Halloween Fun!

Last week, we made a sunny Sunday afternoon visit to the Pumpkin Patch.

The girls searched for just the right one to take to a Pumpkin-Carving Party!

Tonight, we took our Ice Cream Cone, Tinkerbell and Cheetah to the G Family's annual Pre-Trick-or-Treat Gathering--an event we always look forward to! The girls each picked out their own costumes this year and were so excited to wear them!

And then made we the rounds!

Miss M was so attentive and helpful to Miss K. Always the girl in charge, she tactfully corrected anyone who thought K was a cupcake and made sure her sisters used their manners thanked everyone who gave them treats. She turned 8 this week! How is that possible???

Tinkerbell was a perfect choice for our precious, spunky, independent, energetic, adorable, little A. This girl little just melts my heart into a puddle!

I could just eat this ice cream cone right up! K said "jack-o-lantern" when we gave her her treat pail--a word we didn't even know she knew! After each house she would give us a peek at the goodies in her pail and excitedly say "candy more!" as she and her sisters took off for the next house. She had so much fun being "one of the kids" and participating in the all of the action!

We surprised Gabby and Pa:

And ended our evening at MamaToo's, where she had a pot of chili, hot apple cider, gingersnaps and pumpkin fluff waiting for our arrival:

At the end of the night, we carried 3 sleeping girls from the van to their beds. Sweet memories!

Reading is FUNdamental!

The past few weeks of my life have been consumed by a children’s literacy project that my friend B and I have been chairing through our Junior League. We ordered, inventoried, sorted, stamped, organized, boxed and loaded over 24,000 books for distribution at 11 area schools. B and I both work, so many late night and weekend hours were required! It was an exhausting, and at times, overwhelming, endeavor that included some stressful twists and turns (16,000 of our books were not delivered to us until 3 days prior to the date they were to be delivered to the schools!). With the help of co-chairs willing to go above and beyond our expectations, a flexible and dedicated committee of volunteers, our heroic husbands, some sweet friends, a bit of child labor (this project presented a neat hands-on opportunity to teach the importance of community service), a jar of Advil (moving hundreds of boxes a books is back-breaking work—I’m STILL sore!), a box of band-aids (my arms are covered with paper and cardboard cuts!), gallons of coffee and Red Bull, a little venting, and even a few frustrated tears, we accomplished our mission!

This project became a family affair, so I want to say a BIG public thank you here on our blog to D for lending a hand (and strong, muscular arms!) with the work and for being so supportive of my commitment to this initiative. And to Miss A, Miss K and Miss M for putting up with your frazzled, tired, and just plum worn-out Mommy last week and for being such cheerful little helpers when I toted you along!

Me and my co-chair B. Thanks, B for everything you did--our RIF distributions would not have been a success without you (I wasn’t kidding about the day at the spa—will be sending you some dates, soon!)
Here's a little article we worked up that explains a bit more about our Reading is Fundamental book distribution project:
(Submitted by CJB and BC, RIF Chairs 2011-2012)
Reading is Fundamental (RIF) is the largest children’s literacy non-profit in the United States. The Junior League of Greater Lakeland has maintained the longest running RIF program in the State of Florida. In cooperation with RIF, and with a passion for increasing literacy in our community, the Junior League of Greater Lakeland has operated this national book distribution program in Polk County for 37 years—distributing over 611,000 books to children in our community. The RIF program motivates children to read by delivering free books, literacy resources and reading encouragement to those children and families who need them the most.

Nearly two-thirds of low-income families in the United States own no books. The Junior League of Greater Lakeland has operated the Polk County RIF program under a Federal Grant from the RIF organization where by the organization has matched our funds 3-for-1 for the purchase of books. The program has visited 11-13 area elementary schools with the highest socio-economic need and lowest reading scores. As part of the program, each child at the school has the opportunity to select 3 books of their very own from a wide variety of titles, subjects and reading levels. The program’s goal is to ignite excitement for literacy through the distribution process. As our volunteers visit each school for a “RIF Party”, hundreds of books are displayed, allowing children to explore their interests and make their own choices. The books are free and the moments are priceless, as excited readers show off their selections, pose for pictures, and ask in wide-eyed amazement: “These books are mine to keep? I really don’t have to bring them back to the library?” The entire process is fun and memorable for all involved – kids are energized, parents are encouraged and educators feel a sense of satisfaction.

RIF has been funded under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (SEC.5451 Inexpensive Book Distribution Program for Reading Motivation) by Congress and six Administrations without interruption since 1975. Unfortunately, this past spring, the federal government prepared their budget for this fiscal year, and an outcome was that funding for the national RIF program was cut. The Junior League of Greater Lakeland was awarded a contract to complete the final funded year of the program by December 2011. Over the next two weeks, the Junior League’s RIF Committee will be distributing over 24,000 books at 11 area schools to round out the final distributions under our contract. Our League is currently exploring options to continue its successful book distribution program without the assistance of federal funds through the RIF grant.

Sorting a batch of books at JLGL Headquarters:
Girls hard at work stamping each book with the JLGL logo and a place for the proud new owner to write his/her name):
We even put Miss K to work!
And a few pictures from my distribution at the school where our League held its very first RIF book distribution—37 years ago! Each child got to choose and take home 3 new books of their very own!
This is the FUN part!

Dolphin Tale and Visiting Winter the Dolphin

Saturday night, we took the girls to see the movie Dolphin Tale.

It was a very family-friendly and inspiring movie with a great cast. Morgan Freeman is one of my favorite actors and Harry Connick Jr. is one of my favorite musicians (and not a bad actor, either)! I've always thought Ashley Judd is as cute as she can be. And you know we all fell in love with the movie’s star, Winter the Dolphin!

Since we just happen to live near Winter’s home, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, we surprised the girls on Sunday with a family field trip to pay her a visit! The last time I visited Clearwater Marine Aquarium was around 1988-89 for a 9th grade ECS field trip, and I remember it looking as shabby and dated as it did in the film. Most of the movie was shot on-location at CMA and the producers of the movie financed some refurbishing of the facility and added two new rehab pools. The sprucing-up made a huge difference! But unlike the movie, the aquarium was not purchased by a wealthy hotel owner. It is still a non-profit that owns the land (formerly a water treatment plant) where the facility is situated. CMA is not getting any royalties from the movie, though the film is generating an increase in contributions as people around the world learn about the aquarium, its mission, and its celebrity residents. Daily attendance at the aquarium has quadrupled in the last few weeks since Dolphin Tale premiered! Winter is drawing quite a fan club. If things continue at this rate, CMA is definitely going to need to expand in the coming years to accommodate its guests (as of this weekend, guests were seated in plastic lawn chairs to watch Winter’s demonstration—no benches or bleachers--and they had to go outside of the facility to use port-a-potties as there were no public restrooms inside (definitely NOT a highlight for this public-restroom-avoiding mama! Especially since Kiwi decided this week that she wants to wear big-girl panties and she has to be taken to the potty about once an hour!)).

CMA’s mission is to rescue and rehabilitate marine animals then release them back to the ocean upon recovery. I like that it’s run more like an animal hospital and educational center than a zoo or entertainment venue. The only creatures who remain at the aquarium are the ones who would not be able to survive on their own due to the nature of their injuries or their lack of survival skills. There was so much to do and see!

The girls enjoyed petting the sting rays:

and watching the sharks, fish and turtles swim around in their tanks: Precious profiles:

We met Nicolaus, a dolphin named after St. Nicolaus because he was rescued on Christmas Eve 2002. He was found beached with his mother (who’d passed away) and covered with third degree sunburn and infection. We got to pose for a picture with him as he showed off his high-flying and splashing skills (Miss K couldn’t keep her eyes off of him):

We even took a Behind-the-Scenes tour and learned lots of interesting information about the day-to-day operations of the aquarium and the filming of Dolphin Tale. We were impressed with how much of the movie was true-to-life (the set and many of the details that only locals would pick up on were accurate). It was also interesting to learn about which parts of the movie were “inspired”. Hazel and Sawyer were fictional characters and Winter was actually cared for by a large team rather than a few individuals. She was rescued off of the east coast near Melbourne and was only a 50-pound baby dolphin when found tangled in a crab trap. She was found in the winter (how she got her name), not in the summer, and her tail was not amputated but fell off on its own due to dead tissue. It took her many, many months to gain strength and learn how to swim. But she was a fighter and persevered and taught herself to swim even without a tail. Winter played herself in the movie (she’s a great actress!), and she has been a great inspiration and symbol of courage and hope to amputees and people—particularly children and disabled vets—who wear prosthetic devices. She’s also a big supporter of adoption and the Heart Gallery, an organization close to my heart! A portion of every donation to the Adopt Winter fund goes toward the Heart Gallery and helping children find forever families! Isn't that terrific?!?!

Here are some pictures from our Behind-the-Scenes tour (and some scenes from the movie that were shot in the same locations around the aquarium):
The kitchen and food-prep rooms:

Ingredients for an otter shake: The aquarium's pharmacy: The offices: Dr. Haskett's office (CEO David Yates’ real-life office): Scenes from the movie shot in Mr. Yates' office:

We saw the new rehab pool (it was empty but for a couple of sting rays when we were there). Here are some shots of the Dolphin Tale actors and Winter in it:

We also got to explore the rooms under the new pool where the Dolphin Tale underwater scenes were filmed. A new baby dolphin named Hope was rescued and moved to that pool the day of the Dolphin Tale wrap party, arriving at the aquarium in the middle of the black-tie event! She was only a few months old and was found about 5 miles from where Winter was stranded, attempting to nurse from her mother who’d passed away. Had the filmmakers not constructed the additional pools, there would have been no room for Hope at the aquarium. We had fun watching Hope swim around playing with her bubbles:

Here are some movie shots of Sawyer (played by Nathan Gamble) with Winter in that same pool:

Sawyer looking through one of the windows at Winter: Our girls looking through the window watching Hope: We even saw the surgery room:

Unfortunately, the tour did not conclude with a Morgan Freeman meet-and-greet, though we did get to look through a window and see his autographed picture:

Nor were we able to meet Mr. Connick Jr. . . But we got to see the cool houseboat that was Dr. Haskett and Hazel’s home in the movie (our girls decided they’d like for us to sell our house and move onto a boat—especially one with a crow’s nest):

The girls got to hold Winter’s prosthetic tail (it’s a lot bigger and heavier than you would think!):

And we met Winter’s real-life trainer, Cindy:

Of course, the highlight of the day was seeing Winter up close and IN REAL LIFE! We got to watch her swimming and playing with her pool-mate Panama (a deaf dolphin who was found beached near Panama City and who is nearly 40 years old!). Cindy demonstrated how Winter's prosthetic tail is put on and her daily exercise routine. Winter only needs to wear her prosthetic tail for about 30-60 minutes of exercise a day to strengthen her muscles and keep her vertebrate properly aligned (all Winter photos by our budding photographer, Miss A):

Winter really did whistle like Tweety Bird when she saw Cindy approach! Swimming with her prosthetic tail: Winter and Panama:

The B family gives Dolphin Tale and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium 10 thumbs up! We highly recommend the movie! And no matter where you live, you can click HERE (SeeWinter.Com) and watch Winter and Panama in real-time on their webcams!