An Unexpected Staycation

This weekend was a four-day weekend for me.  On Friday we had a teacher planning day.  At our school, it is optional for you to come in as long as you’ve gotten your grades submitted.  I came in that morning for a few hours to finish up my grades and get my lessons together for my next unit (we start our writing unit tomorrow!  My favorite!).  Friday afternoon I unknowingly began an unexpected staycation weekend.  I met a friend at the movies to see “The Hobbit,” one of my favorite books.  The movie was a little disappointing, only because it seemed to stretch out the book into something bigger than it was originally written.  I’m a big fan of the book, so I would have preferred it to be a little more true to the story, but the movie itself was great.

Saturday morning, my best friend, Sarah, and I took Bean and Gracie to Universal Studios.  Chris was working all weekend, and I was dying to get out of the house.  One of my co-workers works weekends at Universal and she very sweetly gave us tickets.  Between those free tickets and packing the kids lunch, it was only a $30 day for me – which was awesome considering how much fun we had!

(Sarah is, like, 15 months pregnant or something. She’s looking great and feeling good!)

Neither Sarah or I like roller coasters, which worked out because I had two small kids with me and she’s very pregnant. But we both LOVE theme parks! We were so excited to get to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! I’ve been once before, but didn’t get to go in any of the shops or restaurants or anything. This time, Sarah and I strolled through the entire town of Hogsmeade. Including having our first Butterbeers!

After Harry Potter, we headed over to Toon Town to check out Bean’s favorite superhero, Spiderman. We had lunch at this hero-themed cafe because Bean had a direct view of the giant Spiderman sign. And then, randomly while we were sitting there having lunch, the crowds started clearing out of the street and who would roll up on their motorcycles but every single superhero known to man. They had this impromptu parade right there and we had air conditioned, front row seats. I thought Bean’s head was going to explode.

(You can’t tell in the picture, but Bean is wearing Spiderman sunglasses, shoes and underwear. He’s a devoted fan.)

We headed home around 1:00 that afternoon and the kids went down for big, long naps. I did, too. We all needed to rest up because our next big adventure knocked on our door at 6:00 that night.

Bean’s best friend from school, Elle, was supposed to be home with a babysitter that night, but she had to cancel at the last minute because of illness. I told Elle’s mom to bring Elle right on over so that they could still keep their plans for date night. Bean and Gracie were in heaven with Elle at our house. They played so great together. Gracie just follows her around doing whatever she does. It’s the cutest thing ever. They had dinner, played for a while and then all snuggled up in sleeping bags to watch movies. For little kids, it was as fun as fun can get.

One of my favorite things about Elle is that she LOVES wearing princess dresses. I don’t think her mom lets her wear them to school because I’ve never seen her wear one there, but any other time we see her outside of school she’s wearing one. It cracks me up! I can’t wait until Gracie gets to that age!

Sunday morning we actually got to see Chris for a few hours because he didn’t have to in until noon, so we skipped church and hung out together since we hadn’t seen him all weekend. We went to the outlets and got the kids some new spring play clothes, and then went out to brunch together. It was a lot of fun to hang out with him. We miss him when he has to work on the weekends, especially when we’re off doing super fun things without him.

We made it home again by about 1:00, and the kids went down for naps. No matter what our plans are on the weekends, we try to chunk the adventures up into two parts – morning and afternoon/evening – so that the kids can stick to their nap schedules. If they nap, then we have so much more happy time with them. Otherwise, it’s a mixed bag as to what kinds of moods they’ll be in that afternoon. I’m so glad they had big naps because Sunday afternoon was a big day for us! My mom came down that afternoon around 3:00, and we loaded the kids up in her van and headed to Ikea. She’s redoing the playroom at her house and turning it into a tiny little playhouse with a kitchen, living room, library and play area, and she needed to get some things at Ikea. I can’t wait to see it all finished!

My kids love Ikea. We go during the summer sometimes just to have a cool place to toodle around and play. I love it because I can shop a bit and they get to run around and play with all the furniture. Saturdays are a little tricky because it’s so crowded, so (with the help of a 99 cent pack of Swedish Fish) they had to stay in their stroller that day.

After Ikea, we headed over to our dinner adventure! My mom found these great tickets through Groupon or something like that for a Pirate Adventure Dinner. It was in the tourist part of town, and was sort of like dinner theater. Only, you are sitting on a pirate ship, watching sword fighting on another pirate ship and being served by pirate waiters. I was a little worried because there were going to be guns and cannons fired. And I worried that the sword fighting might scare them. Not to mention that the pirates were not your friendly Jake and the Neverland Pirates type. These were burly MEN pirates. BUT THE KIDS LOVED IT!!!!!! They were glued to the stage at all times! We had this one pirate that was the pirate for our little section of people, and he would swing in from the main pirate ship on a rope. Gracie thought that was the coolest thing ever, and even over the incredibly loud noise of the show, I could hear her go, “WEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” every time he did it! We also drank grog (water and Diet Coke grog for us, please…), sang pirate songs and took the pirate pledge of honor which made us official pirates. Bean’s eyes were as big as saucers the entire time. Even my mom and I had a great time! It was a whole lot of unexpected fun!

The adventure takes place in this giant auditorium with a huge pirate ship in the center. That ship is surrounded by a mote of water (which splashes up at times, but never on the audience). The audience sits in rows of long benches and tables in a giant circle around that main pirate ship. That ring of audience members is broken up into different sections, which are their own little pirate ships with your very own pirate (ours was the Red Pirate) and you cheer for your pirate throughout all the battles. If you’re ever in the Orlando area on vacation, I would definitely check it out. Especially if you have elementary school aged kids. There were so many of them there, and they had a blast! They got to go up on the main pirate ship and be part of the show at some points. I was expecting it to be kind of cheesy (and it was at parts), but it was a TON of fun.

My mom took the kids home with her that night, and I got to sleep in on Monday (which is the law on a vacation day, you know…). Chris and I got up late and went out to breakfast on our own and then did a little shopping at Home Goods for our house. After that, he had to head back to work again and I drove the hour drive up to my mom’s house to have lunch with her, the kids and my Grandma. It was my Grandma’s 84th birthday today. I don’t think she’d mind me tell you that because my Grandma is completely ageless in both looks and spirit. That woman is busier than I am and funnier than ever.

She told us this story today about going out and having a few drinks with some friends. One of the husbands asked the group, “Okay, now who can drive us all home?” And one of my Grandma’s friends raised her hand and said, “I can do it!”

The woman was blind. Like, legally blind. She walked with a cane.

I died laughing! My Grandma says that you are only as old as you feel like you are, and if that’s the case, then my Grandma just celebrated her 16th birthday today. Talk about a model of joy and happiness. I wish you all could meet her. She’s a special lady.

The kids had such a good time at Nana’s that they didn’t want to come home this afternoon.

But we had to. Tomorrow another work week starts, but I am actually really pumped and ready to take it on. In three days, I felt like we had a two week vacation! I am refreshed and rejuvenated and rearing to go!

I tell you something, since I’ve started to pay attention to the joy in my life, I have noticed how much my Joy Cup runneth over. True, these circumstances this weekend were exceptionally joyful. But… not really. The joy is in deciding to be joyful. Everything we did this weekend was on purpose. It was intentional. It was to create happiness. People might say, “Well, I could be joyful, too, if I could go to a theme park or adventure dinner. Try being joyful in MY situation…” But, to that I say, “Then why not make your situation more joyful?” Whatever your situation or schedule or price-point, why not focus on having fun simply for the sake of creating joy? Bloom where you are planted, right? I think sometimes I feel like I need to focus on the important, serious stuff because those priorities are justified. But why not focus on the fun things, too? Why not make fun a priority? I’m glad we chose to do that this weekend.

My heart is full, and my soul has been fed.