Nadia's actual birthday was on Wednesday. Her celebration began on Tuesday night when she opened some of her birthday gifts. On Wednesday she had donuts for breakfast, what she requested for dinner, opened her gifts from her grandparents, got to see Paul's parents for about 5 minutes, and had a virtual sleepover with Rachel that night. On Thursday her friend, Abby, came over around noon. For the next 2.5 months they will both be twelve years old. She opened another gift on Thursday, and the doll she ordered on Tuesday night that was partially paid for with some birthday money arrived on Friday. I took Abby and the kids swimming on Thursday and Friday at the pool we joined earlier this week; Friday morning the four kids rode bikes (Nadia rode mine) to the playground that is about 2.5 miles from our house while I walked. The girls stayed up until 12:30am on Thursday night. We picked up pizza from Pizza Hut last night and ate it outside at a pavilion at a playground and then had ice cream at the Purple Cow before meeting Abby's mom at Walmart. The birthday balloons will probably last awhile, but the banners and tablecloth came down yesterday night. The next birthday will be Oliver's in early August.
We received exciting news over the last two days that the Six Flags parks in Maryland and New Jersey are opening the beginning of July. The kids will be at camp through the morning of July 4, so we decided the kids and I will go to the one in Maryland the week of July 6 and the one in New Jersey the week of July 13. All of the Towfighis will join us at the one in Maryland as it's very close to their house. Joe will bring his older kids to meet us at the one in New Jersey. I'm thankful we didn't end up pausing our membership. Darien Lake (the Six Flags park in NY that we also planned to attend) hasn't set their opening date yet, but they are hiring and it seems that will also likely be around the corner. I'm thinking of going there sometime in August. Whether we go to the Six Flags parks in Quebec or Massachusetts in August as originally planned remains to be seen. The one in Quebec is opening in the very near future, but the US/Canada border will still be closed for at least 4 more weeks. So our vacation is still up in the air.
Originally I had signed Nadia and Ian up for a theatre camp that would have met in Montoursville for 4 hours a day for 5 days in early July. It would have been Ian's first time attending a theatre camp. It was cancelled, and I was given a full refund. Then on Thursday I received an email saying they rescheduled the camp for August. If I hadn't subsequently signed Nadia up for a 2 week acting camp in Lewisburg, this would have been a very easy decision. On the one hand, I really wanted the kids to do it, in part because it will be Ian's first time at a theatre camp, and I think he definitely has talent when it comes to singing and acting. Although I certainly don't aspire to stay at home ALL the time for weeks or months on end like we did during the red and yellow phases, I frankly also want to be more careful about how much we fill our calendars. If we DO end up going to Long Island the first week of August and we DO end up going on vacation from August 21-29, that makes me less inclined to want to sign up for this camp from August 10-14, but then again our trip to Long Island and/or our vacation might be cancelled. This theatre camp could end up being the only thing on our calendar in August. The camp is from 8:30-12:30, and the pool we joined is open from 12:30-7:30 so the camp wouldn't interfere with us going swimming. Nadia said she wants to do it; her only hesitation was she likes to sleep in during the summer, and that won't be possible if we need to be out the door a little after 8:00 those five days. I haven't made a decision yet. Making plans is definitely more challenging than usual in 2020!!! I said I wasn't going to make any new plans for field trips for the 2020-21 school year given how likely it is that things will be cancelled, but I ended up registering all three kids for two field trips at Camp Susque - A program about how they celebrate Christmas in Tanzania in December and a program on weather plus two hours of rock climbing in April. Time will tell if either of those field trips actually ends up taking place. It seems that until a vaccine is developed, there will be a lot of uncertainty when it comes to making plans.
After meeting Abby's mother, Nadia and I ran into Walmart to buy a few things the kids needed for camp. The kids will be outside almost all the time because of COVID-19, and they said they won't ever be given any cups for drinking so they can be sure kids aren't accidently drinking from the wrong cup. They must drink from their water bottle the entire time they are at camp. They said each child needed a small backpack to carry their masks, sunscreen, bug spray, and a water bottle with them. I bought three small backpacks, 3 sticks of sunscreen for their faces, and three other bottles of sunscreen for their arms and such. I discovered this week that Nadia's bathing suit from last year was extremely saggy in the bottom. She had been wearing shorts (not swim shorts) over her bathing suit when we went swimming. I bought her a new bathing suit that came with swim shorts at Walmart last night. I am going to give the kids each $10 for the snack shop, and Grandma also gave them each $10 for the snack shop. Today we will be packing for camp, and tomorrow afternoon we'll be taking them to camp. I am very thankful that even during a pandemic the kids will be able to spend 6 nights at camp.
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