Thankful Thursday

1. Nadia and Ian enjoyed their final Avengers building project at Lowe's on Saturday morning (Thor's chariot) with Paul.

2. Nadia and Ian enjoyed swimming at the Liberty Splashland with Bella on Saturday afternoon. Bella came back to our house so it ended up being an eight hour play date for Nadia and Bella. They had a blast together!

3. Nadia enjoyed two hours of glow in the dark dodgeball on Thursday morning at church (they used black lights so the balls would glow in the dark). Ian and Oliver enjoyed playing in the play land at church as we hadn't gone there in almost four months.

4. On Sunday afternoon I took the kids to Bucknell University to play field hockey with the women's team. It was an event geared for children ages 2-12. All three kids had a good time. They even had a stick small enough for Oliver! They played Disney music in the field during the event. Nadia was surprised when we arrived there because she was expecting ice hockey not field hockey.

5. All three kids enjoyed their gymnastics classes that started up this week, and Nadia and Ian enjoyed their first fall soccer practices this week. Their practices actually started last week, but we didn't get the text messages from either coach. We are none too pleased with Verizon these days. Paul is grateful that he's only an assistant coach this time, which he greatly prefers to being a head coach. Yesterday he also accepted Ian's coach's invitation for Paul to help with Ian's team's practices.

6. One of our neighbors picked some apples off one of our trees last night. This put a big smile on my face as we have a billion apples this year- far more than I want to pick, peel, core, etc. I should have bought a fruit picker thing somewhere along the way so I wouldn't have to go up on a ladder. The neighbor came over with two of them. She also had several adults helping so it was a much faster process for her than it has been for me. She plans to can applesauce. This is a win/win in my book!

7. Ian has been very motivated with working through the reading curriculum. I imagine he will finish the second grade curriculum this week. He has been learning things like a soft "c" (ex. grace) and a soft "g" (ex. hinge) this week.

8. Nadia has been spending more time (of her own initiative) reading chapter books lately.

5.