Spring Break 2014

Spring Break last year was actually timed pretty nice. I had spring break the 2nd full week in March like almost every school in Texas, whereas the kids had spring break the next week. At first it was a little aggravating that we weren't going to have the same spring break, but then I realized how nice it would be. There were only 2 school districts in the Houston area that had spring break the 3rd week in March instead of the 2nd week. This meant that we were able to do things like go to the zoo and go to the rodeo without having nearly as big of crowds, and it meant that my spring break was a bit more enjoyable since Jacob and Jeremy were both still in school.

Justin took off work Tuesday through Thursday of the kids' spring break since I had to work that Tuesday and Thursday. After I got off work on Tuesday I was in charge of making 5 dozen cupcakes for a Relief Society activity that night, and Thursday after getting off work we headed to the zoo.

Nutella filled chocolate cupcakes with Nutella buttercream

White almond sour cream cupcakes with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream

On Wednesday we went to the rodeo. We didn't realize until after we'd already decided to go to the rodeo this day that Wednesdays are "bargain" days with discounted entrance fee as well as less expensive rides so it really worked out in our favor since Wednesday was the only day we could go.

When we first got there we let the kids do a pony ride. They loved it, but none of the pictures really turned out very well.

After that we walked around looking at different animals. We knew that the kids just wanted to head to the carnival part of the rodeo, but that didn't open as early as the rest of the rodeo.

We got to see some pig races which I think were only slightly interesting to the kids.

 Their favorite part was definitely the rides and we're glad that they were slightly less expensive on Wednesday because they were pretty pricey.

Rodeo Field Trip 2014

Jacob got to go on a neat field trip to the Houston Rodeo in 2013 and we thought it was a one-time only kind of thing. So I was very surprised to get a notice last January about their upcoming rodeo trip. When I went to the informational meeting the PPCD teacher told me that they were already planning on Jeremy going on the field trip as well (even though he still hadn't been evaluated for the program yet).

They got to go on the field trip the week before Spring Break and again provided us with some of the pictures.

Love, love, love this picture

Jeremy started PPCD

It is a little strange to have 2 out of 3 children with developmental delays and problems. Everyone always says not to compare children to each other, but I feel it is nearly impossible not to.

Jeremy had to go through the same evaluation process that Jacob went through in order to determine if he was delayed enough to qualify for PPCD (Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities). Again, we weren't really sure if Jeremy would qualify for the program or not - he definitely wasn't as delayed as Jacob was at the age of 3, but also he definitely wasn't developmentally at the same level as his twin brother.

We were happy to hear (just 2 days before his 3rd birthday) that Jeremy did indeed qualify for PPCD, and that he could start school on Monday. And then to realize that I had never ordered birth certificates for the twins and I couldn't actually register him for school until I had that. Needless to say, I rushed home and ordered one for each twin as a rush order.

We already knew that the PPCD kids were going on a field trip to the Rodeo the very next week and without the birth certificate, Jeremy would have to miss the trip. Luckily we received the birthday in the mail the very Friday after I ordered it and Jeremy was able to start school only a week later than we had thought he would and still go on the trip.

Joel really didn't know what to think about Jeremy going to school. The first day or two I think he was just confused, but after that he would cry and cry about not having his own bus that picked him up and took him to school. After all, a bus picked up Jacob and then about 45 minutes later a bus came and picked up Jeremy. The whole rest of the school year was tough because Joel didn't have a bus or get to go to school.

Someone did not want to stand so I could take a picture of him with his backpack on

Jeremy graduated from ECI

When the twins weren't really talking when they were almost 18 months old, we started the process of having them evaluated for ECI (Early Childhood Intervention). After having them evaluated it was determined that Joel wasn't delayed enough to qualify for assistance, but Jeremy did.

ECI worked with Jeremy for almost a year and a half and he graduated out of the program when he turned 3. For his very last visit, we had a little graduation ceremony for him.

I didn't even know that they did anything like this because Jacob never got to have his last ECI visit just when he turned 3 - it was canceled due to the lady that worked with him being in an accident.

So excited to graduate

Jeremy was so cute in his cap and gown!

Twins turned 3 (Feb 2014)

Joel is 3!

Jeremy is 3!

We celebrated the twins 3rd birthday by taking all the boys to Chuck E Cheese for the first time ever. They all had a ball, but didn't understand many of the games - for them it was all about just putting the tokens into the slots for the games.

We cheated a little when it came to the twins' birthday presents. We had kept them in their cribs as long as possible but it was time to move them into big boy beds. Which means that we spent quite a bit more money on bunk beds and bedding than we wanted to spend and we called that their birthday presents. But then we felt guilty that we weren't going to have anything for them to unwrap so I ordered some puzzles for them because they love puzzles.

The boys were so excited about their new beds

Opening some presents

Jeremy is the puzzle master

I also cheated when it came to a birthday cake for the twins. Jeremy doesn't like cake (or any sweets) and Joel never told me what he wanted, so I did the same thing for the twins' 3rd birthday as I did for the Jacob's 3rd birthday - Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes!

These cupcakes seemed easier to make this time around than when I made them for Jacob's birthday

Jeremy liked seeing the cupcakes, but just like Jacob always does when it comes to cakes or cupcakes, he didn't even want to touch them.

Joel, on the other hand, can eat enough to sweets for all 3 of the boys combined.

Jacob turned 5

Jacob turned 5 on our trip to Florida. I was a little torn about what little about we actually did to celebrate Jacob's birthday a year ago. He doesn't talk about things like kids his age do. We can only assume that most kids are probably really excited as their birthday gets closer, and start talking about what they will get for presents, their birthday cake, etc., Jacob doesn't do any of that. That isn't to say that he doesn't get excited about birthdays, it's just that we don't know just how much he understands about birthdays and he doesn't communicate his expectations to us.

I kind of took advantage of Jacob's inability to communicate any of his expectations or wants for his birthday last year by not doing much. We took a present with us to give him on his actual birthday and we left a present at home to give him once we got back because it was a little bulky to take with us. We didn't worry about a birthday cake or anything like that because Jacob doesn't like to eat those types of things.

But the night of his birthday I felt a little guilty that we hadn't done anything for him and he was really interested in a candle that was burning when we went to dinner at Justin's brother's place in Orlando. So we sang happy birthday to him and let him blow out the candle a couple times. He loves to blow out candles.

After we got back home from our vacation I took his annual birthday picture with the blue elephant.

Vacation over

It was sad to leave vacation, but I think that Justin and I were looking forward to getting back home and having everyone sleep in their own beds. We were not looking forward to the actual drive home though.

Everyday while we were in Orlando, we would pull out of the resort and turn right to head to the parks, but on Saturday morning, the 21st, we turned left to get onto a freeway and head out of Orlando. Jacob started crying as soon as we turned onto the road saying "I want right. I want right." It was so sad.

Driving to Orlando we stayed overnight in Pensacola because it was a little over halfway there. Going back we knew that we wanted to stay somewhere that would be over halfway home and we initially booked a place just on the Louisiana side of Mississippi and Louisiana using some of Justin's hotel points. But once we were on our way we started thinking that we wanted to be a little closer to home when we stopped and we were hoping for a suite where we could have a living room and a bedroom with a door to close between the two. The twins did not sleep well on the way there in the same room as us and we were exhausted from so many late nights so much walking around the parks.

We couldn't find somewhere to use hotel points on that was just a little about an hour further than we originally booked, but we did find a place where we could have a 1 bedroom suite like we wanted and we decided that we had saved so much money on our trip that it would be worth it to just pay for the hotel. And it was! We put the twins in pack and plays in the living room and Jacob slept in the second bed in the bedroom. Justin and I went to sleep right after putting the kids down so that we didn't have any lights on to disturb their sleep. We loved getting more than 10 hours of sleep that night - it was much needed!

The drive home was long and tiring. We finished our drive home on Sunday and it rained a lot. Since there weren't any McDonald's with play areas and Chick-Fil-A is closed on Sunday and it was too rainy to stop at a park, we weren't able to stop anywhere to let the kids run around on Sunday and that was really difficult.

Overall we loved our trip. But we also learned that there is a reason that kids under 3 get in for free - they are definitely much more difficult to deal with than an older kid. Even though Jacob has developmental and behavior problems, he was the easiest child to handle on the trip. We're thinking - maybe we'll go again when the twins are 6 or 7. Hopefully.

Disney trip - Friday

Friday was our last day in Orlando and even though we didn't have park passes for this day we still participated in a Disney activity. This was another one of our splurges - we had breakfast at Chef Mickey's!

Our kids are really picky eaters, so we were really glad that the twins "ate" for free. (I have to say "ate" because I really don't think they ate much at all.) And Jacob was half-price, which was also very good because I don't think that Jacob ate anything at all. The food wasn't that great (breakfast buffet), but it wasn't bad, and where else can you eat and be greeted by Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy? The boys were in heaven.

We walked around Downtown Disney a little after breakfast, but most things weren't really open yet and we were just tired of walking around. We did go up in a big hot air balloon, but it seemed that the kids weren't as excited about that as we would have thought that they would be.

We went back to the pool and the kids had a really good time swimming, even though it wasn't all that warm (thank goodness for a heated pool).

Then we spent the evening getting everything together and packed up so that it would be easier leaving the next morning.

Disney trip - Thursday

Thursday was our last day with park admission and we knew that the kids would definitely want to go back to Magic Kingdom. We knew that there were some rides that the kids had ridden on Sunday that they would like to ride again and we made a sort of metal list the night before of rides we wanted to make sure to take them on. We didn't take any pictures at Magic Kingdom because we stayed too busy playing!

We packed lunches and got to the park soon after opening. We rode lots of rides, made sure to get a couple pineapple whips to share and went to the show in the Tiki Tiki Room. We really wore the kids out and stayed at the park until later in the afternoon than we had any other day. We really wanted to take the kids to see the Christmas lights at Hollywood Studios that evening and we just crossed our fingers that the kids would handle the late night without too many meltdowns. 

When we got there I decided that because we had saved so much money on food, lodging, park fees, etc, that we just had to get the boys some Mickey ears. We had each of the boys' names embroidered on the back.  Luckily they were able to have them ready for us before the park closed that evening so we were able to get them on our way out.

I had seen somewhere in one of the brochures or pamphlets or somewhere that there would be fireworks at Hollywood Studios that night. However, once we got here and started asking about where to see the fireworks the staff seemed to be confused and it turns out that I was the one confused. There was a fireworks show, but it was at the end of the Fantasmic! show. We got all turned around and had trouble finding the show so we got there late. And the kids weren't super excited about the show, although I think the fireworks at the end they enjoyed.

Once the show was out we headed over to the Christmas lights. They really were amazing and the kids really liked them - especially when the lights would blink in time with the music. The only drawback was how crowded it was - it felt like everyone in Orlando was in that one section of Hollywood Studios trying to see the Christmas lights.

Once we finished seeing all the Christmas lights and got the boys' Mickey ears we headed out. Some people walked back out to the parking lot, but my mom and I rode the tram with Jeremy. 

Story about Jeremy. We'd been only letting the twins have binkies while they slept for a while before the trip, but once we were driving to Florida it made it a much more pleasant drive to let the twins have their binkies whenever they wanted while we drove. But that turned into twins who wanted their binkies all the time whether we were at the park, the resort, or wherever. When we got on the tram to head back to the car, Jeremy dropped his binky and luckily we caught it before it rolled away. But then he dropped it again right after we gave it back to him and it rolled off the side of the tram and underneath the tram. It ended up right in the middle of the tram car and was unreachable. We kept trying to figure out a way to get it, while Jeremy whined that he didn't have his binky and then the Disney workers stepped in. They made sure that the tram didn't leave while they got a pik-stick to reach under and rescue Jeremy's binky. There really is a a mentally among the staff at Disney to be happy and helpful and to make children happy. We were really grateful right then that they did whatever they could to get Jeremy's binky back for him.