Disney Day 1!

We had a second vacation planned for this fall to Disney. Traveling with our family of 7 was my mom, aunt and g-ma. Daddy is sorta "Disney-ed out" so the plan was for him to join us in the parks a few days and then spend a few days relaxing! Our original plan was to leave out first thing Saturday morning and to spend a couple days at the beach before heading to Disney. Our plans got a bit sidetracked when daddy ended up in Texas for the week prior and Maddie had a last minute softball game on Saturday! So when we were half way to the beach we decided to just go straight to Disney! We called around and got a great rate on The Swan and Dolphin...so we were even on Disney property!! WHooHoo we had arrived!

The first thing we did was take a stroll down the Boardwalk. It is a hotel based on an old time boardwalk...complete with jugglers, magicians, arcade games and more! By mere chance we arrived just in time for the firework show!
This pic shows the children posing with the "balancing guy"!
I was able to get lots of great firework pics!

Annie with her "Hidden Mickey" that she formed !

The foyer of the Dolphin is gorgous!

an outside shot!

Preschool Trays

This year we have a new element to our school day. With Camden sitting in on our Kindergarten lessons with Annie, it leaves Lincoln all alone. When I found this great blog and her idea of preschool trays...I knew we had to try it!
I found these colored trays/tubs/bins in the value bins at Target for $2.50.
So Lincoln has four trays to play with each school day. I quickly realized that I tell him when he can go to the next one. Otherwise he would zoom through them all in 10 minutes just to see what is next!

Here are three for this day (the fourth sits on his work table).
The blue tray has an activity from Preschool Activity bags that we made in a swap with other moms this summer. I HIGHLY recommend purchasing this book and organizing a swap. For instance I made 15 identical bags with 14 other women. After the swap I went home with 15 different bags! The kids love them! (even my 2nd grader!)

The red tray was simple yet most likely the favorite! A paint dauber and piece of paper!!!Whoohoo!

The green tray was another Preschool Activity bag...it was plastic straws cut up in little pieces with pipecleaners, string, lanyard etc for stringing!

The blue tray was a grid of stickers (laminated) and then there were cards with the matching sticker. Linc played this for over 45 minutes!

The fourth tray this day was simply a collection of Trio (Lego style blocks).

I try to keep two trays an open-ended activity with no wrong or right or end result.

I could go into more detail but seriously she explains it so well...and in so much detail just go over and peruse her site!! (You will NOt be sorry!)

The only problem with the trays is that the older kids all want a turn!!! So when they finish all of their work...they get a turn!!