A New President & Camp Kulaqua

Last weekend we were at Camp Kulaqua with Adventurers, hence my lack of a post. Not too much happened last week though - - just the presidential election!

I don't want to get political on here so I'll just talk about facts.  The facts are that leading up to the election, Calleigh must have asked me at least five times, "Who do you think is going to win?" And every time, I unhesitatingly said "Definitely, Hillary."  I think pretty much everyone thought that!  I honestly wasn't sure if I was even going to vote especially after my last experience when I had to wait almost two hours.  That was soon after moving into our home here and I wasn't accustomed to those kinds of lines. Fortunately, I had noted that we had a new polling location this go-round and my hope was that meant a shorter line.  I was willing to give it a try.  We finished up school early and headed out at about 11:15.  And voila!  There was literally one other person voting in the whole place.

Backing up a minute...as you know, I drive around every Friday going to yard sales.  I travel in and out of about six or seven towns/cities and two different counties.  Over about the last month, the kids and I have been observing all of the campaign signs in people's front yards of which there have been many.  I am not kidding at all when I tell you that we saw one, ONE, Clinton/Kaine sign in all of our travels. It was so crazy. That was compared to hundreds and hundreds of Trump signs.  We did wonder if it was an omen.

We had ice skating that evening but upon our return home, we turned on the TV coverage and settled in for what we thought was going to be a short night.  When Obama won the two times, I seem to recall knowing pretty early on that he was going to win.  Calleigh insisted on watching it all with us even when the other three went off to bed.  Actually, that's not true.  Aubree was downstairs too but she fell asleep really quickly.  Eventually, Calleigh succumbed too and that just left Duncan and me.  Of course, it feels like you are watching it with a lot more people because we were texting my family constantly throughout the night.  What did we do before texting?!!

And she's out.

The whole thing was all surreal.  Trump was winning states nobody thought he would win, including Florida.  I kept thinking he was going to fizzle out but it never happened. Unbelievable!  Since I am a night owl, it was no problem for me to stay awake and I was determined to stay up until after he made his speech.  Poor Duncan had to go to work in the morning (or should I say, later that morning) so he hit the sack around 1:30ish but I stayed up until the end and probably didn't get to sleep until about 3:45 am.   Good bless homeschooling!  Calleigh got Colby up in the morning and the kids watched Dolphin Tale until I rolled out of bed at 10:20 am.  Needless to say, I'm sure we weren't the only ones skipping Homeschool PE at 10:00 am!

In the end, Orange County, which is our county, heavily voted for Clinton as they did for Obama last time.  Seminole County was still Republican but not as much.  I have no explanation for why Orange County had no Clinton signs up!

Friday afternoon we were off to Camp Kulaqua.  I like going with the Adventurers better than the church because the club covers all the meals so I don't have to worry about it. We had the option of staying in the on-site hotel this time but we opted to continue staying in the mini-lodge.  It's closer to everything and plus, we have a common area for the adults to sit and talk after the kids are in bed.  The downside is we have to bring our own bedding and towels but we are used to it by now.  Jonathan Biri joined our Adventurers this year (he was at Apopka last year) so it was the Biris, Bergherms, and us staying together.  They were kind enough to let us have the room upstairs so it was our usual sleeping arrangement.  The kids slept perfectly and Duncan and I even got to sleep in the same bed this time since previously I always kept it open for Colby to join me if needed.  So glad we are past that!

It seems like half the time I don't pack appropriately for the weather and this was one of those times.  You see it will be 80 during the day and you don't pay attention that it will only be 55 in the mornings.  I only brought one pair of leggings for the girls and they were filthy by Sunday morning but they survived! It's nice to be a little bit cold again after such a hot summer.

We had a nice time as usual with a bunch of activities and honors going on.  The only snafu I would say was the eating.  There was so many more kids in the club this year that it would take a really long time for everyone to go through the line to get their food because it was single file.  We also didn't have enough seating for everyone and for one of the meals, we ended up having to sit on a bench to eat instead of a table.  But again, I didn't have to cook so it was all good!

We had a table this time.

Friday night vespers.  Not sure why my three are the only ones standing! 

I just had to take a picture.  These girls - - Lindsey, Mia, and Aubree - - are ten days apart in age.  All three have blond hair, blue eyes, and apparently like pink!  I thought it was interesting to see the height range too. 

This is how Colby rolled.  We didn't bring our stroller this time so he rode in from of London who was thrilled with the arrangement.  Colby did get a little frustrated at times with her pulling his hair and ears. 

Just two bros hanging out. 

Working on an honor.  

Apparently Johnny didn't want to work on the shield so Vasti recruited Brady who was happy to work on it by himself instead of having to share with the girls. 

Katelyn reminds me so much of Acadia both in looks and she also has an older brother the same age as Camden.  And now I see she's left handed just like Acadia!

Sabbath afternoon at the zoo.

He's growing on me.

The cutest little workers ever!  They got to serve the fruit at supper on Saturday night.  

One funny thing happened Saturday night.  We were broken up into two different groups.  Our group went on a hayride first and then the bouncy house was second.  It was this big obstacle course one like they did last year.  Colby can do it all by himself now and he was so excited when he got off it the first time that he started running around like a crazy kid.  He ran down the side of the bouncy house and ran right through this "arm" thing like he was running through a ticker tape to win a marathon. The only problem was that it was the attachment to the fan that keeps the bouncy house blown up.  It came right off and you could hear the air starting to come out like when you're blowing up something inflatable and you take your mouth off it.  Duncan ran over to it quickly and got it reattached but not before the guy in charge had to come out from helping kids to see what happened.  Oops!  A few minutes later, I could hear Calleigh explaining to someone "My brother accidentally knocked off the thing that blows the air into the bouncy house."  I told her "It was NO accident! He did it on purpose."  Although obviously he didn't know that's what it did.

The scene of the crime.

Right after the incident, Duncan took Brady back to our lodge because apparently Brady was bored?  Maybe he was just tired but after doing the course one time, he came up to me and says "Can you please take me to another exhibit?"  Not sure what he was expecting!

On Thursday we broke up our school week by going to the Festival of Trees at the Orlando Museum of Art.  I can't quite wrap my head around why I have never taken the kids there before although when I was telling Duncan that he said, "Don't you remember taking Calleigh there as a little kid and her screaming and crying when she sat on Santa's lap?" I guess that's why we've never gone back! Well, we've missed out because I loved it so much.  Of course, I am a sucker for anything Christmas but then throw in a piano playing Christmas music in the background and I'm a goner.  The neat thing was that they had a scavenger hunt to do as you looked at all the trees and gingerbread houses so that added another layer of enjoyment to the experience as well.  You can get an annual membership to the Museum of Art for $80 and the deal was that the tickets to Festival of Trees would be free which normally would have been $35 so I figured $55 for the year was a good deal.  I think we will enjoy going back to see other things during the year.  Something we haven't done before!

American Girl doll tree.  The girls were smitten.

The gingerbread houses were really impressively done.

Some of the smaller trees and wreaths. 

The only complaint is that nobody had the answer key.  I wanted to know if we got some of the ones where you had to count items on the tree correct.  Ah well!

After that, we moseyed over to the Orlando Science Center which was next door so we could check out the new KidsTown expansion they opened last month.  I was very impressed with it as were the kids.  I'm very thankful that Calleigh has not outgrown any of the stuff yet - - she had just as much fun as her younger siblings even though it is geared more towards them.

The new orange grove.  Kids could have stayed here for a really long time.

We had to stay for lunch, of course.  This kid kills me.  Sometimes he will eat two bites of his food.  Other times, like this time, he will eat an entire pizza (albeit a personal size) in about four minutes.

Some pictures of what else we've been up to...

Proud of my hard working girls!  Jennifer had a big order due and "hired" the girls to tie bows around a bag with a cookie in it.  It was a bit of a challenge since it was three ribbons at one time but they did great and got paid to boot!

Studying liquid, solids, and gases for Science.  Experimenting with candle wax changing between liquid and solid.

"I want to do more experiments, Mom" he says.  This is what I came up with after all the candy from Trunk or Treat.

Making fig cakes for our Egyptian feast.

Eating...Egyptian style! 

Well, I'm not a makeup artist, obviously, but we had fun! 

The girls are back on their AG doll kick so it was only fitting that Lea and McKenna join us for school.

At Adventurers a few weeks ago...one of the dads who is a firefighter taught the kids about fire safety.  He showed a video about how to call 911 and it included a part about how when you're outside and need to call, you should look for a payphone.  Seriously?? I'd say the movie is SLIGHTLY outdated.  I actually think it's kind of dangerous in a way to show the kids this, as if a payphone is a viable option.

Barnes and Noble on a Saturday night.  

The actual celebration for Katrina's birthday...Sunday morning breakfast at Keke's.

Colby is so happy he can do this 24 piece puzzle all by himself.  It's permanently kept on the floor and he takes it apart and puts it together several times a day.

Brady is in charge of making sure the toilet paper stays stocked in the bathrooms.  I came up with a good way for him to carry the rolls upstairs.   

Daddy was gone to Boston on business for a couple of days and brought everyone back a t-shirt. 

We did public skating a few Sunday's ago.  Aubree was so sad because she seemed to skate slower than what she had been doing.  Last week I got her some new skates since the old ones were getting too slow.  She says "I hope they're fast skates."  Bless her.  If only there were such a thing.  She does seem to be doing better with them though.

Uniform Sabbath on the first Sabbath of November.  Colby will be wearing one next year at this time!

One of those parent moment's that you aren't exactly proud of but can't resist.  Someone knocked Brady's smoothie all over his face and Duncan couldn't resist taking a picture before cleaning him off. 

This was from last month but I just saw it on Duncan's phone and couldn't resist posting it. I love it so much!

In closing, a few Sabbath's ago the teacher in Sabbath School was asking the kids what they did during the week.

Colby: "I played football with my dad."

Teacher: "Oh, how fun!"

Colby: "I'm a mini Gronk."

Teacher: Looks at him blankly.

Yeah, obviously she's not a fan.  But I thought it was so funny that Colby said that!

Have a great Thanksgiving week.