Water slides!

When I signed Ian up for Camp Susque this week, I thought that Oliver and Nadia would be home this week, but since Nadia ended up going to Creation this week, Oliver and I ended up having almost four days together. Wednesday we spent three hours at the playground, and today we spent three hours at a community swimming pool. Oliver spent the vast majority of the three hours going down two water slides and jumping off the diving board. He had a blast! This is the first summer he's been that brave of a swimmer. The high today was in the low 90's so it was a great day to be in water. Oliver also enjoyed VBS the past three nights. The highlight for Oliver was the slip and slide on Wednesday night. I also finally got back to helping Oliver with his Level 3 reading. He has only one story left, and my plan is to finish it by Saturday. Today I worked on organizing the cards for Level 4 for the fall. I started using All About Reading with Nadia in 2013, and those days will be drawing to a close later this year. I haven't used cards for All About Spelling since Nadia was in Level 1, but I decided to use

them for Nadia for Level 7, which she'll be starting in the fall. It will be Nadia's last year of spelling.

Last week was a rainy week. This week has been quite the opposite. It has been a great work for contractors. Our little development has been buzzing with activity. Two neighbors had their driveways sealed this week. One neighbor is having work done that I'm guessing relates to all the water we've had lately. It looks like pipes are being placed in her lawn. One neighbor did have work done last week when it was rainy - they got new exterior doors, new garage door, and new shutters. We are one of only four houses on our small street. Two of them got a new roof last summer. Yesterday the third house got a new roof. We are now the only house on our street with the original roof. I have some money saved from working this year that I had set aside to use when we have to replace our van - maybe in four years? But maybe that money will go towards paying for a new roof instead. I have no idea how to tell if you need a new roof our

not. Our house is twenty years old so I realize sometime in the next ten years we'll need a new roof.

The most exciting home improvement project in our development this week goes to the family that started installing an in ground pool in their back yard. Oliver plays at that house as their youngest boy is one year older than Oliver. I'm sure he'll be hoping he can swim there sometimes once the pool project is completed! For several years we paid to join a pool, but I'm certain I made the correct decision not to do that this year (or last year). Yes, Oliver and I would have gone swimming more this week, but we wouldn't be going enough to justify the membership cost. It's cheaper to just pay for the day like I did today as infrequently as we will go this summer. I really am missing Nadia and Ian. I am very grateful that next week the four of us will be together the whole week at Aunt Janet's house. I can't wait to hear about what Nadia and Ian have been up to while they've been gone!

Thankful Tuesday

1. The kids enjoyed VBS at our church last week, and although it was a very rainy week, they were each able to do the water inflatables outside during a time it was not raining. PTL!

2. The kids had a free lunch at Kid's Café (at the park in our town) four days last week. Their favorite day was Wednesday when they served freshly made milk shakes with their meal.

3. We went bowling twice last week! Nadia and Ian bowled two games on Wednesday, and Oliver and Nadia bowled two games on Saturday. Oliver used Ian's bowling shoes on Saturday, which meant I didn't pay a penny for either bowling outing. Nadia really improved over the four games as she went from 63 to 86 to 90 to 134 points on her fourth game! Oliver had 64 and 66 on Saturday. He doesn't have to get a strike or a spare to celebrate!

4. Oliver had a great time at camp last week! He was very proud of the fact he passed his swim test and was allowed to go off the diving board where it was 10 feet deep. He really

wanted to leave the green plastic wristband on until next summer, but I assured him they'd give him another wrist band next year.

5. I won't hear from Ian until I pick him up on Saturday morning, but I will say the weather is perfect this week for being outside, which is a vast improvement over last week's weather. Hopefully he's having a great time! He already knew one boy in his cabin from AWANA.

6. Nadia and Oliver are enjoying VBS this week. The entire VBS sang "Happy Birthday" to Nadia last night which was very special for her.

7. I enjoyed teaching a lesson on Jonah chapter four on Sunday morning. I was only expecting to teach the 3rd-5th grade girls, but since the 3rd-5th grade boys' teacher didn't show up, I ended up teaching the two classes together. The pastor also finished a four week series on Jonah on Sunday. He'll be starting a series on Malachi next Sunday. I am looking forward to that as I haven't heard many sermons over the years on

Malachi.

8. The kids and I enjoyed watching Toy Story 4 on Saturday even if the ending was a bit sad.

9. Oliver enjoyed spending the day with his grandparents yesterday so that Nadia and I could have a day together.

10. Nadia and I enjoyed getting our nails done, having lunch at Perkins, and eating frozen yogurt at Sweet Frog on her birthday yesterday!

11. Drayton was able to book Wendy and I two rooms for free for three nights in New Jersey in August so that we can spend four days in NYC with our seven kids. With our ASTC membership we can get into quite a few museums in NYC for free, and the hotel provides a free breakfast. Our main expenses will be dinner and transportation (Subway, bus, and ferry fares). The hotel provides free parking (which is by no means the norm in that area) and also a free shuttle to a ferry station and to a train station. The kids love being with their

cousins so they probably don't care much about the itinerary as long as they are with their cousins! Paul and I had booked a getaway to NYC during my spring break this past March, but those plans were cancelled when I got the call about my brother. It's nice to reschedule some of those plans. I didn't expect to take the kids to another Broadway show in 2019, but if we manage to get some tickets through their lottery, maybe some of us will see Frozen or Wicked in August.

12. I love being able to enjoy a wider array of fresh fruit in the summer when the prices are lower - peaches, grapes, pineapple, etc. Yum!!

13. Nadia loves her stilts that she got for her birthday from Grandpa and Gubba, and if last night is any indication, she also loves her new swing that we got her. Yay! Sometimes I struggle to come up with gift ideas, but both of those ideas were mine and they were as my mom would have said "winners." Now to figure out what to get Oliver for his birthday in August....

14. The previous two Mondays it was very hard to mow the lawn. I usually mow once a week, but I mowed only five days later this time around, and I am happy to say when I mowed on Saturday it was much easier than the previous two times.

15. Nadia is on her way to Creation! I hope she has a fabulous time! She was able to borrow a tent.

16. I decided which math curriculum to have Nadia and Ian use this next school year. Nadia is going to do another year of Teaching Textbooks (online), and Ian is going to use Beast Academy for the first time. He loves the comic book style. I like the fact that it emphasizes problem solving and not just a procedural but also a conceptual understanding. I  could have purchased the online version, but I went with the hard copies partially in the hopes that Oliver might use these in two years. I'm by no means whizzing through my to do list, but I am gradually making progress.

Eleven years old!

On this day eleven years ago I gave birth to Nadia Renee Kennedy! I had technically been a mother since 2005, but it didn't seem real until I held my daughter in my arms (very briefly) on June 24, 2008. It has been such a delight to be her mom for eleven years. I will admit I really, really don't like the idea that she might be leaving the nest in as early as seven more years.  I will try to savor the time we have together as much as possible! As proof that she is growing up way too fast, she attended the youth group's Sunday School class yesterday morning for the first time during the 10:45 service. Part of the time the 6th-12th graders are together, and then during the other part she was with middle school girls. She's leaving tomorrow on her first youth group trip. She'll be at the Creation music festival which means she'll be sleeping in a tent for five nights this week.

We began celebrating her birthday last Monday. Normally we have donuts on our actual birthdays, but this year I got the donuts on Saturday afternoon. I did this so Ian could have one

before he went to camp. The rest of us had our donuts yesterday at breakfast. On Friday she used part of her birthday money to buy a Lego set, which was delivered on Sunday thanks to Amazon Prime. I bought her a t-shirt at Camp Susque on Saturday which they made during her week of camp last summer when it rained incessantly. It was on clearance, and since Camp Susque is one of her most favorite places on the planet, I knew she'd love a Camp Susque shirt. It was my first purchase in their gift shop that wasn't a thumb drive. In the past years I've only ever bought a thumb drive containing photos from that week of camp. Here's a rundown of Nadia's birthday celebration today:

1. Opened her birthday presents from Paul and I around 7am. She got two CD's, two books of paper dolls (one of Abraham Lincoln's family and the other of Southern belles), the Lion Witch and the Wardrobe DVD, a puzzle from Shutterfly that featured photos of our immediate and extended family, and a large blue platform swing that can accommodate multiple

children at once. We assembled the swing this evening, and she can try it out once she gets home from VBS this evening!

2. Had a fried egg (cooked in a piece of toast) for breakfast while listening to a book by Andrew Clements on Hoopla. He's been one of her favorite authors over the last few months.

3. Continued to listen to the book while beginning the new puzzle

4. Looked at photo books in my bedroom - the kids love those photo books!

5. Watched two episodes of the Brady Bunch - her favorite show lately

6. Painted rocks at the public library in Milton

7. Had lunch with me at Perkins. Her meal was free since it was her birthday.

8. She got her first manicure, and I got my first manicure and pedicure in I think about nine years. I let her pick the color of

my fingernails. She picked a color I would never have chosen - a blueish purple. It was fun to try something different! I also decided to use the same polish she picked for her fingernails for my toenails - a shade of teal. I usually pick a shade of pink or red and sometimes dark purple, but whenever I look at my toenails (until this nail polish is worn off), I will think of Nadia as my toenails are painted her favorite color! I was in my late twenties when I had my first professional manicure so she's starting at a much younger age than I did! I'm sure it will be an every once in a blue moon activity for us, but it helped make her birthday special. After her fingernails had dried, she played on the iPad during my pedicure. She played some of her favorite My Town apps.

9. We walked a few doors down from the salon to a Sweet Frog. She mixed several flavors of frozen yogurt together and then put on a ton of different toppings. I think we might make this a birthday tradition for all the kids - a trip to Sweet Frog. Today was our first time going.

10. At home she watched another episode of Brady Bunch, talked to Grandpa and Gubba on the phone, and had dinner. She had a ham and cheese hot pocket, grapes, Sun Chips, and finished her frozen yogurt from earlier in the day. We listened to more of the book while the two of us ate our light dinner.

11. Right now she's at VBS. She's in the Corinth group. The lessons this week are about Paul as the curriculum is called Athens.

I think summer is probably her favorite season of the year as she gets to do some of the things she loves best - go swimming, spend a week at Camp Susque, spend a week with Aunt Janet on Long Island (which involves a lot of swimming), Camp Good News, horseback riding, and time with cousins (planning to spend 4 days with Wendy and her kids in NYC in August). I'm eternally grateful that God gave us this miracle named Nadia Renee whose name aptly means "hope reborn." We love you ever so much, Nadia!!!

Camping!

We are not the camping type. We own three sleeping bags but don't own any tents. The past four days our church has had VBS from 9-12. We had about 180 "campers" come each day from age 3- completed 5th grade. It was called "Camp Wannastay." Each day one of the classes (K-5) had a turn on the water inflatables. Even though it was a very rainy week, the Lord graciously held off the rain during the time the kids were on the inflatables each day. Oliver only attended on Tuesday and Wednesday because he was at Camp Susque the past two days. Thankfully, the first graders had their turn on the inflatables on Wednesday. Ian's class (grades 2/3) was the biggest one this week. There were around 50 kids in that group each day. His class used the inflatables yesterday, and Nadia's class (grades 4/5) had their turn today. I helped out in crafts, which is somewhat ironic. The kids earned points for various things such as saying their Bible verse. Oliver's team won first place, but he didn't get one of the prizes since he wasn't there today. Ian's team came in third place, which meant he came home with a water bottle. Nadia's team came in second place; she came home with a drawstring bag and a sandwich bag that contained the makings for a s'more. 

Oliver has been at Camp Susque since Wednesday at 2pm. It is his first experience at an overnight camp. They have posted pictures on Facebook of the kids doing a variety of things - hayride, nature class, making s'mores, chapel, swimming in the pool, etc. I only spotted Oliver in one picture thus far. It feels a bit like "where's Waldo" trying to find your child in any of the pictures. Hopefully he's having a great time! He's staying in the Susquehannamo Tent pictured above. He's pictured with his counselor - Chief Jon. I can't wait to wrap my arms around him tomorrow morning!!!! Ian goes to camp tomorrow; it will be his second time at Camp Susque and first time staying there for seven nights. The camp would let us drop him off at 10:00am when we're picking up Oliver to save us a trip. If it was Nadia, I would have done that as she would love to have 6 extra hours at camp. I didn't think that would be Ian's preference. We'll come home for a couple of hours, see Toy Story 4, and then take Ian to camp. Nadia and Ian bowled two games on Wednesday on our way home from camp. I had signed the up for the Kids Bowl Free program, and since I had gotten them bowling shoes for Christmas - we didn't pay a penny to bowl on Wednesday since I didn't bowl. I'm planning on taking Oliver and Nadia bowling on Saturday on our way home after we've taken Ian to camp. Ian won both games of bowling. With bumpers the scores were 71 and 63 in the first game and 94 and 86 in the second game. I'm hoping they improve over the course of the summer. 

Yesterday we had planned to go to a water park after VBS. When I saw the weather forecast I didn't know what to do. The Weather Channel's forecast looked grim - thunderstorms, hail, etc. from 1-9pm. Accuweather's forecast was far more optimistic and only showed thunderstorms for a couple of hours in the afternoon. If the water park was closer to our house we would have given it a whirl because we were able to have six free tickets yesterday. Since it's 75 minutes from our house, the thought of possibly driving 2.5 hours round trip in vain was too big of a deterrent for us. I felt really badly because originally I had invited three girls to Nadia's party, but only one was able to come in the end, and they were supposed to do a big zip line (it's at a place that is a ski resort in the winter) plus the water park, and that didn't happen. If we hadn't just gone to the movie theater on Tuesday and already had tickets for this Saturday, I'd have taken them to see a movie yesterday. Nadia didn't want to go bowling. We just stayed home. The girls made cookie dough that I turned into one GIANT cookie (Nadia's request). They played inside and outside. We played board games. They watched a few episodes of the Brady Bunch. I played Blokus, Rummikub, and Sorry with Ian while the girls played together because when Grace is here then Ian loses his playmate. I feel like I don't do a very good job at planning birthday parties for the kids, but Nadia didn't say anything negative so I think it bothered me more than it bothered her. It just felt like a sleepover instead of a "birthday party" as she didn't open any gifts and only had one friend over. We did sing the happy birthday song before they ate their slices of the birthday cookie. On Monday (her actual birthday) she and I are having a very special day together- painting at the Milton library, lunch at Perkins, manicures at the spa, books from the Lewisburg library, donuts from Dunkin' Donut, and frozen yogurt at Sweet Frog. On Monday she'll be opening her gifts from Paul and I. I let her start her bag of Sun Chips today because she'll be heading to the Creation music festival on Tuesday. The camping theme will continue next week as Ian will be at Camp Susque, and Nadia will be sleeping in a tent at the music festival for five nights next week! For four days next week Oliver will be the only child at home!

The pics below are all from Gettysburg last Sunday. I have many, many pics that I haven't posted yet from our vacation, and I still need to upload the videos from the kids' musical at church!

Thankful Tuesday

1. I used some credit cards points to get an AMC gift card last month. The credit card added an extra $5 to the gift card, and the gift card ended up almost being enough to buy 3 tickets to see Aladdin in SC plus 4 tickets for Secret Life of Pets 2 (at 1:00 today after VBS) and 4 tickets to see Toy Story 4 this Saturday before we take Ian to camp. I only had to pay $6 total for 11 movie tickets! The kids had picked those three as the movies they wanted to see this summer when we worked on our "bucket list" for the summer. Usually we wait for movies to come out on DVD and get them from the library for free, but it is a fun splurge to see a few movies in the theater this summer.

2. Speaking of DVDs, we've rented three from Redbox over the past few weeks, and we've paid a grand total of $2.35 for three DVDs. Yes, we could have gotten them for free from the library, but we got 2 on vacation to help with the long drives and one this past weekend to watch in our hotel room. We hadn't used Netflix in a few years, so I recently signed up for a free one Beautifully Broken. It's a tear jerker, but Paul and I would recommend it for adults. It's NOT a movie for kids.

month trial to the DVD part of Netflix. Nadia had been wanting to see Princess Diaries 2, and they didn't have it at our library. We watched it last night, and we're supposed to be getting Wonder Park tomorrow, which was also on our summer bucket list. So we'll be getting more DVDs than usual thanks to our one month free trial with Netflix. One DVD we got from the library recently was called

3. Tab and I enjoyed a nice walk and also some time to talk last Friday morning. Over the past week I was able to walk with two friends (Cheri and Tab), talk to both of my sisters on the phone, and also talk to my friend Joyce on the phone. Usually I can go weeks (sometimes months) without having a conversation with any of them let alone all of them in one week. This was possible due to horse back riding camp. The kids had fun, and I had kid free time. I will say that on Thursday I was really missing them, which shows I would not want to send them on a yellow bus during the school year as after three days I was ready for my kid free time to come to an end.

4. I'm thankful for safety on the road as the kids and I traveled to Big Pool, Maryland on Saturday to spend 5 hours at Fort Frederick State Park so the kids could learn what it would have been like to be an officer during the French and Indian War. The program provided the kids with lunch. I packed mine. The hotel offered a lovely free hot breakfast, which meant for our two day getaway we only paid for two meals - dinner both days. I would like to go a very long time before I eat at McDonald's again, but the upside is I haven't done much cooking over the past three weeks.

5. We're thankful for Grandpa, Pop Pop, and Paul as we celebrated Father's Day recently! Paul was able to spend Father's Day at one of his favorite places - Gettysburg. The kids were able to earn another Junior Ranger badge. Their collection has grown quite a bit in 2019! Considering how rainy it has been, I was thankful we stayed dry those two days. It rained some while we were driving but not during the 6 hours we were at the National

Park.

6. We have recently really enjoyed two books. First, we listened to the second book in the Penderwicks series, and we're in line for the third book with the Free Library of Philadelphia. Nadia didn't want to read Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, so we listened to it on vacation together. Although she loves our guinea pigs, that has not caused her to love other rodents. We all ended up loving the book. They only have the first one as an audiobook, so Nadia started reading the second book in the series that we got from our library yesterday. Ian said he also wants to read the other two books in the series. We're listening to All of a Kind Family now, which was a favorite of mine when I was a child. I'm hoping Nadia will want to read the others in that series after we finish this one.

7. Ian lost another tooth yesterday. I pulled it out. It had been ready to come out for quite awhile, and the kids had dentist appointments yesterday. All three got a good report at the dentist yesterday. Nadia was told

that she needs to get a baby tooth out, or they are going to pull it in three months because the permanent tooth is ready but the baby tooth isn't loose yet. The dentist pulled two other baby teeth of hers previously, and she told me she'll make SURE that baby tooth comes out prior to the deadline as she doesn't want him pulling any more of her teeth. That's fine with me as it costs us money when the dentist does it.

8. We were able to help out at our church for about 90 minutes yesterday. I did a lot of cutting things out in preparation for crafts. This morning we're headed to VBS! I am helping with the craft station for the next four days.

9. Paul's parents plus Uncle Al and Aunt Millie were able to come up last night for Nadia's birthday celebration. Ian was very thankful that we did it a week early as otherwise he would have missed it while he was at Camp Susque next Monday. We had Venarri's pizza (at Nadia's request), which is fine with me because it's my favorite pizza place. They

started a loyalty card program this year, and so yesterday we earned a free large one topping pizza. That meant I paid $24 for three large pizzas yesterday. Not bad! We had enough left over for dinner tonight. Nadia said she wanted chocolate covered pretzels from Aunt Millie instead of a birthday cake. Aunt Millie brought a big box of beautifully decorated pretzels! She also brought some cupcakes. Nadia will open her gifts from her parents on her actual birthday (24th), but yesterday she received spending money to use at Creation (to buy CDs), an Ariel Lego set, two Chronicles of Narnia DVDs, and stilts. The rain stopped for a bit, and she already started working on learning how to use her stilts. Oliver also wants to give those a whirl, and a couple of neighbor kids tried them out as well last night. I think multiple kids will be using those stilts!

10. During the end of May I was able to help two friends (Tab plus a neighbor) get reservations at a resort for a week through my time share for very reasonable prices. One of our neighbors will be staying at our favorite resort in Orlando for a week in August (we have spent 3 weeks at that resort in past years), and Tab's family (including her in-laws) will be spending a week in Williamsburg in September. I'm happy to play the role of travel agent and help friends out since our time share gives us so many extra weeks each year.

11. The kids enjoyed eating sloppy joes at the playground yesterday. It was our first time at Kid's Café this summer, which is the free lunch provided in our town for kids during the summer.

12. I lost another pound last week, which brings my total to 29 and means I only need to lose 6 more to reach my goal. I'm enjoying wearing clothes I hadn't worn in a few years.