Costa Maya

Our second stop on our Disney cruise was Costa Maya.  I thought this would be just a so-so stop in the beginning, but it turned out to be a blast!  We went to a little beachfront restaurant called Tropicante and just had a relaxing beach day.  I even got a massage on the beach! :)

 

The view of Costa Maya when walking off the ship.  As you can see it was a cloudy overcast day.  It even rained on us a little bit.

The view of The Magic from the beach in front of the Tropicante...

 



 

Beautiful water!

 



It wouldn't be Mexico without a row of shops nearby!

 



 

 

The Tropicante is right behind these palm trees.  Those were our chairs on the beach.  They have waiters that come to you and bring you drinks or food or whatever.

 

 

This kind of sums up the little town. :)

 

 

When you first get off the ship you have a plaza area that was built just for cruise ship passengers.  It is really nice, but full of expensive shops.  I'm glad we bypassed it and went to the beach.  On our way back to the ship we happened upon some "Mayan" dancers there....

 

 

 

The Magic...

 

 

I'm linking up with Tiggerific Tuesday Trivia hosted by Magical Mouse Schoolhouse.

So, here's my trivia...it's about the Disney Magic, of course!

Maiden Voyage: July 30, 1998

Passenger Capacity: 2,400 | Gross Tonnage: 83,000 tons

Length: 964 feet | Beam: 106 feet | Draft: 25.26 feet

Cruising Speed: 23 knots

Her sister ship is the Wonder

The Godmother of The Magic was Patty Disney.

 

 

 

Grand Cayman

Our first port on the Disney cruise was Grand Cayman.  There was a lot that I would have liked to do here.  We chose to go on our own to the Turtle Farm.  I loved it!  Here are some pics...

The breeding pond...

 

The turtle touch tanks were the best!!

 



 

There were iguanas everywhere!

 

 



 

They even had a little aviary...

 



 

We went snorkeling in the lagoon.  It was great!  I don't have the underwater pics developed yet though.  My daughter really liked the beach next to the lagoon...

 



Right down the road from the Turtle farm is the Cayman Motor Museum.  I took my son there after the Turtle farm.  I really don't have much of an interest in cars, but they have the original Batmobile from the TV show there so that's what I wanted to see!

 



I could have spent all day at the Turtle farm!  I'd love to go to Grand Cayman again and do some of the other things we didn't get a chance to do this time.  It was a great port!

Disney Magic Cruise

We got back from our Disney cruise on the Magic yesterday.  After 8 glorious days on that ship, we're all having withdrawls now that we are back home.  No one makes our beds or puts our napkins on our laps or brings us all we can eat gourmet food each night at dinner.  I can't wait until we do another cruise!!  Easily the best vacation ever!  We went with some friends and family too so that made it even more fun. :)

Mexico unit study

Wow!  Things here are sooo busy!  My poor blog is so neglected!  I'm getting ready for our much needed cruise in a couple of weeks.  I'm also planning 2 bookclubs, a birthday party, my son's confirmation, and a youth group Monopoly party.  It just so happened that Nathan's confirmation will be on Claire's birthday.  Claire, of course, really really wants her party on her actual birthday.  I told her that was fine with me, before I realized they were the same day!  So, I'm really going to enjoy my week on the Disney cruise because when I get back things are going to be very busy!!

One of the ports of call we are going to is Cozumel.  While we are there we're going to take a tour of the Mayan ruins.  To prepare for visiting Mexico I checked out a Mexico kit from our local museum.  This thing was awesome!  Here are a few of the things included in the kit...

Mexican Currency

 

 

Weapon/tool artifacts

 



 pottery artifacts

variety of cultural items

 

I was even crazy enough to make a pinata!

We invited friends from our homeschool group to join us since the kit was so cool.  It had lesson plans, books, artifacts, and tons of cultural items.  We learned about the Mayan and the Aztecs and the whole history of Mexico.

 

 

The kids made some mosaic masks...





And, of course, they loved breaking the pinata!

This Saturday we are going to that same museum that I got the kit from to see a planetarium show on the prophesies of the Mayans.  We went on Labor Day to see it, but, even though the website had said that it would be showing, it was not. :(  I talked to a manager and he said that there were not going to be any more shows the rest of the month.  I was really disappointed.  He could tell.  He took my member info down "in case there was something he could do."  He called me a few days later and said that they would do a showing for us!  So, this Saturday we are going to our own private showing of the Mayan prophesies!  How cool is that?  That will be the perfect end to our Mexico study.

Waiting is so hard!

 

We are taking a Disney Cruise in a few weeks and I just can't wait!!!

I think I'm worse than the kids!

 

 

This little guy is from our last Disney cruise....

 

 

 

Can't wait to see what fun towel animal we meet this time! :)

Pineapple Tree

Did you know you can plant the top of a pineapple and it will grow into a tree?

I tried it once and the whole thing just shriveled up and died.  I let Claire try it and this is what it looks like....

It really was just a little pineapple top once and it has grown over a foot so far.  I think she planted it about 6 months ago.  I just transplanted it into a bigger pot...really hoping that doesn't kill it!

When it started out it looked just like this...



This is the newest one she planted today.

We really like pineapple so it would make us very happy if these would grow and produce fruit!



First Day of School

Today is our first day back at school. We like to start in August and take May, June and July as our summer.   

The fact that I'm actually writing a blog about it DURING school shows that it is going well!  It probably also helps that I threatened Claire that if she didn't behave in school she couldn't go to gymnastics!! :)

Both have been using Saxon Math the last few years, but I switched both of them this year so I was a little nervous about that.  Saxon was moving a little fast for her so Claire is now doing Math U See.  She really likes it because it involves blocks.  She even said, "Wow!  This is like playing with Legos!"

I switched Nathan to Teaching Textbooks for Geometry.  He's pretty happy with it.  He said, "Hey, this is easy...it all makes sense!"  And the best part is all I have to do is grade his work!!

Hopefully, the rest of the day will continue to go as smoothly as Math class did!

If you homeschool, when are you starting school?