Thankful Tuesday

1. Wendy had a safe drive back to Chicago last Wednesday. It was so nice having two days with she and Grace and five days with Rachel. We played games together, played piano duets together, listened to Wendy practice the violin and mandolin, etc. I wish we lived closer together. We're looking forward to seeing her again in less than two weeks, Lord willing!

2. We had a safe drive to Long Island on Wednesday. We were able to visit Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park. We were able to walk over the bridge over the falls just before it was closed.. It's currently closed due to construction. We also were able to go swimming with Aunt Janet and have dinner in her backyard. 

3. On Thursday the beaches were reopened after having been closed for 4 days due to Henri. We enjoyed swimming at her swimming pool and also spending many hours at her beach.

The boys enjoyed using her jacuzzi tub that night and again on Friday afternoon.

4. On Friday the kids and I took a ferry to visit Fire Island. The kids loved playing in the waves. The kids also swam in her pool, and we all started watching Cruella on Disney+. 

5. The weather wasn't as ideal on Saturday for spending time in the water, but we still swam in her pools 

and spent a little time at the beach before having dinner at a Mexican restaurant. We also played several games together over the four days we were there. Aunt Janet always sends us home with a lot of food, but because she is moving this fall, we came home with more stuff than usual - beach towels, drinking glasses, two of my Grandma's paintings, etc.  Although I'm sad this was our last trip, I am very thankful for the five trips the kids and I were able to take there.

6. Despite the fact the GPS took me right through Manhattan (WHY?!?!) we made it home safely on Sunday. We were able to visit a total of four National Parks in five days as we stopped at two in New Jersey on our way home on Sunday (Morristown and Thomas Edison's laboratory). I had to cancel our tour of Teddy Roosevelt's  home (Sagamore Hill) that I had made for Saturday in light of the fact we came home a day later than planned because we went out three days later than planned. I need to mail their Fire Island junior ranger booklets, but they already received badges and patches at the other three sites. 

7. We accomplished about 75 things on our summer bucket list this summer!

8. We had a good first day of school yesterday. I learned somewhere along the way to not have the kids do ALL the subjects when we first start back. We won't start science, Life of Fred, or handwriting (Oliver) until we get back from vacation in early October. We're not starting writing until next week. Ian really, really, really liked doing math on Teaching Textbooks. He was thrilled when he earned a 100% on the first lesson.  Since that curriculum is on the easier side, I have him doing a 7th grade textbook as he's in 6th grade. Yvonne is sharing the Math 7 textbook (on cd) for Ian and the Saxon Algebra I books for Nadia this year. I already had books for Oliver to use for math so I didn't need to buy any math books this year! Nadia was NOT anywhere close to being thrilled when we did Algebra I together, but she asked me to teach her to play the flute so she had her first flute lesson yesterday! Ian and Oliver are taking piano lessons (from me), and Nadia is learning to play the flute. If she makes enough progress, I might have her join the middle school band in our school district depending on what days/times the 8th grade band has rehearsals. She took voice lessons last year which cost us money. I can give flute and piano lessons for free. Every year I have the kids draw a self portrait on the first day of school. I scanned them and included them in this post.

9. Milo, who turned 11 months old yesterday, was a GOOD boy at the dog sitter's house. He was there from Wednesday morning until Saturday afternoon. He was very, very happy when Paul came to pick him up, but then he was confused when he got home and the rest of us weren't here. He was very, very, very, very happy when the kids and I came home on Sunday evening. Hopefully he will be good for them again when they have him for 25 days in the near future. 

10. Masks are required on all National Park sites even if you are vaccinated, but thankfully that was the only place we've had to wear masks the last few months aside from doctors offices and the dentist. 

11. It's only 8 days until our "25 day field trip" as Oliver calls it. Woohoo! The kids and I are going on a local field trip tomorrow at a state park. Although COVID is still around, I'm thankful that so far it seems we can go on more field trips this year than we did last year.

12. Wendy just recently started to learn how to play the mandolin, and her efforts have already paid off in that she will be playing both her violin and mandolin in a touring Broadway show in Chicago this fall! She's such a talented musician!! Way to go, Wendy!