Miscellaneous Pictures of what else.....Disney!

These pictures are in no particular order. This was a giraffe at the Rain forest Cafe. We had lunch there on Sunday in Downtown Disney. We had started to DT Disney on Saturday and ended up in a rain storm on a boat. Needless to say by the time we got off the boat (they made everyone get off and catch the bus in the storm) and got on the bus we no longer wanted to go to DT Disney. So we just went and got some dinner and brought it back to our room where we stayed the rest of the evening. So this was on Sunday and the weather was perfect. I love the Rain forest Cafe. All the animals look so real.

Waiting for our lunch

Tanek wanted "Daddy Pluto" this time. After a busy morning we came back to the hotel for a rest. He wanted to play with his new Lego's and finally ended up falling asleep. We wanted him to take a nap since we had a late night planned for that night.

He and Pluto had a great nap. So did Mommy and Nana.

Whenever he has on socks he will always, always take one off and leave one on. I just thought these were very cute feet.

One of my favorite spots at Epcot is this big golf ball (or earth). I take a picture of it every time. I just think it looks awesome.

Tanek decided to go see Mickey and Pluto. He passed up Minnie, Donald, Daisey and Goofy. I told him I wish he had gone to see Donald Duck because he is my favorite. He said next time he would go see him and I could come with him.

He loves Pluto. He always wants to see Pluto.

I love the landscape at Epcot.

This was a look at the future. There was music on each square and when you stepped on it it played an instrument

Tanek and Nemo's daddy

The "Disney Bus" is still one of Tanek's fave rides

And we always capture his ride back home. He always falls asleep on the way home from Disney after 3 busy days.

Disney Places

On Sunday we went to Hollywood Studio's. It is one of our favorite places to go. Tanek always likes to go to the Disney Playhouse and of course he always wants to go to Radiator Springs.
Standing in front of the Miss Piggy fountain. Tanek was pretty chilled out here.

We also took the back lot tour and saw some of the props from some movies. Here we have Herbie. Both halves of him.

This is a replica of the water tour at Disney Studio's in Burbank, California. I guess it is still there I am not sure about that.

Some of the gang getting ready for Minnie's birthday.....again

Tanek loves Handy Manny and his tools. He has his set of tools too and he helps Manny a lot.

Just waiting for the plays to start

A kiss from Mommy

We almost always visit Radiator Springs. Tanek is very much into the "cars". He knows everyone of them by name and what they do . It is fun to listen to him acting out the parts of each car. He was introduced to these cars several years ago by his cousin Emily and he has loved them ever since.

He Loves "Mine" and "Towey" as he calls them. Lightning is called "Mine" because the first car he had when he was just 2 was a shake up car and it said "the checker flag is MINE. So he has called him mine ever since then. And Towey because he is a Tow Truck.

I took him on the race track ride and boy is he a wild driver. He loved it. Thankfully they had us on a track or no telling where we would have ended up. He had a ball on this ride.

This is serious driving

We Love Disney!

This past week-end Stephanie, Tanek and I went to Disney for our annual birthday trip. We love Disney and we love spending time together. Several years ago Stephanie and I started having some "mother-daughter" time and have taken several trips. Now we have "mother-daughter-son-grandson" time and it is so much fun. We stayed at Port Orleans/French Quarters. We have not stayed there before and Tanek wanted to stay there because he saw the big dragon slide in the pool and thought it would be fun....and it was A LOT of fun. I love water slides and this was a nice long one and we had a great time on it. I also loved the decor of the resort. All Disney resorts are very nice. We have tried to stay at as many different ones as we can (afford) to. We love staying at the resorts as much as we love going into Disney. During the summer we choose ones that have a good pool with fun things in the pool to do. We do Disney on a very relaxed schedule. Having season passes we don't ever feel like we have to do it all in one visit. We usually take in a park for half the day then spend time at the resort, swim, eat, take a nap and then go back to one of the parks in the evening. Even when we have a "rained out" night that is ok. We just relax in the room and start out again the next day. Disney can be very stressful or you can make it relaxing. We choose to make it relaxing and it is so much fun.

This fountain was in the lobby of the hotel. They had a doorman standing at the door giving out coins to throw into the fountain.

The Landscaping is beautiful as all of Disney has beautiful landscape and it is one of my favorite parts of the trip just looking at all the beautiful flowers and plants and how they design it.

This is the back of the building heading towards the pool and rooms.

The pool

A toddler pool

The slide. Loved the slide

The streets leading to the rooms on each side.

Stephanie, Tanek and a little friend

This is just the highlight of our Disney trip. You can see why it is so easy to relax and have fun.

I love Disney and we love going into the parks. Staying at a resort gives you extra hours that you get over the general public and it really helps lighten the crowd. This week-end the crowds were light anyway and we never had to wait in long lines. We just had a nice time. Tanek is so easy to take to Disney because he likes doing whatever. (well there were a few rides he didn't particularly enjoy) but he did go on them once. We got to go on a lot of different rides this time because he finally made the height to go on them. We went on Thunder Mountain, which I love, Splash Mountain, which totally got us soaking wet, Soaring at Epcot which was so cool and a few others that were a first time for him. Tomorrow I will post some of the pictures of what we did. I just wanted to share the resort this time.

Reading Time

We are in the second week of homeschooling and it is going very well. Tanek is a easy learner. He likes to learn and he catches on quickly. He has many interests and so he doesn't mind doing all the subjects. I don't know of anything he really doesn't like. He has some very strong points and reading and spelling are two of them. He has a great imagination too. Lately he is really back into "cars". He has seen the movie so much he pretty much can act out any part of it. Today he is reading along with the story and enjoying it all over again. He keeps asking me about "Cars 2" and what do I think will be in it. We are anxiously awaiting for it to be released.
This past week has been pretty rainy and so we haven't been swimming and we have spent lots of time reading. I think reading is the key to easy learning. If you like to read and comprehend what you read it seems like things just come easy. My 2 kids were avid readers. So is their dad. I am not. I read things with lots of pictures. I am not a big reader. I do like it that my kids and grand -kids like to read though.

You can see the box of cars by him

He is big on cars, big machinery like bulldozers and tools. He wanted to put this shirt on today after his shower because his daddy was picking him up and he wanted to wear this shirt because it says "Dad's little helper" on it and has all sorts of tools on it. He does like to help.

These read along books are really nice. You listen to the CD and follow along in the book.

We have had 2 good weeks of home school and I hope it will last. He is enjoying it and so am I. Tomorrow is mommy's day and he was looking forward to that.

One of the things we are enjoying is memorization. We are working on the 23rd Psalm as well as some other verses. It is so sweet to hear his little 4 year old voice repeating the 23rd Psalm. He has learned a good bit of it already. I love the special time we are sharing during our home school time and the memories we are making together.

Puzzle time

In between swimming, dinner and waiting for his daddy to get off work to take him swimming again, Tanek and his mom were putting together a puzzle of Europe. I love how their shirts matched the puzzle so well. It was cute hearing him saying all the names of some of those little countries .
She was telling him all the names of the countries as they were putting them together. He was looking at the pieces and finding the countries.

And the finished puzzle. So many fun things to learn. I love the bright colors in this puzzle. Just makes it look fun.