Now that both of our kids are officially done with school for the year, we can sit back and breathe a bit!  Our daughter finished the year in a Florida public school, our son half a year. We’re happy with the gains both of them have accomplished.

We are looking forward to having the entire summer to enjoy-last summer it was segmented due to the move; by the time we arrived in Florida the kids had less than a month of summer left due to school starting in August.   This year we dub it “the lazy summer”, because that is what we hope it will be–lazy summer afternoons relaxing by the pool or playing at Disney.  It almost seems wrong to label a summer here as lazy; there is so much activity that can be done, and we certainly have no intentions to stay inside and be lazy in the traditional sense.

For us, lazy means enjoying the day with little schedule interruptions, and no real desire to get it all done or see it all.  The summer heat requires that we slow down, and the beautiful Florida weather reminds us that if we don’t get it accomplished today, there’s always tomorrow, next week, next month, next February.  For us, it has been an absolute wonder, and really, a dream come true,  to live in a state that has awesome weather year round. We never turned our heat on this winter, have no idea if it works or not, and did not wear our winter coats at all.

The one thing we have discovered is that if the weather turns cold or rainy, unless we are running errands, we don’t have to go out.  It sounds like a simple concept, but one that didn’t occur to us right away.  The mantra is, if you live here, you go to Disney.  All the time. Well, it dawned on us after one particular cold and wet day at the Magic Kingdom, that we weren’t really having fun, it wasn’t a magical time, and we didn’t have to be here!  The luxury of living so close to the magic is that you can pick and choose when you experience the magic!   This Friday our current plan is to go to Hollywood Studios, but if the rain continues, then we will switch to Plan B and do something else, indoors.

Watch for more regular posts coming out this summer.  Ben’s homeschool evaluation is next week, so we’ll blog about that; we will be travelling back to Wisconsin at the end of this month for Nick’s wedding, and a special one year blog post will appear on our anniversary, July 25!  We are excited to share it with y’all!

We have also set up a Facebook group for our blog:  Wishes and Pixie Dust– if you’re interested in talking Disney, let us know and we’ll be happy to add you!