Forts and Fathers

On Wednesday the kids and I met Paul and his parents at Sight and Sound Theater to see their new production "Jesus." It was amazing! I have loved every show I have seen there, but this one was definitely my favorite. If you've never been to one of these shows -think a Christian Broadway show. I don't mean a small Broadway show. Think a BIG one with many live animals (camels, horses, pigs, doves, goats, etc.) and amazing sets. The show started with Jesus calling the first disciples and ended with Peter preaching on the Day of Pentecost. I'm sure it had to be difficult to select which stories from the Gospels to include, but it was powerful. Aside from Jesus some of the other main characters included Mary (Jesus' mother), Mary Magdalene, Lazarus, Martha, Mary, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Peter, Judas, James, and John. The show started at 3:00, and it was almost 6:00 before we pulled out of the parking lot. Oliver kept asking why they didn't bow at the end. You can tell he's been to other dramatic productions before! Since it was so close to Father's Day and I had a $25 gift card to

Texas Roadhouse that we got at Christmas and hadn't used yet, the seven of us had dinner there before going our separate ways. I like the fact that between the free rolls and a baked sweet potato I am full, which means my dinner costs about $4 - the same as a kid's meal. Paul and his dad both enjoyed having a steak. The kids pick the same things no matter what restaurant we are at (macaroni and cheese plus applesauce for Nadia and Oliver and chicken tenders for Ian). Nadia also opened her birthday gifts from Paul's parents. She got a dvd (Wonder), earrings, and a case to store her earrings in. By the time we left the restaurant it was 7:00, and we hit traffic near Baltimore so we didn't arrive at Yvonne and Joe's house until about 9:15pm.

On Thursday we didn't drive anywhere, which was wonderful. Yvonne and I did take eight of the kids to the playground for a picnic lunch (walked there), but otherwise we never left the house. Margie took Jenna and Nadia out to lunch that day. Yvonne and Joe had made eggs and bacon for

Andrew's 13th birthday breakfast, and for dinner that night Joe grilled some cheeseburgers and hotdogs. I made the brownies for the birthday celebration. He wasn't the only one who opened presents. I gave my dad his Father's Day gifts that day, and Nadia received her birthday gifts 10 days early. Yvonne's family gave her a pretty necklace from Turkey, and Grandpa and Margie gave her a Tempur-Pedic pillow that she had been wanting for several months. Grandpa also had birthday gifts for some other Towfighi birthdays (some belated and some early). Oliver and Julianna played together as usual, but the difference was this year they didn't require the close supervision that they required in the past. They used to be rather mischievous!

Friday was a really hectic day. Andrew wanted to go ice skating for his birthday, but we went on Friday instead of his actual birthday because Yvonne's best friend and her two kids could join us on Friday morning. We skated from about 9-11. I skipped the skating because of the cost ($12 per person

including skate rental) as well as the fact I knew I needed to conserve energy. Joe plus ten cousins (all except for Wesley who is only one year old) were skating while Yvonne, Grandpa, Margie, and I just watched. After ice skating, Grandpa treated everyone to lunch at Chick-Fil-A. Then the Towfighis went to Six Flags (they have season passes), and I took my kids to Fort McHenry. Grandpa and Margie joined us for about 30 minutes of the 2 hours we spent at that site. I remembered Nadia's 4th grade pass (so we all got in free), but I forgot to bring the kids' National Park passports. I stamped some other small pieces of paper and plan to tape or glue them into their passports. We watched the movie, attended one talk put on by a ranger, and Nadia and Ian both completed the Junior Ranger program. Nadia earned her second badge, and Ian earned his first badge. Next we went to Port Discovery, which is a children's museum. We arrived at 4:00pm, and Yvonne's family joined us at 6:00. We had planned to leave by 7:00, but since they had only arrived at 6:00 we stayed until 8:00 which

put us back home around 9:00. This whole trip was actually planned because it was the third Friday of the month, which is the one time a month that it is $2 per person (instead of $16) to visit Port Discovery starting at 4pm. When I made these plans, I didn't know the Towfighis would be in Maryland that week. I had originally planned on taking my kids to museums in DC on Thursday, but when I knew that the Towfighis would be around, I scratched those plans as I knew they'd rather play with their cousins. We are now planning on a trip to DC in November. One of the highlights of our time at Port Discovery was a 35 minute circus science show. Oliver and Nadia both volunteered to be in the show. Oliver was picked to balance four spinning plates.

Dad and Margie also drove to Maryland (from Virginia) on Wednesday evening, and they also left on Saturday morning. They stayed in a hotel. Maurice, Nadia, and the ten Towfighis occupied the four bedrooms upstairs. Oliver and Ian stayed in the bedroom that is in the basement. I slept on a couch in

the living room the first night and then a couch in the family room the second two nights. Maurice's friend (plus his wife and three kids) stayed in the living room on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. I almost slept in our van on Friday night because his friends' kids stayed up so late and I couldn't sleep. Last night I went to bed at 8:30pm, and I plan to do the same tonight to try to make up some of the sleep I lost in Maryland. Including Maurice's friend's family there were 20 people sleeping in the same house on Thursday and Friday nights! Maurice went with his friend to the zoo (in DC) on Friday.

Saturday morning the kids and I were out the door by 8:15am. I was exhausted from being out and about for 12 hours straight the previous day, but somehow I managed to have the energy to drive almost 2 hours to Fort Frederick. It was the biggest fort the British built during the French and Indian war. I had signed Nadia and Ian up for a 5 hour program that helped them experience life as a soldier in the 1750's. If we attend the program

next year, they will experience life as a captain in the 1750's. The practiced marching, doing chores (stacking wood, sweeping, getting water from a 40 feet deep well, etc.), a mock battle, playing games, firing a cannon, etc. They were served either beef stew or bread, meat, and cheese. My two picked the latter and skipped the pickles. They both loved the pound cake that was served for dessert. Their drink choices included lemonade or root beer. I hadn't signed Oliver up because it was for 8-12 year olds, but there were kids his age and younger in the program. At lunch he did have a piece of bread and a piece of pound cake, and then after lunch he started joining in many of the activities with the other kids. Nadia was one of only two girls and the only one of my kids who chose to do the scrimshaw activity. They were pretending they were engraving a powder horn, but they were actually doing it on halves of bananas. Many of the participants were from a Cub Scout troop in WV. On the way home the kids asked to stop at Dunkin Donuts to have breakfast sandwiches for dinner.

Since they made that choice, I also got 6 donuts to eat this morning for a special Father's Day breakfast (gave Paul 2 of the donuts).

This morning we all went to the first service and then the kids and I went up to Kidzway for the second service. I taught the lesson on Joseph twice. One of the adults commented to another adult that I did a good job, and the man she told responded "she was my teacher" which surprised the other adult. He is now an elementary teacher himself (and the father of two young girls), but when I first met him he was an undergrad student of mine at Bloomsburg University (more than 10 years ago). Speaking of my students at BU, four of them have either emailed or texted me in the past two weeks telling me that they have been hired for the upcoming school year! Three of them have been hired in local school districts, and the fourth was hired in a school closer to Philadelphia. It meant so much to me that each one of them let me know their happy news, and I of course was thrilled to hear they have gotten jobs. Hopefully

I'll hear from more of them as the summer progresses.

After the second service the five of us drove straight to the movie theatre to see Incredibles 2. We had 4 free movie tickets and vouchers for 2 free drinks and 2 free popcorns. The outing cost us only $6! Because I am utterly exhausted (this morning I felt like I didn't want to leave the bed the whole day) and because it's hot out today and I don't do well in that heat, Paul offered to mow the lawn. I am very thankful. It needed to be mowed on Wednesday but I didn't have the energy to do it before driving to Lancaster. When we got home last night I saw it REALLY needed to be mowed. I was planning to do it after the movie today, but I am very thankful Paul did it instead. He asked if we could have pizza for dinner, and since it is Father's Day and I don't mind getting the day off from cooking, I went and got us pizza for dinner. The kids had made his Father's Day cards on Tuesday so he had received those a few days early. If we return to Fort Frederick at some point, hopefully Paul will be able to join us as that would totally be up his alley! Hopefully he had a good Father's Day!

Sesame Place take 4!

On Monday we went to Sesame Place. It was our third theme park owned by Sea World that we attended within about two weeks as Aquatica is also owned by Sea World and our fourth ever visit to the park. It wasn't crowded, which was good, but it also wasn't really warm enough outside to fully enjoy the park. There was a new rollercoaster which the kids really enjoyed. There are only two roller coasters. I rode each of them three times on Monday. Some of the water slides were closed; I'm assuming it was because of the cool air temperature. The water temperature was much colder than it was at Aquatica or Legoland. I didn't even wear a bathing suit. Paul's parents did wear them, but they never got wet. Paul and the kids were the only ones who braved the cold water and did some water slides and the lazy river. We also saw two shows "Elmo the Musical" and "The Magic of Art" as well as the parade. The kids also had their picture taken with several different characters. Ian was bummed we missed Bert and Ernie, but I think otherwise we did meet the characters they wanted to meet. I was exhausted by the end of the day. It's supposed to be a little less than 3 hours away, but we hit some traffic in both directions. Both times we hit the traffic a little before we reached our destination. We listened to most of a book on cd  The Birthday Ball by Lois Lowry and the kids also watched a Despicable Me dvd during our 6+ hours in the van. We had eaten an early breakfast before we left, packed a lunch, and ate dinner in the park because the group ticket we had purchased through the babysitter included one meal and one drink. Sesame Place really is a very nice amusement park for young children. I'm guessing this was our last hurrah there given Nadia and Ian's ages. I took over 100 pictures. I haven't even looked at all of them yet, but a few are in this post.

We've done a variety of other things over the past several days aside from Sesame Place including....

1. a pond critters program at Montour Preserve on Saturday,

2. attending the (free) Kids' Café lunch in our town park on Friday and Tuesday,

3. the kids attended VBS at the church where they go to AWANA on Sunday night and Tuesday night,

4. the van got new front brake pads and rotors on Tuesday morning,

5. and the kids all had their first tennis lesson of the summer on Tuesday evening. It was Oliver's first lesson ever as he was too young to take lessons last year. The downside of where they are taking lessons this summer is the drive (in Bloomsburg so it's farther away). The upside is the lessons are free, and all three kids can take their lessons at the same time (although Oliver is in a different group than Nadia and Ian are).

Today the kids and I will meet Paul's parents and Paul at Sight and Sound in Lancaster to see their new production about the life of Jesus. After that the kids and I will drive down to Maryland where we'll be celebrating Andrew's 13th birthday, going ice skating, visiting Fort McHenry and Port Discovery, and attending a colonial program at Fort Frederick before driving back home on Saturday evening. I had planned to take the kids to Lake Tobias on the way to Lancaster. We've been to Lake Tobias three times before (twice in Oliver's case), but the last time we went was 2014 so I'm certain Oliver has no memory of the place. We have had plans the last two years to go there that have been scratched, and that's what happened again today because I am exhausted. I have been exhausted for more than a month. Many times while we were in San Diego I just wished I could be in bed rather than at Disneyland or Sea World or whatever. This morning I just can't seem to force myself to get out the door at 8:15 as originally planned. There are so many things to do in the Lancaster area or in Harrisburg (which is on the way there) that I like to do something else in conjunction with a show at Sight and Sound to make the drive more worthwhile. In the past we've done things like the Turkey Hill ice cream tour or toured the replica of the tabernacle, but I'm just too tired today.

8 1/2 Years Old!

Today is Ian's half birthday! Our middle child will be turning nine years old in six months.

If you want to see a big smile on Ian's face just make one of these statements:

1. "I'll play Legos with you." (Nadia is the one who plays Legos with him the most).

2. "Let me give you a hug!" This boy loves to snuggle!!

3. "We're having pepperoni pizza for dinner!" We almost always buy cheese pizza, but I keep a package of pepperoni in the refrigerator for Ian, and he turns his slice of cheese pizza into a slice of pepperoni pizza.

4. "You can watch Ninjago." He watches it via Amazon Prime.

5. "You can stay up later tonight." Nadia and Oliver both are known to ask to go to bed at their bedtime or even earlier. Ian gets the least sleep of the three kids as he's almost always the first one up in the morning.

6. "Look at the baby!" He loves

to see babies of all kinds.

7. His favorite books series are Imagination Station (he's read all of them), Magic Tree House, and Paddington Bear books. He usually only reads when I ask him to do so.

8. He loves to practice the piano. He's now in the same books as Nadia because he practices far more than she does. When he wants to earn an iPad turn, his first choice is usually to practice the piano. I wish my mom could hear him play!

9. He plays outside far less than his siblings. He spends many hours playing with legos.

10. Aside from legos, his other favorite toy would be his stuffed animals - particularly his Mario ones. His most recent addition to his collection is a red Yoshi. He gets them off of eBay, and they come straight to our house from Hong Kong or China.

11. His favorite fruits are golden delicious apple slices or red grapes.

12. His favorite vegetable is green beans.

13. His favorite subjects in school are piano, science, math, and spelling. He says he likes (but doesn't love) history and reading.

14. He has an amazing memory.

15. He prefers to go to the worship service than to the 1st/2nd grade boys' class. During the school year he usually goes to the worship service during the first service and kids' choir during the second. In the summer he goes to the worship service in the first service and Kidzway during the second service.

16. He spends the most time holding the guinea pigs compared to everyone else in our house.

17. He still loves everything related to Mario and Star Wars.

18. He had his first big role in a musical at church in May. He did a great job as a pirate!

Seals and sea lions

These pictures were taken at La Jolla Cove - my favorite day of our vacation. Ian forgot to pack his bathing suit for the vacation. Thankfully Oliver had packed two swim trunks so Ian used one of his most days. The day we went to the beach Ian thought he wasn't going to get in the water so he just wore regular clothes, and he ended up swimming in those! Ian borrowed Nadia's swim shirt when we were at Aquatica, but then even though we put a lot of sunscreen on Nadia, she burned herself. So I bought Oliver a new swim shirt at Target so that all three kids could wear a swim shirt at Legoland. There have been plenty of warm days here in PA in May/June, but it seems we're going to have a similar experience tomorrow at Sesame Place as the high is only supposed to be 70. We didn't go to Sesame Place last year, which means the last time we went Oliver was only 3. We figure this is probably the last time we'll go as Nadia will be outgrowing the park. Paul thought we should go once more mostly for Oliver's sake. Hopefully we'll have a good day tomorrow!