Cousin Love

When I was growing up I didn't see my cousins very regularly. Most years we saw each set of cousins at least once a year, but I didn't have the experience that some have of living very close to their cousins and getting together regularly. My dad's sister lives on Long Island (NY) and has three kids (Vanessa is two years older than me, Kurt is my age, and Brent is younger than me), and most years we would see them at a major holiday such as Thanksgiving. My mom's sister lived in Roanoke (VA) while we were growing up and she had eight children - Katrina is my age, three cousins are older than me, and four cousins are younger than me. We saw them every Christmas (alternated whether they came to our house or we went to theirs), and we often spent time together for maybe a week in the summer. My dad had a more distant cousin who lived in Virginia Beach and had three children, and we often spent time with them in the summer. After we started going away to college, the visits became fewer and farther between until the weddings

began. My dad was the only one from our family who attended Vanessa's wedding because she got married in Europe, but most of us attended most of the other cousin's weddings (three of my fourteen cousins aren't married). It has been more than ten years since we've attended a cousin's wedding, which means I haven't seen most of my cousins in that many years. The most recent time I saw a cousin was when one of my distant cousins came to visit me in the hospital in 2012. Although my cousins didn't seem to be too close to us in Maryland, in reality they were a lot closer (in NY and VA) than most of my kids' cousins are to them now (Chicago and Turkey). They usually see my sister Wendy's kids once or twice a year (Christmas and sometimes in the summer). Sometimes we go years in between visits with Yvonne's kids, but we are looking forward to them spending a little over 5 months in the US in the very near future.

Nadia and Ian definitely enjoy spending time with their cousins. Oliver does interact with Grace (who turned 15 months old today). Both Ian and Nadia want to play with Adam. Nadia also loves to play with Susie and Rachel. Although technically Rachel should have gone in Ian's Sunday School today, she went in Nadia's, and the two girls are sleeping together tonight. I'm so glad that they have had more than a week to spend together, and I hope that in the years to come they will feel a special bond with their cousins. Nadia and Ian also have cousins on Paul's side of the family, but they are much older than them (18 and 19 at the moment). On my side of the family they currently have 10 cousins and one more is due to arrive in October. When that one is born, they will have eight cousins who are under the age of eight on my side of the family!

Lake Tobias take three

We have gone to Lake Tobias two other times - on  September 3, 2011 and September 2, 2013. It's a small zoo; the main attractions are the safari tour in a bus, the reptile building, and the petting zoo. We did see a few animals at this zoo that weren't at the National Zoo in DC such as zeedonks, zebu (just like the VeggieTales song), camels, zebras, water buffalo, bison, watusi, Texas longhorn, etc. A few animals were at both zoos such as lions, tigers, monkeys, ostrich, alpaca, bears, prairie dogs, peccary, gazelle, macaque, sloths, goats, etc. We left my parent's house around 10:30 this morning in a caravan of three vehicles. Wendy and I were in Paul's car, Paul drove our minivan with Adam, Ian, and Oliver, and Drayton drove their minivan with Susie, Rachel, Nadia, and Grace. We arrived at Lake Tobias around 1:00 and stayed there a little over four hours including our time spent eating lunch. We then drove the rest of the way home to our house.

The kids jumped on the trampoline while I quickly made pancakes and scrambled eggs for dinner. After dinner, I gave six of the kids baths (Susie took her own shower), and we got them in bed about 30 minutes later than usual. Adam is sleeping in Nadia's bed, and Grace is sleeping in a pack and play in that same bedroom. Drayton and Wendy are sleeping on the sofa bed in the living room. Nadia and Susie are sleeping on the sofa bed in the family room, and Rachel is sleeping on a blow-up mattress in the family room. Tomorrow night Rachel and Susie will switch places. They were having  a hard time deciding whom would sleep together (all three wanted to share the queen size bed), so I suggested they alternate nights as to who gets to sleep with Nadia. The cousins are having fun playing with toys that are new to them. We're planning to take them to our swimming pool the next two days. I have many more pictures to share, but those will have to wait as it's time for me to go to bed!

Aquarium, Air & Space, and more!

Yesterday my brother and I took Nadia, Ian, Rachel, and Susie to the Baltimore Aquarium. We enjoyed our time there, although we were very disappointed to learn that two years ago they stopped doing dolphin shows. The dolphins are still there, so we did see them a little, but it wasn't the same as a show. Near the beginning of our time there, we saw a demonstration in which some archer fish were spitting water at crickets. Some of the spit landed on Uncle Maurice! The kids really liked the octopus and also enjoyed finding "Nemo" (clown fish) as well as his girlfriend "Dory" (Royal Blue Tang fish) in as many tanks as possible. One of my favorites there has always been the puffins, and I was very relieved that no birds pooped on my head in the rainforest exhibit, like one did there when I was a child. After spending a few hours there, we took the kids paddle boating in the harbor for the very first time before heading back to my parent's house.

Paul arrived at my parent's house a little before the kids went to bed last night. He and I took the kids to the Air & Space Museum this morning. First we enjoyed the free Sesame Street themed planetarium show at 10:30. Almost all of the shows cost money, but once or twice a week they have one free show. After touring half of the museum, we ate our packed lunch outdoors and then came back into the museum and took the kids to a hands-on exhibit. Susie was included as a volunteer in a talk on the forces of flight. We ended our time there with a paper airplane contest. Nadia was included as a volunteer in that talk.

Next we went to the Natural History Museum. We only did a small portion of it. We'll have to come back some time because Nadia really wants to see the gem exhibit. The kids enjoyed the Augmented Reality Dinosaur exhibit in which images of various dinosaurs were superimposed over a live feed of pictures of the people in the exhibit. They also enjoyed holding various insects, and I splurged and paid for them to enter a butterfly exhibit, which they thoroughly enjoyed. We were in it for 25 minutes. We took the Metro to DC today because I didn't want to deal with trying to parallel park the minivan there (if a parking spot happened to be available). Even though parking downtown isn't cheap, driving is definitely cheaper than taking the Metro when you have six people in the vehicle, but it was the first time the kids rode a subway, and it was a highlight of their day. We have had fun being tourists in DC and Baltimore this week! I took kids on field trips to many, many locations down here, so I know of many more places to take the kids as they get older and know a little more history. Tomorrow we are heading back home, and my sister and her family are coming with us for a couple of days before they head to Virginia.

Thankful Thursday

1. We had a great trip to Lancaster last Wednesday to ride Thomas the Train, see Moses at Sight and Sound, and have dinner at IHOP with Paul's parents, my brother, and my parents.

2. Nadia and Ian enjoyed their last two horse back riding lessons last Thursday and Friday.

3. We enjoyed making four trips to the swimming pool last week, and I appreciated that the water temperature went up five degrees over the first six days. It was very special that one of the life guards played with Nadia on Friday night in the swimming pool the whole time we were there.

4. I got some really great bargains at the yard sales on Saturday.

5. It was great to see my friend, Laura, on Sunday afternoon.

6. The weather was really nice on Monday for our trip to the zoo. It was a lovely day!

7. I forgot to mention previously that I am thankful for the picnic table we bought a couple of weeks ago. The kids enjoy eating lunch on our deck.

8. Nadia and Ian really enjoyed the three nights of VBS they were able to attend, and Paul and I had a short shopping trip to the mall with Oliver during their last night of VBS. Paul got himself two new pairs of shorts, I got Oliver a pair of sandals as he had outgrown the hand-me-down pair from Ian, I got a haircut, and I got myself a new swimsuit cover-up since I left mine in the Poconos last month.

9. Paul and I enjoyed attending a 2 hour ballroom dancing class on the waltz on Friday night. We will miss the next three classes, but we plan to return once we're back from Florida. He also announced on Friday night that he won't be teaching classes in our town in August, but he will be teaching again from September through May!

10. It's been great to spend time with my parents, Wendy and her family, and my brother the past five days!

11. My dad and I took Susie, Rachel, Ian, and Nadia to Six Flags America on Tuesday. The park is very close to their house (which was a relief to not have to drive far or deal with DC traffic), the weather was perfect, and the crowds were very low. Susie and I just walked on to several roller coasters, and we were able to stay on and ride rides a second or third time without getting off of them, ifwe wanted to! The height requirements are much stricter here than at Knoebels, DelGrosso's, Sesame Place, etc. so Nadia wasn't able to ride the water slides, swings, roller coasters (other than the kiddie one), but still we all had a great time. You really need to be 48 inches or taller to ride many of the rides at this park. We were at the park for nine hours! I rode more roller coasters than I had ridden in a day in more than 10 years.

12. Nadia and Ian saw their first movie in a theater yesterday. I took them plus Susie and Rachel to see Despicable Me 2. It cost $5 for the 5 of us to see the movie. My nieces have seen movies in an IMAX theater at a science museum in Chicago, but they hadn't been in a regular theater before. My kids hadn't seen anything on a large screen before. Nadia was confused, as she was expecting there to be actors. We do take them regularly to see plays at a theater. Next week Paul is going to take Ian to see the Lego movie in a theater for $1.

Our six year old!

She received chapter books for her birthday!

As I read through what I wrote when she turned five years old, I see that there are many things that haven't changed. She still loves to play and talk with just about anyone, loves princesses and everything pink, rides any amusement park ride she's tall enough to ride, etc. Here are some ways she has changed over the past year:

1. Pink is still her favorite color, but it's now followed closely behind by purple

She loves anything related to the movie Frozen!

2. She's gone from playing with a Leapster to an iPad. She doesn't listen to books on CD any more (hopefully some day she'll get back into that).

3. Finished her first year of Sparks.

4. Started riding adult roller coasters!

5. No longer writes in all capital letters. Sometimes she switches back and forth (even in the middle of a word), but she's come a long way, as when she turned 5 she was still writing in all capitals even thought she knew how to write all her lower case letters.

Rachel turned 5 last month; the girls are almost exactly the same size.

6. Completed the entire Level 1 spelling curriculum and is 75% done with Level 2.

7. Although she still loves wearing dresses, she no longer wears them every single day. She wears pants, skirts, or shorts most days.

8. Learned the Lord's Prayer and can recite the books of the New Testament and sing the doxology

9. When she turned five she could read a few BOB books. Since then she completed Levels 1, 2, and 3 of the reading curriculum. She has read eight chapter books in their entirety thus far. Lately she's really been into Mr. Putter and Tabby as well as Nate the Great books.

10. Completed a Kindergarten math textbook as well as the Apples book from the Life of Fred series. She is about 2/3 of the way through a 1st grade math textbook. We have been working on single and double digit addition and subtraction (without renaming), the hundreds place, reading an analog clock, etc.

11. Completed her third handwriting textbook (Pre-K, K, and 1st grade). We recently started the 2nd grade book. She also completed the first Draw Write Now book (handwriting and art). She completed the Fun to Draw workbook and has done several of the lessons in the I Can Do All Things art course.

12. Completed one year of Level 1 gymnastics. She learned how to do things like a push-up, headstand, handstand, and cartwheel (although all of those have room for improvement). Her bridge is outstanding.

13. Learned how to blow her nose and swing herself on the swings.

14. Took a t-ball class for the first time and played on a basketball team for the first time (Daddy was her coach!).

15. Scored her first goal in soccer! She completed 3 seasons of U6 soccer and will be on a U8 team in the fall.

16. Learned to like eating carrots (raw or cooked), green beans, corn on the cob, blueberries, clementines, cherries, etc.

17. Was promoted from the preschool Sunday School class (that she had been in for three years) to the K-2nd grade class.

18. Took horse back riding lessons (first on a pony and then a horse) for the first time.

19. Took Level 1 swimming lessons and participated in a drama camp for the first time in Williamsport during the summer of 2013.

20. Joined the King's Kids choir at church for the first time.

21. Although she still loves princess movies and Gigi dvds, this past year she also fell in love with the Liberty Kids dvds and Spiderman and His Amazing Friends from 1981 on Netflix (she likes Firestar the best).

22. Learned how to steer a car. Last year she didn't do very well with the bumper cars and go karts at Knoebels, but this year it's very different since she's practiced driving cars around our yard.

Although part of me doesn't want the kids to grow up, it is exciting to watch them learn new skills throughout the year. I look forward to seeing how she will change over the next year. June 24, 2008 was such an incredibly special day, as it was the day I finally got to hold my child in my arms. We love you SO much, Nadia Renee!

Panda Bears!

Saturday was a very busy day. Paul took Nadia to gymnastics while I took the boys to a HUGE yard sale that a large church in our area was having in their parking lot. I spent a lot more money than I was planning to spend, but I got Nadia many Gymboree outfits in size 7 for her to wear a year from now. Some of them still had the tags on them. I also got other things including a booster seat (for Paul's car) for $5 and a Cinderella castle for 25 cents for Nadia. I went online afterward and saw that the vintage toy sells for $50 on eBay. I let the boys play in the church's play land after I was done shopping. Once we got home I was busy feeding the kids lunch, cleaning the house, putting away the yard sale purchases, cooking a tuna noodle casserole for Paul to eat this week, and packing. I did most of the packing during Oliver's nap. After he woke up, I took the kids to the swimming pool before dinner.


On Sunday the kids and I started our drive to Maryland after church. Our first stop was at my friend Laura's house. I hadn't seen her for more than two years, as she had never met Oliver. We were roommates from 1994-96 when we were both teaching at the same school in Annapolis. Then we drove to my parents' house. My sister, Wendy, and her family had arrived at my parents' house on Saturday night. That night as I was getting the kids ready for bed, I discovered that I hadn't packed any pajamas for Oliver. Since I had packed while he was napping on Saturday, I actually hadn't packed many clothes for him. I did have two outfits for him because I had put one outfit in his diaper bag for his time in the nursery on Sunday morning (that wasn't used), and at the last minute on Sunday morning I had thrown in one Steeler outfit for him to wear (thinking it was an extra outfit, not realizing it was the only one I put in the suitcase for him). I didn't totally forget to pack for him as I had brought diapers, wipes, nebulizer, medicine, and a bib for Oliver, but I had packed 6 outfits plus 2 pairs of pjs for each of the other two kids. I declared that night I was definitely not eligible for a Mother of the Year award. Hopefully I will do a better job when I pack our suitcases for Florida next week. Paul will be coming to Maryland on Thursday so Oliver can sleep in pjs and wear a different outfit after that.

This week Wendy is taking Adam to a cello camp in Virginia each day, and her husband is attending a conference in Baltimore. Today Grace stayed home with my mom, and I took Susie (10), Rachel (5), and my three kids to the zoo in DC. According to Mapquest, it's only supposed to take 30 minutes to get there, but it took at least an hour each way. We spent a little over 4 hours at the zoo. The main attraction of this is the panda bears. I was surprised that they didn't have any giraffes, hippos, rhinos, or zebras. The kids favorite part of the zoo was the tidal pool splash pad. We visited it twice, and they were totally drenched. They also enjoyed a tunnel themed playground near the prairie dogs. The petting zoo wasn't open, but they were able to pet a cow through the fence. Tomorrow my dad and I are taking Susie, Rachel, Nadia, and Ian to Six Flags, as tomorrow is Nadia's actual birthday. My mom will be watching Oliver and Grace. The cousins are having a blast playing together!

Hello, Summer!

Today the kids had their last horseback riding lesson. They had two lessons this week because their fifth lesson would have been next week, when we will be in Maryland. Ian was evidently tired because he fell asleep while riding Clyde! The teacher said he certainly isn't the first student to fall asleep while riding his horse. I knew she was doing a horse riding camp this week. I asked her questions about it, and I think next year I will sign both Nadia and Ian up for one week of her camp (from 9-3 for five days). I also am planning to sign Nadia up for an overnight camp next summer. I toyed with signing her up this summer because she was old enough, but Paul thought she was too young. Next year I think she'll spend four days (three nights) at Camp Susque and both she and Ian will do one week of the 9-3 horse camp.

Tomorrow is Nadia's last gymnastics class; her last class would have been Tuesday night, but she was at VBS. She's making up that missed class tomorrow. We'll take an eight week break from gymnastics. She said she wanted to switch back to ballet (instead of gymnastics), but I think she is leaning back toward gymnastics. The next three weeks we won't be home very much between our time in Maryland and Florida, and some of the days we will be at home my sister and her husband and four children will be staying with us. Nadia's swim instructor called me this morning to schedule her private lessons, and I scheduled them for the week of July 14, as that will be the next week we'll be around all week. That will be the week Paul will start spending time on campus at Bucknell. He's already been putting in a lot of time working through a tutorial so that he will be ready to do computational research on their system (which is different from PSU's). Paul has been juggling three part-time jobs these past several weeks as he's been teaching at Bloomsburg on Tuesdays and Thursdays, working a couple of days a week at Kennedy Concrete, and also doing work on the computer for Bucknell. As of July 2, he will be down to "just" one job - Bucknell as the grades will be submitted for Bloomsburg and his last day of working for his dad will be July 1.

This morning we played in the backyard and went to the playground in the morning, and the kids were very confused because usually we go in the afternoon after Oliver wakes up from his nap, but our summer routine (when it's not raining and we're at home) will be to go to the playground in the morning (today we were gone from 9:30-11:30am) and go swimming in the afternoon after Oliver wakes up from his nap.  Paul had planned on working for his dad today, but he decided to do some work at home for Bloomsburg and Bucknell instead, and he's planning to go to Kennedy Concrete on Sunday after church to make up for this missed day, as the kids and I will be driving to Maryland after church on Sunday. He's planning to spend Sunday night at his parent's house as he's planning to work for his dad also on Monday. He only has two days left of teaching at Bloomsburg (24th and 26th). Since he worked from home today, he met us for dinner and swimming at the pool at 5pm. The kids and I stopped at the pool on the way home from horse back riding. The lifeguard who was on duty was very nice. In 2011 we belonged to a different pool, and two of the lifeguards at that pool used to play with Nadia in the water when we were the only ones at the pool. Last year we became friends with a couple of the lifeguards, but they never got in the water even when we were the only ones there. Tommy was playing sharks and minnows with a few children (including Nadia), and then when the other children left, he just kept playing with Nadia (throwing her up in the air and such) while Paul and I were in the baby pool with Oliver and Ian.

We capped off our day with a waltz class. Our pastor's daughter came over to babysit for two hours (the kids were asleep during the second hour) so we could attend the ballroom dancing class. It's wonderful to be taking ballroom dancing lessons again!

I had planned to keep on going with homeschooling Nadia throughout the summer, although I knew we'd take a week off here and there. Well the only "school work" we did this week was reading. I try to have her read at least 15 minutes almost every day. I had planned to just do three subjects this summer - spelling, reading, and math (and occasionally also do some art and/or handwriting). I've now decided that aside from having her read to an adult as many days as possible, we're taking a break until July 14.

Thomas the Train and Moses!

Prior to Nadia's fourth birthday I gave her a few options for her "party," and I was not surprised that she picked seeing Jonah in Lancaster at the Sight and Sound Theater because as a three-year-old that was definitely her favorite Bible story. Seven of us had lunch and birthday cake at Friendly's and then nine of us attended Jonah in 2012. I was in a wheelchair due to being on bed rest during Oliver's pregnancy, and Paul and I missed out on Friendly's due to a MFM doctor's appointment. Last year she said she wanted to have a similar "party," and so ten of us had lunch and birthday cake at Friendly's and then attended Noah in 2013. This year she wanted to see Moses. We were going to go on her actual birthday (24th), but my sister and her family will be in Maryland next week. Paul teaches on Tuesdays and Thursdays this month, the theater is closed on Mondays, and all the tickets were sold out for Fridays when we went to buy our tickets. That meant we needed to go on a Wednesday. Yesterday ten of us went to see Moses and then had dinner and birthday cake at IHOP. The last two years Great Gram was part of our group. She didn't come this year, but Uncle Maurice, who just came home for a visit from Brazil a few days ago, joined us this time.

For a few years I have been planning to take the kids to a Day out with Thomas (the train) at some point, and when I looked on the website a couple of months ago I discovered that Thomas would be 5 miles away from the Sight and Sound Theater this week. So I bought tickets for us to do Thomas in the morning, prior to going to see Moses. We live 2 hours and 15 minutes away from these sites so it made sense to do it all in one trip. A slightly cooler day would have been nice, but the crowds were much smaller than they said they are on the weekends, which was much appreciated. We spent three hours there, and we could have stayed longer. Oliver did a lot of waving and saying "choo choo." It was fabulous to have Paul's mom with us, as we hadn't seen her for a few weeks.

Nadia's birthday celebrations actually started on Sunday (15th) because Uncle Al and Aunt Millie gave her birthday presents that day. Yesterday (18th) she opened up her gifts from Great Gram and Paul's parents, blew out her six candles, and ate some delicious chocolate cake that Aunt Millie had made with the requested Frozen decorations. Paul's parents managed to keep the cake cool in their car all day long even though it was over 90 degrees outside. We're going to let her open her birthday presents from us on Saturday (21st) because Paul won't be with us in Maryland. If the weather cooperates, we're going to use our free tickets for Six Flags on her actual birthday. I'm sure at some point in her life she'll want a more traditional party that includes inviting children to our house or some other venue, but for now she prefers to go to Lancaster to see a show at Sight and Sound, and that's fine with me. Next year they'll be doing Joseph, and she says that what she wants to do for her seventh birthday party. We shall see if she changes her mind over the next year or not.