Ben's 4 Year Checkup

Poor buddy had to deal with a finger prick and four shots after spending the morning at the dentist getting his 6 month cleaning.  He was pretty resilient for all that happened to him and I offered to buy him a matchbox car at the store, but when we got to the store, he insisted that we buy a giant red ball instead.  I would say another ball is the last thing we need, but who am I to refuse a boy who just went through all of that?

Anyway, here are his stats (9/25/13):

Weight: 41.5 (87%)

Height: 43.5" (97%) and we think he's actually 44"

BP: 92/68

Heart rate: 98

BMI: 15.42 (42%)

Drew's 6 Year Checkup

Here are Drew's stats from his 6 year checkup today:

Weight: 48.5 (46%)

Height: 47.5" (82%)

BMI: 14.1 (12%)

Blood Pressure: 108/60

Heart Rate: 94

We talked with the doctor about all the sports he likes to play and his obsession with basketball.  He did a great job!

Phelan/Niemann Vacationfest 2013 in retrospect - Day 4

Hello Epcot!

This is the point of the trip that evens somewhat run together.  Also, kids, you'll thank us one day for the maniacal pace you face on vacations.  Makes you stronger and it's a good challenge to try and outpace everyone else around you.  And, you'll soon develop a deep dislike for slow walking people.

So, Epcot.  This day flew by, so much so that we missed about half of what we wanted to do.  Not sure if it was the company or the events, but time was flying by on us.  Which was fine, we'll be back in Epcot again later in the week.  We spent a large portion of the day pinging back and forth between Soarin', Test Track, and Mission Space.  Soarin' and Test Track win the fave of the day award from all three kids which was expected.

Ben matured enough to not needing anyone to cover his ears on Soarin'.  Sherri nearly hyperventilated on Mission Space by psyching herself out.

Went to Turtle Talk with Crush.  Ben got interviewed and did great.  When Crush asked him to say "Totally" in a surfer voice, Ben told him "I can't say that".

Kate also got interviewed.
Crush: What's your name
Kate: Kate
C:  Where are you from?
K:  (10 seconds of dead air) I don't know.
C:  OK, who did you come with today
K: (hesitantly) No one

Yup, she really held up well in the spotlight.

We spent minimal time in the World Showcase, though we did eat lunch at Japan which was awesome as always.  And, we did the pastry thing in France which is a long standing must.  Germany and France have the biggest gap between main dish dislike and dessert love. 

We did find a scale model of the terra cotta army in China, never knew about that before.

We spent some time doing the Perry (Phineas and Ferb) secret agent challenge, though it didn't hold the attention quite like last time. 

We ate dinner at Boma, an easy favorite.  We spent a lot of mealtime haranguing Andrew into trying new things, he's a creature of fairly staid eating habits.  Our kids, not so much.  Fufu, bobotl, and all sorts of other odd African dishes hit the palates nicely.  This is where we learned that Ben is a huge fan of hummus.

We got to use nightvision goggles outside of the Animal Kingdom lodge and see some really close up animals at night.  Very cool.

Drew spent the night in the Niemann's room.  In the middle of the night, he went up to use the bathroom, couldn't find it, then couldn't find his bed and ultimately feel back asleep in the corner of the room.  Thankfully his movement woke up Shari, so she found him quickly and helped him out.  He is not thrilled with this story.

Steps - 28,055

Phelan/Niemann Vacationfest 2013 in retrospect - Day 3

Animal Kingdom today.

We started off with a bang by hitting the Safari ride.  This is a great early morning event because the animals are hugely active.  We weren't disappointed.  Elephants, rhinos, lions, and any other animal in the park were up and moving around.  The giraffes were only about 20 feet from our car. which was pretty awesome.

We spent a lot of time criss crossing the park to hit Everest.  This was the favorite ride for Drew and Kate, Ben was tall enough but we decided he wasn't ready to meet a Yeti or go on a rollercoaster backwards in the dark.  This seemed to be an easy call.

We ate at Restaurantosaurus.  Like all places, we choose the place based on volume (thanks non-stop growing children) and ability to fit into our whirlwind.

Ben's favorite ride might have been the Lion King show which continues to be awesome.  Least favorite ride had to be Dinosaur, or as Drew summed it up "I am NOT riding that one again."  It's a little intense for an adult, so I think a 6 year old probably has no chance to enjoy it.

We saw bird shows, avoided boring stuff, got to ride stuff for all ages, and got out of the park early since it closes earlier than the rest.  We hit the hotel pool for some frolic time for the kids.  The adults mainly just watched.  We did get to see all sorts of foreign ideas of what an appropriate bathing suit is so that was quite the eyeful.  Also, some lady changed her swimsuit top without really bothering to have any semblance of modesty.  How European.  And awful.  Did I mention awful?

Dinner at Cape May Cafe, which probably won't make the cut next time.  The food is fine, but seemed to have less than last time and a lot of it (crab legs and unpeeled shrimp) is high effort, low payoff food.  I wouldn't say we were underwhelmed, more like we were just plain whelmed.

We walked around the Boardwalk afterwards late at night.  Great weather, no slow walking people, saw some good lights and sights.

30,490 steps today.

Phelan/Niemann Vacationfest 2013 in retrospect - Day 2

sorceror thing

chef mickey

And we are off to Disneyworld.  Early morning wake up so we could drive 90 minutes to Disneyworld to get there in time for the park to open.  This was also our first day to meet David, Andrew, and Shari, maybe the only 3 people we know brave enough to try and keep up with us.

Day 1 is a Magic Kingdom day and it was a blast.  We all met up outside the gate 10 minutes before park opening to begin a madcap day of pinging around the park to hit every big ride multiple times with minimal waiting.  This is when it greatly pays off to homeschool (and hit the low attendance times in the park) and to know the park ins and outs thanks to previous employment.  No waits, no lines, maximal riding.

Favorite rides?  Kate and Drew were Space Mountain.  Ben was Big Thunder Mountain.  And, thanks to ever growing children, they all get to ride things before their peers.  By the time we go again, it's a good bet they will all be tall enough for everything.

Ben's first ride was Big Thunder Mountain and he freaked out on the way up to it from fear.  But, we got him through that and he was great the rest of the week.  He just needed the first speed ride out of the way.  We call it "Beast Mode", basically when he outdoes his age and does awesome things. 

Met a few characters.  Dale acted like he licked their pens and then gave them back.  Ben picked up multiple scraped news trying to pick flowers for Sherri on Main St.  The entire day was viewed as Drew's birthday day so he wore his special pen, got lots of birthday wishes and had a grand old time.  We also spent some time on Sorceror's Quest, sort of a technological treasure hunt throughout the park.

We ate dinner at Chef Mickey's and, thanks to the early start, the kids were out like lights by the time we got back to the hotel at 11PM. 

We spent this vacation at Port Orleans Riverside in adjoining rooms with the Niemann clan.  The kids had a blast with this.

Todays steps were 42,542 or somewhere in the range of 25 miles.  Relaxing!

Phelan/Niemann Vacationfest 2013 in retrospect - Day 1

And we are off on the mega vacation for the year.  All of these are being written after the fact so it's up to you to decide if I am telling everything in the correct order.  Sleep deprivation and time have probably muddled things up a bit.  As an added bonus, Sherri used a pedometer to track her steps so you can be amazed at the distance covered on our relaxing vacation.

Things started off with a bang for our 5 AM departure.  If there are two things we have learned with little kids and driving trips, it is that stops every few hours make a huge difference and early/late driving in time with kids sleeping is great planning.  Stage 1 of the drive took us from home to Savannah via mostly non-highway methods.  We were pleased to see that I-16 is still the most boring stretch of road around.  At least western Kansas has the world's largest groundhog.

We went to Savannah to see The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist because it is described as being as close to old European style as can be found in America.  And, it is majorly so.  Huge, ornate, and pretty cool to see.  Tons of colors, art, big design.  The only negative is that the entire facade is being updated so that part was all scaffolding.  The inside was great.  And, unlike any past cathedral adventures, Chris didn't do any against the rules exploring.  As an added bonus, second cousin James Woods was in town so we met up and toured it with him and spent about half an hour in the old town area.

After splitting up, we walked onward to Lafayette Park.  On the way, we passed a bomb disposal unit.  We hope it was a practice scenario, but there was activity.  At the park, we looked at a few statues and made our way to the playground (gotta burn off that kid energy.)  We managed to intersect a batch of moms racing their kids in strollers through the park.  It was some sort of Mommy and Me exercise class, but it was an odd sight nonetheless.  And, we are done with Savannah.

Back into the car and off to Ormond Beach for the night.  We stayed at some random hotel and found a really good, fairly unpopulated beach area to hang out.  Our famous dislike of the beach was ignored while we spent 3 hours there.  Our assumption was the kids would go nuts building sandcastles.  In reality, they wanted to mainly go knee deep in the water with Dad then run out when it got too high.  Ben continually ran into the very edge of the water than nervously darted back out when it got close.  We say tons of crabs, got some shells and a starfish, and even got to see a sea turtle nest. 

And, sand everywhere.  Ugh.  There's a reason our golden years won't be spent touring America's beaches. 

Total steps, around 24,000 or 13.5 miles.

Mmmm. Beignets.

Port Orleans french quarter food court

What one week of disneyworld does to a kid.

Ben, breaking TVs.

Sent from my iPhone

Ben and his new favorite food

Mussels. Whodathunkit?

The birthday boy

The birthday boy is fired up

What was your favorite food tonight, Ben?

The mussels!

Ben, waiting outside of Everest

Ormond beach!

Perfect breeze, no crowd

Ben!!!

Read the board!

Ben Soccer Videos

I'll post a few more, but here are a couple of videos where Ben almost scored a goal in his first ages 4-5 soccer game (he's still 3 and over 2 full years younger than a few of the players out there).  He did great and since he never wanted to leave the game to rest, he played the whole time (others on the team always wanted to rest instead).

http://youtu.be/SDUZQ29tyC8 - Almost scoring a goal

http://youtu.be/yU9QO-0HNnE - Taking it down the field and almost scoring

Height projections

Based on current heights and weights, the kids are predicted to be the following:

Ben: 6'7"

Drew: 6'6"

Kate: 6'0"

Heights and Weights

From their unofficial growth charts and Stone Mountain's digital scale:

Kate (8 yrs, 8.5 months): 56.25", 74 lbs

Drew (6 yrs): just below 48", 48 lbs

Ben (almost 4): just below 44", 41 lbs