Animal Kingdom Show and Parade

 

The only show that I could get a good picture of was the Lion King show. We didn't have good luck with seating this visit. We were at the very back for just about every show. LOL!

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

The parade was different than other Disney parades. The floats were very colourful and moved by the people operating each one. Some were completely run by a person instead of a vehicle. It was interesting. The kids enjoyed it. It was a much better trip compared to our first trip to Animal Kingdom. The first time we went Austyn's eyes swelled up and he didn't enjoy it at all. This trip was nicely uneventful.  However I have come to the conclusion that in a regular day you can't even rush through this park and see all of the shows and areas. We've been here twice and knew from the first visit that we couldn't take our time and browse. We had to rush from one thing to the next and we still didn't make it to a part of the park. We'll see it another day, I'm sure.

“When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.” ~ Walt Disney

 

Animals in the Kingdom!

 

  

In Florida we can't miss the flamingos and above are two shots of the famous Animal Kingdom Tree with all of the animals carved throughout it.

  

  

On the African Safari ride we saw hippos and termite hills (the animals like to scratch on the hills).

  

  

  

  

  

It was nice for the kids to see some animals up close. We haven't been to a zoo in a while. They were overdue. The baby elephant was so cute!

 

  

This tree in Africa has no leaves for most of the year.

“Nature's great masterpiece, an elephant - the only harmless great thing.” ~ John Donne

Downtown Disney

  

  

Our main reason for going to Downtown Disney was for the Legos. Austsyn is such a huge fan of Legos and the Lego Video Games! The picture just above is a close up of one of the squirrels who reside in one of the large lego statues outside the store.

  

 

Since we didn't go to Magic Kingdom this visit it was nice for Zoe to be declared a princess. She got to go in the princess parade with other princesses and got a free ride on the carousel at the end. 

“Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.” ~ Hans Christian Andersen

We're Back!

We are back from vacation. The weather was not very warm most of the time, but we enjoyed ourselves. I think that being home much of the time with homeschooling and working, we needed to be somewhere else for a little while. It was nice. We want to go back. The kids didn't want to come home. Who knows... maybe someday we'll stay there or become part time road-schoolers...

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 The interesting thing about doing less work (business) we had more time together and I think the kids learned so much. I can really see how unschooling is so beneficial and how it is so important to be available as much as possible. 

One thing we are now behind on is reading. We didn't do much of that. Well... I did, but they didn't.  Since we've been back they have asked me to read at least four times. LOL!!

 I almost forgot to mention that I'll be adding some posts on things we learned or experienced on our journey. I just need to get some more work done right now and when I get a chance I'll get caught up. Our last day was the most exciting with regard to learning. We will need to return and explore deeper at that location, but in the mean time I've ordered library books and printed off a free lap book. Don't worry. I'll share.   :) 

“Laughter is an instant vacation.” ~ unknown

Book Sharing Monday

 

 

Last winter Zoe fell in love with this book from our library. Many of you may recognize the name as a book by Jan Brett but this is a different author. I think I may have requested this from the library from old classic children's reading lists I use to follow.

The Mitten by Alvin Tresselt is a wonderful story about a little boy who is out collecting fire wood on a very cold winter day. Somehow he drops a mitten and one by one animals move in making it their home from the cold. By the way this book is written it illustrates how a very old Ukranian Folk tale was passed down from generation to generation.

Book Sharing Monday

 

To Market, To Market by Anne Miranda is a book we own in our home library.  It is among our favourite re-reads. I think the main reasons for this are the story is so much fun, the illustrations match with the story so well and the other reason is because I sing it to them. When Austyn was a baby we got a tape with songs on it and of those songs was a song that went with the To Market nursery rhyme. So that is the tune I sing to this. I made an attempt to find this tune online but didn't find the exact one. The best I could do was with the following link. I sing it a bit more cheerful and jumpy.

http://www.nancymusic.com/SOM/2009/to%20market%20to%20market.htm

Book Sharing Monday

 

Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Yarrow and Lenny Lipton is a book we have in our collection. It came with a music CD. It's a favourite. This is a book I sing. The cover was more vibrant but I took it off because we got this book when Zoe was a baby and I didn't want it to get wrecked.

Here is a video of the Author and those involved in the song and the book. They feature the book by showing images from the book as they sing.