Thankful Tuesday

1. We've enjoyed watching the first three episodes of Mysterious Benedict Society. There will be five more episodes this summer. So far they are following the book pretty closely! Oliver isn't a huge fan, but the other four of us enjoy it. The girl who plays the part of Constance Contraire really cracks Paul up.

2. I took Nadia to her annual physical on June 25. I dropped the boys off at a skate park near the doctor's office because they still weren't allowing other children to be present if they don't have an appointment. Thankfully the appointment was quicker than usual. I'm very thankful that Nadia only goes to the doctor once a year. She was thankful she didn't need to get any shots. Over the past year she grew 3.25 inches, which moved her from the 29th percentile for height last year to the 41st percentile this year at 5ft 1.25 inches.

3. We enjoyed spending some time with Yvonne and her kids on June 25-26. Eleven of us (including Jenna's boyfriend) went white water rafting in Jim Thorpe and had dinner together before they headed back to Maryland.

4. Nadia enjoyed spending time with some of her friends at church in the evening on June 27. I was very thankful that our neighbors drove her home after the fireworks as I didn't want to stay the whole time. She also enjoyed having three of her friends join us at the pool for swimming and pizza on the 29th. The girls spent the night here.  I made Belgian waffles for breakfast and dropped the girls off at their homes around noon the next day. 

5. Nadia and I had more one-on-one time last week while the boys were at camp. I treated her to frozen yogurt from Sweet Frog on Monday, lunch at Olive Garden on Tuesday, and took her to Red Robin for dinner on Wednesday before we went shopping. On our way home from shopping we used a coupon for a free hot chocolate from Dunkin that the two of us shared.

6. I finished making the reservations for our 25 day vacation on Saturday. Whew! I've never invested this much time in planning a vacation before, but this one is longer than usual and also involves driving much farther. We're planning to do at least one thing in 24 different states - five of which the kids have already been to before (PA, OH, KY, IL, and WV) and nineteen "new" states. There are only two times we're spending two nights in the same place - two nights in Dearborn, MI and two nights in Chicago, IL. We will be spending at least one night in seventeen different states: MI, IL, MN, SD, MT, WY, UT, AZ, CO, NM, TX, OK, AR, AL, TN, KY, and WV. Indiana is the only state we'll be driving through but not actually doing anything in it. 

7. I'm very thankful that Nadia's theatre camp is only 20 minutes from our house as I've driven much farther than that to take her to theatre camp some years, and her camp only cost $50 for 40 hours of theatre camp, which is definitely the cheapest theatre camp she's ever attended. I'm looking forward to seeing their performance on Saturday. I'm also thankful the kids aren't wearing masks at camp, don't need to have their temperatures taken, and our whole family can watch her performance. Last year only one parent (and no siblings) were allowed to attend the performance. 

8. Our apple tree is REALLY laden with fruit this year. Hopefully they will ripen before we begin our vacation on September 8. 

9. I enjoyed playing a patriotic flute solo at FBC on Sunday morning. 

10. The boys had a great week at overnight camp last week!

11. Nadia and I picked some blueberries at a farm about one mile from our house. We used some of them to make a VERY delicious fruit pizza!