Foto Friday

Thankful Thursday

1. Last Thursday on the way to Knoebels we stopped at two consignment shops. We got some great bargains such as a gorgeous black suit coat for Oliver when he's 3 years old for only $1! I also love the leotard I got for Nadia for gymnastics because it's a short style on the bottom, which means we don't have issues with her underwear showing. Yay!

2. Last week I received an invitation to interview at Claflin University in South Carolina. I declined the invitation, as my first preference is to be a stay-at-home mom right now, but it did feel nice to be chosen to interview on campus.

3. We had an amazing time at Knoebels on Monday. The weather was perfect, the price was great (we spent a little less than $100 for 7 hours there for the 5 of us including food), and the crowds were so low that we had hardly any wait for any ride!

4. I bought a single jogging stroller at a yard sale last month, and I used it for the first time at Knoebels on Monday because Ian has started saying he prefers to walk. Oh I love this stroller! It's the nicest stroller we've owned over the past six years. It even has cup holders up near the handle, which is so nice, and a snack tray for Oliver down below. I am going to enjoy using this stroller for the next few years. For the next few months I'll still be using the double jogging stroller some, but I'll probably give it away in the fall as Ian will be promoted to full-time walking status like Nadia was a little before she turned five years old.

5. The kids enjoyed their second horse back riding lesson on Tuesday morning, and the rain held off until their lessons were done. It literally started raining while we were walking to the van.

6. Oliver and I enjoyed attending the choir picnic at my choir director's home on Wednesday night. I will not be able to be in the choir next year due to the change that was implemented a year ago (no child care is provided for children ages 2-4 from 10:00 until the offertory, which is usually around 11:00). My choir director wasn't happy to hear that I'll be taking a year off. If the kids don't have soccer practices on Monday nights, I'm going to rejoin the handbell choir at our previous church in the fall. I'll have to hire a babysitter to watch the kids because Paul will have recitation at Bucknell on Mondays from 7:00-7:52pm (and the handbells rehearse from 6:30-8:00). If the kids have soccer practice on Monday night then I'll have to wait until that season is over to join the handbells. I'll find out in early August what night their practices will be held this fall.

7. Oliver hasn't been waking up any earlier than 7:15 lately. This means I can get showered and dressed before he wakes up without getting up earlier than usual. YAHOO! Now we just need to work on getting Ian to sleep in a bit later (this morning the first time he got up was 5:45am, but I sent him back to bed). I also have greatly been appreciating his longer naps as it makes it much easier to get my chores done.

8. It was SUCH a thrill to see Nadia score her very first soccer goal on Saturday! Paul and I were so glad we both
watched it happen. The look of shock on her face was priceless.

9. Paul came to the worship service the past two Sundays. The kids and I love it when he joins us!

10. Oliver is healthy again! Sunday was the last day I gave him a nebulizer treatment. Ian is almost healthy again.

11. Paul got me a cooling mat for my laptop, and my laptop hasn't crashed since I started using it. Yay!

Wordless Wednesday

(Almost) Textless Tuesday

Nadia leading Clyde to her second riding lesson

Oliver doing his favorite thing - playing basketball!

Baby pony (a few weeks old) and momma pony

Oliver waves and says "hi" to every animal we see at the farm

Nadia loves this ride, but as is quite obvious, Ian isn't quite ready for it yet.

On Monday there was NO wait for the motor boats. Unbelievable! They just walked right up and climbed in a boat.

Ian coming back from his 30 minute trail ride (during which he saw a groundhog)

We love amusement parks!

Ever since I was a very young child, I have loved amusement parks. I was riding big roller coasters at a very young age because the safety rules were a lot different in the 70's. It thrills my heart that my three kids all love riding rides. Ian is the most fearful of the three, but he does enjoy the flume, tea cups, kiddie roller coaster, Merry Mixer, and such in addition to the kiddie rides. The only ride he did today that he did not enjoy was the Frogger. Nadia loves that ride. I didn't realize Ian hadn't ridden it before, but it was quite obvious that it was his first time, and he wanted off ASAP. He was on the adult bumper cars (with Paul) for the very first time today, and he LOVED it. We went to Knoebels once in April and once in May (last Thursday) and on June 2nd already made our trip for this month. We wouldn't  have planned two trips so close together, but we wanted the kids to be able to enjoy the flume and Skloosh (involve getting wet), and it was WAY too cold last Thursday. The rates go up on June 11, so we wanted to go by June 10, and the weather forecast yesterday showed that today would probably be the nicest day. So the five of us spent 7 hours at Knoebels. We could have spent 8 hours, but Nadia had her last soccer practice at 6pm this evening.

Looking over our plans for the year, it seems that we will probably spend 11 days at amusement parks in 2014 - 4 days at Knoebels (the final trip will be in August, September, or October with Yvonne's kids), 1 day at Sesame Place (next week), 1 day at Magic Kingdom (July), 1 day at Hollywood Studios (which I think of as MGM), 1 day at Hershey Park in December, 1 day at Six Flags in MD (end of June), and 2 days at Del Grosso's (July 24 and September 1). Paul and I haven't been to Dorney Park in more than 15 years, and it's been even longer since we've been to Hershey Park in the summer. Some year we'll take the kids to those parks, but for now, aside from the two very expensive days at Disney, we're sticking to parks that cost less than $20/ day per person. In the past we've taken the kids to ride rides at the Carnivals the fire companies put on, but we've stopped doing that, but we have found one fair (Lycoming County) that is very nice and super affordable. If you count that day in July, the kids will be riding rides 12 days this year! Although it will be simpler once all three kids are at least 42 inches tall (first I am looking forward to when Oliver is 36 inches tall), I admit that I will probably shed a few tears once all three kids have outgrown the kiddie rides. We should have at least 3-4 more years before that happens!

As is the norm when I am at an amusement park with my kids, I took more than 100 pictures today. More will come later this week!

My little loves