Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Family Activities & the 4th of July

Samantha: 61 Months, Week 3
Aedan: 26 Months, Week 1

Since I got all the painting done on Monday afternoon, we were pretty well settled in, so Ben decided to start going to campus again to get some work done. He really hadn't been working much for the last month while we packed, moved, unpacked, went on vacation, and then worked on getting settled into our new house. I think he was ready to get back to work, to get his new office set up, and to get back into a normal routine.

While Daddy went off to work in the morning, the kids and I got back into a somewhat normal routine with being just with Mommy most of the day. On Tuesday, June 28th, I made an appointment for Aedan to get his hair cut, so that was our main plan for the morning. He did a great job sitting on the booster in the chair like a big boy. At first he reached out to me saying, "Mommy, mommy..." I think he was afraid I was going to leave him or something, so he wanted to hold on to my hand for awhile. His hair cut was done pretty quickly, and while we watched Aedan get his hair cut, Samantha commented that she wished she could get her hair cut as well. I asked the hair stylist if she would have any more time to do Samantha's as well, and she said that would be fine. Samantha was excited to get her hair cut, and she wanted it cut just above her shoulders. The hair stylist also added in some long layers which made Samantha's hair turn under her chin slightly. Samantha's hair turned out slightly shorter than we were expecting, but she really liked it and smiled at herself in the mirror when it was all done. It's interesting to me how much Samantha's hair has changed over the last few years. Her baby hair was so fine and wispy and curly. She had such beautiful golden ringlets, and now her hair has gotten so much darker in color. Her hair is so thick and heavy now, and most of the curls have gone away. When it is especially humid outside, the curls will come back a lot more, but she no longer has ringlets in her hair. I still think her hair is pretty, but sometimes I wish that the curls would have stayed around. Anyways, here are a couple of pictures of their new hair cuts. :)

After the hair cuts, we had a couple errands to run. One was to Ace Hardware to buy nails to fix our back fence and the other was to drop off recycling at the recycling center. Since we now live in town, everything is close, so it doesn't take very long to get errands done. (I am definitely enjoying the close proximity to everything because it felt like we were constantly driving back and forth when living in Oxford.) We then made a quick stop at home to have a little snack and pull Samantha's hair up so that we could go out and play. Her hair looked really cute pulled back in little pigtails. We decided to walk to the playground across the street to play for a little while before lunch. We definitely need to take advantage of this playground more often. The kids had a blast climbing, racing down slides together, pretending to drive the fire truck/bus, and taking turns going down the tall metal slide. Aedan was wearing his Superman shirt that flew out behind him as he went down the slide. Since I called him Superman, Samantha decided I should call her Butterfly Girl since she was wearing a butterfly shirt, butterfly pants, and her butterfly necklace. Aedan has gotten really brave with slides. Even a few months ago, he wouldn't have been brave enough to go down these tall or twisty slides all by himself. But he is now a lot more comfortable physically and isn't afraid to try something new. Here are a couple of the slides at the playground.

On Wednesday I took the kids back to the library again for story time. Samantha was glad that it was an actual story time and not Zumba again.  The kids found their name tags on the wall and then sat down. Samantha, of course, chose to sit right in the front row in front of the librarian. Aedan sat right next to her, but as soon as the librarian started reading the story he lost interest, wanted to come up by me, and then just started playing with toys. Aedan loves to have books read to him one-on-one, but he still does not seem to stay engaged when having a book read to him in a large group setting. Hopefully that will change as he gets older, and he will enjoy story time more. Samantha enjoyed listening to the story, but it was not like the story times we have enjoyed at other libraries in the past. The librarian was pretty soft-spoken and coughed a lot like she was sick or had allergies. She also only read a couple pages of one book with Aesop's Fables in it. Each page was a fable, and the book had pretty small pictures, so it was difficult for the kids to follow along and stay engaged. After that one book, the kids got up to do a craft where they colored in little tortoise and the hare finger puppets. Even Samantha remarked, "That's all? Only one book? We didn't even sing any songs." We are used to a story time that lasts half an hour and incorporates songs, dancing, finger plays, rhyming, as well as the reading/telling of at least three stories, so this was definitely a change for us. It wasn't bad; it was just different.
At the grocery store on Monday, we got ingredients to make the special Tollhouse recipe for chocolate chip M&M cookies. (We have been getting Samantha back into quiet time again, but I had her nap that Wednesday because she was tired and we wanted to be out later that evening.) So after nap time for both kids and Daddy got home from campus, he helped the kids make cookie dough so that we could make cookies the next day. Even though these bar stools are a little too tall for the counter, the kids love them and love to sit on them while we are cooking food. Before Samantha started helping Daddy, she had to go downstairs and get her chef's hat and apron. She said she can't be a baker without them. Aedan loved to watch the cookie making process as well. Samantha really does a good job of helping to stir the batter as the mixer mixes everything together. She always pays attention to the spatula and never lets it get caught up in the beaters. Plus, both of the kids like to be involved in making cookie dough because then they get a small sample of chocolate chips and M&Ms at the end. Definitely a bonus. :)
Wednesday evening, after eating dinner at home, we got ready to go to the free concert in the park. This week we looked ahead of time to discover that it was an Irish band playing, so Ben and I were pretty excited about hearing some Irish music to take us back to our Ireland days where we met for the first time. We brought a couple dollars with us so that we could buy small bags of popcorn for the kids, and we got our chairs set up near the back where there was a sidewalk and more room for the kids to play and dance around. We started out in our chairs, listening to the music, and eating our popcorn. Of course, Samantha had to get up and dance to the music, while Aedan was busy eating his popcorn.



The attention span of the kids to sit and listen to music is not that long, so even though Ben and I would have enjoyed listening to the whole concert, the kids were getting antsy. They began to dig in the dirt and run around on the sidewalk behind us. Eventually, our neighbor boy came by and invited Samantha to come play hide and seek with him and his friends. She was really excited to be able to run off and play with other kids, even though it made us a little nervous to not know where she was at any given moment. We were trying to keep tabs on her, and all the kids were staying the in park right around where the band was playing, behind the gates where guards were stationed. However, this is really the first time we have ever let Samantha go off on her own like that, and it made me a little worried to be honest. Sometimes she is a little spacey and has a tendency to wander off and not know where she is, and you never know what people are wandering around that don't have good intentions. As we approach this new period of freedom with Samantha, I feel like we need to talk more about strangers with her so she knows how to stay safe when we are not around. Ben and I took turns throughout the rest of the evening following Aedan around or keeping our eye on Samantha's general location. She had so much fun playing with the other kids that night that we stayed at the park for quite awhile. I think being able to play with the kids that night helped Samantha see that there are just as many kids and friends she can have here as she had in Oxford.

On Thursday morning there was a play date for the MOPS group at a local park. I was little nervous about going somewhere with the intent of meeting other moms. Initial meetings and small talk conversations are not my strong suit, but I knew this was a way Samantha and Aedan could meet other kids to play with and I could meet other moms to become friends with. It's exciting to be making connections, but it is also a nerve wracking process of putting yourself out there. Now that Ben is back on campus three days a week, the loneliness is certainly starting to set in for me. Thursday was a rough day for me because of feeling nervous about the play date, being worried about money since Ben is not getting paid until August, and also waiting to see if I was pregnant yet. (I had certain feelings that usually occur before my period comes, so I was again faced with the sadness and disappointment of another month gone by without conceiving.) I had so many emotions going through me that it was difficult not to take it out on my family, which I never feel good about doing. Transitions are always hard, and I forget how challenging it is to start all over again, especially after the close friends we made in Oxford.

The morning at the park play date went pretty well. I met a few other moms from the MOPS group, and the kids got to run around on the playground for awhile. However, after our late night out at the concert the night before, the kids were tired and ready to go back home by 11:15. I know this group will be good for Aedan and me, especially in the fall once Samantha is in school, because they meet twice a month and it will give us a chance to be around other people. I know Aedan will really miss having Samantha to play with when Samantha goes to kindergarten all day, so I will have to be more intentional about finding other little kids for Aedan to play with. It will be so strange just having Aedan at home with me all day. It will be nice to feel like I can bond with him more, but I will sure miss the company of the best five year old girl there is.

In my quest to find fun, local things to do, as well as give Samantha some more one-on-one attention, I decided to take her to see a movie at LSSU. Since there is no movie theater in Sault Ste. Marie, LSSU brings in older movies and shows them in their arts center for a decent price. They were showing The Jungle Book, the live action movie. Ben and I debated whether or not she would be scared by the movie, but I thought she might like it because she enjoys the story and would find the talking animals pretty interesting. I had Samantha take a nap on Thursday afternoon, with the promise that I was going to take her somewhere fun if she napped. She was a pretty tired girl and took a good nap, so we were able to go see the movie together. We got there in plenty of time and had to wait for about fifteen minutes for it to start. Samantha was a bit impatient during that part, but was really excited to see what the movie was like. Here we are together before the movie.
I thought the movie was really interesting and very well done. Samantha sat very still during the whole movie, definitely enjoying the live action of story she knew. She mostly sticks with cartoons, and I think this is only the second non-cartoon movie she has seen, the other being Cinderella, so it was a different experience for her. I'm sure everything seemed a lot more real, especially projected onto a big screen. There were a few parts that made her jump, and she snuggled up to me during any part where Shere Khan was on the screen, but she was not overly scared by it at all, which I was glad for. It was fun to do a Mommy-Daughter date with my little girl. Taking her to a movie like this in the evening is such a big girl thing to do, and sometimes I can't believe how tall she's getting and how much she looks like a school aged kid now. She looks like a girl that is ready for kindergarten, and I'm glad to have these special moments where I can just focus on her.

On Friday Ben stayed home from campus, and we just hung out and played at home for the morning, getting some work done around the house, and Ben and I were able to hang up the last and final decorations in the basement and in our bedroom. We had been pretty busy the last few days so it was good to just have time at home. Then, Friday evening we were invited over to another family's house for dinner. The Sayers are part of the Wesleyan church that we have visited a few times now. Brooks is a pastor there, and his wife, Jill, is in charge of the MOPS group. They have four girls between the ages of 3 and 7, so Samantha was really, really excited to be able to play with other girls. It was so kind of them to open their home to us and to make us a delicious dinner. Ben actually knew both Brooks and Jill from his time back in youth group when he did Bible Bowl. They were on a competing team from Chesterton, Indiana, which is so ironic. It's a small world. We had a wonderful time getting to know this family, and Samantha and Aedan loved following the girls around outside, seeing their chickens, and walking along the path mowed through the grass outside. We stayed at their house until about 8:00, and our conversation flowed naturally among the adults while the children ran around and played. It was a perfect evening, and I really enjoyed the fellowship with another like-minded family. After several days of feeling pretty lonely, I feel like the Lord answered my prayer in helping me feel like friendships will come for us here, and that we will find a community of like-minded families to hang out with.

One thing we miss about living close to Cincinnati is being able to go to the Cincinnati Zoo. I loved that zoo because it not only had lots of animal exhibits, but it also was a botanical garden, so it was just beautiful to walk around. Well, being in the U.P. now, there are no major cities that we are close to, meaning that we no longer have a large zoo close by. I heard about a place called Garlyn Zoo that is about an hour and fifteen minutes away from Sault Ste. Marie. I knew it was not going to be a big zoo and would have more local wildlife, but I figured it would be fun to check it out. So on Saturday the four of us headed off on a little day trip to the zoo. It ended up being around $40 for the admission to zoo, along with food to feed the animals. It was was a beautiful, warm, and sunny day, and we enjoyed exploring the zoo for the morning.

There were certain animals that you could feed, like the llamas and alpacas. Samantha went right up to them to feed them, but Aedan was a little unsure and chose to watch rather than let the animals lick out of his hand.

The kids watched a turtle scoot along the fence, using the wire to push himself along.

Samantha thought the deer were really cute, especially because there were a couple of baby deer as well. She could also feed the deer, which she enjoyed doing.
The zoo had a couple of young brown bears in an exhibit with a companion dog. The bears were by far the most active animal, as they ran around their enclosure and wrestled with each other on top of the log. You could also feed the bears apples. There was a long PVC pipe going inside the fencing, so you could place an apple and push it down the pipe so that it would fall into the bear enclosure. You could tell that the bears were conditioned to the noise because as soon as an apple began to roll down the pipe, the bears ran as fast as they could to be the first one to get the apple.
We saw some alligators basking in the sun.

Plus, there were other animals like foxes, wolves, birds, ducks, a tiger, lemurs, and others that I can't remember. It was a small zoo, but they had a pretty good variety of animals.

After seeing most of the animals, we got to another place where you could feed goats and more llamas and alpacas. This time, I was able to convince Aedan to try feeding the animals. He didn't want to hold the food in his hand and have the animals lick him, so instead we let him scoop out the food with the ice cream cone and then hold the cone out for the animals to lick the food out of. That gave him enough distance from the animal's mouth that he wasn't afraid. When the goat was eating his cone, Aedan kept saying, "Goat...eat it." He thought the experience was pretty interesting, and I'm glad he was brave enough to try it after awhile. Here are some great pictures and videos of the kids feeding the animals.








The zoo was a lot of fun, but we had already been through the whole place by a little after noon. For it being an hour and fifteen minutes away and costing $40 just to experience it for a couple hours, we decided there would be a better use of our time and money in the future. It was fun to try out once, but I'm not sure we will be going back anytime soon. There was nowhere to eat at the zoo, and they didn't allow you to bring food in, so we didn't bring any lunch with us to eat. However, we were able to drive just a few minutes down the road to a small restaurant where we got sandwiches and salads for lunch. It was not too late yet, so we gave Aedan his paci in the car in case he wanted to fall asleep, but he ended up just staying awake and playing until we got back home, then we laid him down for a nap and had a more relaxed evening at home.

On Sunday morning we went to Sault Wesleyan Church again, and Samantha was so excited to see the girls she had met and become friends with on Friday night. We are still searching to find a church that fits well for our family and what we need, but we are waiting to hear back from the Church of Christ about some questions we have about the church and their programs. Samantha had a really good time at church on Sunday morning, met some new kids, and learned about Paul as a missionary. Aedan always cries when we drop him off in the toddler room, but it doesn't take him long to settle back down and start playing. We like how the children's program seems to be really solid there, and the adults in charge are very welcoming and on top of things. Having our kids learn more about Jesus and the Bible every Sunday at church is really important to us. We don't want it to just be a babysitting service. We want our kids to learn and grow in their relationship with God. We will keep looking at our options and discussing what we will do, but I think right now Sault Wesleyan Church is at the top of our list.

On Sunday afternoon, Ben graciously offered to stay home with the kids while they napped so that I could attend the Glenn Miller Orchestra concert they had in LSSU's arts center. I saw it advertised and thought it would be really fun to go. I would have preferred to have gone with somebody else rather than just on my own, but it was good to get out of the house for awhile anyways. Here is a glimpse of the International Bridge to Canada as I walked from the parking lot to the arts center.
As I listened to the concert, I took a lot of pictures and videos so that I could show Ben, and I thought even my parents would appreciate it because they often listen to old time radio in Chicago and have an appreciation for big band music I had never heard a big band live before, and I have always enjoyed Glenn Miller's music. Many of the songs played and sung were ones that I was familiar with, and I love how the orchestra has fun with the music, standing up or doing silly things with their instruments to keep the audience engaged. The singers that performed for a few songs were also very good, and I really enjoyed my time at the concert. (Sorry for the plethora of pictures and videos!)

















Monday was July 4th so since it was a holiday, Daddy decided to stay home from campus again. Ben ran out on an errand in the morning because we had to leave the tank for our gas grill behind when we moved, and the new one that I bought at Walmart didn't connect with the line from the old gas grill. So Ben had to do some sleuthing online to find something that could work so we could use our grill to cook out. Anyways, Ben's other plan for the morning was to mow the lawn, and Aedan loves it when Daddy mows the lawn. He got all ready and had his lawnmower ready to go, then he just sat on the step in our garage, patiently waiting for Daddy to get home so they could mow the lawn together.
We hung out at home for most of the morning, working and playing outside, and Aedan came with me to Walmart to get the week's grocery shopping done. After lunch I was able to capture these cute videos of Samantha and Aedan sitting on the couch reading together. Aedan was pretending to read to Samantha, and on each page he would just say, "Cheese-bur-ger!" When he first did it, he got a big laugh from Sissy, so he kept doing it over and over, wanting her to laugh at him each time. She complied, but you can tell it was her forced laugh. Either way, they were getting along well and having fun together, so that's all that really matters. I also just love natural videos like this where you can hear Aedan's sweet little voice and the different language and expressions that he has picked up on.

We had Samantha take a nap that afternoon along with Aedan because we had plans to attend some 4th of July festivities in Sault Ste. Marie, meaning we were going to be out WAY past the kids' bedtime. We had dinner at home, gathered up everything we needed for the evening, and then headed out to find a spot for the parade that started at 7:00. Being that Sault Ste. Marie is a pretty small town, we had no problem finding parking and a place to set up our chairs. Here are the kids waiting for the parade to start.
The parade started off with loud ambulances and police cars, and then had floats from various businesses around Sault Ste. Marie. Some of the people handed out or threw candy to the kids as they passed by, so we got a plastic bag for each of the kids to collect their candy in. That was definitely their favorite part about the parade.




After the parade was over, we went down by the St. Mary's River to find a good spot to watch the fireworks. The fireworks were to start at dusk, which is after 10:00 p.m. up this far north, but there were lots of kids just running around and playing the grass, and it was a beautiful Michigan evening, so we decided to enjoy our time outside. We had several things prepared to help pass the time, the first being eating some candy that they collected during the parade.
Then, Aedan enjoyed dancing around and making noise. I'm not sure where he learns his dance moved from. :)
Playing at the fireworks was one of those times where we all just realized how new we are to this town and how we don't know anyone yet. We were surrounded by lots of people, but none of them knew us. Normally, we would go to an event like this with friends or at least run into people we know, but we obviously haven't lived in Sault Ste. Marie long enough for things like that to happen yet. I think Samantha was feeling the isolation as well, as you can tell in this picture where she is just sitting in the grass by herself. She was very brave and asked a few different kids if she could play with them, but everyone else had their own family and friends to play with, leaving Samantha by herself or only playing with Aedan. Summers are always hard without structure and our normal routine, but moving to a new town makes it more all the more difficult. We keep telling Samantha that when school starts, she will make all kinds of new friends in her kindergarten class and then also at the church that we decide to go to; it just takes some time.
As it was getting darker, we enjoyed watching a freighter pass through the locks.

Here's a great picture of my little girl and me. I'm glad Ben took this picture, and I definitely need to have him take more pictures of the kids and me together.
Aedan had to get in on the picture, too, so here he is saying, "Cheese!"
And here's a great one of my two silly, special, one-of-a-kind, blessings from God. Even though it's crazy sometimes, I am so glad that I am their mother, that I get the huge responsibility of taking care of them, and that I get to spend my days at home with them. I am a lucky lady. :)
Since the sun was beginning to go down, we decided to bust out the sparklers. I actually found three boxes of sparklers that were left behind in our house, so I figured we might as well use them on the 4th of July. Daddy saw someone post on Facebook about using a red plastic cup to cover your hand when holding the sparkler, so we figured we'd try that since last year Samantha didn't like it when a little spark would touch her skin. Samantha was a lot more cautious in how she held her sparkler, keeping it a safe distance from her body.
Aedan, on the other hand, had no fear, and we told him many times to hold it away from his face and not to touch the fire because it would hurt him.
After a few rounds of sparklers, Samantha let her cup slip too far up and the heat from the sparkler actually melted part of the plastic cup and burned Samantha's finger a little, so she decided to try the sparklers without the cup and decided it wasn't so bad after all. I love her expression in this picture. She has such a silly personality and good sense of humor, both things she has inherited from her daddy.
And here's Aedan playing around with his sparkler, definitely enjoying his first experience with fire.
Here's a fun video of both of the kids that evening. I love how different they are in how they experience the world, but also how similar they are, especially in the way they look and how expressive they are.
After doing one round of sparklers, we sent them off to run and around play again. Samantha and Aedan were wrestling with each other at the bottom of the hill, and then Aedan even sat on Samantha's head. He is a good little brother, always knowing how to pester her, and she is a good big sister in being willing to let Aedan climb all over her. I'm glad that they have each other.

Once the kids came back up to our chairs, they picked out some suckers they got from the parade, and put together some of our glow in the dark necklaces and bracelets.

Then, we used up the last of our sparklers. They liked them even more as they lit up when it was darker.


The kids had done really well being careful with the sparklers and not getting hurt, that is until this very last one. Even though Aedan was always reminded to not touch the sparkler, he forgot, and when his burnt out, he grabbed it with his hand, not thinking about the fact that it would be super hot. As you can see at the end of this video, he felt the pain and immediately started crying. We were able to calm him down after awhile, and he had a small spot on his finger where it burned. He nursed his finger for awhile, not wanting to bend it, looking at it a lot, and wanting lots of kisses on it, but he was okay. It will be interesting to see if he remembers getting burned by the sparkler next 4th of July.
Here are some Daddy-Daughter, Mommy-Son selfies as the fireworks are ready to begin.


I feel like most fireworks I've been to would have waited longer, until the sky got darker to start the fireworks, but I think it was already close to 10:15 before they began which was plenty late for us. The kids were doing really well even though it was very late, and we had been waiting for the fireworks to start for about two hours. Aedan sat on my lap and watched the fireworks pretty contentedly for a few minutes, then he got up and started wandering around and whining about going home, so I decided to bust out his paci to keep him happy for the rest of the fireworks show. His paci always makes him happy, so he just sat on my lap, cuddled with me, and sucked on his paci while he watched the fireworks. He thought they were pretty cool though, making comments every once in awhile on the color of one or saying, "Ball!" Samantha cuddled on Daddy's lap, and I could overhear them talking about which one was their favorite and why.

Fireworks have always been special to me and in my marriage with Ben. At fireworks in Park Ridge in 2005, Ben and I both decided that we loved each other and wanted to get married. Then, when Ben proposed to me, he had some of his friends set off fireworks after I said yes. So fireworks have always had a bit of romance to them to me. I enjoyed our first 4th of July in Sault Ste. Marie, and even though our attention was more on the children sitting on our laps than on each other, I think Ben and I were both thinking about when we first fell in love.


(Blog about June 28-July 4, 2016)

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