Nickelodeon Hotel and Medieval Times Dinner Show

My boys watched their first sunrise ever yesterday morning at the airport.  We were heading to Florida for a few days of sun and fun!


  
Once we got settled into our hotel we decided to walk around and check it out.  The kids were, of course, impressed with the arcade and the pool/ water slides but they were also loving all the different birds and insects and animal life we saw.

There were ibises, cranes, and a huge swan; which we ended up feeding.  We saw fish and even watched them jumping out of the water and over each other in order to eat.  We saw many little lizards but they were too fast to get pictures of.  We saw these big, bright, orange moths too.  It was pretty neat and the kids were so interested in them all. 


   
We hit the pool for the afternoon and Alec made three new friends.  Two of the girls were from Australia and he was impressed with some of the different words they had for things.. "mom, they say adult like adul!"  He spent most of the afternoon with them and learned how to play billiards too.

Ian tried out the water slides, jumped, swam and watched a poolside show.  Once Evan came to the pool, after resting, he was read to jump in (without a life jacket!).  Since it was the deep end he had to wait for an adult but kept trying to swim out of my arms.  We finally took him over to the water slide section and that was it; he rode water slides non- stop for the next hour.  He loved them.

We watched the bucket turn green and mass slime everyone and then we decided to head back to our room.  Ian, Evan and my husband swam across the pool to collect our belongings but Evan didn't want to get out of the pool just yet.  He asked my husband to catch him when he jumped in and at least 5 times he swam back to the edge of the pool by himself with his head above the water.  I was impressed at how much his swimming continues to progress.
  
We headed to Medieval Times last night and while the boys really didn't want to go (and really should have been in bed since they'd been woken up at 3:30!) they loved it!

The restaurant looks like a giant castle.  Inside they have suits of armor all around on display.  The great room has coats of armor all over the ceiling and souvenirs all around.

We were told to walk through the main building and across the courtyard to see a small medieval village.

 I was picturing a mini replica of a village the size of most model train towns.

I was wrong.

This small village was one you walked through;

  • they had a carpenters house
  • a basket weaver at work displaying period pieces
  •  a blacksmith
  •  a falconer
  • a torture chamber
It was a small museum- like set up displaying tools, clothing, pottery, and the lifestyles of most of the towns people during the medieval ages.  It was pretty neat and very educational.  The boys were most interested in the torture chamber which I thought would be upsetting for them but nope; they loved it.

Unfortunately we then had a long wait for the show to the start and the boys were getting very antsy.  I was starting to think it might not have been such a good idea to book our dinner on our first night in town when they finally announced us all to our seats.


The boys LOVED the show.

We saw horses hopping, bowing, kneeling, jumping and kicking.  We watched the falconer train his falcon to swoop in and catch the prey he had swinging around on a string.



Then we watched knights battle each other to challenges like lancing a small ring off a hanging target, throw javelins into a bulls eye, jousting and even some staged hand to hand combat. The boys were cheering and jeering so loudly and at one point Evan cried when "our" knight appeared to be  loosing the battle.


 
The boys did think they were going to enjoy the show but they really weren't looking forward to eating at all.  They did surprisingly well though.

Ian and Evan tried the tomato basil soup and garlic bread and loved it.  I was shocked since Evan never eats any vegetables but I was so proud.  Ian and Alec ate a good portion of the chicken, even though they didn't have any ketchup.  They all tasted the apple turnovers, and the herb crusted potatoes too.  I was glad they at least tried all the food and never heard one of them complain they were hungry afterward.

It was a wonderful first day of vacation packed with all sorts of science, geography, and living history lessons.

Some days I just love homeschooling so much I wonder why I didn't start doing this years ago!

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