Thankful Thursday

1. We had a fabulous time at DelGrosso's last Thursday with Paul's parents.

2. I was able to sell a few things at a consignment shop on Friday morning. I didn't sell nearly as much as I was hoping to sell, but something was better than nothing.

3. Nadia and Ian enjoyed building Hawkeye's jet on Saturday morning at Lowe's with Paul.

4. Nadia and Ian enjoyed the Sunbury City Band concert and the crafts at the Acorn Festival on Saturday afternoon.

5. I was delighted to be able to play my flute on Sunday morning, and I was invited to play my flute at a community concert in September.

6. I went to CVS on Saturday evening and bought 9 boxes of cereal plus 1 box of pop tarts, and I paid $5 total for the ten items. On top of this, the store manager handed each of the kids a $1 bill. They each bought a candy bar for 88 cents and put the other 12 cents in their respective banks. The kids definitely enjoyed their candy treat! This manager is a real sweetheart.

7. We enjoyed seeing the musical "Oklahoma" on Sunday afternoon.

8. I am grateful that Nadia (level 3) and Ian (level 1) are taking swimming lessons for two weeks.

9. We enjoyed having Bella with us yesterday for a play date, and it was great to cool off at the splash pad at the Oppenheimer playground (plus get a free lunch) and swim at Liberty Splashland.

10. I am accustomed to getting things for "free" from Shutterfly, and that usually means I only pay taxes and shipping, but thanks to a Shutterfly FB group I am a part of, I am learning even more tips to saving money with Shutterfly. Last night I placed two orders that the items normally go for $24.99 each but INCLUDING s/h and taxes I only paid $1.50 for each order (and shipping is usually not anywhere near that cheap). I love Shutterfly!

11. I was able to run for 20 minutes today without stopping during my C25K workout! I have finished the first 15 workouts, which means on Saturday I'll be starting "week six." I am not running at the pace they suggest (10 minute mile), but five weeks ago I could never have run 20 minutes without stopping. Actually the first time it had me run 5 minutes without stopping I only ran 4 1/2 minutes. Now I am going to try to increase my pace to see if I can get closer to a 10 minute mile. I am currently running about 3/4 of a mile in 10 minutes. Hoping to see some more progress on the scale in the near future as well. I see the workout will be a bit longer starting on Saturday (34 minutes total).

Beat the heat

Today we crossed two more things off our summer bucket list as I took the kids to the Oppenheimer playground and the Liberty Splashland. We had never been to either place before. I picked these for today when I saw the temps were forecasted to be in the 90's. Bella's dad (she's the girl who played the part of Annie) dropped Bella off at 10:20 at the Lewisburg pool where the kids have their swimming lessons. I then took the four kids first to the playground in Sunbury. It's a very nice playground as it includes a ping pong table, basketball hoops (and basketballs and other balls as well as hula hoops), and a splash pad. There are also buildings where the kids can go in to play games, do crafts, etc. The playground is supervised for about 10 hours a day during the summer, and kids get a free lunch. We spent about an hour there. The kids played on the dry part of the playground a little bit, but most of the time they spent in the splash pad. I had brought some fruit, snacks, and drinks, and the kids each received a chocolate milk, bologna and cheese sandwich, grapes, and a banana from the staff at the playground.

After they finished their lunches, we drove about 5 minutes to the Liberty Splashland where we swam for about 2 1/2 hours. The splash pad at that place was much smaller than the one at the Oppenheimer playground. The swimming pool was a nice size though, and they had many large inner tubes available that all four kids enjoyed using in the pool. Nadia and Bella went down the two small water slides. None of them made use of the diving board or the large Liberty Bowl slide. Bella was the only one tall enough to go down that large slide, but once she walked to the very top she decided it was too scary, and she opted to walk back down. The girls would have lasted at the pool a longer time, but the boys were very ready to leave. They both fell asleep on the way home, and the girls just chattered away in the back seat. They played together at our house for a few hours before it was time to take Nadia and Ian to their musical rehearsal. Bella's dad was performing in a concert in a park in Lewisburg at 7:00, and I dropped her off with her mom at that park after I took Nadia and Ian to the church for their rehearsal. Given how hot it was today, it was a perfect day to spend time either in the water or in the air conditioning at home. The first playground was free, and the second only cost $13 total for the five of us.

I took some pics using my cell phone today. I definitely need to learn how to better use that camera although I am still mostly using my DSLR. I used the DSLR at the Oppenheimer playground but left it in the van when we were at the Liberty Splashland. Now to figure out how to get the photos from my phone to the blog. Well until then, here are the photos from my good camera.

Orthodontist

In April the dentist said I should take Ian and Nadia for a consult with an orthodontist. I called two different orthodontists and both said Ian was too young, but that Nadia was old enough for a consult. Paul took her this afternoon. The orthodontist said it would cost about $3,600, and that he didn't think she would be ready to start for another 18 months. I wasn't wanting to tackle that this year so I am grateful he also thought it was too early. I am hoping maybe Ian and Nadia can go through it at the same time or that maybe we'll have better dental insurance when we do it. We had better dental insurance the past 11 years than we've had the last year at Bucknell. Also, since we *might* move next summer, it doesn't seem like the time to start something that's supposed to take more than a year to complete. It seems we can wait until 2017 to start having regular trips to an orthodontist.

Ian and I worked on reading while Oliver napped and Nadia was at her appointment. He is currently working on this like when the "u" makes the "oo" sound (such as in the word "rule"), when the "s" makes the "z" sound (such as in the word "use"), and long vowels (such as "refund" and "bite"). He was doing such a good job reading the story "Bake Sale" (first time he ever saw the story) that I got out the camcorder and recorded him reading the very last page of the story. I think he's doing a great job for a boy who will be starting Kindergarten in a month. Keep up the good work, Ian!

Swimming Lessons

Nadia had her first swimming lesson four years ago; she was in the preschool class. Two years ago Ian had his first swimming lesson; he was in the preschool class. Nadia was in a Level One class with Bob that summer. Last summer I couldn't sign the kids up for group classes because of schedule conflicts so I signed Nadia up for private swimming lessons instead. The instructor said she mastered Level Two and 10 of the 15 skills taught in Level Three. Today Ian had his first Level One swimming lesson, and Nadia had her first Level Three swimming lesson. Bob was Nadia's teacher again, and she was one of four girls in the class. Three of the girls are going into second grade, and the other girl is going into Kindergarten. There are four kids in Ian's class - two of them had signed up for Level One and two had signed up for Level Two. There are three boys and one girl in his class. I'm hoping that Nadia will make progress with perfecting her strokes and also learn to turn her head to the side to take a breath while swimming. I'm hoping that Ian will develop the courage to swim in water that is more than 3 feet deep. They will have lessons from 9:45-10:15 this week and next week. Oliver played in the baby pool during their lesson. All the kids thought the water was cold, although it wasn't as cold as the water at DelGrosso's. Albeit it was a hot day today, at that time of day it was in the low 70's. I didn't wear a bathing suit. After swimming they played on the playground next to the pool before we drove home to have lunch.

Oliver helped me make our dinner (chicken quesadillas)

Weekend in review

After our day at DelGrosso's on Thursday, the kids and I had a laid back day on Friday. Yesterday morning Paul took Nadia and Ian to Lowe's for their fourth (of six) Avenger's build projects. This one was the easiest (Hawkeye's jet). Oliver and I went to Walmart and the library while they were at Lowe's. After we ate lunch at home, I took Nadia and Ian to the Acorn Festival about 10 minutes from our house. We heard a concert by the Sunbury City Band (Ian's favorite songs included one from music from Music Man and another featuring the music of John Williams) and then they did crafts for about an hour. There were eight different craft stations set up, and the kids picked which ones they wanted to do. It's a free event, and we went for the first time last year. During the band concert Ian told me he would like to play the drums, and Nadia said she wants to play the flute. Usually Ian says he wants to learn to play the guitar. I am planning to teach all three of them to play the piano, and I'm hoping each of them will also learn another instrument along the way. Nadia has been asking me to start teaching her the flute, but I told her first she has to learn how to play the recorder. We have not been nearly as faithful with the piano as I had hoped we would be this summer, and she has certainly regressed. Hopefully we can get back on track with that soon!

This morning we went to church. I slipped out part way through the first service and went back to our previous church to play a flute solo for their special music ("His Eye is on the Sparrow"). I was signed up to help in Nadia's class during the second service so Paul covered for me until I got back from playing the flute. During part of Sunday School they saw a puppet show about Elijah, and Ian's class joined the other children for that as well. After we had lunch at home, I took Nadia and Ian to see the musical "Oklahoma" at the Community Arts Center in Williamsport. They enjoyed it, although I don't think it would rank as their most favorite musical (I think "Annie" and "Mary Poppins" would rank higher in their minds). Next weekend we're going to see "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs", and "Alice in Wonderland." Each of those productions will be no more than one hour long so Oliver will be joining us. Today's musical was 3 hours long including the intermission, and Oliver never would have lasted that long.

DelGrosso's take 3

We made our first trip to DelGrosso's Amusement Park in June 2013 and our second in July 2014. Like last year, we went yesterday because the handstamps were 50% off if you brought a canned good. Parking is free, and it cost a little less than $50 for the five of us to spend the day at the amusement park. They are in the middle of a huge construction project to greatly expand the water park portion of the park. They got rid of the go-kart area and instead are building a wave pool, lazy river, etc. It will be exciting to visit the park next year!

The weather was in the 90's when we went two years ago, in the 70's last July, and yesterday the high was around 80 degrees. We all wore our bathing suits, but only three people really spent much time in the pool. Paul's parents didn't venture in at all because the water was SO cold. Paul's mom loves to swim so that proves how very cold the water was. Ian spent some time in the children's area, but he didn't last very long. Oliver stayed in longer. Nadia and Paul did the water slides five times. I had thought I'd be doing water slides with Ian and Nadia, but Ian didn't want to do them (partially because of the water temperature and also I think he was too scared to try them). We didn't go to Sesame Place this year, and Nadia could only go on one water slide at Six Flags. It was nice that Nadia could go on more water slides yesterday. The lines were not long for the dry rides, but the lines for the water slides were longer than we had experienced previously.

Some firsts included - Nadia rode a brand new ride (that was unlike she had been on before at any other park) and she also rode a ride that she is deemed too short to ride at other parks, but she was able to ride today (where you are strapped in and are standing in a cylinder and it spins at various angles. She loved that ride and rode it quite a few times, but she said her favorite was the water slides. Ian rode the swings; it was the first time he's done so at this park. Ian and Oliver rode the Tilt-a-whirl for the first time in their lives. They are not deemed tall enough to ride it at Knoebels yet. Ian's most favorite ride was definitely the "frogger" ride. He rode it far more than 10 times. There were several rides that Oliver rode for the first time because there are several that you have to be at least 36 inches to ride with an adult including the kiddie roller coaster. We had packed our lunches, and we enjoyed pizza and funnel cakes for dinner. The food prices are rather reasonable, and the pizza is very tasty. We spent 7 1/2 hours in the park, and the drive was 3 1/2 hours round trip. We won't be riding any rides for the next two weeks as the kids will be having their swimming lessons. I think we'll have one last hurrah in August before our summer vacation comes to an end. We love amusement parks! One thing I am noticing is that our time in the kiddie ride area is going to be coming to an end before long. Nadia and Ian have lost interest in almost all "kiddie" rides, and Oliver is now starting to be big enough to ride more and more "big" rides with an adult. His time in the kiddie rides isn't done YET, but the clock is ticking. Boo hoo!

P.S. I can't tell you HOW glad I will be when Nadia's bangs grow long enough to be pulled back into a pony tail. I end up deleting so many pictures these days because her face is covered with hair because the girl doesn't like to wear a headband. This too shall pass....

Thankful Thursday

1. The kids had fun with Paul's parents at Climb-a-lot Clubhouse last Thursday.

2. My dad had a safe trip to Turkey this week. He's planning to spend 2 weeks with my sister and her family.

3. We had a great time at Star Wars Day at the Children's Museum on Saturday.

4. Nadia and I enjoyed swimming for two hours at the pool we belonged to the last two years on Saturday afternoon during Oliver's nap. Ian chose to stay home and play with Legos while Paul was working on the computer.

5. We all had a wonderful time at the Lycoming Fair on Monday afternoon. Ian, Oliver, and I also enjoyed the Newsong concert that night.

6. Nadia was able to have her final two tennis lessons (#9-10) on Monday and Tuesday this week. There were two other students in the class, and they had a different teacher.

7. Last Friday we shopped at our neighbor's yard sale. Two things I bought were $4 each, but everything else cost $1.50 or less (many items were $1 each). I bought a lot of clothes for Nadia. I spent over $60, which shows I bought a lot of things! Nadia and Ian paid me back for a few things using their own money.

8. I thought we were done with VBS for the year, but Nadia said she wanted to do more, if possible, because she missed quite a few days

of the other three weeks due to the musical, Spanish class, etc. Another church near us was having their VBS this week. Ian wasn't wanting to do another VBS, but Nadia and Oliver did. They are only going two of the five nights - Tuesday and Friday (tomorrow). Nadia knew one of the girls in her class as they have played soccer together for two years. Paul and I went on a walk on Tuesday night and also watched a movie together (Woman in Gold). It was such a treat to be able to watch a movie without needing to stay up past my bedtime to do so. As a side note, we both really liked the movie, if you're looking for a recommendation. We are looking forward to one last VBS "date" tomorrow night. It's definitely been a treat for us this summer! :)

9. Nadia and Ian enjoyed seeing Dolphin Tale 2 at the movie theater with Paul yesterday morning. It was their second trip to a movie theater this year, and it was their first time seeing the movie. They saw Dolphin Tale (the first one) several weeks ago via one of the library's dvds. Oliver and I went to the playground while they were at the movie and took advantage of the milder weather. Yay!

10.  As of yesterday, I have lost 8 pounds so far. My goal had been to hit the 10 pound mark in two days (this Saturday) but considering the two week plateau I recently experienced, I am very grateful to have lost 8 pounds. This means I have 12 to go!

11. Ian is making great progress with his reading skills. Right now we're working on long vowel words such as "pretend, " "tape," "refund," etc.

12. Paul deserves "father of the year" award in my opinion for coming and getting Ian from Nadia's tennis lesson on Monday morning to take him home and clean him up as well as clean up the van. This was NO small and a very unpleasant undertaking as Ian had thrown up all over the place. I love my hubby!

13. Paul got positive feedback on Tuesday from the other profs he is working with on the research project this summer. Yay!

Songs and stories with Oliver

In about 16 days I'll be recording his three-year-old birthday interview, but while the older two were at their musical rehearsal this evening, I took the opportunity to record a few short videos of Oliver. I have heard him do a much better job with Pat-a-cake and also the ABC song, but this is what I got this evening. Enjoy!

County Fair

This afternoon we headed to the Lycoming County fair. It's not the county we live in, but we live on the very northern edge of Northumberland County, and Lycoming County is very close to us. The Bloomsburg Fair in September is bigger, but it is a FAR more expensive fair. This fair is plenty big enough for us to enjoy, and it costs a small fraction of what it costs to attend the Bloomsburg Fair, mostly because unlimited rides are included in the $6 admission to the Lycoming Fair, and rides cost a fortune at the Bloomsburg Fair. If we were picking which day to go based on the weather, we would not have picked today. It was HOT and humid, but my family graciously tolerated the sweaty weather so that I could attend the Newsong concert at the fair with Ian and Oliver at 7:30. We went it two vehicles (parking is only $2) because Paul and Nadia left at 6:15 to take her to her Spanish class. This morning Ian threw up in the van on the way to Nadia's tennis lesson, and I thought maybe our plans would be in jeopardy, but he ate a HUGE lunch and kept it down and seemed to be feeling totally normal. I wasn't planning on taking Ian and Oliver to a Christian concert when they were this young, but it was cheaper than hiring a babysitter so that I could go alone. I knew we wouldn't be able to stay for the whole concert due to the fact that they usually go to bed at 8:00 (plus I figured Oliver's attention span wouldn't be long enough for an entire concert). The funniest part of the concert was when one of the men was singing a solo of "How Great Thou Art" with an accompaniment by a cellist. Ian asked me why they were talking about TV in the song. It finally hit me that he was mishearing "to thee" as TV. LOL!

We had a great time. Ian rode bumper cars for the very first time (not counting the kiddie ones at Knoebels). He rode once with me and once with Paul. He laughed his little head off both times. I didn't enjoy the bumper cars at Dutch Wonderland (felt like I got whiplash!), but these were cushioned enough that I didn't mind being bumped. Ian rode the big swings here, just like he did at Dutch Wonderland (that time was his first). I guess he likes that ride now!

I took Nadia and Ian each on a ride that they had never been on before. Nadia loved it when I made our seat do a 360 degree circle. She screamed her head off and then begged to go upside down again. I spun her around 3 times each time we rode the ride, and that was all my stomach could handle. Ian didn't want to go upside down, so we didn't. We also walked through the buildings of animals (rabbits, cows, horses, pigs, goats, and sheep).

My concert buddies!

When Ian first saw a goat he called it a sheep. This is why it's good to go to such events! There also was a petting zoo, which was free to enter, but it cost $1 for a container of carrots to feed the animals (llama, goats, sheep, horses, tortoise, porcupine, etc.) We also were able to pet (but not feed) a baby kangaroo. The baby kangaroo was Ian's favorite part of the day. We went back three times to see that baby kangaroo. They also had pony rides and camel rides. I paid for the three kids to ride a camel together. Nadia and Ian had ridden a camel once before (I think two years ago). It was Oliver's first time, and he loved it! We ate dinner at the fair. The kids had hot dogs ($1 each), and the four of us shared a funnel cake. That's a food we like to have once a year as a treat. We also bought four bottles of water (50 cents each) in addition to the water bottles we brought from home (it was HOT out). A good time was had by all.

Summer Bucket List

For a few years I have seen other moms posting their summer bucket list on FB. Often these lists have 100 things on them, and usually the kids have had a part in creating such a list. In early June  I wrote a list of 80 things (our very first summer bucket list), and I thought if I saved this list and showed it to Nadia and Ian next April, they could help me write next year's list. I am defining "summer" for us this year as May 1 - August 23. Some items on the list were things we have done in the past, and some things would represent our very first time doing it. The "first time" experiences on the list included:

1. Fly a kite
2. Tennis lessons for Nadia
3. Annie musical for Nadia
4. Kennedy Space Center
5. Children's Museum of Virginia
6. Touring a lighthouse
7. Colonial Williamsburg
8. Camp Susque
9. Bounce House
10. Spanish Class 
11.  K9 search and rescue dog program
12. Military dog program
13. Pick strawberries
14. Pick blueberries
15. See Sideways Stories play
16. See True Stories of the 3 Little Pigs play
17. See Winnie the Pooh play
18. See Alice in Wonderland play
19. See Jungle Book play
20. Dutch Wonderland
21. Idlewild
22.      State Museum
23.      Ride a bike without training wheels (Nadia)
24.      Learn to swing himself (Ian)
25.      Liberty Splashland
26.      Eat at Be Our Guest Restaurant
27.     Chuck E Cheese (first for Oliver not a first for the other two)
28.      VBS (first for Oliver not for the other two)

     We only have about one month left of our summer vacation, as I plan to call August 24 as Ian's first day of Kindergarten and Nadia's first day of second grade. I thought it would be good to look at the list and see how many things haven't yet been crossed off the list. We've done 61 of the 80 things on the list so far, and several of the ones we haven't done yet have been scheduled on the calendar. Three items on the list aren't going to happen - the Pirate Adventures cruise will have to wait until next year because I goofed up on the date they were having the $5 sale, Port Discovery has been rescheduled for September because of the pirate snafu, and the basketball camp I signed Nadia up for was cancelled by the YMCA. The ones on the list that we haven't done yet that also aren't on my calendar include:

1.      Kids putting on a puppet show
2.      Eating lunch outside
3.      Eating popsicles (would be good to do that right along with #2 since they're so messy!)
4.      Liberty Splashland
5.      Idlewild (although I do have a particular week in mind)

    All in all, I think the kids have had many opportunities to make special memories the past couple of months, and we have special things planned for the next month including: swimming lessons for Ian and Nadia, National Night Out, DelGrosso's, Chuck E Cheese, State Museum, Lycoming Fair, four more plays, Oliver's birthday, and two more movies at a theater. 

Star Wars Day!

We had planned to go to Maryland this weekend, but it turns out I had made a mistake regarding the date when the pirate adventure cruise was on sale for $5 each (usually $20 each). We will try to do it next summer instead, and we rescheduled Port Discovery (children's museum in Baltimore) that we planned to do yesterday for September. The upside to staying home this weekend was we were able to attend Star Wars Day at the Children's Museum in Bloomsburg, which Ian had really been wanting to attend. They had a Star Wars story time and various other Star Wars activities, games, and crafts in addition to the usual exhibits at the museum. Oliver loved the Jedi Training obstacle course. I had planned to buy an annual membership next month, but in light of today's event, I bought our membership today. We won't go to the $2 Tuesdays any more, but we will go on other special days and also I want to give their biweekly "Homeschool hangouts" a try in October. Today's event was very popular, and a majority of the guests (children and adults alike) were either wearing a Star Wars t-shirt or a Star Wars costume. Some of the costumes that guests were wearing were very elaborate! Ian wore a simple Darth Vader costume.