First rides for 2017

I have loved amusement parks since I was very young. My first memories of amusement park rides were at West View Park in Pittsburgh in the late 1970's. I wish I had kept a life list of all the amusement parks I have been to and/or all the rollercoasters I have ridden. Growing up my three favorite amusement parks were King's Dominion (VA), King's Island (OH), Circus World (FL), and Cedar Point (OH). My first trip to Knoebels was in 1996, and I quickly fell in love with that park because of how affordable it was and also because I loved the Phoenix rollercoaster there. As a child my favorite rollercoaster was the Rebel Yell at King's Dominion. For the past 21 years my favorite has been the Phoenix. Going to amusement parks when I was single and before we had kids was very different than what it's been like the past almost 9 years. As much as I love riding a good roller coaster, I actually find even greater delight in watching my kids enjoy rides, especially when I have my camera in hand and snap a picture that captures their delight.

Knoebels is unusual because parking is free and you don't have to buy a ticket to enter the park. As a parent you can just buy a handstamp or tickets for your child, and if you are just helping them get on and off the rides, it doesn't cost you anything to be there. When Nadia and Ian were really young that's exactly what we did. We would buy the kids a handstamp but not buy any for Paul or myself. Then as the kids got bigger (at least 42 inches tall) and started to ride the roller coasters and other bigger rides, then we usually got a handstamp for Paul plus the three kids. I used a few tickets to ride a couple of rides but mostly just helped Oliver get on and off the rides and snapped some photos.

Today was a very different day at the amusement park for us for several reasons. First of all, we didn't bring a stroller. I am in the process of selling our strollers. Since Oliver will be five in August, I have deemed him too big for a stroller. The other two were booted from their strollers by the time they were 4 1/2. He did a good job of walking around the park today without a stroller. Since we didn't have a stroller to haul our stuff, I brought a backpack for the first time.

Secondly, because Oliver had lost the privilege of riding rides today due to his poor behavior lately, only four of us rode rides today. This meant it cost us a bit more money. If I had bought handstamps for the kids plus Paul, it would have cost $67 total. Since I bought handstamps for myself, Paul, Nadia, and Ian, it cost $80 total. It's been a long time since I had a handstamp at Knoebels, so this meant I rode more rides than usual. I was on at least 10 rides - four of which were rollercoasters. Because one of us had to stay off at all times to be with Oliver and because Paul's stomach was bothering him, we shouldn't have gotten handstamps for Paul and I. It was a bargain getting them for Nadia and Ian, but Paul and I would have saved at least $5 if we had used tickets instead of a handstamp. Lesson learned for future reference. Since Oliver wasn't riding rides, I spent FAR less time in the kiddie area than I have the past about 7 years. Near the end of the day we ventured into that area for the first time as Nadia and Ian wanted to go in the ball pit and also jump on the big moon bounce. We were hoping that

Oliver not being allowed to ride rides would motivate him to be more obedient, but I am not too certain this consequence had much if any effect on him. He seemed perfectly content just to watch his siblings ride their rides all day long. We shall see how he does at soccer practice tomorrow night.

Nadia and Ian had wanted to go to the Matthew West concert at church on Friday night with me (especially Nadia), but I had told her it was enough of a splurge to buy one ticket (about $25 each). While we were there I noticed other families with 2-3 small children at the concert. I guess some people paid $100 or more for their family to attend. It was a really great concert, but it was less than two hours long. In contrast we spent seven hours at Knoebels for $80, and it would have cost over $125 if we had all gone to the concert on Friday night. Hopefully the next time there is a concert in our area it will be cheaper so I can buy Nadia and Ian a ticket also.

Because I was riding more rides and because we weren't in the kiddie area much (where it is easier to get pics of people riding rides) and because we

didn't ride the flume (since it was in the high 60's out), I only took 19 pictures today. I typically take over 100 on one day at Knoebels, and not all of the 19 I took today were actually of kids on rides. In the past I used to bring my 35mm and 85mm lenses. Today I brought my 50mm and 135mm, but I only used the 50mm. If they had gone on the flume I would definitely have used the 135mm for that. So it's good to know that now with my full frame camera body the 50mm is a good choice for amusement parks.

We *might* go to Knoebels three more times this summer. We already have passes for two trips (those won't cost us a penny). One set is from our PBS membership, and the other is from tickets Grandpa bought us last fall that were buy one in September 2016 get one free for May 2017. We also plan to go to Dutch Wonderland once, Idlewild once, and DelGrosso's once. The cost of going to ALL of those amusement parks put together will cost the same as one day at Disney. Disney World is nice, but I don't think it's equal to spending seven days at four other amusement parks. Hopefully when we return to Knoebels in May Oliver will also be riding rides!

Three games

All three kids had a game today, and all three games started at a different time than the schedule stated. In Nadia's case it was because the field was wet and they were drying it off. That was a new one for me as they never attempt to dry a soccer field. Thankfully Paul came home early from work because even with two drivers it was tricky getting the kids to and from their games since they were in three different towns, but all three fields were within 15 minutes of our house. I took Nadia to her game, and when I found out the start was being delayed an hour, I then drove to watch some of Ian's game. Paul had taken the boys to Ian's soccer game. I got there right as the game was starting, but Ian only played in the second and fourth quarters. Oliver and I left at the end of half-time so that I could get Oliver to his game. Paul stayed until the end of Ian's game, and then Ian and Paul watched the end of Nadia's game before coming home. Nadia was up to bat once, and she struck out (which is also what happened on Thursday night). As seems to be the norm for her team, they were behind by more than 10 runs at the end of the fourth inning, which meant the game ended at that point. Her team hasn't won a game yet. The ball came to her once while she was in the outfield just as it did on Thursday night.

Oliver again was crying and carrying on about going on the soccer field. The fact that all week he has not been allowed to play the iPad, eat any chips or sweets, etc. didn't motivate him. Yesterday he fought me some at the beginning of homeschool gym class, but then he participated and enjoyed himself. Today it definitely was harder to get him out on the soccer field. He and I sat on the bench together during the first quarter, and then he went and played during the second quarter. I use the term "played" very loosely. By that I mean his body was on the field, and every once in a while he ran somewhat in the right direction. Sometimes the ball came right to him and he just stood there.

He was on the bench during the third quarter, and then he played part of the fourth quarter. He was supposed to play the whole quarter, but he came off a couple of times crying for a drink or a tissue or whatever. One time his foot touched the ball when his teammate kicked the ball to him, but otherwise if his teammate kicked the ball to him then it was a turnover because the other team would get the ball as he made no attempt to kick it. He had been told he had to cooperate with the coach's instructions to be able to go on the rides at Knoebels tomorrow. We're hoping that him sitting there and watching Nadia and Ian go on the rides will help motivate him to be obedient in the future. I will be SO glad when he gets out of this phase. Not fun.

Summer Schedule

Today is our official last day of school! We are done with spelling, handwriting, science, social studies, typing, Spanish, and the math textbooks. For the next seven weeks we're still going to do 10 minutes of math flashcards each day (right now we're working on subtraction and division), reading, piano, Bible (we still need to read Isaiah through Ezekiel), art, and music (piano/ theory/recorder). We also will continue to take field trips, and homeschool gym class goes through May 26. Softball and soccer will continue until June 10. Because Nadia has been doing softball, I have decided not to sign the kids up for the baseball/softball clinic that they did last year at Sunbury Bible Church. Also, I found out last night that three of the churches are having their VBS the same week in July so the kids will only be doing two weeks of VBS this summer. In addition to going to our swimming pool on a regular basis, here are some of our plans for the summer:

May 13-19 - Knoebels, Daniel Boone Homestead, Ephrata Cloister, Pleasant Gap fish

hatchery, see Little Red Riding Hood, and summer musical rehearsals at the Alliance church start on May 17

May 20-26 - Kids' choir musical at our church, Knoebels, Art Day (with about 75 other homeschoolers)

June 2-9 - Aunt Janet visits us at our house, see Kung Fu Panda 3 at the theatre, Idlewild Amusement Park, hike at Rickets Glenn

June 10-16 - Trolley station museum, Bees Backyard, Aunt Janet visits us, Summerfest at state park, Knoebels, Montage Mountain waterpark, see Alvin and the Chipmunks at the theater

June 17-23 - PA Wilds Child at state park, see Titanic musical, five day painting and drawing camp for Nadia and Ian at the children's museum, 4 hours of diving lessons for Nadia

June 24-30 - Nadia's birthday party, see Fancy Nancy musical, tennis lessons, swimming lessons

July 1-8 - Long Island, New York for one week which will include visiting the Long Island Science Center, Long Island Children's museum, a wetland tour, the beach, and the New York Hall of Science

July 9-15 - VBS, Maker camp at the children's museum for Nadia and Ian, Junior actors class for Nadia with the Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble, Star Wars Day at the Children's Museum, Lycoming County Fair

July 16-22 - VBS, Camp Good News for Nadia and Ian, Lake Tobias

July 23-29 - Goddard Space Center, Pirate Adventure in Annapolis, see Happy Feet 2 at the theater, DelGrosso's Amuseument Park, Acorn Family Festival, take Nadia to camp Susque, see Prince and the Pauper

July 30 - August 5 - Nadia at Camp Susque all week, take boys to see Lego Batman movie, National Night Out

August 6-12 - Oxygen day at Joseph Priestley House, Good

News Camp for all three kids, concert at West End Fair, my dad's wedding in Virginia

August 13-19 - Junior Theater camp for Nadia culminating in three performances of Madagascar Jr, Luray Cavern

August 20-26 - Dutch Wonderland, two performances of summer musical at Alliance Church, spend time with Towfighis

Battle of the wills

Each of our three children has very different personalities. Anyone who thinks that it's all just "nurture" and "nature" doesn't play a part must never have had two or more children. Nadia, for example, has always been very brave whether that means wanting to ride any roller coaster she's tall enough to ride or singing a solo. Ian is much braver now, but even going up or down a staircase has been terrifying to him at various times in his life. I don't see how these differences could have anything to do with how they've been nurtured. Nadia is definitely the most naturally compliant of our three kids. The downside of her lack of stubbornness is that she needs to develop more perseverance. The only area in which Ian and Nadia have been openly defiant over the past almost 9 years was with eating. Both of them have at times refused to eat a vegetable or some food that they deemed offensive. Ironically sometimes Ian would make that determination before he even tried the food, and sometimes hours later when he finally took the first bite he'd discover he actually liked it.

Thankfully those food battles are now very few and far between. Ian sometimes doesn't obey, but it's usually more a case of ignoring what he's been asked to do rather that openly refusing to comply. Sometimes it's because he's in his own little world and actually hasn't heard what I said. I know I repeat myself with him far more than I should. We need to work on that.

I've never had food battles with Oliver. He loves vegetables and is willing to try just about every food. Oliver has sometimes initially refused to do something (ex. go to kids' choir rehearsal which he says is boring) but when I remind him of the consequences of disobedience, then he would choose to obey, although not necessarily with a good attitude. Last week he fought me on going to soccer practice on Monday and Wednesday plus to gym class on Friday, but he DID go to soccer practice with cajoling on my part, and when he started throwing up at 2:00am on Thursday, I thought that was the reason he hadn't wanted to be at practice a few hours earlier. Knowing he was

sick, I let him skip gym class on Friday. But I wasn't expecting him to object to soccer this week as he's feeling fine now. And this week it didn't matter what I told him the consequences would be, he refused. I eventually gave up and took him home and had to follow through with the myriad of consequences I had said would await him. He was very upset about these, and we kept talking about it. "If you participate in practice and do what Coach Vanessa asks you to do then you can have a piece of your Easter candy, play the iPad again", etc., and he kept telling me that he was going to be good. But then when we started to get ready yesterday he started objecting again, and at the soccer field he was again 100% defiant. Last night at AWANA I only let him have a hotdog and water - no lemonade, no chips, no jello, no cookies, etc. With the other two I was always able to figure out a consequence (either positive or negative) that would motivate them to make a good choice (ex. tell Ian he can't play with his Legos) but evidently I haven't figured it out for Oliver. I am determined to win this battle of the wills. He

thinks he's in charge as in he'll decide what he does or doesn't do and when it's over. He'll announce "I'm done" in a practice and walk off the field, and I have to tell him that he's done when the coach says he's done.  Oliver doesn't have a favorite toy or something he's really passionate about and that is in part what makes it harder to have a consequence that motivates him. He never asks for anything for his birthday or Christmas. He's not materialistic, which is awesome, but then it means it's harder to come up with something to take away from him that will be painful for him to do without.

I taught hundreds of middle schoolers and honestly never had any trouble with classroom management. I always found a way to motivate a child to behave so it was a shocking experience for me this week to have Oliver twice defy me and nothing I said or did had any effect. I told Paul that we need to give him far fewer choices for the time being. He needs to get lots of practice doing exactly what we say, when we say it so he realizes who are the bosses in his life. Tomorrow morning is homeschool gym class, and I will be expecting him to participate. Saturday at 12:30 he has a soccer game. Hopefully he will cooperate and enjoy the game. He had said he wanted to play on a soccer team. I want him to finish out this season, which lasts six more weeks after this Saturday's game.

As you can see from the pictures, the kids had their Grand Prix at AWANA last night. Each car is raced in four heats. Our kids have never won any of the trophies, but they always have fun. They give out three trophies to the three fastest cars and three trophies to the three with the best design. A fifth grade girl who is one of our neighbors won first place for design this year. Her car looked like a piano. The second place car for design looked like an acoustic guitar. Mario had to be bent down on Ian's car so that he could cross the finish line without being decapitated. Nadia was petting her guinea pig car before racing it. I can't believe Nadia only has two more years of AWANA. In the fall of 2019 she will start going with me to church on Wednesday nights as the middle school youth group meets from 6:30-8:10 on Wednesdays, which is the same time my choir rehearsals are held.

Nesting

Almost every time I walk by the front door I see the robin sitting on her nest. She voices her objections loudly and clearly whenever we open that door.

I was thinking recently about how in the latter stages of pregnancy some women are said to be "nesting." I am not expecting a baby (that would be a pleasant surprise but would certainly be a shock considering in the past almost 16 years of marriage we've never conceived a baby without significant medical intervention), but I was reflecting recently how over the past eleven months I have been very focused on projects around the house. First I went into painting mode - I painted Nadia's room purple, the kids' bathroom green, the downstairs bathroom blue, the dining room light green, and the living room orange. I'm not convinced I made the right choice for the living room, but I love all the other choices. I also repainted the hallways, kitchen, master bathroom, and family room, but I didn't change the color in any of those rooms (all  are still some shade of white). I also painted the green trim on the shed. This summer I want to do some more exterior painting.

The paint was cheap. Replacing the flooring in three rooms was definitely more expensive. I am so very glad we changed out the kitchen flooring. Of all the changes we made in the house over the past year, that is the one that put the biggest smile on my face. We also traded our kitchen table and chairs for a different set (didn't cost a penny). The most recent update was purple carpet in Nadia's room. Next on the list is the master bedroom carpet. I have decided to sell some things and put the money I get from selling a few items with the birthday money I got and hopefully that will be enough to update our carpet. I'm thinking of going with a dark blue as the walls are light blue in our bedroom. Most of the house was very neutral the first 8 years we lived here meaning almost all the flooring was off-white and almost all the walls were white. I have been enjoying having more color on the walls and floor. I still love the green curtains I got from my parents last year on my birthday for the sliding glass door in the kitchen. That was another thing that changed from off-white.

We also got a new refrigerator in the past year. I am amazed that our dryer is still working (21 years old). I imagine that will be the next appliance we'll need to replace. Paul replaced a door in the fall on the side of the garage, added two shelves in our closet, and installed a new faucet in our kitchen sink. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks he'll be able to install the ceiling fan that my Dad gave to Nadia for Christmas for her bedroom. I remember in our early years of marriage that every year I got a piece of good jewelry for my birthday. At the age of 45 the two suggestions I gave Paul were either a storm door (we don't have one) or a new kitchen faucet. He picked the faucet, and I love it. Similarly, usually when I get some money for Christmas or my birthday my first thought is to use it for something related to photography -  a class or a new lens, etc. but this month my first thought was something for the house like a pressure washer or carpet for the master bedroom. I have never been keen on the off-white berber carpet, but since I never was able to get the blood stains out from five years ago, I am even more excited about getting new carpet in that room.

Ironically the most expensive home improvement project we did in this house over the past almost nine  years was the fence, and the reason I find it ironic is that I regret that investment. It really wasn't ever helpful, and it means we need to do more weed whacking. It would be easier to take care of the lawn without the fence. If we get a dog some day, then hopefully at that point we'll reap some benefits to the thousands we paid to install a fence in 2009. Right now I wish we had chosen to replace the deck instead. It's in really, really sad shape. Our next door neighbor just ripped their deck out recently, and he and his father are building a new deck. I could stain our deck and that would improve the appearance a little, but ours also needs to be ripped out. The thing is we hardly ever use our deck so I can't see spending hundreds much less thousands of dollars to put in a new deck, but we'd at least need steps as our kitchen is higher than the ground. So I'm trying to figure out what to do about that. If money were no object I'd replace the flooring in some other rooms (like the dining room for example), but of course money is definitely a factor so I doubt we'll be doing anything else in our house in 2017 unless something breaks and we're forced to fix it (like we had to do with the water heater about 18 months ago). When we decided not to move the middle of May last year, that was when I really became more focused on personalizing and updating our house. Removing an apple tree was also a big project last summer, and in the next couple of weeks I hope to plant some blueberry and strawberry plants that will hopefully give us fruit in the future!