Thankful Thursday

1. We had a fabulous week in Virginia with my parents. Although the weather wasn't suitable for going to Virginia Beach or the Virginia Zoo, we had a great time at the indoor Children's Museum of Virginia last Thursday (including a planetarium show), and it didn't rain on Friday while we were at Colonial Williamsburg. The cooler temps were nice for touring Williamsburg. I was so pleased that Nadia and Ian kept wanting to do more at Williamsburg last Friday!

2. We had a safe trip back on Friday night, and Oliver was better behaved than he was on our way down to Virginia. It was great to be reunited with Paul!

3. Paul's parents were able to come up and see Ian's last soccer game on Saturday.

4. Ian was SO well behaved as he sat alone in church for the first 45 minutes of the worship service on Sunday morning.

5. Nadia only threw up one time on Sunday, and she made it to the bathroom in time. No one else caught her bug.

6. The kids enjoyed the "touch a truck" event at the library on Saturday afternoon even though there were far fewer tractors and such this time than there were when they held the event two years ago.

7. Nadia is really enjoying her tennis lessons. She asked me to put a tennis racket on her birthday wish list. She said she wants to keep playing tennis after her lessons are done. The lessons were very affordable, especially considering she's one of three kids in the class. I'm grateful it's just a one week session, as I'm not very keen on getting all three kids out the door by 8:05 every morning.

8. We also enjoyed going to the library on Monday to get books, and the kids enjoying spreading dirt during the kids in the garden program.

9. We had a fabulous time at Knoebels on Tuesday. The Lord answered our prayers for the rain to stay away. I loved seeing how Nadia enjoyed riding the tea cups with Oliver. Although they love the rides, they also enjoy some of the free parts of

Knoebels such as the playground and the part where you put on costumes and become part of a show. I'm also very grateful for the watchful eye of an employee at Knoebels. The boys were in the playground while I took Nadia to the bathroom. Paul's parents and Paul were in charge of the boys. Oliver managed to escape without them noticing. and he wandered off and was trying to get on a ride. As I came back from the bathroom with Nadia, an employee pointed to Oliver and said, "isn't this your son?". She had noticed him wandering through the park by himself and had taken him under her protection until I came by. Thank you, Lord!

10. Nadia loved her first Annie rehearsal yesterday afternoon. She was pleased that the costume they selected for her is purple. I'm grateful that all the remaining rehearsals are from 9-11am because today's (12:30-2:30) wreaked havoc on Oliver's nap, which was bad timing because he didn't nap at Knoebels on Tuesday. He has also been waking up earlier than usual so he REALLY needs a nice 2 hour nap today. Hopefully that will happen, especially because he's sick again.

11. We are really enjoying the book Five Children and It. We keep wondering what the kids' wish will be in each chapter. It's led to many interesting discussions such as what wish we would each pick if we were in the book, etc.

A wonderful day

Today we took our second trip to Knoebels (second this year I mean). It was the last day of the cheaper rates. Tomorrow the handstamp prices go up to their usual summer rates. I wasn't sure if we should go or not based on the weather forecast, but I am so glad we went because it rained for less than 5 minutes the whole time we were there (almost 9 hours). Aside from the adult bumper cars and the Flying Turns roller coaster, the lines were almost nonexistent, and the weather was perfect. It wasn't too hot, but it was warm enough to do the flume (which we skipped the first time we went this year). Paul's parents met us there, which made the day even more special. Ian told us the last time that he wanted to ride the Phoenix (big wooden roller coaster), but I hadn't bought him a hand stamp that included the big roller coasters because I had no idea he would be interested. He wasn't tall enough until this year as you have to be at least 42 inches tall. Today was HIS day. He rode the Phoenix roller coaster eight times with Paul and once with me. He also rode the Twister roller coaster once (that one he didn't like as much), and the Flying Turns roller coaster once (he loved that one also but the line was slow moving). You have to be 48 inches to ride the Impulse roller coaster, so he and Nadia have to wait on that one. Oliver rode the flume for the first time ever, and he loved it. He did it twice today. Ian would have gone on the Phoenix many more times if we had let him. We now have TWO kids who love roller coasters, and Oliver likes the kiddie one so I imagine he'll like the big ones once he's tall enough (he needs to grow 6 more inches). I took over 100 pictures and haven't had time to even look at most of them. I'll include two in this post and also a video from Nadia doing the zip line in VA.

For the birds

Sometimes I find it hard to correct a mispronunciation, because I know it won't last long. and often I think it's cute. For example, Ian always says "libary" (doesn't pronounce the first "r" in the word). Oliver's diction is generally very good for his age, but his word for music was really poorly pronounced. It sounded like "ickick". My mom didn't know what he was saying (for good reason) so I worked on getting him to pronounce it correctly. Kids also have a way of saying things that just makes me smile. Oliver, like most little kids, has no issues with eating food off the floor or ground. When he drops something outside (such as a pretzel), I tell him that the birds will eat it and ask him not to pick it up and eat it himself. He doesn't quite grasp the differentiation between the ground outside and the floor inside, because now when he drops food on the kitchen floor, he says "a bird will eat it." Maybe an ant, but not a bird, ha ha!

This morning Nadia had her first tennis lesson. The instructor is a high school student who has been playing tennis since he was very young, as his father is a professional tennis player. There are three kids in the class. Melanie and Ryan (brother and sister) are also in the class. Melanie is a couple of months older than Nadia. They are also homeschooled. Ryan is younger than Melanie, which means I could have signed Ian up for the class even though he is technically too young. Ian and Oliver enjoyed playing on the playground during her one hour lesson. I brought a beach towel to dry off some of the equipment for them. It was Nadia's first time holding a tennis racket, and she enjoyed it! We don't have a child sized racket, but I want her to practice a little at home each day this week with an adult sized racket. After the tennis lesson was over we headed to the library. After spending some time reading books, playing with toys, and using their computers, we went outside for their weekly "kids in the garden" program. Today was the kick-off for this summer so the kids were spreading soil in the four beds. I don't plan on attending this every week, but since we were already near by due to the tennis lesson, I let the kids play in the dirt a little.

I was going to have Nadia do spelling, reading, keyboarding, and piano today, but it is hard to get back in the groove after being on vacation for several weeks. In light of her having tennis this morning and a 90 minute Spanish class this evening, I decided to just have her do reading and piano. I also read the kids some picture books we checked out from the library this morning. We also have been enjoying getting back into reading chapter books. We finished Railway Children and are now enjoying Five Children and It by the same author (Nesbit). I don't believe I had ever read either of these books before. The first one we read was good, but this one we are reading now is particularly funny. I give the book two thumbs up! The next book I planned to read was Whipping Boy, which I have read before. Nadia is reading Treasures from Grandma's Attic and Ten Girls Who Changed the World to me. The chapter today was about Elizabeth Fry. Tomorrow's will be about Amy Carmichael. Yesterday I read the kids a couple of "chapters" from a story that their cousin Jenna wrote. I am hoping it will inspire them to write stories some day!

Misophonia

While we were in Virginia a former student of mine posted on Facebook about misophonia. I looked into it more, and I think this accurately describes the adverse reaction I have (physically and emotionally) to certain sounds (such as chewing or the bathroom fan). "MRI studies show abnormal or dysfunctional assessment of neural signals occurs in the anterior cingulate cortex and insular cortex. These cortices are also implicated in Tourette Syndrome, and are the hub for processing anger, pain, and sensory information." I thought it was just a "pet peeve," but it's a neuropsychiatric disorder. Go figure! The time of day when it is the hardest for me is after we put the kids to bed and Paul is eating chips (or something like that) while sitting next to me on the couch. I have tried covering one ear, but that doesn't help much. In a couple of places online they talked about a behind the ear sound generator (looks like a hearing aid) as the treatment. 

That gave me the idea that if I wore headphones and listened to music that would solve the problem. Now to locate a pair of headphones. The vast majority of the time I am not watching what Paul is on tv when I'm sitting next to him, so that won't be a problem. It's worth a try anyhow. If you want to torture me, chew a piece of gum and stand really close to me. If you really want to chew a piece of gum, please offer me a piece and then the sound won't bother me. If I eat while Paul is eating that solves the problem, but I am not actually hungry at that time of day, and eating a snack before bed isn't good for my waistline.

I had to wake all three kids up this morning. I think that's a first. Nadia woke Paul and I up at 5:00, but she went back to sleep. I let Nadia and Ian sleep longer than Oliver. He wet the bed yesterday morning, and I didn't want that to happen again so I woke him up. Nadia complained at 5:00 about her stomach, but she didn't throw up, and I thought she was just hungry because she had skipped dinner on Friday night and lunch on Saturday. 

But then she threw up at church (thankfully she made it to the toilet in time) around 8:45 am. Paul took her home. We always come in two cars because Paul leaves after the first service. Having two cars there came in handy today! Normally Paul, Ian, Nadia, and I attend the first service together while Oliver is in his classroom for both services. I asked Ian if he wanted to stay in his classroom for both services this morning due to Paul and Nadia leaving, but he said he wanted to attend the first service. This meant he had to sit by himself for the first 45 minutes while I was up on the platform with the choir (during the music, prayer, time of honoring the graduates, communion, announcements, etc.). He was absolutely perfectly behaved. I was so proud of my five year old! Way to go, Ian! I sat beside him during the sermon. Nadia seemed to be feeling fine since then. I hope she's feeling fine tomorrow because she's supposed to have her first ever tennis lesson at 8:30 am and her first Spanish class at 6:30 pm. The tennis lessons are only this week, but the Spanish class will meet once a week for eight weeks.

So long, farewell

Yesterday we said farewell to Williamsburg, and today we said a temporary goodbye to soccer. While we were driving to Virginia last Saturday, Nadia watched part of the Sound of Music. She had time to watch the whole movie, but she kept rewinding and listening to certain songs again and again. Yesterday she watched the movie to the end for the first time in her life. One of her favorite songs was definitely "So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye." I wasn't sure if the kids would want to go back to Williamsburg on Friday morning since we had already spent time there on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but they did! I thought we'd just tour the jail, capitol, and Presbyterian meetinghouse, but they kept asking to do "one more thing." We also toured Charlton's Coffeehouse (and enjoyed a delicious cup of chocolate), visited the wigmaker (did you know everyone wearing a wig had their head shaved?), toured the Randolph House, and visited the wheelwright. Over the course of the week I'd say we saw 80% of the historic sites in Colonial Williamsburg. A good time was had by all! By the last day Ian was asking questions and interacting with the reenactors just as much as Nadia.

We left Williamsburg at 1pm and arrived home at 8pm. Each trip took us seven hours. The traffic was just as bad on the way back on Friday as it was last Saturday on the way down. According to the GPS and mapquest, the drive was supposed to take 5 1/2 hours, but each way the drive actually took 6 1/2 hours plus we used another 30 minutes each trip for stops (gas, bathroom breaks, and getting food). Oliver slept two hours on the way back. He had a few moments of crying and carrying on, but he didn't scream anywhere near as much on the way back as he did on the way down (whew!). Our lunch yesterday just consisted of food we had in the van (string cheese, granola bars, grapes, cookies, Goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, etc.), but I stopped at Roy Rogers on the way home. I hadn't been to one of those in years. I love that you can pile up as many tomatoes as you want on your burger, and their strawberry milkshakes are terrific. I think that drive was about my limit. I can't imagine driving to someplace farther than that. I am so glad that where we live we very rarely deal with traffic of any kind. Driving down there was a lot more stressful than it is up here!

Today Nadia and Ian had their last soccer games for the spring season. It was Ian's second season playing on a U6 team, and Nadia's 5th season of soccer (2nd on U8). They are both signed up to play soccer again next year. Unfortunately Nadia's game today was *really* far away. I have no idea why our league schedules games with their league. There are SO many AYSO teams that are much closer to us. The driving time one way was longer than the game. It was sort of bad timing considering how much I drove yesterday, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. Ian played 8 games in the fall and 6 games this spring. He missed two due to the vacation in Florida. Nadia played 8 games in the fall and 5 games this spring. She missed one when we were in Florida and one when we were in Virginia, and her team only played 7 games this season. Pop Pop and Grandma came up to see Ian's game at 9:30 in Milton so they were able to watch Oliver during the game, as Paul was Ian's coach. Nadia and I left the house at 7:50 for her 9:00 game. Now we have a three month break from soccer games.

It was rather cool during her game, but it warmed up later and was a very pretty day. On our way home I stopped at the grocery store, and then after lunch I took the kids to the library for their Touch a Truck event. While Oliver napped, I mowed the lawn. I thought Paul would mow the lawn while we were away, but he didn't. It didn't look as bad as when we got back from Florida. The grass grew more during those 16 days than it did the past 14 days. I should be able to keep the lawn in better shape the rest of the summer. After dinner I took Nadia and Oliver to the playground. Paul also worked with Nadia on riding her bike today. She has almost totally mastered riding without training wheels! I am very backlogged on pictures, but here are a few from the past several days.

At the Children's Museum in Portsmouth

Thankful Thursday

1. The six of us made it down to Williamsburg safely on Saturday, and we discovered upon arrival at our resort that we had picked a really nice one. The units are luxurious, it has been nice having a private hallway between our two units, and we have enjoyed many of the resorts amenities (although we haven't been on the tennis courts yet).

2. Paul's parents were able to come to Nadia and Ian's soccer games on Saturday morning.

3. The weather was hot on Saturday-Monday, which meant we were able to enjoy swimming in the outdoor pool each of those three days. We also enjoyed eating dinner outside by the swimming pool on Sunday (carryout pizza) and Monday (served by the resort).

4. Aside from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and the like, I am getting seven days off from cooking! We ate a meal at Denny's, Wendy's, IHOP, and an excellent Mexican restaurant, which was a very rare treat for me (since Paul doesn't like Mexican food).

5. The kids enjoyed the crafts in the activity center yesterday, and we were also able to check out a couple of dvds and board games for free.

6. The kids enjoyed the Bounce House yesterday!

7. Between the two vehicles, we had four umbrellas, and we put those to good use this week.

8. We have enjoyed our time at Colonial Williamsburg, and hopefully the kids have learned a lot as well. Nadia was disappointed we didn't do the "RevQuest" experience, but I think it will be easier to do when the kids are a little older, we are more adept at using a cell phone for texting, and we have more time to play the spy game.

9. With the exception of Tuesday morning (when Oliver got up at 6:40), the kids have all been sleeping until at least 7:20 every morning. In fact sometimes I have been waking Oliver up (for fear he'll wet the bed). Nadia has been a good bed partner, with the exception of the morning she decided to sleep horizontally in the bed with her feet kicking my back.

10. Nadia had a blast on the Go Ape zipline and treetop obstacle course on Sunday afternoon!

11. Oliver seems to be healthy again. We are to continue the nebulizer treatments for two more weeks.

12. We have been able to spend the past five days with my parents. That is a treat for us!

13. Oliver hasn't wet the bed or had any accidents when we've been in the van or out and about here in Williamsburg. He's had three accidents during this trip. Each time he peed in his pants within 30 minutes of getting up in the morning even though he had peed on the potty right after he got up in the morning. This is a brand new problem. Hopefully we can nip this in the bud.

14. The kids had a fabulous time at the Children's Museum in Portsmouth today, and we were grateful the resort has a heated indoor pool to use this morning when it was too cold and rainy to swim outside.

Colonial Williamsburg

Monday morning we spent about three hours in Colonial Williamsburg. During this time we participated in the reenactment of the "storming of the palace" (over stolen gunpowder), toured the Wythe House (which included opportunities for the kids to do things like walk on stilts, paint, and play with other colonial toys), visit the basketmaker, and watch a sheep being sheared. Nadia and Grandpa also were able to learn some colonial dance steps in a 30 minute "Pleasures of the Dance" program. When we got back to the resort we had lunch and then spent the rest of the day at the swimming pool. It was a very hot day; we were grateful to cool off in the water of both the indoor and outdoor pools. We had dinner at the pool as they were selling hotdog meals (including chips and lemonade) for $3 and BBQ pork meals for $5. It felt very festive to eat by the swimming pool. We played some cornhole before heading back to our units.

We spent about 7 1/2 hours there on Tuesday which included a brief visit at Great Hopes Plantation, a guided tour of the Governor's Palace, walking through a maze, the observation of chocolate being made in the palace kitchen, magazine, and a visit to the brick yard (Nadia helped to stomp the clay), cabinetmaker, printing office, milliner, tailor, silversmith, blacksmith, tin shop, weaver, and shoemaker. We all attended the 30 minute "Polite Academy," and our day ended with a guided tour of part of the art museum that focused on dollhouses and included making a craft at the end. Nadia loves asking questions during tours! On our way home we stopped at Denny's for dinner because at Denny's kids' meals are free on Tuesday nights. It was raining, and the temperature had dropped quite a bit so we were not interested in swimming.

This morning we started our day with the 30 minute movie (produced in 1957) shown at the Visitor Center and then took a guided tour of Everard House before heading back to our resort for an early lunch. The kids then did a scratch art craft at the activity center before we headed to the Bounce House, which is an indoor inflatable playground for kids. The large building (very high ceiling) contains 9 very large inflatables and 3 smaller ones geared for toddlers. The kids had a blast playing there for about 90 minutes, and then we came back to the resort so Oliver could take his nap. During his nap Nadia and Ian painted suncatchers at the activity center, and then four of us headed back to Colonial Williamsburg for a guided tour of the Geddy House and to visit the gunsmith and courthouse. Upon our return back at the resort, Nadia and Ian did another painting activity before we all headed out to have dinner at IHOP. After dinner, the kids were able to bounce at the Bounce House for another 30 minutes before we came back to the resort. Nadia wanted to swim in the indoor pool, but we decided to wait until tomorrow. I think there are about 11 historic sites at Colonial Williamsburg we haven't visited yet (such as the jail, Capitol building, wigmaker, apothecary, etc.), but I am not sure if we'll venture over there on Friday morning or not. I do think touring a place like this is a far better way to learn about history than just reading about it in a book. I hope we can take the kids back here again in the future when they are older.