Homeschooling: The Old Florida Museum

   There are many reasons for homeschooling besides sleeping in, and staying in your pajamas all day. It's the great week day field trips, the field trips when you and your family are the only one's there. We had one of those today we visited for the first time The old Florida museum. We had gotten a groupon for super cheap so you can not go wrong there. We arrived and of course just the cannon outside got Jacobs attention! We had a personal tour guide Senoir Dorito. First we had to pick jobs for our journey to the new land Jacob was a soldier and got a cool sphere, Lu and I were the cooks and David was a builder. We got to earn denaro's also on our journey for the work we did.

       Our first stop was making fire Jacob  had to pull on the rope to blow on the fire he did great and earned his denaro. 

David and Jacob in time out. 

We got to tour the kings house, and then the soldiers living corridors. We were mostly impressed with the sugar cane weaving as we as a family weaved it through to make a wall. 

We also made candles as it was such a way of life for them. We dipped them and let them dry and got to bring them home.

Jacob was the soldier who had to watch over the kings house. Notice the chair it only has two legs to make sure you stay awake during watch!

We even learned how they drilled holes!!

We also played lots of games.

Emily was our cook in the new land. It was perfect for her crushing corn and scooping it for all of us.

Sphere throwing.

Finally we got to meet the tribe leader Sr. Shrinksalot.

Making a fishing net.

                                   Our Tribe tattoos

What a great family day! Not only did the kids learn a lot but so did we. The kids got to each buy a little something with the Denaro's they earned. We ended the afternoon with a picnic on the bay in front of the fort.

Greatest place on earth Disney world

 It was finally here a vacation that was one year in the making if you know me I had made list after list of all the great places to eat , all the rides the kids were tall enough for ( saves some heartache at the front of the shamu line) the best campspot. This trip was going to be awesome. The best part the kids had no idea that we were about to wake them up put them in the camper and head to Disney for the entire week!

To start off ( well after months of planning and calling multiple times to make sure we got the best dinner show seats and reservations). We bought each kid a small Disney toy and new pjs and a special new cup.. We woke them gave them there gifts and then opened up the bedroom blinds so they could see the camper out front packed up and ready to go!

We were on our way well we did have to stop at the first rest stop (5 miles south) for a potty break but after that we were off.

We finally arrived and got to our spot not the greatest spot I was expecting but nice we started to set up we are pretty fast with our camper now 20 mins and we are sitting in our lawn chairs with our feet up. Not five minutes later Jacob comes screaming bloody murder and emily is crying behind him. Jacob was being attacked by bees and Lu calm and cool had been bit by a few already. We got the kids into the truck and drove up to the out post ( now remember this is Disney) they immediately got the kids some ice and a tv show and offered medical assistance. After our children saying they were not going back out there the manager of course made an amazing RV spot magically appear and now we were in the middle of the Disney magic but first things first we had to repack and move the camper to the new location. The next surprise our family golf cart was delivered the highlight of the kids and David's trip.

After we were settled the second time we were ready for the magic to begin. We hopped on the boat that carried us right to Disney World. A reminder it was September and a Thursday it was slightly sprinkling in the first 30 mins we saw every princess and met Mickey and Minnie talk about no lines! Our first very exciting plan for our trip dinner at 7 pm in Cinderellas castle with her and all her friends. Emily was dressed in her very beautiful Cinderella dress for the meeting. They whisked us away like we were the only ones there made our children feel so very special with magic wands and pirate swords waiting at our table. Every princess came around and greeted us the food was exquisite and the dessert phenomenal! The happiness in the eyes made it truly a special evening because it's all about there imagination flowing.

Staying at Fort Wilderness was amazing the campground was beautiful, trees, beach, night time campfire with chip n dale, roasting marshmallows and dancing, beautiful weather, and not many people. We took in all that they had to offer.
Day two we visited Animal Kingdom saw the amazing show The Lion King, Jacob was finally tall enough to go on Kali Rapids there was a chance to get soaked and I think God looked out for him because we were the only dry people on that boat at the end. I think Lu's favorite was the train ride taking us to the kids area.

Eating the fixins:)

                           We were dining on the dining pass and I made reservations months in advance (six months to be exact) so Friday night we had reservations for the Hoop Dee Doo Revue a musical dinner show at the campground. We got there and the waitress took us to our table and she kept walking closer and closer and closer are seats were so close you could touch the stage the kids loved it. There was good music hootin and howling the food was family style so they bring out the chicken and potatoes and veggies in big old style cooking pots. And there favorite actor was a nerdy comedian that got Jacob giggling so loud and continous it was awesome at the end you take your spoons and beat on an old wash board as a drum everytable gets one and boy do our kids know how to beat on something. It was a hootin good time!

Playing the Washboard

Day three was off to the Grand Floridian for a breakfast buffet with Mary poppins (which was the movie that was playing continous at our home at the time) saw tigger,














                                                                                                   alice and wonderland and the mad hatter

 and winnie the pooh.

 It was not our favorite restraunt by all means but we enjoyed it. Next stop was Magic Kingdom and the day they got to spend the surprise money Nina had left in the camper for them. Emily of course bought a Cinderella doll and Jacob bought a pirate get up:) We rode Emilys favorite ride of the Carousel and Jacobs new favorite Splash mountain I still can not believe my four year old is tall enough to ride that. After heading back to the camper for naps (yes we get nice long naps at Disney World). We headed back to Magic Kingdom for race cars, winnie the pooh, peter pan, dumbo, and fireworks  and a little bit of grease for dinner and popcorn and ice
 cream to follow.

Gifts from Nina

Day four we had to map out because what we were planning were some very popular things. We arrived at Hollywood Studios before they opened the plan was david and Lu would go to get fast passes for Toy Story and Jacob and I would run (and I mean we had to run) to sign him up to be a Padawan and fight Darth Vader at the 9 am show. David ended up ditching the stroller and carrying Lu on his shoulders to make it through the crowd and Jacob and I arrived and were the first to sign up I will never forget running full speed with him to the sign up booth it was so exciting to see his excitment. After signing him up we meet up with Lu and David and they got Jacob in costume and the show started. It was FREE and a little boys dream the pictures will tell it all!

Padawan

Practicing for Darth

Defeating Darth Vader

And then there was the race for the Toy Story ride you know the one you wait in line for for 90 minutes because it is the best ride there?

Awesome ride I don't care what anyone says about the wait it is amazing  technology!

Day five we spent park hopping to take in all the rides we had missed along the way. For the evening we had dinner reservations at the Polynesian for a luau! We had heard about such great things about this dinner attraction so we had very high expectations. We arrived at the Polynesian running a little late so we missed getting our picture taken and I don't know how we made reservations 6 months in advance and our table was awful there was a huge pole right in our way and the kids could not see anything the food was not at all kid friendly and you were very rushed with the whole thing all in all a bad experience. But the Couch family never lets anything go by with out a memory so as we were leaving there was this amazing sunset over the lake where we took the kids to play and ended up with some amazing pictures!

Day six we had some very special guests join us at Magic Kingdom and dinner at the restaurant at the campground The Antepara's. Stephanie who was a trooper very pregnant with baby Sophia and sweet Isa, and JP. 

JP trying his first rice krispy treat!

Jacob and Isa

The kids

Chip n Dale singalong

Chip or Dale don't remember something about there nose makes them different I think color?

What an amazing vacation! Had so much fun and created awesome memories we were planning our next trip on our way home!