-man play format.  It was part musical, part movie, part science lesson and part interactive experience.  The kids loved shouting out their parts from the audience.  One of Wildman’s classmates was even called upon to dance on stage!

After the show we took a couple of pictures with the star then headed over to a local park for a picnic lunch.

Things got a little hairy when another group of three classes from a local school arrived and pretty much took over the park.  It was total chaos for a while.  Lots of kids were climbing trees which is a liability for the teachers.  When a couple of teachers asked the children to get down some moms got very snippy and were disrespectful to the teachers in front of their children.  Ugh!  We ended up packing up our things and leaving early.  It wasn’t worth the risk of someone getting injured falling from a tree or hurting themselves on a too-crowded playground structure.  Our kids didn’t mind leaving early.  They were looking forward to recess on their own playground back at school.

Cutie Pie’s field trip is this morning!  We’re pumpkin patch bound!  🙂

Off Shore Fishing Adventure

Sorry it’s been awhile since I’ve posted!  Life has been busy now that school is back in session.  We’re all trying to settle in to our new routine…

Cutie Pie pounced on us bright and early on Sunday morning with a special request.  He wanted to go off shore fishing for kingfish.  Now, J had no intention of setting off on such an adventure but I thought it sounded like fun.  When we finished breakfast I sweet talked J into taking us all out on the boat off Port Canaveral.

We have never taken this boat into the ocean so I know that J was a little apprehensive.  But he was a good sport about getting everything prepped and ready for us to go.  I whipped up a quick lunch for the cooler, sunscreened myself and the kids and we were off!  We launched at the Port Canaveral ramp amidst the cruise ships, parasailing tour boats and other recreational fishermen.

We cruised down the coast toward Cocoa Beach and were greeted by lots of friendly dolphins.

The boys and I climbed up on the bow for a better view of the wildlife.  They came surprisingly close to the boat.

There were probably 10 or so dolphins in the pod that surrounded us.  They were jumping and playing which thrilled the boys to no end.

Right around the time that we saw the dolphins J and the boys started getting motion sick.  Luckily, J had a stash of Dramamine in his bag.  One of the side effects is drowsiness, however…  Both boys zonked out for a while.  Cutie Pie found a spot on the bench in the cabin.  Wildman eventually succumbed to sleep on the bow while we watched the cruise ships set sail.

The Disney Dream was the third ship that we watched leave port.  It is the newest vessel in the Disney cruise line.  There is a water ride between the stacks on the top deck that looks amazing.  It’s a twisty see-through tube.  Perhaps we’ll have to save our money for a voyage on the Dream one day.

We hadn’t had any luck fishing all day so we pointed the boat back toward the port.  Just as soon as we made the decision to head for home, the fishing pole that J had been trolling a lure with went crazy.

After a strong and steady fight, J managed to reel in a nice looking barracuda.  It wasn’t the kingfish that Cutie Pie wanted but it looked very similar.  At least we caught something!

Once we landed the boat on the trailer I glanced down to find this little guy swimming around.  Which reminded me that I need to find a little slip of paper with the website that Wildman’s class is using to track sea turtles.  His teacher wrote it down and I stuck the paper somewhere…  Just not sure where.  It’s part of their class project.  They’re adopting a sea turtle with a tracking device.  The children can log on to the website to see where their turtle has traveled.  Pretty neat!

Also, would you say a little prayer that this thing does not hit us?

Cocoa Beach Air Show

The Cocoa Beach Air Show was last weekend.  I decided to take the boys up to see the action on Sunday to get them out of J’s hair while he worked on the new driveway.

It was a well-staged event with group after group of low-flying aircraft buzzing the beach.  I don’t know my planes very well so I can’t specify exactly what we saw but there were plenty of acrobatic stunts by biplanes, helicopter maneuvers, refueling demonstrations and the Thuderbirds also made an appearance.

We enjoyed watching the Geico skytypers write long messages in a circle above the beach.  I am amazed at how accurate the 4 skytyper planes had to be to create the letters!  So cool.

I packed a picnic lunch and our big beach blanket.  I didn’t think to bring an umbrella though.  It was so hot out there on the sand.  The kids did not last much over an hour.

Luckily we had the cool ocean water to dip our feet in but didn’t completely do the job.  We were sweltering.

I didn’t pack our bathing suits either…

It was a great event to witness though!  It was awesome to see how many people turned out to watch it.  We’ll definitely be going back next year!