My 3 penguins

In March 2017 I bought five sweaters at Macy's for $1 each - one size 4T, one size 7/8, two size 10/12, and one for myself. Ian loves the sweater. He has been wearing it at least once a week. He wasn't happy when I asked him this morning to pass his beloved size 7/8 sweater down to Oliver so that all three kids would have a penguin sweater to wear today, but once he realized I was giving him one of the size 10/12 sweaters to wear, he was fine with giving his to Oliver. The weather was brutally cold last week, but it started warming up yesterday, and today it got into the high 40's which was a drastic improvement compared to last week. In light of the warmer temps and the fact Mondays are usually a day I am at home with the kids (I participated in a faculty meeting via Zoom from 3:00-4:30 instead of going on campus), I decided to take pictures of the kids wearing their penguin sweaters again today. The mountain of snow near the river wasn't as large as in 2017, and it was in a different location so I wasn't able to exactly recreate the picture from two years ago, but I love some of the pictures I got today! Let me tell you it is no easy feat to get all three kids to have their eyes open and smiling in the same photo. There were many outtakes! I should have waited a little later in the day because the sun was a bit bright when we went (hence why there were so many pictures in which Oliver's eyes were closed). 

The last few days I realized on more than one occasion that I hadn't planned far enough in advance. I had events on the calendar for months but hadn't yet made the reservations. Hopefully I have learned my lesson! I went to buy our tickets to go up to the crown of the Statue of Liberty next month only to find out the first available tickets were for May 5. We're still going to NYC in March, but I had to rework our plans for that 3 day trip in light of the fact that I had originally planned to spend one whole day at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The current itinerary includes: Intrepid, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park, Brooklyn Children's Museum, Transit Museum, Tenement Museum, Liberty Science Center, and the Nintendo New York. If anyone has any recommendations, I am all ears! Some things I eliminated due to the kids' ages (such as the 911 Memorial Museum); we'll save some things for when they are older. Most of those museums we can get into for free with our ASTC membership. Ian rarely saves up his money, but he's started saving as he wants to buy a plush at the Nintendo store. I will admit the government shutdown was part of the reason I delayed buying the tickets (it's a national park). I toyed with just getting pedestal tickets, but Nadia said she'd rather wait as she really wanted to go up to the crown. She's wanted to go for a few years. We were waiting until Oliver was 48 inches tall as that's the minimum height to climb to the top.

Similarly, I had plans to go to a few places in May when they were having a program for school children. I went online this weekend to look and see if advance reservations were needed, and found out that again they were already totally booked. Oi vey! I rescheduled that trip. We can still do the school program at the one site (Washington Crossing Park), but at the other one we're doing a Living History program on a Sunday afternoon instead of a program geared for school children because ALL of the dates were full at Pennsbury Manor (William Penn's home). I'm hoping to stay with a friend for a couple of nights for that four day getaway. I know that if you want advance tickets to the Washington Monument (which means you don't have to show up there at the crack of dawn) you have to request them at least 6 months in advance. We're planning to go there in November, but the monument is currently closed for repairs (has been closed for more than a year). It's supposed to open in the spring. I hope by "spring" they mean at least by May as they aren't accepting requests right now. I really enjoy planning our field trips and vacations, but it sure takes a LOT of time. The government shutdown also has put a crimp in my planning as some of the national park websites haven't posted their schedule for 2019 yet (which is later than usual). We've been studying the Revolutionary War lately so we're hoping to go some battlefields this year - Saratoga, Valley Forge, Ticonderoga, etc. 

Mondays often have a bad rap. People tend to love Friday a lot more than Monday. Well I happen to be a fan of Mondays. I don't usually go to work that day, which means it's a day I primarily focus on homeschooling the kids, laundry, cooking, etc. I still email students and such, but any day I am home with my kids is a good day in my opinion. The warmer weather and also taking the time to take some pics of my kids also put a smile on my face. As an added bonus, when I weighed myself this morning, I discovered I lost a total of 5 pounds in the first week of my diet (I started dieting last Monday). I know I won't maintain that pace (my goal was to lose 1.5lbs a week), but I'll take a faster rate any day of the week!