Weekend in review

After our day at DelGrosso's on Thursday, the kids and I had a laid back day on Friday. Yesterday morning Paul took Nadia and Ian to Lowe's for their fourth (of six) Avenger's build projects. This one was the easiest (Hawkeye's jet). Oliver and I went to Walmart and the library while they were at Lowe's. After we ate lunch at home, I took Nadia and Ian to the Acorn Festival about 10 minutes from our house. We heard a concert by the Sunbury City Band (Ian's favorite songs included one from music from Music Man and another featuring the music of John Williams) and then they did crafts for about an hour. There were eight different craft stations set up, and the kids picked which ones they wanted to do. It's a free event, and we went for the first time last year. During the band concert Ian told me he would like to play the drums, and Nadia said she wants to play the flute. Usually Ian says he wants to learn to play the guitar. I am planning to teach all three of them to play the piano, and I'm hoping each of them will also learn another instrument along the way. Nadia has been asking me to start teaching her the flute, but I told her first she has to learn how to play the recorder. We have not been nearly as faithful with the piano as I had hoped we would be this summer, and she has certainly regressed. Hopefully we can get back on track with that soon!

This morning we went to church. I slipped out part way through the first service and went back to our previous church to play a flute solo for their special music ("His Eye is on the Sparrow"). I was signed up to help in Nadia's class during the second service so Paul covered for me until I got back from playing the flute. During part of Sunday School they saw a puppet show about Elijah, and Ian's class joined the other children for that as well. After we had lunch at home, I took Nadia and Ian to see the musical "Oklahoma" at the Community Arts Center in Williamsport. They enjoyed it, although I don't think it would rank as their most favorite musical (I think "Annie" and "Mary Poppins" would rank higher in their minds). Next weekend we're going to see "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs", and "Alice in Wonderland." Each of those productions will be no more than one hour long so Oliver will be joining us. Today's musical was 3 hours long including the intermission, and Oliver never would have lasted that long.

DelGrosso's take 3

We made our first trip to DelGrosso's Amusement Park in June 2013 and our second in July 2014. Like last year, we went yesterday because the handstamps were 50% off if you brought a canned good. Parking is free, and it cost a little less than $50 for the five of us to spend the day at the amusement park. They are in the middle of a huge construction project to greatly expand the water park portion of the park. They got rid of the go-kart area and instead are building a wave pool, lazy river, etc. It will be exciting to visit the park next year!

The weather was in the 90's when we went two years ago, in the 70's last July, and yesterday the high was around 80 degrees. We all wore our bathing suits, but only three people really spent much time in the pool. Paul's parents didn't venture in at all because the water was SO cold. Paul's mom loves to swim so that proves how very cold the water was. Ian spent some time in the children's area, but he didn't last very long. Oliver stayed in longer. Nadia and Paul did the water slides five times. I had thought I'd be doing water slides with Ian and Nadia, but Ian didn't want to do them (partially because of the water temperature and also I think he was too scared to try them). We didn't go to Sesame Place this year, and Nadia could only go on one water slide at Six Flags. It was nice that Nadia could go on more water slides yesterday. The lines were not long for the dry rides, but the lines for the water slides were longer than we had experienced previously.

Some firsts included - Nadia rode a brand new ride (that was unlike she had been on before at any other park) and she also rode a ride that she is deemed too short to ride at other parks, but she was able to ride today (where you are strapped in and are standing in a cylinder and it spins at various angles. She loved that ride and rode it quite a few times, but she said her favorite was the water slides. Ian rode the swings; it was the first time he's done so at this park. Ian and Oliver rode the Tilt-a-whirl for the first time in their lives. They are not deemed tall enough to ride it at Knoebels yet. Ian's most favorite ride was definitely the "frogger" ride. He rode it far more than 10 times. There were several rides that Oliver rode for the first time because there are several that you have to be at least 36 inches to ride with an adult including the kiddie roller coaster. We had packed our lunches, and we enjoyed pizza and funnel cakes for dinner. The food prices are rather reasonable, and the pizza is very tasty. We spent 7 1/2 hours in the park, and the drive was 3 1/2 hours round trip. We won't be riding any rides for the next two weeks as the kids will be having their swimming lessons. I think we'll have one last hurrah in August before our summer vacation comes to an end. We love amusement parks! One thing I am noticing is that our time in the kiddie ride area is going to be coming to an end before long. Nadia and Ian have lost interest in almost all "kiddie" rides, and Oliver is now starting to be big enough to ride more and more "big" rides with an adult. His time in the kiddie rides isn't done YET, but the clock is ticking. Boo hoo!

P.S. I can't tell you HOW glad I will be when Nadia's bangs grow long enough to be pulled back into a pony tail. I end up deleting so many pictures these days because her face is covered with hair because the girl doesn't like to wear a headband. This too shall pass....

Thankful Thursday

1. The kids had fun with Paul's parents at Climb-a-lot Clubhouse last Thursday.

2. My dad had a safe trip to Turkey this week. He's planning to spend 2 weeks with my sister and her family.

3. We had a great time at Star Wars Day at the Children's Museum on Saturday.

4. Nadia and I enjoyed swimming for two hours at the pool we belonged to the last two years on Saturday afternoon during Oliver's nap. Ian chose to stay home and play with Legos while Paul was working on the computer.

5. We all had a wonderful time at the Lycoming Fair on Monday afternoon. Ian, Oliver, and I also enjoyed the Newsong concert that night.

6. Nadia was able to have her final two tennis lessons (#9-10) on Monday and Tuesday this week. There were two other students in the class, and they had a different teacher.

7. Last Friday we shopped at our neighbor's yard sale. Two things I bought were $4 each, but everything else cost $1.50 or less (many items were $1 each). I bought a lot of clothes for Nadia. I spent over $60, which shows I bought a lot of things! Nadia and Ian paid me back for a few things using their own money.

8. I thought we were done with VBS for the year, but Nadia said she wanted to do more, if possible, because she missed quite a few days

of the other three weeks due to the musical, Spanish class, etc. Another church near us was having their VBS this week. Ian wasn't wanting to do another VBS, but Nadia and Oliver did. They are only going two of the five nights - Tuesday and Friday (tomorrow). Nadia knew one of the girls in her class as they have played soccer together for two years. Paul and I went on a walk on Tuesday night and also watched a movie together (Woman in Gold). It was such a treat to be able to watch a movie without needing to stay up past my bedtime to do so. As a side note, we both really liked the movie, if you're looking for a recommendation. We are looking forward to one last VBS "date" tomorrow night. It's definitely been a treat for us this summer! :)

9. Nadia and Ian enjoyed seeing Dolphin Tale 2 at the movie theater with Paul yesterday morning. It was their second trip to a movie theater this year, and it was their first time seeing the movie. They saw Dolphin Tale (the first one) several weeks ago via one of the library's dvds. Oliver and I went to the playground while they were at the movie and took advantage of the milder weather. Yay!

10.  As of yesterday, I have lost 8 pounds so far. My goal had been to hit the 10 pound mark in two days (this Saturday) but considering the two week plateau I recently experienced, I am very grateful to have lost 8 pounds. This means I have 12 to go!

11. Ian is making great progress with his reading skills. Right now we're working on long vowel words such as "pretend, " "tape," "refund," etc.

12. Paul deserves "father of the year" award in my opinion for coming and getting Ian from Nadia's tennis lesson on Monday morning to take him home and clean him up as well as clean up the van. This was NO small and a very unpleasant undertaking as Ian had thrown up all over the place. I love my hubby!

13. Paul got positive feedback on Tuesday from the other profs he is working with on the research project this summer. Yay!

Songs and stories with Oliver

In about 16 days I'll be recording his three-year-old birthday interview, but while the older two were at their musical rehearsal this evening, I took the opportunity to record a few short videos of Oliver. I have heard him do a much better job with Pat-a-cake and also the ABC song, but this is what I got this evening. Enjoy!

County Fair

This afternoon we headed to the Lycoming County fair. It's not the county we live in, but we live on the very northern edge of Northumberland County, and Lycoming County is very close to us. The Bloomsburg Fair in September is bigger, but it is a FAR more expensive fair. This fair is plenty big enough for us to enjoy, and it costs a small fraction of what it costs to attend the Bloomsburg Fair, mostly because unlimited rides are included in the $6 admission to the Lycoming Fair, and rides cost a fortune at the Bloomsburg Fair. If we were picking which day to go based on the weather, we would not have picked today. It was HOT and humid, but my family graciously tolerated the sweaty weather so that I could attend the Newsong concert at the fair with Ian and Oliver at 7:30. We went it two vehicles (parking is only $2) because Paul and Nadia left at 6:15 to take her to her Spanish class. This morning Ian threw up in the van on the way to Nadia's tennis lesson, and I thought maybe our plans would be in jeopardy, but he ate a HUGE lunch and kept it down and seemed to be feeling totally normal. I wasn't planning on taking Ian and Oliver to a Christian concert when they were this young, but it was cheaper than hiring a babysitter so that I could go alone. I knew we wouldn't be able to stay for the whole concert due to the fact that they usually go to bed at 8:00 (plus I figured Oliver's attention span wouldn't be long enough for an entire concert). The funniest part of the concert was when one of the men was singing a solo of "How Great Thou Art" with an accompaniment by a cellist. Ian asked me why they were talking about TV in the song. It finally hit me that he was mishearing "to thee" as TV. LOL!

We had a great time. Ian rode bumper cars for the very first time (not counting the kiddie ones at Knoebels). He rode once with me and once with Paul. He laughed his little head off both times. I didn't enjoy the bumper cars at Dutch Wonderland (felt like I got whiplash!), but these were cushioned enough that I didn't mind being bumped. Ian rode the big swings here, just like he did at Dutch Wonderland (that time was his first). I guess he likes that ride now!

I took Nadia and Ian each on a ride that they had never been on before. Nadia loved it when I made our seat do a 360 degree circle. She screamed her head off and then begged to go upside down again. I spun her around 3 times each time we rode the ride, and that was all my stomach could handle. Ian didn't want to go upside down, so we didn't. We also walked through the buildings of animals (rabbits, cows, horses, pigs, goats, and sheep).

My concert buddies!

When Ian first saw a goat he called it a sheep. This is why it's good to go to such events! There also was a petting zoo, which was free to enter, but it cost $1 for a container of carrots to feed the animals (llama, goats, sheep, horses, tortoise, porcupine, etc.) We also were able to pet (but not feed) a baby kangaroo. The baby kangaroo was Ian's favorite part of the day. We went back three times to see that baby kangaroo. They also had pony rides and camel rides. I paid for the three kids to ride a camel together. Nadia and Ian had ridden a camel once before (I think two years ago). It was Oliver's first time, and he loved it! We ate dinner at the fair. The kids had hot dogs ($1 each), and the four of us shared a funnel cake. That's a food we like to have once a year as a treat. We also bought four bottles of water (50 cents each) in addition to the water bottles we brought from home (it was HOT out). A good time was had by all.

Summer Bucket List

For a few years I have seen other moms posting their summer bucket list on FB. Often these lists have 100 things on them, and usually the kids have had a part in creating such a list. In early June  I wrote a list of 80 things (our very first summer bucket list), and I thought if I saved this list and showed it to Nadia and Ian next April, they could help me write next year's list. I am defining "summer" for us this year as May 1 - August 23. Some items on the list were things we have done in the past, and some things would represent our very first time doing it. The "first time" experiences on the list included:

1. Fly a kite
2. Tennis lessons for Nadia
3. Annie musical for Nadia
4. Kennedy Space Center
5. Children's Museum of Virginia
6. Touring a lighthouse
7. Colonial Williamsburg
8. Camp Susque
9. Bounce House
10. Spanish Class 
11.  K9 search and rescue dog program
12. Military dog program
13. Pick strawberries
14. Pick blueberries
15. See Sideways Stories play
16. See True Stories of the 3 Little Pigs play
17. See Winnie the Pooh play
18. See Alice in Wonderland play
19. See Jungle Book play
20. Dutch Wonderland
21. Idlewild
22.      State Museum
23.      Ride a bike without training wheels (Nadia)
24.      Learn to swing himself (Ian)
25.      Liberty Splashland
26.      Eat at Be Our Guest Restaurant
27.     Chuck E Cheese (first for Oliver not a first for the other two)
28.      VBS (first for Oliver not for the other two)

     We only have about one month left of our summer vacation, as I plan to call August 24 as Ian's first day of Kindergarten and Nadia's first day of second grade. I thought it would be good to look at the list and see how many things haven't yet been crossed off the list. We've done 61 of the 80 things on the list so far, and several of the ones we haven't done yet have been scheduled on the calendar. Three items on the list aren't going to happen - the Pirate Adventures cruise will have to wait until next year because I goofed up on the date they were having the $5 sale, Port Discovery has been rescheduled for September because of the pirate snafu, and the basketball camp I signed Nadia up for was cancelled by the YMCA. The ones on the list that we haven't done yet that also aren't on my calendar include:

1.      Kids putting on a puppet show
2.      Eating lunch outside
3.      Eating popsicles (would be good to do that right along with #2 since they're so messy!)
4.      Liberty Splashland
5.      Idlewild (although I do have a particular week in mind)

    All in all, I think the kids have had many opportunities to make special memories the past couple of months, and we have special things planned for the next month including: swimming lessons for Ian and Nadia, National Night Out, DelGrosso's, Chuck E Cheese, State Museum, Lycoming Fair, four more plays, Oliver's birthday, and two more movies at a theater. 

Star Wars Day!

We had planned to go to Maryland this weekend, but it turns out I had made a mistake regarding the date when the pirate adventure cruise was on sale for $5 each (usually $20 each). We will try to do it next summer instead, and we rescheduled Port Discovery (children's museum in Baltimore) that we planned to do yesterday for September. The upside to staying home this weekend was we were able to attend Star Wars Day at the Children's Museum in Bloomsburg, which Ian had really been wanting to attend. They had a Star Wars story time and various other Star Wars activities, games, and crafts in addition to the usual exhibits at the museum. Oliver loved the Jedi Training obstacle course. I had planned to buy an annual membership next month, but in light of today's event, I bought our membership today. We won't go to the $2 Tuesdays any more, but we will go on other special days and also I want to give their biweekly "Homeschool hangouts" a try in October. Today's event was very popular, and a majority of the guests (children and adults alike) were either wearing a Star Wars t-shirt or a Star Wars costume. Some of the costumes that guests were wearing were very elaborate! Ian wore a simple Darth Vader costume.

Thankful Thursday

1. My parents and brother drove (round trip) to our house on Friday to see Nadia play the part of Pepper in Annie. We greatly appreciated their willingness to do this!

2. Nadia did a GREAT job in Annie! All nine of us enjoyed the performance as well as Jenn and Holly (Jenn is Paul's colleague's wife). Jenn and Holly gave Nadia flowers, which was very sweet.

3. Nadia came down sick on Saturday. I am so glad she was feeling fine for her performance on Friday, and I'm thankful none of the rest of us caught her bug.

4. Nadia and Ian enjoyed building Black Widow's skycycle at Lowe's with Paul on Saturday morning.

5. I enjoyed walking for 2 1/2 hours on Saturday morning while visiting various yard sales. I also enjoyed getting some good bargains! Nadia spent more of her birthday money by buying a tennis racket for $5 and a Tinkerbell puzzle (150 piece). Ian loved the Star Wars shirt I got him. The Smartphone came in handy to check the price of some Lego sets. Some of the prices listed were NOT good, but some were very good bargains.

6. Nadia, Ian, and I enjoyed the Rural Heritage Day on Saturday afternoon.

7. All five of us enjoyed the VBS kick-off at First Baptist on Saturday evening, and the kids have been enjoying the VBS program that started there on Sunday night.

8. Paul and I were able to go out to dinner last night while the three kids were at VBS! I had recently redeemed some credit card points for a $50 gift card to TGIF, and when it came in the mail they included a bonus $10 gift card in addition to the $50 I had ordered.

9. Paul and the kids enjoyed seeing Penguins of Madagascar at the movie theater yesterday. It was $4 total for the four of them to see the movie. It was Oliver's first time in a movie theater. He did pretty well, but Paul said he thinks he should leave Oliver at home with me the next time he takes them. I think next summer he'll be able to handle sitting through a 90 minute movie. While they watched the movie I mowed the lawn and cut some branches off our 2 apple trees, which means it will be easier to mow.

10. The seven of us had a fabulous time at Dutch Wonderland on Tuesday!

11. Nadia was registered to be in a three day basketball camp that was supposed to begin yesterday morning, but when we showed up at the YMCA at 9am, we were told they had cancelled the camp due to low enrollment (and hadn't called me to tell me that). The upside of her not doing the camp is that she was able to go see the movie with her brothers yesterday, and today she was able to spend the day with her brothers at her grandparents' house! If I had a friend nearby who also had the day off, it would be great fun to have a "girl's day out" today - go shopping or out for lunch or go for a walk or get our nails done, but instead I am having a very productive day. Although we certainly haven't eaten all I cooked on the last freezer cooking day, there is room in the freezer for more meals so thus far I have made two ham and swiss pies (like a quiche), two batches of meatballs (over 3 lbs

of them), a double batch of BBQ chicken is in the crockpot, and I have browned two batches of ground beef that could be taken from the freezer to make lasagna or tacos or whatever. I also met with our district's elementary principal for an hour this morning. She was one of my graduate students at Bloomsburg University, and she wanted my input on a new Developmental Kindergarten class that they are starting this fall. I had planned to stop at the consignment shop after that meeting and sell some things (I

had Paul's car packed up with clothing and other baby gear), but I called them from the school's parking lot and found that they don't have much room so they aren't buying much this week. I am glad I called! Paul is taking the kids to VBS on his way home so I won't see them until 8:00, but Paul will be home around 6:00, and we're planning on taking a walk together. This means I have 3 1/2 more hours to get some more work done. Mopping the kitchen floor and dusting all over the house are definitely on the agenda. Other possibilities include more cooking and/or doing some organizing in the basement. I love my children dearly, but I certainly can get a LOT more work done when they're not here! I am very grateful that Paul's parents could watch them today. I am sure the kids are having a blast.

12. Last Friday ten of us enjoyed dinner at Texas Roadhouse before Nadia's show. I found a way to have a very economical meal there - drink water (I always do anyhow) and order a baked sweet potato (yum!). They give everyone free peanuts and free homemade bread. My meal cost about the same as Paul's soda. Usually when the five of us go out to eat (whether it's fast food or a sit down restaurant), Paul's meal/drink is usually half of the bill and the meals for the three kids and myself is usually the other half of the bill, but at Texas Roadhouse since I only had a sweet potato his meal was 2/3 of our bill. We both like that restaurant. I wish there was a way to get free gift cards for it like we can for Applebee's or TGIF. I usually don't put butter on my bread, but their butter is SO yummy (has honey it in) that I have to put some on! Mmmm

Dutch Wonderland

Paul's parents had taken their two sons to Dutch Wonderland decades ago (the parked opened in the 60's). The kids and I had our first visit there yesterday. It's an amusement park located in Lancaster, which is two hours from our home. It's geared for young children. If you are 42 inches tall, you can ride every ride in the park, although kids that height have to ride with an adult for a few rides such as the bumper cars. If you are under 36 inches you are more limited in what you can ride. Since Oliver is 36 inches tall, he was able to ride almost everything; the five he couldn't were the Kingdom Coaster, bumper cars, swings, pirate ship, and twister rides. The park has 37 attractions, and the kids did 33 of those. They opted to skip the carousel, sand area, and the wiggle racers (which was just a bunch of plasma cars, and we own a plasma car). The tugboat was closed. We had no wait for most of the rides, and the kids were sometimes able to stay on a ride more than once because there wasn't a line. They rode the flume five times, for example.

The first ride they rode was the "kite flight," which was different than any other ride I've seen before. The kids were lying on their bellies and were flying around at various heights in a circle in a sort of superman position. That was also the last ride we rode last night on our way out of the park. We arrived at 10:00 and left at 7:30. The park was open until 8:30, but considering we had a two hour drive, we opted to leave at 7:30. They also have seven shows, and we saw four of the shows, which included two high dive shows.

The weather was perfect, which was an answer to prayer because the forecast included thunderstorms. The park was not crowded at all, and parking was free. The kids wore their bathing suits because they had an area with a large splash pad and several water slides that all three kids could do (quite the contrast to Six Flags). Unfortunately for two of the slides they needed to ride with an adult, and none of the adults had  brought a bathing suit. OOPS! I went down with Nadia twice in my shorts and shirt. My hair stayed dry, my shirt was partially wet, and my shorts were soaked, but it was warm enough that I dried off fairly quickly.

We are glad we went while the kids are young. I was afraid Nadia wouldn't enjoy it because they didn't have any big roller coasters. Oliver was still free, which was a perk to going this year. I think Sesame Place is a little nicer, but it's also farther away. Sesame Place doesn't have free parking, but the tickets (if you get a group together) are cheaper than the coupon we used yesterday. I've been keeping a list of all the amusement parks the kids have gone to (sort of a "life list"), and it was nice to try a new one. The seven of us had a great day!