Happy Birthday, America!

There are a lot of birthdays in July. Drayton's was on Sunday, my cousin Vanessa's is today (Aunt Janet's daughter), and Wendy and my cousin Brent have a birthday on the 17th. Yesterday we were celebrating our country's birthday. We swam in the indoor pool (kids' choice), had lunch at Aunt Janet's house, and then we spent 6.5 hours at the beach. Vanessa's brother-in-law and three year old niece joined us at the beach. Janet grilled burgers and hotdogs. The kids marched in a parade at 6:00. The noisemakers were their favorite part. All the kids were allowed to have a free treat; they could choose between an ice cream sandwich, ice cream cone, Klondike bar, or freeze pop. Nadia chose an ice cream sandwich, and my boys picked freeze pops. The family in the cabana next to Janet's shared some fresh fruit, cannoli cake, and apple pie with us. Yum! Oliver started yawning at 7pm so we decided not to stay for the fireworks. Nadia and Janet watched some outside the house after I had put the boys to bed. After Nadia went to bed then Janet and I watched the NYC fireworks on television.

They were accompanied by music from the West Point band. Normally I do let my kids stay up for the fireworks, but since we had just stayed up for them 9 days earlier at our church, I didn't feel the need to do so last night. We did stay until sunset though. Sunsets at the beach are gorgeous! Nadia spent almost all the time at the beach playing with a ten year old girl named McKenna. She was at their family's cabana far more than Janet's. They played in the water together, on the sand, and also played card games at their cabana. They are planning to play together again on Thursday. Ian had fun playing with Emma (the three year old at our cabana), and he also collected four snails. He thought he was collecting hermit crabs as he did in Cape Cod last September, but they were actually tiny snails!

Thankful Tuesday

 1. We made it here safely to Long Island on Saturday. With traffic, the trip took us 5 hours altogether.

2. We enjoyed the NY Hall of Science on Saturday.

3. We are enjoying Aunt Janet's indoor pool (Saturday night), outdoor pool (Monday morning), and beach (Sunday and Monday). We also enjoyed visiting her church on Sunday.

4. We got Paul off of our cell phone plan, which has saved us $25 this month. He now has a phone through the family business. Next step is to get me on a cheaper plan.

5. Paul came home early on Friday from work since he wouldn't be seeing us for a week. He was able to eat dinner with us and take the kids swimming for about 90 minutes on Friday night. The lifeguards gave Nadia a birthday card, which was very sweet of them!

6. The previous week our neighbor's kids took swimming lessons where ours did last week. They only had 2/5 lessons

as three were cancelled due to the weather. I'm very thankful that last week none of their tennis or swimming lessons were cancelled.

7. Our elliptical was delivered on Friday! I'm hoping that Paul will be able to assemble it while we're in New York so I can start using it when we get home.

8. We went to two fabulous yard sales on Friday morning. I spent $70, and the most expensive item was $2 (only two things cost that much). Most things were $1 or $1.50, and some were as little as $0.25. I mostly got clothes and shoes for Nadia. I also got some clothes and shoes for the boys, some chapter books for Nadia, and two pairs of sandals for myself. They are super comfortable (made by Clarks) - much nicer than the kind I usually get at Payless, and they only cost me $2 each. I got a black pair and a brown pair. The dresses that Nadia wore on Saturday and Sunday were from the yard sale - $1.50 each!

9. My dad and Margie made it back safely from Michigan.

10. As today is Independence Day, I am very thankful that I live in America. I pray our country will continue to follow the constitution for years to come. We are very blessed!

Long Island

The kids first trip to New York was when we went to Corning Glass Museum, which is less than two hours north of our house. The kids first time spending a night in the state of New York was July 1. We left a little before 8:30AM. Originally I planned to leave at that time so that we could stop and do a project at Home Depot at 9:00 in Bloomsburg on our way to New York, but then I decided painting and having three freshly painted projects in our van as we embarked on a trip probably wasn't the best plan of action. So we drove straight to the NY Hall of Science instead. It took us a little over 3 hours to get there. We didn't hit any traffic until we got to the George Washington Bridge. We spent three hours in the museum. Our only cost was the $10 for parking; we got in free because of our ASTC membership. Ian's favorite exhibit was the traveling Angry Bird exhibit that just opened there that day. One of Nadia's two favorite areas was the Connected Worlds exhibit. The 80 feet high walls of cobalt blue stained glass were built for the 1964 Worlds Fair. The kids interacted with

animated creatures, plants, trees and other objects on seven giant screens. Each displayed a different environment—desert, mountain valley, plains, reservoir, jungle wetlands and a 38 feet high digital waterfall. Her other favorite area was where the kids could create various things such as building with large dowel rods and rubber bands or cutting fabric to design clothes for a small mannequin. There are two museums on Long Island that we could also get into for free. There is a science museum less than 2 miles from her house, but they are closed from July 2-7 so we won't be visiting it. On our way back home on July 8 we plan to stop at the Long Island Children's Museum.

We encountered a lot of traffic on Long Island so it took us a little less than two hours to travel 52 miles to my Aunt Janet's house. We had dinner with her and then went swimming in her indoor pool. There is an outdoor pool, tennis courts, small playground, basketball court, and an indoor pool.
Sunday morning we went with

her to church, had lunch at her house, and then we spent six hours at the private beach where has been a member for decades. We played in the water, played in the sand, played Yahtzee, blew bubbles, flew a kite, ate some grilled some hot dogs and green beans, etc. The weather was perfect yesterday for a day at the beach - hot and sunny! When we got back to her house we discovered that one of her two air conditioner units wasn't working - the one that cools the upstairs where the boys and I were sleeping. It was 90 degrees upstairs. Thankfully her air conditioning guy made a house call at 9:45 at night on a Sunday night and got it running again. The last time we went on a vacation with Aunt Janet was when we (plus my parents) met her in Florida in May 2010. I'm thinking we'll return in two years when Oliver is tall enough to go to the top of the Statue of Liberty. When I was a child we used to come out here at least once a year, but it had been ten years since I was on Long Island. I'm hoping not to let 10 years pass before our next trip!