My Birthday, Our First Trip to Canada, and Updated Pictures of the House

Samantha: 61 Months, Week 5
Aedan: 26 Months, Week 3

This past week was a fairly normal week for us with Ben going to work on campus, and the kids and I hanging out together and doing our usual weekly activities. Life in Sault Ste. Marie is feeling a lot more normal now, and we are getting accustomed to a new normal. On Tuesday I took the kids grocery shopping with me because we had no more food left in the house. The kids are not very patient with me as I go shopping, and this particular morning was not the greatest experience. I tried getting a "special" cart where they could sit side by side in little seats attached to the big cart, but that didn't seem to help any because then they just started picking on each other. There were getting in each other's faces, they were pestering each other, and even when I had Samantha get out of the cart that still made things difficult because then Aedan wanted to get out too. I tried letting Aedan get out, but then he just ran away from us. I had to chase after him and strap him back into the cart while he cried for the next two aisles of shopping. It really didn't take long to get everything on our list, but Samantha just complained about how boring it was. I explained to her that it wasn't exciting for me to go shopping either, but that we have to do it so we have food to eat at home, and that it made it take longer when her and Aedan were fighting and whining. Then, we had to wait in the check-out line for a long time and wait while all our groceries were loaded by the man who was more interested in telling me about how aliens would be invading soon. After finishing up shopping, I texted Ben saying that I was just going to start shopping at night without them because it was just too difficult taking them along with me lately. Shopping is one of those things that is much more difficult with kids.

The forecast for the next few days was pretty warm, in the upper 80s, and since our house doesn't have air conditioning, it was getting pretty warm in our house. It was 82 and very sticky when I was getting the kids ready for nap time (rising to 85 as the afternoon went on), so I decided to move them downstairs for nap time. I set Aedan's pack and play up in the bathroom, and I brought Samantha's mattress down so she could sleep in the play room area. It was much cooler downstairs, a pleasant 72 degrees, so we all just hid out in the basement for the afternoon to cool down and get some rest. Both kids took good naps, so we decided it would be a good night to get out of the heat in our house. We went out to eat at a really good Greek restaurant called Zorba's and had a really good dinner. The kids shared a little pizza, and Ben and I got a greek salad and a gyro. This is definitely my favorite restaurant we've gone to in Sault Ste. Marie. After eating dinner, we walked around and played in the Soo Locks Park, enjoying the breeze and being outside.

When we got back home that evening, Ben decided to let the kids help make icing and decorate my birthday cake. They both decided that pink icing was the best color for my chocolate cherry ice cream cake, and they were very excited to decorate it with sprinkles.

Then came time to sing Happy Birthday to me. They were both SO excited to sing to me, especially Aedan, and it was adorable to watch the two of them. Aedan particularly likes to blow out the candles, and you can see the pure joy as he squeals and shakes in anticipation. I love my two kids so much. It was a wonderful way to celebrate my birthday early so that we could enjoy my birthday cake before going out of town. I think this will be one of my favorite videos for a long time to come.

Since it was going to be another hot day, we decided to spend Wednesday morning at Sherman Park swimming, digging in the sand, and playing on the playground. It was a wonderful way to be outside and enjoy our warm day on the beach in the sunshine. It's hard to take many pictures when playing in the water and sand, but here are a couple. It was nice of Ben to stay home to spend the morning with us. Samantha and Ben walked way out into the water to see how far they could get, and she had no fear getting herself totally immersed in the water and getting totally wet.

Aedan and I played in the sand quite a bit, and we also took turns throwing large rocks into the water and making large splashes. After seeing us throwing rocks, Samantha and Daddy got in on the fun as well. We had a great morning playing at the beach, and it was the perfect way to spend our first real days of hot weather in Sault Ste. Marie.

It was still pretty warm and sticky in our house, so we had the kids sleep in the basement again at nap time. We were unsure about having Samantha nap or not, but I told her that if she napped we would try to go to the concert in the park since we didn't go the previous week. Over these last few days I have been very grateful for our basement so that we have a cool place to hang out when we have the rare days where it gets too warm.

Here are the kids being silly and dancing together that afternoon. They discovered how to play music on the piano so that it just keeps playing and playing, giving them the perfect opportunity to dance around the living room. I love how Aedan copies all of Samantha's dance moves, whether that is a good thing or not. :)

Since both kids took good naps on Wednesday afternoon and we figured it would be cooler to be outside than in our house, we decided to go to the free concert in the park. Samantha was excited about the chance to play with her friends, the neighbor kids, as she really enjoyed playing hide and seek with them a couple weeks ago. However, you could see the disappointment in her face as she noticed that they weren't there, and she really didn't see many kids around at all. We set up our chairs and listened to the music for a few songs, but then the kids started to get antsy, so I let Ben sit and relax while I let the kids play around in the park. Samantha specifically wore tennis shoes so that she could climb trees, and she did a pretty good job of finding the best trees with branches close together that she could climb easily. Most of them were evergreen trees, which often gets her hands and other parts of her body very sappy, but I don't mind. It washes off eventually, and she gets told no often enough about other things, that I don't think it's important to tell her no about climbing certain trees. Samantha spent the rest of the evening climbing as high up into the trees as she could. She really has no fear of climbing, and it's fun to watch her problem solve in figuring out which way to turn her body and where to step in order to get high in the tree. She knows that she should only climb as high as she feels comfortable and not too high where she can't get herself back down again. We haven't had to fish her out of a tree yet. I love watching Samantha climb trees because it reminds me of when I was a little girl. I loved climbing way high up in trees as well. There was one in our backyard that I would climb, and I even found a way to tie some rope around a book and pull that up once I climbed up so that I could sit at the top of the tree and read. Maybe Samantha does get some of her personality and interests from me. :)

While Samantha climbed trees, Aedan found sticks on the ground, wandered around the grass, walked around the fountain, and even pretended to make me food from a pretend kitchen. We had a fun time at the concert and playing in the park, even though we don't spend much time actually sitting and listening to the music.

We spent Wednesday night sleeping in the basement, as it was going to cool off outside with rain in the forecast over night and into the next day. Every Thursday morning the local MOPS group gets together for a play date at the Project Playground, which we call castle park. Samantha was excited to go back and play again, realizing that she would know some of the kids from last time and from church. Also, Jill invited me to go to McDonald's with her and some of the other moms and kids after playing at the playground. I gratefully accepted her invitation and looked forward to getting to know the moms better. Both kids did a great job while we were out that morning, and although Aedan stuck by my side a little bit more, Samantha was off having fun and playing with other kids the entire time. As we were on our way back home after eating lunch and playing at McDonald's, Samantha commented how much fun she had that morning and how she couldn't wait to do it again some day. I think she has really been missing this chance to play with other kids her own age, even though it's great to have Aedan to play with, it's just not the same. I am really looking forward to see how Samantha feels once kindergarten starts and she can fall into a routine and meet lots of friends to play with every day. She is definitely ready for it. However much she loves to be at home and have time to choose how she wants to spend her time, I think she's getting slightly bored of playing at home with Aedan and me, running errands, going to story time at the library, and going on play dates. She is growing up, and she is ready for school, whether I like it or not.

The other part of moving we have had to deal with the last week or so is what to do with our money. We have used Chase as our bank ever since we got married and joined our bank accounts together. However, now that we have moved to Sault Ste. Marie, there is not a local Chase bank which makes it difficult. So, we decided to close our accounts through Chase and transfer our money to a local bank, making it easier to deposit checks, pay bills, etc. Ben and I also had to change addresses and account information on anything that was automatically drafted from our account, like paying for our Compassion sponsorship and my student loan payment. Ben got a new bank account set up with the money we received from Lake State to help cover our moving expenses, and now we just have to wait to receive the check from Chase for the money from our old bank accounts, and we will be all set. There are so many little details that you have to get worked out when you move to a new city and a new state.

Despite how good of a morning we had on Thursday, Samantha must have used up all her energy and good behavior because the afternoon was certainly not good. I have been very confused on what to do with her sometimes and why she seems to be so tired all the time. She must not have slept very well during the two nights spent in the basement, but it's frustrating that she is so particular about how and where she sleeps. I wasn't going to make Samantha take a nap on Thursday, since she took one on Tuesday and Wednesday; however, she was just having a really hard time during quiet time. I went in her room at one point, and her covers were all messed up. I asked her why, and she said she was trying to lay down because she was tired. So I said, "Okay, then you're going to take a nap." Samantha then freaked out because she didn't want to take a nap even though she looked super tired, had bags under her eyes, and even just admitted that she felt so tired that she wanted to lay down and sleep. She wasn't making any sense at all! I just don't know what to do with this whole napping situation. I don't know how to get her used to not napping anymore and ready for all day kindergarten. I don't care whether she naps or not anymore, having quiet time is just fine with me, but more often than not, it just seems like she can't make it through the day without that rest time in the afternoon. It seems like the sleep that she gets at night is just not enough. Ben is confident that things will change once Samantha gets into the routine of school, and that part of it might have to do with how unstructured summertime is. I sure hope he's right because right now I am worried about how it's going to go.

Friday was going to be a cloudy, rainy, somewhat chilly day, so I decided to take the kids to do something that Samantha has wanted to do since we moved here: go to Jump UP. They don't open until 11:00, which makes it a little difficult to plan a trip there, but they do allow you to come and go, so I told Samantha that we would only play there for about an hour but could probably come back again and play that night after dinner. She really did have a good time jumping around and climbing through the obstacle course, but there are only three inflatables set up, so it doesn't have as much to offer as Jump and Jack's did in Cincinnati. Aedan was perfectly content playing in the toddler area and riding on this little mini roller coaster over and over again. He liked to go fast, and he especially liked to go backwards. He definitely is not afraid to try new things or to be physically adventurous.

We went back home for lunch and quiet time with the promise that we would be able to go back again later. However, that evening I decided to stay home and get the first coat of paint on the walls in the basement that needed to be freshened up, so Ben took the kids instead. They had a good time playing that evening, even though they were a bit listless at first. Jump UP is a fun place to visit, but I'm not quite sure it's worth the money it costs, so we probably won't go too often.

On Saturday morning we made plans to travel to Canada to run some errands and also just to experience what it was like crossing the International Bridge into Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The city is much bigger than the Michigan side, and it has more stores and restaurants, which is why we were crossing over to go to Best Buy, Home Depot, and Lowes. Before we left Ben talked to Samantha about how we will have to go through customs, and that they might ask her questions. She was a little disappointed that they actually didn't ask her anything. Here are some views from the International Bridge.

The kids weren't too thrilled that our first trip to Canada comprised of running errands, but Ben and I were looking forward to getting the chance to look at a few things like screen doors and replacement latches for some of our missing screens. We also brought our TV with us to take into Best Buy so that we could hopefully get our stand replaced since it somehow got bent when we moved and now our TV leans back at an angle. However, since the protection plan we bought was in the US, they couldn't really do anything for us since the policies are different in Canada. They told us to call Geek Squad, and they would put us in contact with a local store that could give us a replacement part. Nothing was really resolved on our errands, so I felt a little disappointed that I couldn't check anything off my list, but it was good to get things moving. Then, just for fun we stopped at Tim Horton's to let the kids pick out donuts for a treat. They liked that, and it helped to redeem our morning in their eyes. We were lucky in that we didn't get held up in much traffic going either way on the bridge, making it an easy first trip to Canada and back.

I spent the rest of Saturday evening/night doing a second coat of paint on the downstairs walls, as well as doing a second coat on the main wall in the kitchen that had a lot of nicks and uneven spots, as well as part of a cabinet they forgot to paint and underneath the counter. It's amazing how much better it looks just by doing those little updates. I'm proud of how our house is looking. We still have a few other areas for touch-ups, but we are really done with most of the inside work for the house as far as painting goes.

Sunday, July 17 was my 32nd birthday, and we didn't really have too much planned since Ben and I were going to be going on our little getaway to Indianapolis in a few days. Ben let me sleep in that morning and made breakfast for me, which is always nice. Then, we had church and a relaxing afternoon at home. Here are the kids dancing around the living room. Ben went to capture it on video and then Aedan ended up spinning too much, falling down, and hitting his head on the chair. I love how Samantha immediately reaches out to help him and see if he is okay. She is such a good big sister. He adores her, and he won't know what to do with himself come September and his best friend is off to school every day.

On Sunday afternoon, Sault Wesleyan Church had a church get together at the local bowling alley, and Ben decided to take Samantha while Aedan continued to nap. Actually, Samantha requested to nap that day which is pretty unusual for her, so we let her nap since she actually wanted to. Daddy and Samantha had a good time bowling and meeting a few people from church. The lane they were in didn't have bumpers up, so it was pretty tricky for Samantha to knock down many pins but she still had a good time. Daddy sensed that Samantha was getting discouraged about not knocking down any pins so he purposely bowled really poorly for the first few frames to show Samantha that it is okay to not knock pins down every time. (He's such a great dad.) Even though I was left at home on my birthday, it was actually kind of relaxing. I was able to sit in a quiet house, get caught up with my blog, and I even had time to watch a couple shows on Netflix while Aedan took a really long nap.

We thought about going out for dinner since it was my birthday, but nothing sounded too great, and it's not always the most relaxing to go out with the kids anyways. Instead, we decided to get take out from a local restaurant/bar called the Wicked Sister that has good pretzels with cheese dip and sandwiches. Ben and I went to this restaurant back before we moved here and enjoyed it, so it was nice to eat the food even though we weren't at the restaurant. Overall, it was a good, relaxing birthday, which really makes for a pretty good day. :)

On Monday morning Ben just worked from home because we were getting some things done around the house, like laundry and mowing the lawn, in preparation for our trip to Indiana the following day. The kids and I did have a short excursion that morning to an exercise class at the playground hosted by a local mom. They meet right next to the playground so the kids can play while the moms work out. Samantha was perfectly happy running around with all the kids on the playground. Aedan, on the other hand, was pretty clingy to me, and he kept coming over to me to see what I was doing. For awhile he even picked up some weights and pretended to do the stretches with us. It was nice to be able to get some exercise in with the kids, especially in such a convenient place as a park. I will definitely come to this whenever I can.

That afternoon as I was going around the house picking things up and organizing the house, I was able to take some pictures of our house all finished with painting and decorations. So here is a little mini-tour of our house.

Samantha's Room

Samantha's Room

Aedan's Room

Aedan's Room

Guest Bedroom

Upstairs Bathroom

Upstairs Bathroom

Living Room

Living Room

Basement Play Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Office

Downstairs Bathroom

Downstairs Bathroom

Mud Room

Kitchen/Dining Room

Kitchen/Dining Room

Kitchen/Dining Room

Ben always has to make sure he mows the lawn at a time when Aedan is around because it is one of Aedan's favorite activities. So here they are moving the lawn before dinner that evening. Even though Aedan says Daddy's lawnmower is noisy, he doesn't mind following him around the whole yard. It didn't hold his interest for as long as it has in the past, but it still is so cute to watch.

(Blog about July 12-18, 2016)

Our Visit to Sherman Park and Tahquamenon Falls

Samantha: 61 Months, Week 4
Aedan: 26 Months, Week 2

After Ben spent a long weekend with the family, he was back to work on Tuesday morning. I tried to come up with something fun to do with the kids, so after playing at home and in the backyard, I decided to hook up the bike carrier to my bike and take the kids for a ride. I am trying to get more exercise and figured this would be a good way to do it with the kids as well. Now that we live in a neighborhood and are not surrounded by big hills like in Oxford, it is much easier to ride bikes around, and we need to take advantage of that. The kids were enjoying their ride in the trailer, and it was a pretty warm day outside, so I decided to ride to the Dairy Queen that is not too far from our house. The kids had never been to Dairy Queen before, and we all ordered swirl cones. We usually just get ice cream in a dish so that it's easier to eat and doesn't melt and drip all over the place, but I decided to let them experience ice cream cones. Samantha did a really good job eating hers without getting messy. Aedan, on the other hand, had ice cream dripping down his chin and onto his hands, but he really liked eating the ice cream cone like a big boy. They were both thrilled with their first DQ experience, and we will have to go back again sometime. Here's a cute picture and video of the kids while we sat in the shade and ate our treat. :)

The bike ride was all going well until we were on our way back and I was changing gears on my bike and heard a loud noise from my gears. I quickly realized something was very wrong with my bike and pulled over on the side of the road. Part of my gear was actually sticking in through the spokes of the back tire, definitely not how it's supposed to be. As I looked it over, trying to figure out what I was going to do, a man at his house across the street came over and asked if he could help me. He said I was the third or fourth mom he's helped along the road while pulling kids behind. He got some tools to help bend the gear back where it should be. It still didn't seem too secure, and we didn't want to damage the bike any more by attempting to ride it again, so I had the kids get back in the bike trailer, and I just walked the bike back home. Luckily, we were only a few blocks away, so it took a little bit longer to get home, but we made it.

Later that evening after dinner, since it was a warm day out, we decided to try out Sherman Park for the first time. We heard from a lot of people about how nice this park was, and it's most known for it's beach area where it is pretty shallow for maybe a hundred feet or so, making it the perfect place for kids to swim and wade in the water with fear of them getting in over their heads. The park also has a couple nice playground areas with a view of the river and across to Canada. We started out playing on the playground and enjoying the merry-go-round. There was a tall rocket ship they climbed up in, and Samantha enjoyed this older merry-go-round that was easy to spin and actually got going fast. I love their little squeals of happiness as they spin around and around.

Once the kids saw the beach and water and other people swimming, they just couldn't resist. We got them changed into their swimsuits and let them play in the water and in the sand. The water was a bit chilly since it is from a lake and not like the Atlantic Ocean where we swam on vacation, but once you got in, it didn't take long for your body to get used to it. Ben and I didn't bring our bathing suits, but we waded in the water some with the kids. Samantha was so excited to frolic around in the water and crawl around the rocks pretending to be a mermaid.

Just like in North Carolina, Aedan didn't show too much interest in the water. He just wanted to get his shovel and dig in the sand.

We had a wonderful evening at the beach, and we can definitely see why Sherman Park is a big deal for Sault Ste. Marie. It's so fun being around so much beautiful nature and being so close to water. The kids had a blast at the beach and could have stayed to play a lot longer than we did. This was just our first of many trips to this park, now that we know where it is and what it has to offer.

When it was time to leave, the kids were covered in sand from having to climb back up the steep embankment around the beach. We tried our best to clean them off so that we didn't get too much sand in our car, but Aedan was just covered, so we decided to just take off his bathing suit and put Samantha's cover-up over him for the short drive home. He was SO excited to be wearing her Ariel cover-up, as you can tell in these pictures below. He thought it was just the coolest thing ever. In fact, when we got home and it was time to take a bath, meaning we would have to take the cover-up off, he cried really hard because he didn't want to take it off. Aedan will love these pictures some day. :) It will remind him how much he loved his big sister, for anything that was hers was the coolest thing ever.

On Wednesdays at the library they have story time and a lot of moms bring their kids to it every week. They also have a summer reading program going on where the kids keep track of the books they read, write them down on little slips of paper, and the librarian then hangs those from the ceiling under their name. Samantha thought it was pretty cool to see her name with all the books she had read. Plus, she was excited because after reading ten books, the kids earned a gift certificate for a free personal pizza from Pizza Hut, so the kids were going to get their free pizza prize that day during story time. The librarian called out both of their names, and Samantha proudly claimed her prize and handed Aedan his prize. Once again, story time was very short as the librarian only read one book. She was very quiet and not very expressive, so it was hard to really get the kids engaged. They did another craft time after the story, which Samantha enjoyed, but Aedan didn't spend too long at. I had come down with a cold of some sort overnight, didn't feel well, and my nose was dripping every time I moved around and looked down, so we didn't spend as much time at the library that morning. I was glad when nap time rolled around so I could spend some time resting and getting a little break.

The last two Wednesday nights we have gone to the concert in the park, but I wasn't feeling well on Wednesday and we just wanted to get the kids to bed at a normal time and have a relaxing evening at home. We took the kids to Pizza Hut for dinner so they could use their gift certificate for a free personal pizza, and they thought that was pretty cool. Samantha even asked if she would get another gift certificate after reading another ten books. I think it was good to use the gift certificate right away so they could see the reward for the work they put into reading and writing down all the books.

Thursday was supposed to be a beautiful, warm, sunny day, so Ben decided to stay home from campus so that we could make a day trip to Tahquamenon Falls. This state park is another must see when visiting the U.P., and we were really excited to check it out. The falls are about an hour and fifteen minutes away from Sault Ste. Marie, so it wasn't too far of a drive. We started at the lower falls, and after walking around for a little while, we decided to pay to rent a row boat so that we could paddle across to a little island where you could get up much closer to the falls.

The kids were pretty excited to get their life jackets on and ride on the boat.

The falls were definitely beautiful, and it was the perfect place to walk around on the rocks in the shallow water. We put some water shoes on the kids so they could walk around in the water, jump and splash, and explore the falls. Here are some pictures of our time at the lower falls.

I love this picture of the kids and me with the waterfall in the background and everyone looking the right direction and smiling. I spend so much time with the kids every day, but I rarely get a picture of all three of us together.

As we walked further up the trail, we actually ran into some people that were from Lombard, where I grew up. It's so funny how small the world is. After awhile of talking with them, they offered to take our picture for us, and this picture also turned out so well. Our kids are getting much better at looking at the camera and smiling for pictures, meaning we get much better family pictures. I really do love this one of the four of us.

Samantha was very excited about getting her picture taken multiple times. She kept sitting on various logs and then asking for us to take their picture.

As we continued our walk around the trail, we stopped to eat our packed lunch on a log overlooking the water.

There were so many fun places to stop off and explore, and the water wasn't very deep, making it pretty easy to walk in and enjoy. We were having a great morning out exploring together. This is definitely a place we will bring people when they come to visit us.

I also love these selfies of our family. What wonderful pictures to capture a wonderful day out together.

After rowing our boat back from the island, we decided to go the upper falls before going back home. There was a moose head that Samantha wanted to pose by, and then we walked the easy path to the falls.

In order to see a close up of the falls, you have to walk down about 90 steps, which is not too bad, especially for this nice view of the falls. It will be interesting to visit here at different times of the year, even in the winter, to see how the changing seasons effect the look of the falls.

By mid afternoon, Aedan was definitely ready for nap time, so we got back in the car to head home. We told Samantha she just had to be quiet until Aedan fell asleep, then she could get her coloring book out. We were trying really hard to get her used to not napping in preparation for full day kindergarten next year, but so far it hasn't gone as smoothly as I hoped. It just seems like she's so tired by the afternoon and needs a nap on most days. We try to get her to bed early and allow her to have enough sleep at night, but we obviously can't control how much she sleeps and we can't make her sleep. Regardless, it doesn't seem like she is sleeping enough, and it's making me really worried for kindergarten in the fall. I was hoping she would be transitioning better after moving and getting settled in our new home. I'm concerned about her being overtired at school, unable to concentrate and focus on her work and therefore not learning as much as she should, or even acting out, being overly emotional, or even just not getting along with others because she's so tired. Or, I'm worried about her holding it together all day at school, but then totally losing it at home, making our evenings together, our only time to spend together during the week, a battle. I wish there was another mom I could talk to that is going through something similar with their soon-to-be-kindergartner, just to get some advice and bounce ideas off of. I know it will be a transition, and I'm sure she will adjust, I just want Samantha to do well, and the whole thought of her being away at school all day is really hard for me to think about right now. Man, I will miss her like crazy.

Even though Samantha went to the bathroom right before we left the falls, she had too much to drink right before we left and ended up having to go to the bathroom during our hour and fifteen minute drive back home. Aedan was asleep, and she knows that we don't want to stop when he's asleep because it will wake him up, so instead she just sat in the back of the car whimpering. I asked her what was wrong and she said she had to go to the bathroom really bad and felt like she was going to pee her pants. We of course did not want her to pee her pants, so we stopped off on the side of the road behind a warehouse since there was no bathroom or gas station in sight. Ben took her out in the grass and helped her go to the bathroom. She did go quite a bit, so that was good, but Ben and I were pretty frustrated with her. It seems like she has not been emptying her bladder very well lately, or any time that she actually has enough to drink, she has to go to the bathroom a lot more, like she has a very small bladder or something. After she went to the bathroom, we still had about thirty minutes left to drive, so we told Aedan to go back to sleep and told Samantha to close her eyes and take a nap because she was looking super tired. She fell asleep quickly, sleeping all the way until we got back home. Aedan did not go back to sleep, but he had his paci in his mouth, keeping him happy for the rest of the trip home and allowing Samantha to get some rest.

We had a more relaxed weekend at home, taking the opportunity of nice weather to get some work done outside in the back yard. On Saturday morning Ben got the ladder out and went all along the back of the house cleaning out the gutters. There is an evergreen tree right up behind our house so there were lots of needles and junk that had fallen from the tree and clogged up our gutters. We get the feeling that the family that lived here before us did a pretty good job of taking care of the inside of the house and updating things, but the outside was not taken care of much with lots of peeling paint and lots of weeds, overgrown landscape areas, and small trees growing too close to the house. So while the kids played outside in the backyard, Ben cleaned the gutters, and I pulled weeds from barrels that we can use as planters for flowers, and then cut down a lot of little trees and weeds that were growing along the back of our house. It looks so much cleaner already, and my next task is to clean up the patio by pulling up the weeds growing between the bricks of the patio and the border around the patio. Then, we will spray some Round-Up to keep the weeds and grass from growing back again, and it will look so much better in the back yard once that job is done.

Since we had spent most of the last couple days getting work done around the house and cleaning the inside of the house, we tried to find something fun to do as a family on Saturday night. I saw that the local Sault Tribe was having a summer gathering/pow wow that was open to the public. I had no idea what that entailed, but I figured it was something we could check out. After dinner we went over to the Indian reservation and made our way to this circle that had vendors around the outside and discovered that the ceremony would start around 7:00 p.m. There wasn't too much to entertain the kids, and they got impatient as we waited, but I hoped we would at least be able to see a traditional dance or something; however, the ceremony was taking awhile to get going with lots of introduction. We watched a few people dressed in traditional costumes dance around the circle doing a dance called the two step. It was getting later in the evening, closer to bed time since Samantha didn't nap that afternoon, so we decided we couldn't wait any longer to see what else would be part of the ceremony.

On Sunday we went back to Sault Wesleyan Church for church in the morning, and during nap time that afternoon, Ben took Samantha on a Daddy-Daughter date to play mini-golf. Samantha was excited to be going on a date here because she had seen the waterfall many times from the road. However, she wasn't quite sure what she thought of mini-golf at first. She got to pick out the color of her ball (purple), and after a brief tutorial on how to hold a golf club we were off. For a while, she was having trouble paying attention and mostly would get the hole done in about 7 or 8 strokes. About halfway through, Ben needed to explain to her that one wants to have the club facing the hole and to actually look at where she is trying to hit the ball. After that explanation, she started doing really well. From that point on, her worst hole was 3 strokes. Maybe she will be a good mini-golfer. 

Ben said, "The best part about it is still the time spent with her. She enjoys getting out of the house with one of us and likes the personal attention. There were several times that she mentioned how Aedan would not be able to do this so she must be old." 

Most afternoons either before or after Samantha has her quiet time/nap time, her and I sit together and work on a pre-kindergarten workbook together. I started this because I noticed how she was writing so many of her letters incorrectly. She would start at the bottom and go up or rotate around to the right rather than to the left for round letters. This workbook has pages where you can practice writing each letter, as well as pages with telling patterns, following directions, and some basic preschool exercises. She really enjoys doing her workbook, especially because it usually involves coloring, and I enjoy working with her and helping her to learn new things and practice the skills she learned in preschool so that way she doesn't lose any knowledge going into kindergarten next year. When we are done with the workbook, we practice "popcorn" words in shorter readers we've checked out from the library and then I read a longer book aloud to her. This whole process, depending on how much attention she pays to it, takes up about forty-five minutes or so which I feel like is the perfect amount of time for Samantha to do work each day.

Lately, Samantha has enjoyed waiting for Aedan to wake up before watching a show so that way he can watch one with her. For some reason Aedan's shorts got put on his head rather than back on his legs after changing his diaper after nap time, but he didn't mind and he left them like that the whole time he watched the show. You can also see Aedan's little tools laying on the couch next to him which he calls his "toolbox" and has been carrying around everywhere with him.

Sunday night at dinner, Ben took this video of the kids as a message to send to Ema and Papa since they were getting ready to leave on their mission's trip to Guatemala. However, Aedan didn't understand that they wouldn't actually be able to see Ema and Papa (especially Ema, sorry Papa!), so after we sent the message we had to Face Time with them for a few minutes to say hello. Samantha and Aedan really love Ema and Papa and are very excited to see them in a couple weeks when we make a trip to Upland.

Since I cleaned out all the barrels we can use as planters in the back yard, on Monday morning I took the kids to a local flower shop so that Samantha could help me pick out flowers to plant. She and I planted flowers in front of our house in Oxford, and she really enjoyed watching them grow and helping me water them, so I was excited to do it again with her this year. All the flowers were on sale or 50% off as well, so that was a definite bonus. The employee at the flower shop was really helpful in pointing us in the right direction in choosing flowers, and then Samantha went crazy picking flowers that she thought were pretty. Aedan even chose a couple as well. We just stacked them up on a shelf off to the side so we could assess how much we had and how they would look together. I was given an additional discount on some flowers, and we got lots of flowers for $25. Samantha was excited to get back home so we could plant them, so we spent the rest of the morning filling the barrels with dirt and planting the flowers. Samantha helped me decide which barrel to put the flowers in, and we arranged them in a way we thought looked pretty. Then, I helped move the dirt to the side while she helped plant the flower. It was a little difficult trying to do all of this with Aedan trying to dig in our flowers while we planted, but everything turned out really beautiful, and it's amazing how much better it looks in the back yard.

(Blog about July 5-11, 2016)