Longwood Gardens

I was coming down to the wire with using my Brandywine Treasure Trail pass at Longwood Gardens.  The pass is up on September 3rd and the only thing left that I really wanted to do on it was to visit Longwood Gardens.  I wanted to see their Light exhibit and it's best viewed at night so we couldn't go on a school night.  Last night finally worked for all of us (except Lauren but she didn't want to go anyway) so we left the house around 6:30 and headed to Longwood.  We had about an hour before it got dark so we headed to the conservatory.  We got to see the lily pads:

 By the time we finished touring the conservatory the inside lights were coming on, here's Snowballs:

It looked much better in person because there were more of them and they were synchronized to change colors. 

After leaving the conservatory it was dusk out and I was ready to move on to see the different light exhibits set-up outside.  The kids had a different plan though and wanted to run along the grass "steps" for 15 minutes.  Whatever, I think all that did was wear Zach out for later.  So we finally move along and visit the Forest of Light.  We didn't do the whole forest walk but what we did see was gorgeous. 

 Water Towers was the next light attraction we saw which was situated way out in a field. 

 It had 69 structures that were made from 1-liter plastic bottles that changed colors.  It was probably prettier from a distance as we were walking to it than when we were close-up.  My picture doesn't do it justice because you can't see all the pretty colors.

We saw a couple of the other light exhibits but by this time Zach and Megan were both whining to go home.  I really wish that we had left the kids at home and just Paul and I went.  It would have been much more enjoyable!

I was able to pull off one last picture of the 3 of them at the entrance. 

And that conluded our evening out and the start to our Labor Day weekend since no one had school or work today.

1st Day of School

The kids started school on different days.  Kristin and Zachary started on Monday.

Megan and Lauren started school on Tuesday.

All elementary school plus 6th and 9th grade went on Monday and since Kristin was starting 9th grade she started before the other girls.  One advantage was that the 9th graders had the school to themselves to figure out where their classes were before the rest of the high school started.  Good thing too because it is a confusing high school!

They all seemed to have a good first day and even a good first week.  Here's hoping they have a good year!

Winterthur

The girls and I took a trip to Winterthur yesterday since Lauren wanted to go and I still had that Brandywine Treasure Trail Passport so we could get in for free.  We took a tram tour first and then when that was over we headed straight for the enchanted woods so we could explore that before it began raining.   

We went through all the displays inside and I actually got to enjoy them this time since Zach wasn't with us!  You can't stop to read anything with him along. 

Strasburg

I've always wanted to go ride the Strasburg Railroad with Zach and even put "train ride" on our summer bucket list so that maybe this summer we would.  Though it came late in the summer we finally accomplished it.  We didn't want our family fun from Hersheypark to end on Wednesday so Thursday we spent yet another day together, this time at Strasburg.  We just bought coach seats this time but Paul was eyeing the dining car so maybe someday we'll try that.  

The seat backs switch positions and Zach figured that out while we were waiting to go back. 

We had to wait until another train passed us.  The trains were running every half an hour.

Here's what the girls were doing during our stops, playing on their phones.

Right before we arrived back at the station I had all 4 of them pose for me.

And then again outside of the train once we got off.

We had purchased combo tickets which let us go into the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania also which was right across the street.  Inside there were several different trains that you could look at.

The wheels on the trains are a lot bigger than Zachary!  He didn't seem too impressed though.

This was part of a railroad which was very heavy, 75 pounds maybe?  Zach tried to lift it and couldn't.

Paul could do it though.

Some of the trains we were able to go inside. 

This was a cab simulator that lets you "drive" the train to the station.  You're given 6 minutes and basically you just follow the prompts on the screen. 

Some trains are powered by coal.  All the kids took turns shoveling the pretend coal even though this area was geared to little kids.

Oops!  Lauren thinks Zach is coal and is about to put him in the furnace of one of the trains. 

It was a nice day but I thought Zach would have taken more of an interest in the trains and he didn't.  His comment about the day was that it was "boring."  He really did like the train ride though and parts of the museum, the parts where you could push a button and make the miniature trains run.  Oh well, at least now I know not to invest in any trains for him!  Now if we had taken him to a racetrack to see race cars, that would have been a different story.

On a Funnier Note...

I did a double take when I passed by the downstairs bathroom today.  Zach has a set of sign cards and he had taped this one to the outside of the bathroom!

It says, "Poison!"  Now that's too funny!

So Frustrating!

Disclaimer:  This is long and confusing.  If you proceed to read this do so at your own risk.

I absolutely HATE my kids school district transportation department right now and I just need to vent.  The bus schedules are usually mailed out a week before school starts but this year I never received them.  So yesterday I call to find out their bus numbers and most importantly what times they need to be at the bus stop.  I ask about Zach first and they tell me that he's not even being picked up in our neighborhood, that he's being picked up at a daycare.  Really???  I told them that was impossible because, get this, he doesn't even go to daycare!  They ask, "Are you sure you didn't fill out a daycare form?"  Um...yeah...pretty sure I didn't since HE DOESN'T EVEN GO TO DAYCARE."  So they tell me that I have to call his school and get them to change it in the system since they can't do anything, all their information comes from the schools.  Okay, makes sense though I still have no idea how the mix up happened.  I call the school and they make the change in the system but by this time the transportation department has closed and I have to wait until today to call. 

So I call them this morning and their computers are down and they ask if I can call back after lunch.  No problem with that because I think the problem has been taken care of and all I really want at this point is the bus stop times.  Silly me, what was I thinking?  I wait till 1:00 and call and to my surprise they still have his bus stop at the daycare.  They tell me to call his elementary school again and to ask for a bus pass so he can ride the bus in our neighborhood.  I call the school and guess what?  I know you know what's coming, they can't issue a bus pass because their system is down too!  This was after I got yelled at for not submitting a daycare form, the secretary obviously didn't hear or understand what I was saying.  When she finally understood she did a little investigative work and said that Zach's information was correct on their end of things but that maybe the transportation dept. mixed Zach up with another kid with the same last name that was going to that daycare.  Whew!  Did you get all of that?  So Zach's school can't do anything for me and they tell me to call back and ask them if they looked at the right name.  She even gave me the other kids name.  She also said that the schools are not allowed to call the transportation department. 

At this point the transportation department is experiencing a high volume of calls and now there is a message that plays when you call their number.  Well they wouldn't be swamped with calls if they had just mailed out the stupid bus information a week ago like they've always done!  Who the hell waits till the weekend before to mail out vital information.  That's just plain stupid but anyways, back to the whole Zach mix up thing.  A different person answers this time and listens to my story, puts me on hold for 10 minutes and then comes back on the line to say that she will investigate it and call me back.  I wasn't holding my breath for that call back so I give her over an hour before calling yet again, my 4th time today.  I get a hold of Jim, the guy I've talked to all the other times I've called.  As I reiterate my story he interrupts and says that he remembers me.  Well he should with as many times that I've called.  He then proceeds to tell me that their system receives new information once each day and that since it's been down they can't access any changes that have been made.  Well I wish he would have told me that the first time I called today!  He then suggested that I just drive Zach to school Monday morning and get a bus pass for him to ride the bus home in the afternoon because by then the computer system should be up and running.  Nothing else they can do for me at this point. Let's just say I was not a happy camper with that answer and said that transporting my child to school was there issue, not mine since I pay my school taxes to get that transportation.  I also told him that if they had mailed the bus information a week ahead of time like they have always done in the past (and I told him that I had a senior this year and have been doing this for years) then I would have had this whole week to sort this out instead of trying to do it in a matter of hours.  He gave a lame excuse to explain the lateness of the bus schedules and basically reiterated the fact that because their system was down that they couldn't do anything.   

I literally felt like crying at this point because no one wanted to fix this problem.  The transportation department blamed the school and the school blamed the transportation department.  And they both blamed that fact that the system was down.  Meanwhile, poor Zach has to walk to school!  (Yes, I'm being dramatic but it was a pretty dramatic day.)  I called Zach's elementary school one last time to tell them that in no way, shape or form he was to be put on a bus to go home on Monday and that I would be coming in with a note saying that. If they can't get him to school why the heck should I trust them to bring him home? 

I made one final ditch effort sheerly out of frustration.  I looked at my kids school district website and sent them a very irate email about the situation.  I never expected to get a reply but lo and behold an hour later I get a reply from the manager of communications/public information officer.  She apologized to me and then proceeded to inform me that "the computer server that houses the Transportation Department information was part of a statewide internet outage by Verizon. "   It is supposed to be fixed tonight.  She then wanted me to contact the transportation department again so they could help me (yeah right!) but that if I had any problems or needed additional information to contact her.  Her number was at the bottom of the email and I wasted no time in dialing that number!  Her secretary answered and even though she was very nice, probably the nicest person I've talked to today, she really couldn't do anything either due to the computer glitch.  She did however tell me that due to all the issues they were having that the transportation department was going to be open tomorrow and that hopefully everything will be resolved then. 

So...now I have the teeniest tiniest bit of hope that when the servers come back up tomorrow that the new information will be at the transportation department.  Unfortunately I have to make yet another call to them tomorrow!  The secretary asked me if I knew the number and I told her that I have it memorized since I've called it so many times!  I honestly really don't care whether I have to drive Zach to school Monday morning or not.  What I care about is that no one wanted to help me fix this problem.  If they had genuinely cared or even at least acted like they cared then I wouldn't be nearly this upset.  It was basically like, well our servers are down so your out of luck, sorry! 

Anyway, if you made it this far I'm impressed!  Rant over.  I'll update and let you know what happens.

UPDATE:  I called this morning (Saturday) and was told that he is now on our neighborhood bus!  I still don't know why they had to make that so hard and why no one wanted to do anything.  That was the reason I was so angry.  The fact that there was no protocol in place in case something like this happens.  They were perfectly content with letting a 6-year-old not have a bus rather than try to figure some way to switch his schedule.  The "I-don't-care" attitude is what got me.

Hersheypark

This is the latest in the summer that we've ever gone to Hersheypark but we finally found a day that worked for all 6 of us.  That day was yesterday.  Once we got there Paul and the girls went straight to the new ride, Sky Rush, and got in line.  While they had their hour wait Zach and I fed the ducks and rode some kiddie rides.  It's hard to see him but here he is on the Convoy

I can't wait till he outgrows those kind of rides!  They were cute when he was little but not when he's 6.  This year he was still only a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup but hopefully next year he'll grow enough to be a Hershey Chocolate Bar.  That will really open up a variety of rides for him then. 

Zach and I got back in time to see them finish their ride on Sky Rush.  Paul and Kristin are the one ones with their hands up.  Megan and Lauren were in the same row but you can't see them. 

They literally did that one ride and then we went back to the car for a lunch break.  As always we bring lunch with us and sit under the stadium where there are picnic tables.  It's a nice break to the day plus it's a lot cheaper!

We always visit Chocolate World after lunch so we can get our free chocolate for our dessert.  Of course we had to pose by the sign.

We are really a strange family!  They take a picture on the ride and we know that so this year we all agreed ahead of time to make "the face."  I started laughing and so did Kristin.  Everyone else did it good though.  I can't believe that I actually paid for this picture?

Here's another example of "the face."  It comes automatic to us now!  It's pretty sad.

At least these two look normal!

Which brings me to mention that I actually got to ride with Paul for the first time in years, probably since before the kids were born!  Usually we're each stuck with one of them.  :)  We even got to ride on the Sooperdooperlooper together too.  Wow, two rides in one day, that's impressive!

For about an hour in the afternoon a monsoon arrived so we bought some french fries and dashed into a local food place to wait it out.  We were amazed at how heavy the rain was.  Because of that all the rides shut down and had to wait 30 minutes (there was thunder and lightning in the area) before resuming.  So we got ice cream!

Afterwards the rides started operating again and the girls and Paul went on different roller coasters while Zach and I played games.  He surprised me when he played Skee Ball by getting 3 balls in a row in the 50 point hole.  That game won him 2 tickets but he needed 12 tickets to get the smallest prize.  Needless to say we stopped after 3 games because he still only had 2 tickets. 

I forgot to mention that I did get to ride Sky Rush because surprisingly the line was really short when we came back after lunch.  After riding it I know why the line was so short because no one wanted to do it twice!  There is only a restraint that comes down across your legs and boy do they push that thing down tight!  Then during the ride you're pulled into that bar and your legs hurt!  It would be a really cool ride if it wasn't for that. 

Other than the hour of rain we had it was a pretty decent day.  Glad we finally were able to coordinate our schedules for it.

FamilyFest

Yesterday was the 3rd annual Riverfront FamilyFest but it was our first time going.  The event was held in the Chase Center and was advertised as a fun and free event for the entire family. There was a "Back to School" expo with various vendors/exhibits/businesses handing out tons of free things.  Zach was good at spotting the tables that had candy on them and we told him he was practicing for when he went trick-or-treating!  The other freebies we got were of course tons of pencils, pens and post-it notes but we also got frisbees, bubbles, crayons, toothbrushes, matchbox trucks, a stuffed Elmo and tons of bags and even backpacks.  In addition to all that they had what Zach enjoyed the most which were the inflatables and moon bounces.  This one was a soccer kick one. (I made him carry his backpack he was given.)

There was also a basketball and football one too.  In the back there were two huge obstacle courses set up.  This was the mega obstacle course which he did in record time.  Surprisingly there was hardly any wait.

This was a different obstacle course that ended up having a little bit of a wait because one of the kids before him couldn't get himself over one of the walls.  He was an older boy, about 10 years old, and it took another parent to jump in and help him over.  I was worried whether Zach could do it but he had no problems with it at all.  Here he is at the start waiting for the go ahead.

Zach could have probably stayed there for another hour playing on the different inflatables but after hitting them all (some even twice) Kristin and Megan were getting bored.  We made our way back through the exhibit area and stopped at some of the tables either again or hit the ones we missed the first time.  The one table was giving out big boxes of candy if you answered a movie question correct.  Zach's question was, "What was the main character in the movie Cars?"  That was the perfect question for Zach, "Lightning McQueen!"  He chose a box of Swedish Fish.  Megan's question was, "What was the name of Prim's cat in The Hunger Games?"  She couldn't answer it and I couldn't help her because I couldn't remember it. (She's seen the movie but I've read the book AND seen the movie.)  He was nice and changed the question and Megan was able to answer that one so she picked out a box of M&M's.  By the way, the answer to the cat question is Buttercup.

We left there carrying our many bags of goodies to put in the car and then headed over to Molly's for some ice cream.  Zach is showing his black raspberry cone.

Then we took a short walk on the riverfront.  The three of them posing by one of the many signs.

We stopped to check out the water but Zach didn't want to get close because he was freaked out that the water was actually under us. He loved the big cranes that were there though. You can see part of one behind Zach.

I have no idea why this caboose just sits in the grass but it was good for me because it provided yet another photo op.

We were winding up our walk but what's a walk without a picture on a bench.

I had to have my bench picture too so here's Kristin and I looking lovely while Zach is making "the face!" 

That ended our nice time at the riverfront and we got in the car and headed home.  We had a backwards lunch day because I stopped to get them happy meals after they've already had ice cream.  So other than the ice cream and happy meals (about $18) the entertainment was free and we will definitely go back to this again next year.  Maybe next year we'll include a stop at Timothy's or one of the other restaurants around there.  By next year the new movie theater should be open and we could really make a day of it.  I'm already looking forward to it!



Blue Rocks Game

It has been such a hot summer to go see a Blue Rocks game but finally we got a break in the heat so we decided to go see tonights game.  Plus Friday nights are Fireworks nights so that was a bonus.  None of the girls wanted to go (well, Lauren was working so she was never asked) but Pop Pop joined us. 

Zach had a pretzel and sprite first and then later got some dippin' dots in a plastic baseball hat. 

I was texting Kristin and Megan and Zach wanted me to include this picture:

So I had to include it here too!  The Blue Rocks won the game and just as the game ends here comes the rain.  We kept tracking the storm on our phones and saw the storm getting closer and closer.  I was afraid the fireworks were going to be cancelled but they still put them off even though it was raining.  They had technical difficulties early on so there was a break in the fireworks show while they reset the computer but overall it was an awesome show.  So glad we decided to go to a Blue Rocks game tonight.

A Rainy Day



This morning it was really rainy and stormy so we cut open the box that his new bike came in and made it into a town.  At first he didn't want to do any of it and said to me, "you do it."  So I did.  As soon as I started drawing the roads he came over to help.  

On the one side we have roads with a soccer field, baseball field and pool, all with various parking lots/spaces.  Then there's a road that leads to the other side which started out as a bike track but later turned into a racetrack.  In the far corner I just had to draw in a little shopping center and with Zach's help we made the stores into a Target, McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts.

There was a small spot between two of our roads and I asked him what we thought should be there.  He wanted to put a racetrack there but I said it was kind of small for that and suggested a small park with a swing set.  He looked at me, paused, then said, "Nah, I like my idea better" and then proceeded to draw his small racetrack.  I deemed it the kiddie racetrack!

Fishing

Zach got to do another thing off of his summer bucket list today, he went fishing.  We asked Papaw to take him since he's the expert and then I just tagged along as the photographer!  First we went by the bridge to do some fishing but since it's late in the summer the field was overgrown and looked like this:

That didn't stop Papaw though so we go trampling through that field only to find that we can't get to the creek.  One spot was too overgrown with brush and the other had poison ivy.  So with no other options we had to trek back through that field and drive to another area. 

At least the next place had a nice trail!  It was a long walk though to get to the creek but it was worth it because Zach caught a fish!  It's hard to see the fish in the picture but it's there.

Once it was off the hook I couldn't believe that he wanted to hold it.

Then he threw it back and caught another!  You can see the fish a little better in this picture.

Papaw was putting a worm on the hook and he was telling Zach not to move the pole or he would hook him.  Zach said something about if he did then he would catch something big and that's why they're smiling.

Zach ended up catching 2 more fish for a total of 4.  Here's a short little video of him after he reeled in a fish.

He only caught sunfish and they were all thrown back but Zach seemed to really enjoy it.  Now to get him to cast the line out but that will have to wait until a much cooler day!