Fall Soccer

Both Alex and Abby played soccer this fall on the same teams from last Spring.  It helps to already know a lot of the kids and the coaches from prior seasons and they have a blast.  Sadly most games overlapped and are about 10-15 minutes apart in location so we would split up in the mornings and regroup at the later game.  Alex still gets to play on the turf fields which is so much nicer than the little grassy/buggy school fields where Abby plays 3v3 soccer.  Alex's team only lost 2 games, both to the same team, and they were pumped about that.  Abby's team doesn't really keep score and they rotate through fields so you constantly are picking up your chair and switching to the other side of the field.  Good times!  They loved this season and will play again in the Spring.

First Day of School

Abby's first day of Kindergarten and Alex's first day of Fourth Grade rolled around just after Labor Day.  Abby has Mrs. Chase and adores her.  Her best little buddy, Celia, is in her class and they love that.  She also has a few other buddies in her class from soccer which has been nice.  Alex has Mrs. Pritz and is in class with several kids from last year.  There are 30 students in his class so despite it being a magnet program, the class size is much larger than last year's.  His teacher is great and has introduced them to Rubik's cube and how to solve them.  Abby is quite the teacher's helper (just like preschool) and is eager to please.  We are going to miss this school greatly next year but know that we are headed someplace equally as enjoyable.

OSU vs. Navy

What a treat!  OSU played Navy on our anniversary, 8/30/14 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.  It had been years since we'd been to a Buckeyes game and we were thrilled to attend with our Navy friends.  Ohio State won 34-17, which was an added bonus!  The marching bands from both teams put on a great show and we enjoyed bumping into fellow Buckeye friends as well.

Disney 2014

Once all settled into our temporary housing for the school year, we took a family vacation to Disney World during the last week of August.  It was mainly people from the East Coast who had yet to return to school and the lines were extremely short.  If you can stand the heat, I'd highly recommend this time.  

We ventured out early each day with a rest back at the hotel in the heat of the afternoon. We managed to hit Magic Kingdom, Epcot (one late afternoon/night), Hollywood Studios (one late afternoon/night), Legoland, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon.  Which park we went back to at night depended on where we had dinner reservations.  By the last day (Friday preceding Labor Day), crowds were starting to pick up so we were glad to be heading home.

We'd never tried the water parks before but with a trip this hot, we were glad we did!  The waterparks did have lines, unlike the amusement parks, but the wavepool was a big hit with both kids so we spent a good amount of time at those.  They had slides for all ages so we did divide an conquer a bit.  Abby really enjoyed the slides where two of us could sit in a tube.

Abby used one of her FastPasses to meet Anna and Elsa from Frozen.  What a treat!  Daddy and Alex went on something more exciting during this time and she walked right in.  The line was 1.5 hours for that!  Planning the FastPasses ahead of time (you get 3 per person each day to set up way in advance) really saved the day on this.

We had also never been to Legoland and were eager to try it out before Alex got much older.  We rented a car for one day and drove up (about an hour).  It was really cute and there was no one there.  Like no one.  We walked on to all the rides and the kids loved going on the coasters over and over and over again.  I'm sure they'd have felt differently about the park had there been a lot of waiting as most rides were really short.  

Another change was that we stayed at a less expensive resort, Art of Animation, on this trip.  It was cute and the room was themed to the Little Mermaid, which was a hit with Abby but not so much with Alex.  We will not do that again.  There is one bus stop, at the front of the resort.  Our rooms were way in the back of the resort.  Little Abby hiked a half mile to the bus stop/food court each day to go anywhere, after walking around the parks all day.  She was a trooper about it but it was a long, hot walk for sure.  There was little shade along the route either and a very long wait for buses, especially to the Magic Kingdom (farthest park away).  We will return to a different, smaller Disney resort next time, that is more centrally located.