Universal Studios

On our second day in Orlando (Monday), we went to Universal Studios.  This was our first time to go to Universal so everything was new to us (this was our fourth time at Disney with the kids).  Brian and I both enjoyed Universal more than Disney.  The boys seemed to like it equally (but it depends on the day you ask and which ride on the trip they currently remember as being their favorite).

We did not pay the extra money for the Express Pass (it's like a Fast Pass at Disney in that you get to go in the shorter line for the ride but it's unlimited).  However, we really didn't need it that day.  We generally waited 5-10 minutes (or less) for all the rides.  I think we waited 20 minutes maybe twice.  We did take advantage of Child Swap since Gray was too short for most of the rides.  At Universal, everyone stands in line the first time and then there is a waiting room near the loading area for the ride you wait in to swap the little ones.  This allowed the big boys to ride most of the rides twice without waiting at all the second time.

I think we rode every single ride at the park that day (several of them more than once).  There were a couple Rylan was too short for but that was it.  A lot of the rides were 3D/4D and completely different than anything we'd ridden before.  Even though there weren't many regular roller coasters, the rides were just much more intense than those at Disney and I really liked that.

Here are the few pictures I took at Universal!

After the Minion Mayhem ride, we got to meet a minion.  Gray was scared to death.  In this picture the minion is pouting because Gray punched him (softly) in the eye when he wouldn't leave him alone.

The Transformers ride was one of my favorites (as well as Rylan's).

Brian and Gray waiting in the Child Swap room for the Men in Black ride ...

I liked their matching bored faces :)

Before going to Universal, I rented the first two Harry Potter movies from the library to show the boys.  Carter really liked the movies and Rylan was interested in parts of them.  But they both thought it was awesome when they saw things they recognized at Universal.  Even while walking through the line for the rides, there were scenes from the movies that the boys thought were cool.

The Harry Potter section of the park was by far the most crowded area but still wasn't horrible.

Both boys even decided that getting a wand would be their souvenir for the trip.  It was pretty cool to get to go in a shop that looked just like the one in the movie and pick out a wand.

Carter is now working on reading the first Harry Potter book.  So far he seems to like it (and the paperback version doesn't look nearly as intimidating as the hardcover which Carter refused to even give a chance to before because it looked so long).

Gray's favorite ride (which he did several times) was Kang & Kodos' Twirl 'n' Swirl (which is like a Dumbo ride).  It was one of the few rides he could do at Universal too.

We sat down to watch the parade in the middle of the afternoon.  Since we were right by the Revenge of the Mummy ride and it only had a 5 minute wait, Brian and I each took a turn to sneak off and do that ride again.

Despicable Me floats (the boys can't wait for #3 to come out this summer!) ...

The Secret Life of Pets floats ...

Gray slept through the parade :)  He was able to take a nap each day at some point in his stroller.

We went on E.T. Adventure near the end of the day (Gray was barely tall enough for it).

I think he was a little scared at times!

We had an awesome day at Universal.  Even though the boys had only seen a few of the movies that rides were based on (Despicable Me, Shrek, Harry Potter, and E.T.), they were familiar with the basis of some of the others (like Transformers).  I think that made the rides more fun for them.

That night we realized we could see some of the Disney fireworks from our hotel room.  They weren't close but it was still fun to watch them before bed.

Indoor Soccer

Carter played indoor soccer again this winter.  Unlike last year, the competition was much easier this year.  All the travel team kids moved up an age group and the teams ended up being pretty equal this season (most games were only won by a couple of goals).  Carter's team tied for first in the league with a record of 5-1.  Brian coached again and had Charlie & Whit's dad sign up as the assistant coach so that they were automatically on our team.  Brian drafted better this season too which helped with the successful season.

Tonight was the last game of the season.  Carter's team played their best game too and won 9-2.  Here's a short video of Carter's goal ...

Carter passing to Tyson ...

Almost another goal for Carter ...

Carter headed downfield ...

I got a good series of Carter receiving a pass for a give and go (and Tyson almost getting there to get a shot on goal) ...

We had 10 kids on the team this season.  Here's the team picture they took earlier in the season:

Front Row (L to R); Whit, Carter, Jake, Bode

Back Row (L to R): Coach Brian, Arhaan, Harsh, Charlie

Missing: Tyson, Miles, Luke

Now it's time to move on to outdoor soccer and baseball.  The outdoor soccer season has already begun and the boys have their first games this weekend!  Baseball has started as well but the first games aren't until the end of the month.

Epcot

We decided to take the boys out of school for a week this February to go to Disney and Universal.  We figured it was the last time this would be easy to do since Carter is in second grade (he has very little homework and there is no end-of-year testing yet).  And this would be the last year that Gray is free.

We went the week before President's Day to try to avoid the crowds as much as possible.  We left on a Saturday and returned on a Saturday.  As usual, we drove and we very lucky to never hit any traffic (the drive is long enough!).  I think we picked a good week and we did a pretty good job with our fast passes but there were a few times we waited longer than we'd like to.  But over the week, most waits were 5-10 minutes and we occasionally waited 20 minutes.  I think we did maybe two waits of 30 minutes.

For the first time we also decided to do Universal.  Since we had six days in Orlando, we decided to do one day at each of the four Disney parks and one day at each of the two Universal parks.  We stayed at a Drury Inn & Suites near Universal because now that we are a family of 5, the cost of a suite at a Disney hotel is insane.  We had a wonderful huge room with a separate bedroom along with free breakfast and free dinner at the hotel.  The dinner wasn't amazing but after a long day at the parks, we were usually fine with it.

As always, our boys were up super early (much earlier than normal even) so we were at the parks in line usually about 45 minutes before they opened (and we were usually killing time in the hotel room before leaving each morning).  Since we weren't staying on property, we weren't able to enter the parks early and I made sure to avoid whichever park was opening early each day.

We did Epcot on our first day in Orlando (Sunday, February 12th).  The boys were ready for their first day of fun!

Gray never wears a hat but was obsessed with it most of the trip.  He wears it pretty well :)

Epcot let everyone through the entrance where you show your tickets early and then stopped everyone at Spaceship Earth until the park officially opened.  We were right up front and watched these guys perform until we were allowed to head to the rides.

We tried to fit in as much as possible each day (and were worn out by the time we left each day - usually between 5:30 and 7pm).  We pretty much hit every ride in every park each day.  We figured out after the first day how to take advantage of the fast pass system and rider swap (the advantage of having a toddler with us!) so that we could get more fast passes each day which was awesome.  Instead of having all of us do the same 3 fast passes (the most you are allowed to sign up for each day), two of us would pick 3 and the other two would pick a different 3.  The two that went on the ride with the fast pass got a rider swap fast pass for the others without all of us having to scan our cards.  Plus, with rider swap, it counts for 3 people so both kids would get to go on the ride instead of just the one who hadn't been able to yet.  (That explanation sounds very confusing now that I'm rereading it , but if you go to Disney, hopefully it makes sense and will help you out!)  Rylan was tall enough for almost everything at Disney (there was more he and Gray were too short for at Universal).  Universal also had a great child swap option that cut down on wait times for us and let the big boys ride most rides two times.

I tried to take some pictures throughout our days at the parks but not nearly as many as I normally would have.  Here are the ones I took at Epcot.

The Seas with Nemo and Friends:

Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival:

Playing outside of the Pixar show.  The big boys were not good at pretending that they were not trying to get wet!

Test Track (one of our favorite rides!):

Group shot before heading out for the night:

WCS Art Show

Rylan had a piece of his art chosen for the Williamson County Schools Art Show at the Frist!  Each school in the county gets to pick two pieces from each grade level and Rylan was on of the two kindergarten students from Clovercroft!  We are super proud of him!  We love that we have kids that enjoy so many things (though I admit it wears me out!).

What's really crazy is that Carter's exact same art project was picked by his art teacher when he was in kindergarten (and there is a new art teacher at Clovercroft this year!)!!!  Here's the link to that post two years ago!

After viewing the student art work, we got to stick around and enjoy the ArtQuest area with the kids.  They spent about an hour creating lots of new masterpieces :)

Home

We got back Saturday from a trip to Orlando where we did 4 days at Disney and 2 at Universal.  More to come soon!!!

Gray

Poor Gray rarely gets the opportunity to nap in his crib.  Yesterday afternoon he fell asleep during halftime of Carter's basketball game.

We went out to dinner afterwards and he finally let me record his silly face ...

School Progress

The boys' school does parent-teacher conferences once a year in October.  And then there is pretty much no more communication about academics with the teacher after that.  At least we have never had any.  Not even to tell us when Carter was getting pulled along with a few classmates for what he called "special math" with the gifted teacher.  So this year I have been trying to stay more involved.  I have always gone through the work the boys bring home (often with them) and help with any homework, but I'm "bugging" their teachers more this year to ask questions.

I recently sent both boys' teachers emails asking how they were doing.  I asked if they were struggling with anything and if we needed to work more on anything at home, as well as a few other questions.  Here are their responses ...

Rylan:

Rylan is not struggling with anything. He is on track. His reading level for DRA (a system kindergarten uses) was just recently rescored. He is at a 16. Most of the class is at a 4,5, or 6. My three highest students, (not including Rylan) are all 8’s. He is well above everyone else in reading. He is getting pulled during PowerBlock for math, however I am contacting Mrs. Doizer this week to ask why he has not been pulled for reading. He should be in reading enrichment.

Rylan does seem to get very embarrassed if it’s something he doesn’t know. Because he is so much higher than everyone else I try to give him the challenging questions. Most of the time he can answer with no issue, however if he struggles he seems to be a little sad. I have also noticed if I don’t call on him to do everything he gets upset. I try to remind the class that I have to call on everyone and that if I don’t call on you this time I might next time.

Rylan seems to love write the room, reading with Selma (they read higher leveled books together), anything that involves drawing/illustrating/coloring, and leading calendar time.

I do plan on sending books home again! We just retested everyone’s level, so I was waiting to get those levels back to readjust books that are being sent home before I do that again! Would it be okay if I sent home with Rylan a little chapter book to read instead of the little readers? I think this would get him really excited to have a chapter book to read because 1. Its longer and 2. He can definitely read the ones I have!

Here are Rylan's winter scores that came home yesterday:

Test	Winter Score	Winter Target
DRA - Reading Level	16	Spring goal 4-6
STAR	98%	46 - 99%
LSF - Letter Sounds	47	16
NWF - Fluency	83	16
QDM - Quantity Discrimination	28	13
MNM - Missing Number	21	8

Carter:

Thank you so much for checking in on Carter! Carter is continuing to excel in all areas and he truly goes above and beyond the standards that we cover. He is being pulled with a math and reading enrichment group to continue to excel his progress. I will be sending home a sheet towards the end of the week similar to the one you got at conferences to update his winter reading and math scores. I have also seen an improvement with his spelling. I feel like he is really paying attention when sounding out words which has helped his writing immensely. Keep doing what you all are doing! He works so hard at school and does his very best! Please let me know if you need anything else!

Here are Carter's fall & winter scores:

Test	Fall Score	Winter Score	Winter Target
QRI - Reading Assessment	3.4	3.8	1.8 - 2.8
Oral Reading Fluency (Aimsweb)	131	157	80
STAR (Reading Comprehension) Computer Test	94	87	Scores are percentile
Math Concepts & Applications (Aimsweb)	31	41	15
Math Computation (Aimsweb)	38	50	31
STAR (Math Skills) Computer Test	99	98	Scores are percentile

Valentine's Day Cards

The boys' Valentine's Day cards are ready to go!  We made them again this year.  Both definitely fit their personalities!

Carter's:

Rylan's: