Our Last Week Before Ben Started Back to Work

Samantha: 63 Months, Week 1
Aedan: 27 Months, Week 3

Samantha continued on with her camp at her school this week, so Aedan and I had more time to hang out just the two of us. Aedan kept going in Samantha's room to get toys from her room to play with. I think he missed having her around to play with.

For awhile now I have wanted to get a picture/video of Aedan with his pacifier before nap time, so I made sure to bring my phone in the room with me on Tuesday afternoon as I put him down for his nap. In this picture you can see Aedan's sleepy, squinty eyes. He wears a sleep sack, which we call a wrap, hearkening back to his newborn days when we would wrap him up in a swaddle blanket. He loves his paci, but he only gets to have it at nap time and bed time. Because of that, he is often very excited to go to sleep so he can have his paci. Aedan thought it was funny that I was trying to take a picture of him laying on my lap with his paci.

Then, I had Aedan rub his paci like he does when he's falling asleep. I will turn off the light, hold him in my arms, and rock him until he falls asleep. As I rock him he switches back and forth between his hands, but always rubs it the same way, with his index finger under the paci and his middle finger rubbing the outside of the paci, back and forth, back and forth. It must be a soothing motion to him since he usually does it until his eyes droop shut.

This is what my little buddy looks like fast asleep on my lap. His little hands fall limp just under his chin, and he is heavy in my arms. I love rocking him to sleep at nap time, and I will do it as long as I can. I know he will eventually grow out of this or stop falling asleep with me. I know that any day could be my last day of rocking him to sleep, so I will take advantage of it while I can. I enjoy this special time to snuggle with my little boy who is usually too busy during the day to snuggle for very long. Man, he's such a cutie.

It's a little bit difficult for me to write much about this week because I am writing this blog post over a week later, and to be honest with you, I don't really remember many details about the week. I guess that is a good thing in some ways because it means that nothing bad happened either. It was just a normal week with Ben working on campus and Samantha going to school in the mornings. On Wednesday morning, just as I was trying to decide what to do with Aedan, I got a message from a local mom saying they were going to get together to exercise at the playground, so I decided that would be a fun thing to do with the morning. Aedan was pretty excited to play while I exercised, especially because the Sayer girls were there, and they did a really good job of including them in their play. He probably saw them as his replacement sisters. It was good to exercise and also to get to talk to two other moms. It's nice to begin forming relationships with people in our new town.

After we got back home that morning, I captured this video of Aedan singing and dancing around on the couch in the living room. He loves music, and he loves to sing. This little book of hymns was Aedan's favorite book for awhile, so he knows a lot of the songs by heart.

Thursday was Samantha's last day at her camp at school, and it was family day, so Ben decided to work from home in the morning so that we could all go to family day together at 10:30.  While Daddy worked downstairs in the office, I got some laundry and picking up done around the house while Aedan played. We did play-doh together, and then he requested to paint, so I got all the paint supplies set up for him. He was so excited that it was hard for him to be patient, and it took him while to remember that he had to rub off the excess paint before lifting out his paint brush and dripping all over the floor, but he was really enjoying painting and even asked me to paint with him as well. It's kind of fun to see what things Aedan enjoys doing when at home by himself, and it will be great to spend more time one-on-one with him once Samantha starts kindergarten full time in a few weeks.

We were all looking forward to seeing Samantha and her school on family day. Once we arrived at her school, we headed to the cafeteria to join Samantha for lunch. She was already sitting at the table eating her lunch and was very excited to see us. Aedan was especially excited to be able to go in Samantha's school for an extended period of time. Everyone was welcome to help themselves to lunch, so we went through the line to get our hot dogs, watermelon, carrots, and cookie for dessert. Aedan couldn't wait to eat his watermelon and chocolate chip cookie. We all sat down at a lunch table to eat together, and Samantha pointed out a few teachers that she knew as well. Once we were all done eating lunch, we had Samantha show us the classroom she was in for her camp and then we went outside to play and do activities. However, on the way out Samantha was not paying attention to where she was going and a door hit her in the head. From then on, she was just in a weird mood, acting very tired and spacey. Both kids woke up way too early that day and were ready for naps when it wasn't even noon yet. We stayed for a little while playing on the playground and doing different activities the teachers had set up before heading home. Here are some projects that Samantha made at school during her weeks there.

I mentioned this a lot in my last blog post, but we have continued to have issues with Samantha's behavior, with not sleeping enough and being tired all the time, as well as her issues with going to the bathroom more than normal. She just wakes up so early sometimes and is still tired but doesn't go back to sleep. We tell her that if it still says 6 on her clock, she needs to try to go back to sleep, but that if it's after 7, then she can get up. However, she doesn't really know what the difference is between 6:06 and 6:56, so sometimes I think she just stays up waiting for the clock to turn to 7. I have heard from different parents that have tried a special alarm clock that looks like this:

I thought that maybe a clock like this, rather than her regular clock, would encourage her to go back to sleep when it was not time to get up. Plus, we can change the time the light switches if we want her to stay in bed longer on some days. The time part of this clock is very small down in the corner, and she wouldn't be able to see it much from her bed. So instead of looking at a number, it would be the picture of the bunny either sleeping or awake. I thought it might help to try something to help encourage her to sleep more, waking up when she's well-rested, not just waiting for the clock to turn 7. Hopefully that will help her get more sleep, especially with being in kindergarten all day. Ben and I decided to order it because we figured it was worth a try, and we could always return it if it didn't make any difference.

On Thursday afternoon we got both kids down for naps, and since Ben was home for the day, I left to get my fingerprints done for my criminal history background check so that I can substitute teach. Then, I got an oil change in preparation for our trip to Chicago next week. Fun things, errands and tasks seem to never end sometimes.

Since Friday was our last day together before Ben and Samantha start school, we wanted to go do something fun for the day. However, the weather did not cooperate and it was too rainy to go and do anything outside for the day like going to Mackinac Island. Instead, we decided to make a visit to the library to check out books and movies for our long trip to Chicago and then go mini-golfing with all four of us this time.

That morning while playing around the house, Samantha decided to put on a dress, and Aedan wanted to follow suit. Samantha picked out a dress from her closet that was just his size, and Ben was able to take this great picture of the two of them in their dresses. I'm sure Aedan will really appreciate this picture in years to come. :)

Just for kicks, I want to include this picture of Samantha two years ago to the day of the above picture. I took this picture when I dropped Samantha off at preschool for her first day. I know two years is a long time, but I am so amazed at the difference between these two pictures. Samantha just looks so much older now, so much taller. Her hair is darker and has less of the baby curls in it. However, she still has the same sweet smile, just on a bigger body. My how time flies, now this little girl is getting ready to go off to her first day of kindergarten soon.

Ben took Samantha mini-golfing a few weeks back, but we have never taken Aedan. However, we figured it would be fun to try it even though we knew it would be crazy with him running around. Ben tried to show Aedan how to hold the golf club right, but Aedan preferred to hold it pointy side down and hit it more like he was hitting a hockey puck with a hockey stick. Nevertheless, he really enjoyed the experience, running around on the greens, and sometimes just picking up the ball and dropping it in the hole rather than hitting it with his golf club. Here are some pictures and videos from our mini-golf outing.

Samantha is actually pretty good at hitting her ball in the hole when she is paying attention to what she's doing. The kids favorite hole was the one where it had several levels where you'd hit the ball into different holes and it would come out in different places on the next level. We let them do this hole over and over again a few times before moving on.

On Friday night, while Ben was playing with the kids, I decided to give Roscoe a bath. I hadn't given him one in quite awhile, and he really needed one. Now, this dog is an old, old dog. We rescued him when he was about 5 (that was their best guess anyways), and we've had him for 9 years now, so he's about 14 years old now. He was pretty active when we first got him, for he would play fetch, go on long walks with us, and run around the house. Now, however, he pretty much sleeps most of the day, really just waking up to go outside to go to the bathroom and to eat his dinner. The eye drops we got for him at the vet seem to be helping his eyes a lot more, which is good. Anyways, Roscoe has never been a big fan of the bathtub and doesn't like getting water in his face. As soon as he gets wet he starts to shiver. Well, on this evening, it was almost like the bath was soothing to him. He didn't try to snap at me as I cleaned his eyes, and towards the end of his bath as I was rinsing him off, he just laid down right in the bath. It seemed like he enjoyed the warm bath water pooling around his body, and he actually just laid his head down and fell asleep. I couldn't believe it. I have never seen him do anything like this before because he is usually just itching to get out of the bathtub. It was so funny that I called Ben and the kids up to see him sleeping in the bathtub. Ben took this picture of him. For all the times that Roscoe has been annoying, especially with his snapping and wariness of strangers, it's sad to see him aging, and I will definitely miss him when he eventually passes away.

Ben and I were really hoping to do some fun family things over this weekend, but the weather did not cooperate, and it rained quite a bit, especially in the afternoons and evening. However, Saturday morning was dry enough for a while that we decided to go over the bridge to Canada to walk on the boardwalk along the river. On the American side of the river, you don't have much access to the waterfront due to the locks, so it was kind of fun to see the view of the same thing from the other side. Samantha thought it was pretty interesting to see the tall tower and the park that we usually play in. When we first started walking, Samantha saw these statues of bears fishing, and she of course wanted to go over to them and have her picture taken with them. Aedan is next to her as well, but it's hard to see him in the pictures.

Here is the view from the boardwalk across to the other side of the river.

And here is a view of the International Bridge.

After walking for awhile and not finding the playground that we thought existed, we decided to head back to our car to run our errands. We stopped at Home Depot to look at faux wood blinds for our bedroom downstairs. Right now we just have light curtains covering the windows, which works fine for right now, but in the winter when we turn the heaters on, we can't have the curtains hanging in front of the heaters. I was thinking we were just going to look at them and compare prices, but we actually ended up purchasing some. It's nice buying things in Canada because we get a little discount because of the difference between the American dollar and the Canadian dollar. After Home Depot, we went to Once Upon a Child to look for pants for Samantha for school. Most of her pants from last year have seen better days, are just too small for her, or are too thin (like leggings) for the kind of weather we will have up here in the winter. Samantha was very cooperative for me and tried on many pairs of pants so that we could make sure they fit her before buying them. We found quite a few, so I think she is pretty well set for right now. Many of the shirts from last year still fit her, and she has one good pair of tennis shoes and one junkier pair. I think we just need to get her one more pair of tennis shoes, as well as some rain boots (and eventually snow boots) and she will be all set. I'm so glad that they have a Once Upon a Child nearby because it's wonderful not to have to pay full price for clothes. Anyways, after our shopping trip we stopped at Tim Horton's for coffee (for the adults) and donuts, before heading back over the bridge to go home. It was a successful trip to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

Sunday was our day to get ready for our trip to Chicago. We went to church in the morning, and then I spent the rest of the day doing laundry and packing for our trip. It might have been a little crazy that I decided to take the kids to Chicago on my own, but I figured it was worth a try. Ben was going to be very busy during the week with meetings and professional development and training, so he obviously could not come with us. Samantha still had two weeks until school started for her, and we will not be able to get down to Chicago again until Christmastime, so I figured it would be a good idea to try and make the trip. Samantha was doing much better with not going to the bathroom all the time, and I thought we could to it as long as I was prepared with toys, books, snacks, and movies to watch. I tried to get the car as packed and ready as I could that night so that in the morning we could try to be on the road by 8:30.

Monday morning came quickly, but we did a pretty good job of getting up, ready, and out the door. We were on the road by 8:40 which is pretty good for me getting everything ready on my own since Ben left to go to campus at 7:20 for breakfast and orientation. I planned our trip ahead of time, making a list of all the rest areas along our route so that way if Samantha needed to go I would know how far to the next rest area. I also found a McDonald's with a play place along our route, about halfway through our trip, and planned to stop there with the kids for lunch. It's nice to let them eat and then play for a little while before having to get back into their car seats.

We made it almost two hours before stopping at a rest area to take a bathroom break, and it was going well in the car. Samantha did a great job of helping Aedan reach things to play with, and she enjoyed using her Twistables that I got her specially for this trip. Once we crossed over the Mackinac Bridge, I put on a show for them on our portable DVD player, and all was well. Then, about two hours later we stopped for lunch, which was good because Aedan was getting antsy in his car seat and was getting tired. (Both kids woke up earlier that morning than usual, probably out of excitement.) The afternoon was a little rougher because even though Samantha was tired, she did not nap in the car. Aedan slept for about an hour and a half, which is pretty good for him in the car, but Samantha just wiggled around in her car seat the whole time even though I tried my hardest to convince her to close her eyes and let herself sleep in order to help the time pass faster. Once Aedan woke up, I found a Dunkin' Donuts to stop at so we could go to the bathroom and get a little snack (and coffee) for the rest of the trip. The traffic in Chicago was about normal for dinnertime, but we didn't get stopped or anything, it just took longer because of stop lights and slower traffic at times. We finally arrived at Aunt Christy's and Uncle Matthew's house at 7:24 Michigan time, 6:24 Chicago time. Phew! It was a long day in the car, but overall the kids did well for being in the car all day. They were excited to get out, see Brielle, and play in her new backyard and her new house.

Since we got there later than I had hoped, we ate dinner later, like after 7:00, and then we still had to get the kids beds set up and the kids didn't get into bed until around 8:10 Chicago time, which was 9:10 our time. Samantha and Aedan were very tired after a long day, and I just hoped that they would sleep well enough in a new place that we could have a good day the next day. More to come about the rest of our visit in Chicago on the next blog post.

(Blog about August 16-22, 2016)

Samantha's First Week of Summer School & Behavioral Challenges All Around

Samantha: 62 Months, Week 4
Aedan: 27 Months, Week 2

Samantha's summer learning camp continued this week, and on Tuesday she was still very excited, and she did not hesitate to run right out onto the playground when Daddy and Aedan dropped her off. After I finished writing out our shopping list, Aedan and I went to Walmart to get our weekly grocery shopping done. It was pretty strange having only one kid with me, and it was much easier to handle Aedan since I can keep him contained in the shopping cart seat. It was a good shopping trip, and Aedan was doing so well, but then we got in the check-out line, the computer shut down halfway through the order of the woman in front me. I already had most of my cart emptied out on the belt, so I had to put everything back in the cart and follow the woman in front of me to another lane, just to start the whole process over again. Because of all this, checking out that morning took a very long time, but Aedan did such a good job during all of it. So much so, that I let him sit in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle car outside Walmart. (I even put 50 cents in to actually make the car move. Usually we are cheapskates and let our kids sit in these but never put money in them.) He was such a happy little kid.

One of Aedan's favorite parts of the day is when Sissy is dropped off in front of our house by the school bus. Throughout the morning Aedan kept saying, "Miss Sissy." On Tuesday he was sitting on the couch, looking out the window, just waiting for her to get home. Man, it was so precious.

Samantha was pretty wiped out after getting home from school that day. In fact, she even asked to take a nap. Since she asked to nap, there was no way I was going to keep her up, but it made feel worried about Samantha's sleep, and how it seems like she needs to nap occasionally which won't be able to happen when she's in full day kindergarten. I am feeling very emotional about sending Samantha off to full day kindergarten in about four weeks. I knew this would be hard for me, but I think it makes it more challenging because I'm also a teacher. I know what goes on in schools and classrooms. I know that some teachers can be wonderful but some can be horrible. I know how much time is wasted in a school day, and I know how much of a teacher's time is taken up dealing with misbehavior or kids that will need extra help (which I doubt will be Samantha).

However, on the other hand, I don't have a desire to homeschool because I want to go back to work in the classroom myself some day and make a difference in the lives of students again. I know that Samantha will love being at school, learning new things, and being around peers all day instead of being stuck at home with her mom and pesky little brother.

Even though Samantha's camp just goes for four hours in the morning, I find that I am missing her terribly, and Aedan misses his playmate. It seems so empty at home without Samantha to talk and laugh and play. I love Aedan, and it will be great to spend some one-on-one time with him, but it is definitely strange going back down to one kid. These first five years with Samantha have gone by way too fast, and sometimes I don't know if I'm ready for a school age kid and all that entails. It's really going to be strange when she's gone all day, spending more time at school than with me each week.

During nap time on Tuesday Aedan woke up several times crying and then fell back asleep, but luckily I didn't have to go in his room at all. It seems like I always have too many things to accomplish during nap time and not enough time to do them. That evening we had dinner together as a family and just relaxed at home so that we could get the kids bathed and to bed at a decent time.

On Wednesday morning it was my turn to take Samantha to school. We are dropping her off in the morning since she doesn't need to be up earlier to take a bus to school since she eats breakfast at home. It's been kind of nice being up at ready by 8:00 a.m. When we get back home from dropping Samantha off, Ben and I actually have some time to talk with one another before he goes off to campus for the day. I try to find something for Aedan and me to do on most days, and on Wednesday, I had plans to go to an exercise time for moms at a local playground. Another mom plans a work out routine, and the kids play on the playground while the moms exercise for an hour. It really is a nice chance to get a work out in, plus meet other moms.  I was worried about how Aedan would do since when we've gone in the past Samantha was with us and could kind of keep an eye out for Aedan if he needed anything or was doing something he shouldn't. However, he actually did really well, except for the time when he was climbing up some bars that were way too high for him. He got up a lot higher than I thought he could climb, but I knew when it started curving at the top, he would start to freak out or he would lose his footing and fall down, so I had to run across the field to grab him before he fell down and got hurt. Aedan enjoyed playing on the playground, eating his snack, and even joining us in exercising every once in awhile. I was glad it was a success because now I know I can come to this more often, even without Samantha along to help me out.

When Samantha got home from school that day, she was excited to tell us all about what she did and learned. I was so glad she was enjoying it and so excited about it. I heard her reciting the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear and teaching Aedan about fiction vs. non-fiction. They have started some culture classes because Samantha came home saying, "Samantha ane (sp?)" which is Ojibway for Samantha is my name. Also, as I suspected, Samantha was not eating much of her packed lunch so I let her finish eating it once she gets home. However, all of this is such a learning process and these two weeks of summer school will help her get ready for the real start of kindergarten, taking a lot of the nervousness out of walking into a new school and a totally new school experience.

As we are looking at improvements we need to make on our house, besides for cleaning up more weeds outside across the front of our house, we also need to do something about the paint peeling from the soffit, which is the underhang of the roof that is made out of wood. Just for curiosity's sake, I contacted a few local painters for free quotes. One man came on Tuesday and two came on Wednesday. Two of them gave me quotes for around $3300 for everything: materials, paint, and labor. The other was a younger man, and he gave me a quote for $700, not including paint, so that was considerably less than the other quotes I received. However, one man mentioned that we need to power wash the house and most of the peeling paint might come off with the power washer anyways. The more I thought about it, the more I decided we should just wait until next summer to figure out what to do. It would be good for us to power wash the outside, get all the peeling paint scraped off, and then paint it with a white primer. Then next summer we can look more into what color we would like to change the outside of the house to, and we will have our bank account back to normal, making it easier to afford painting our house in the first place. Ben and I both have similar taste, which is good, and we both like the navy "nautical" blue look with white trim. Here are some pictures of what I was thinking as I was brainstorming colors and looking around some on the internet. We really like the color of the first house with the white trim, but it would look more like the picture of the second house since we have some tan brickwork across the front of our house.

It's so great to watch when Samantha and Aedan get along well and have fun together, and Wednesday was one of those nights. Aedan decided to put on a concert for us at the piano, singing and playing songs. After every performance, Samantha would enthusiastically run up to him and give him a hug. I was lucky enough to capture Aedan singing his songs. He really loves to sing, and it's so cute to see all the songs he knows. He was so proud of himself and really enjoyed having an audience.

Having Samantha at school all morning has certainly been different for Aedan and me. On Thursday there is usually a meet up of moms at a local playground, but no one could make it that day, so Aedan and I just spent most of the morning playing outside. He enjoys riding his tricycle around the driveway, playing in the sand box, and he even helped me in the back yard while I dug up tons of weeds right outside our garage door. We have these crazy bittersweet nightshade vines that grow and wrap around everything in it's path, like the fence, the gutter, and the trellis that probably was there for decoration at one point. Aedan helped pull weeds out and throw them in the trash can. If he wasn't helping me, then he was perfectly content going off and playing on his own. It was nice feeling like I could have a productive morning getting some much needed work done outside. Now, I just need to get more weeding done in the front as well.

Every day Aedan gets so excited to see Sissy get off the bus, and on Thursday I was able to capture his reaction on video. There's nothing better than finally being reunited with his best friend.

On Thursday afternoon, I had Samantha take a nap along with Aedan because we had plans to go to Ben's colleague, Melissa's house for dinner. They invited us over for dinner at 6:00, and Samantha was really excited to see their horses. It was very kind of them to invite us over, but it is difficult taking our kids to non-kid friendly homes. The kids don't understand why it's so exciting for adults to just sit around and talk, meaning they get bored pretty easily. We brought blocks with us for the kids to play with, but that didn't hold their attention for too long. However, Samantha and Aedan really did a good job eating their food and trying everything, even though it was new and different. (The orange jello was the biggest hit.) They even took us all out to the barn so the kids could help feed the horses some carrots. Samantha really enjoyed that, and Aedan even got brave enough to try it after a while.

Even though Samantha took a nap that afternoon, by 7:30 she was tired and just done for the night so she started melting down and acting irrationally, so we decided it was time to go. Now, Samantha had had quite a bit to drink that night, much more than usual with her two glasses of orange juice, so I could understand her needing to go more than normal, but then it just got ridiculous. She went to the bathroom right before we left their house, and immediately started moaning and whining in the car as we left their driveway, saying she had to go again. Well, they live in the middle of the country so there was no bathroom we could stop at, so we tried to get Samantha to think about other things, play, or even close her eyes to help take her mind off of needing to go. As I've mentioned in previous blog posts, I think she has pollakiuria which means she has to go to the bathroom much more frequently, especially when in places where she knows she can't go. However, it's so frustrating in situations like this where she just went, where we had been letting her go as much as she needed to at their house, where we have been trying to not make a big deal out of it or really talk about it much (hoping it will just eventually go away), but on this evening Ben and I were just at our wit's end. We were going to make her just wait the half hour until we got back home, but she was freaking out and crying so much, saying she was going to pee her pants, that I told Ben to pull over because I didn't feel like having to clean up her car seat if she indeed did have an accident. We pulled off onto a dead end road, and Ben got her out of the car to help her pee off in the grass. He said she did go quite a bit, and then we were back on the road again. As we drove, she started whining again, not saying anything, but making the noise she makes when she has to go to the bathroom, and Ben and I just had to ignore her for the rest of the drive. Aedan was very quiet, just looking at Samantha, probably wondering what was going on and why she was crying so much. This frequent urination thing has been going on for at least two weeks now, and Ben and I really hoped that it would start lessening some, especially before school starts because we know her teacher won't like her leaving class all the time to go to the bathroom. After a pretty stressful end of our evening, Ben and I needed some time to decompress and relax before going to bed ourselves.

After all of this talking about Samantha's issues and behavior, I feel like I have to add some in about Aedan as well. His personality is definitely coming out lately. He wants what he wants, and he gets mad when we don't let him do whatever he wants which then has resulted in very loud screams. He sticks both of his little arms up in the air and screams at the top of his lungs. Screaming is an automatic time out, and he knows that now since he has screamed so much in the last week. Sometimes you can even tell that a look comes across his face, like okay, I'm going to scream now, even if I know I'm not supposed to. I don't know if it's just because he's the second child so we know that everything is just a phase or if it's because he is so cute (yes, even when he's screaming), but sometimes it's difficult for us not to just smile and laugh at him when he does it. However, in all seriousness, some days he does spend quite a lot of time in time out either from screaming, hitting, or throwing things. He is certainly a two year old, and you always know how he's feeling, whether he is happy, sad, excited, or mad.

On Friday morning we invited our friends, the Sayers, over to play. It was a rainy somewhat chilly morning, the perfect morning for playing inside. Samantha was so excited to have friends over, especially girls because it seemed like all our friends in Oxford had boys her age and not girls. All the kids immediately ran off to play, playing upstairs in Samantha's room for awhile and then making their way downstairs. While the kids played, Jill and I were able to talk and enjoy our coffee upstairs. It was really nice to talk one-on-one with another mom, to share our struggles with our kids and to share about our troubles with infertility. I have missed this connection with other moms, and it's always so nice to know that you are not alone in your problems, for many other moms have gone through the same thing as you.

Later that evening after dinner, we decided to take a bike ride over to campus. It was actually Samantha's suggestion, and it was fun to take advantage of our close location to campus. Plus, both kids love the freedom of being able to ride anywhere they want on the sidewalks, while Ben and I follow behind them. As we crossed onto campus, I thought it would be nice to take a picture of the kids by the sign of Ben's new university. School starts in just a couple weeks and this campus will be full of students again, and Ben will get back into the classroom to be the great professor that he is. I am so proud of him getting his position here, and I am so excited for him to start, to get a feel for the students, and to hear how it's going in his first tenure track faculty position.

We made many stops along the way around campus to climb trees, smell flowers, and climb on rocks. But that's okay because the kids were having a great time just wandering around and exploring. It's these simple family evenings that are some of my favorites. :)

On Saturday morning we didn't have any plans so we just hung around the house, let the kids play together, and had pancakes for breakfast (our traditional Saturday morning breakfast). It rained most of the morning, and Ben did not feel very well that day so we laid low, let the kids watch a movie during the morning, and just played in the house with the Olympics on in the background.

That evening from 3-7 there was a neighborhood barbecue that we were invited to. Ben and Samantha headed over once she woke up from her nap, and I waited until about 4:15 and then just woke Aedan up from his nap so that we could head over as well. (We decided that even when kindergarten starts, Samantha will probably have to nap on Saturdays and Sundays because she will be so exhausted from the week and will probably need that time to catch up on sleep. Plus, she was pretty willing to take a nap on Saturday afternoon.) It was really nice of our neighbors to plan the neighborhood barbecue since there are several new families on the block. Everyone brought their own meat to grill out and a side to share, and we mostly just sat around and talked, introduced everyone, shared a little bit about ourselves, and then just hung out. Our kids and the neighbor kids played together, and it was a fun time of officially meeting most of the neighbors that live around us. They mentioned doing these everyone once in awhile, even throughout the fall and winter, so that will be good. You can tell the people that live here take a lot of pride in their neighborhood, and they like that responsible families have moved in that will take good care of their property and get along well with each other.

Sunday was a pretty typical day with getting up and being ready well before we had to leave for church at 10:15. We had lunch ready in the crock pot, and the kids even played outside for awhile. Ben eventually decided that it would be good for the kids to relax and calm down some before leaving for church, so he put some worship music videos on the TV for the kids to listen to, sing with, and dance to. 

We have really been enjoying attending Sault Wesleyan Church, and I'm glad we've decided to make that our church home. Aedan and Samantha are always excited about going to their classrooms. In fact, when we pick Aedan up he will often comment, "No crying!" because now he is comfortable there and walks right in with no problem. Samantha is learning the songs they sing during big group time, and she always does a good job of telling us all about the story they learned that day. We love how this church has a solid children's ministry. I know I have really enjoyed the service as well. We just finished up a series on the Bible, explaining some of the history of it, as well as just practical steps for how to read it every day. Now we are beginning a sermon series on prayer, and although talking about reading the Bible and praying are such basic things, it has been challenging to me because I have not put it as a priority in my life much lately. I let work around the house and entertainment take precedent sometimes, when really I have so many things backwards. It's good to have a reminder like this and to be called to accountability because as Pastor Chad said, we schedule things that are important to us. And of course the Bible and time with God is important to me, so why don't I schedule it into my day? Why do I so easily let it get pushed to the side? I appreciate the pastor's vulnerability and the way they relate to people. I think we found a good church to attend, a place where our whole family can grow.

The rest of our Sunday was spent together as a family, eating lunch, and getting the kids down for their naps before heading out to Sherman Park for a gathering of people from church. Here is Samantha cuddling on Daddy's lap while watching a show that afternoon. She loves her Daddy so much, preferring to cuddle and wrestle with him over anything else.

Sunday evening there was a get together at Sherman Park with other people from church, but for some reason our kids were in strange moods and didn't really feel like playing with anyone, so we ended up down on the beach near the water, far from anyone that was affiliated with the church. We only stayed for about an hour because our kids were tired and we needed to get the kids back home for bath time and an earlier bedtime since Samantha started back at her camp at school the next morning. Here's a little video of our time at the beach. Normally Aedan doesn't like to go in the water much, for he prefers to dig in the sand, but after awhile he actually waded in the water with Samantha for a little while.

We make it our goal to leave the house by 7:55 to get Samantha to school, and most days Aedan likes to go along with whoever is dropping her off. On Monday Ben planned to stay home with Aedan for awhile so that I could go to an enrollment meeting for becoming a substitute teacher. This is one of my last steps, as I have all my online training modules complete already. I signed up for Brimley, Bahweting, and Sault Ste. Marie schools. The man leading the meeting said that I should have no problem staying busy just with the Sault Ste. Marie schools, so hopefully once I get in the system for Fridays I can start lining up sub jobs. It was more work than I anticipated getting everything done, but I'm glad that I was able to finish up everything before Ben starts teaching and his schedule isn't as flexible to be able to stay home with Aedan.

As soon as I got back home, Aedan and I headed out to the playground so that I could exercise with other moms and he could play with kids. Then, we were off to the bank to deposit the check we had been waiting on from Ben's retirement account from Miami. Moving up here and not getting paid for the last three months pretty much wiped out our bank accounts, so we are glad to finally get money in our account and look forward to Ben getting paid for the first time from Lake State this Friday. Then finally we will be able to get back into a better financial position.

Even with Samantha going back to school this week, Ben going to campus, and Aedan and I following a little routine, life felt a lot more organized and manageable. The school year will be a big change with getting out the door before 8:00 in the morning, Samantha not getting home on the bus until 4:00, and Ben having late classes until 6:00 two nights a week and until 8:00 two nights a week, but I hope that things will get into a routine then as well.

And to end this blog post, I will share a funny story about Samantha. We have let her buy lunch at school a few times to get used to going through the line and carrying her food tray because we will probably let her buy lunch one or two times a week during the school year. Well, on Monday the lunch was a cheese omelet, hashbrown stars, pineapple, and a blueberry muffin. Samantha was super excited about eating the blueberry muffin, but we told her we wanted her to eat the rest of of her lunch as well, not just the blueberry muffin. Since Samantha is such a rule follower, she listened to what we said and ate all of her lunch, leaving her blueberry muffin for last. However, lunch was over before she had a chance to eat her muffin so she had to throw it all away. As soon as she walked in the door from getting off the bus, she started crying, telling me that she didn't get to eat her muffin. She said that she didn't cry at school, but she let it all out once she got home with her Mommy. I had her sit down with me on the couch and let her cry for a little while while I hugged her. Then, we made a new plan. If there is a dessert that she really wants to eat, it's fine for her to eat it, she just has to eat some of her other food as well. But we don't want her to leave it until last and then run out of time to eat it. It really was so cute that that happened to her, making me realize just how little she still is and how even though she acts independent and tough, she still needs her Mommy and Daddy.

(Blog about August 9-15, 2016)

Our Visit from Chicago Grandpa and Grandma

Samantha: 62 Months, Week 3
Aedan: 27 Months, Week 1

Ben worked from home on Tuesday this past week because he had plans to be out at a work dinner that evening, so he figured it would be a good way to be around the kids and me more throughout the day. We had swim lessons in the morning, and then I actually took Roscoe to the vet that afternoon because he was having trouble with his eyes and putting the ointment in wasn't helping any. He had a lot of yellow-green discharge that would build up in his eyes on a daily basis. The whites of his eyes were bright red, and he was really sensitive to me doing anything around his eyes or trying to to clean the discharge up. The vet wasn't able to get a good look at his eyes either, but by the looks of the discharge and what I described to her, she said that Roscoe had something called keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) which is the technical term for a condition called dry eye when they aren't producing enough tears. She prescribed eye drops for us to put in both of his eyes twice a day and said that the film covering his eye was because of this condition, not his cataracts. So maybe that was why Roscoe was having such a hard time walking around the house without running into walls or falling down the stairs. We know that Roscoe is old, probably about 14 or 15, and he has had a good, long life with us, so we aren't going to be spending a lot of money on him as he gets older, but if there was a simple fix to his problem to help his eyes feel better and help him see better, I figured it was worth the money to visit the vet.

That evening, after dropping Daddy off at his dinner meeting, the kids and I ran a couple errands and then went to McDonald's for dinner so they could run around and play for awhile before going back to get Daddy. (These are the times when it is a little tricky having only one car.) We used to not be a big McDonald's family because Samantha always preferred the nuggets at Wendy's, but now that we have a McDonald's with a play place in town, and we discovered that we can get apples and go-gurt instead of fries (since our kids don't eat them anyways), we have been there a few times already since we moved here. After Samantha and Aedan finished their dinner, they were allowed to go play, and they had a great time. Samantha was great with Aedan, helping him climb up the steps he couldn't do on his own by pushing his bottom up or pulling him by the arms. They were so cute running around the play place together, laughing, sliding, and climbing. This will definitely be a good place to come play in the winter time as well.

Samantha helped Aedan get comfortable walking over the netting to reach the tall orange slide, encouraging him every step of the way, and then saying, "Yay, Aedan! You did such a good job!" and giving him a great big hug when he finally was brave enough to go across. She is such a kind and loving big sister, really always looking out for her little brother. She is the world to Aedan, and he is so much happier when she plays with him. In this picture below, Aedan went down the slide first, and then he stood at the bottom with his hands out to catch Samantha. He was so adorable standing there saying, "Catch you, Sissy!"

In this video I love how Samantha is chanting, "You can do it, you can do it." Then, the thrill of rushing down the slide, and Aedan catching Samantha at the bottom. Then, both of them running to the other side to climb back up with Aedan shouting, "Again, again!" I couldn't help but sit and smile at my kiddos that evening. They are such a blessing to me.

Mornings are some of the best times with the kids because they are well-rested and ready to play. They are really cute together, and Ben captured this little interaction between Samantha and Aedan on the couch as they sat and played with their little smiley faces together.

Wednesday morning we had swim lessons again, and Samantha wanted me to take a video of her jumping off the side with her instructor, Logan. She has no fear of jumping in, and he did a great job of letting her go all the way under the water and let her kick herself back up to the surface before reaching out to help her.

I can't remember what night this week we did this, but one night after dinner I decided it would be fun to take a family bike ride to Dairy Queen and let Samantha ride her bike with training wheels. We filled up all the bike tires with air, got Aedan buckled in the bike trailer, and got Samantha settled on her bike with her helmet on. It was a pretty long trip for Samantha, longer than she has ever done before, but I figured it would be good for her to practice riding for a longer trip over different types of terrain. It was much easier for me to pull the trailer with just Aedan in it, and Samantha really did a good job riding there. The kids were super excited about eating their ice cream, and Aedan got covered in ice cream drips and sprinkles since it was pretty warm outside.

However, as we were finishing up our ice cream, Samantha started whining about having to go potty, even though she had just gone before leaving the house. We were a little frustrated with her because there wasn't a restroom at Dairy Queen that we could use, but she was freaking out about needing to go and not being able to hold it until we got home. Daddy took Samantha across the street to the Walgreens to use the restroom, while I amused Aedan at Dairy Queen. By the time we were on our way home, Samantha had stopped listening well and was having a lot more trouble on her bike. Whenever she got to uneven pavement or bumps, she would let her bike tip over and fall off. It was taking much longer to get back home than it did to get there, and Ben was getting frustrated with Samantha because she wasn't listening and wasn't concentrating on riding her bike properly. We didn't get back home until around 8:00, when she should have been in bed long before then since she didn't nap that afternoon. Samantha really does a good job until a certain time of night, like 7:30 or later, and then she just can't think through her actions. I think this is something we need to be more cognizant of in order to keep meltdowns at bay.

Our house does not have air conditioning, and most of the time that is okay since it doesn't get overly hot up here on a consistent basis. However, Thursday was one of those days were it was a high of 87 or 88, and it was humid, so it got up to about 85 in our house that afternoon and it was very sticky. Ben went grocery shopping that morning, in preparation for my parents coming to visit for the weekend, while I took the kids to swim lessons. On days when it is really warm in the house, we are very glad that we have a basement to cool off in. After eating lunch, I set up Aedan's pack and play in the bathroom and put Samantha's mattress in the office for her to take her nap. Last time we had hot weather we had her sleep out in the play room area, but I think the noise of the dehumidifier bothered her sleep more than she let on, so I figured trying her in a quieter room might help.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, Samantha has been having issues going to the bathroom way more than normal. So after putting Samantha down for a nap that afternoon, I was upstairs doing a few things before going back down to work on my computer and attempt to finish watching these training modules in order to become a substitute teacher. (I have decided to put my name in for subbing on Fridays since Ben does not teach on Fridays. That way I get to make some money, get out of the house to do something different, and get my name in the schools for when I decide to go back to teaching full time.) However, when I got downstairs, Samantha was standing in the doorway of our bedroom, crying, saying she had to go to the bathroom again, so I took her upstairs to let her go to the bathroom, trying not to make a big deal out of it. I had her go back in the room to nap and a little while later she was in the room calling for me, saying she was done napping, but really it was because she had to go to the bathroom again. I was so frustrated with this, she was crying and whimpering so loudly that she could have woken up Aedan, and I only get this one hour of free time a day to actually get any of my own work done, which makes we even more frustrated, especially on a day when I know she is tired and needs to nap. I spanked her and put her in time out, trying to get myself calmed back down as well. I had no idea what was going on with her, and why she was needing to go to the bathroom so much, going three times in less than 40 minutes. She was so tired, and it was after 2:30 and she still wasn't asleep. She did end up falling asleep and sleeping past 4:00, which was not ideal, but at least she took a nap.

That afternoon certainly was not one of my proudest parenting moments. I let my anger and impatience get the best of me, and I got more upset with Samantha than I want to be ever again in my whole life. I was so ashamed at how upset I got, that instead of working, I took most of the rest of her nap time reading the Bible and writing out my thoughts and prayers to God in my journal. I read verses on anger and forgiveness, and really clung to this one: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." Man, was I unrighteous in my thoughts and my actions. I felt so bad that I treated my little girl like that, and I cried as I asked God for forgiveness. Over the last year or two, I have really prayed about how I let my anger get the best of me at times, especially with my children, and I really have done pretty well, but I can see Satan tempting me again, pulling me back down, and breaking me down so that I give in easier. I thank God for the grace and mercy that he gives me every day to cover these sins that are inexcusable to God. I love Samantha so much, and I am so blessed that God gave her to me, that I am her mother. But I certainly don't act like that all the time. I know that God forgives me as soon as I ask, but it will take me a while to let this one go for myself. In fact, I had to sneak back into the room to see Samantha while she slept. She was so innocent and peaceful, and I want her to always know that I love her, and to always treat her as the special little girl that she is and look forward to the wonderful woman that she will become, with God's help and direction. I love you, my little darling Samantha.

After Christy, Matthew, and Brielle visited last weekend, I passed on the next set of 24 month and 2T clothes. However, we could not find the next size of shoes anywhere. I started looking more carefully through the boxes of clothes, but couldn't find them, so I decided I would have to take everything out of the bins to find what I was looking for and get the other clothes put back where they belong. It took a long time to organize everything, and the basement was a mess for awhile with all the piles of clothes of various sizes. However, I got my job accomplished, organizing all the clothes in a much better way, and getting this stack of stuff to send back with my parents when they came.

Friday was the last day of swim lessons, and the kids were really excited because it was safety day, which meant they were going to wear life jackets in the pool, learn how to float on their back and their stomach, and learn what to do if someone needed help in the water. The kids got to swim back and forth the entire length of the pool, even Aedan, which he thought was pretty cool. They also let the kids jump off the diving board, and both Samantha and Aedan wanted to do it. Samantha jumped off the diving board last year at swim lessons, so she wasn't too nervous about it. Aedan, however, said he wanted to, but I figured he would chicken out as soon as he got to the edge, especially since I wasn't in the water to help catch him. I walked with Aedan out to the edge of the diving board, and he was ready to jump right away. I helped kind of lift him out over the edge when he jumped so he didn't hit the board, and he fell right into the water by Megan, the instructor. He didn't cry or anything. I couldn't believe how brave he was, and I so wished that someone would have been there to take a video of his first time jumping off the board, especially when he is so little.

From there, the kids were taken back to the other pool so they could play in the water, jump in, and float around on these big inflatables like a large duck, shark, whale, and swan. Aedan couldn't wait for this part, and he could have floated around on the duck for the rest of the lesson. In fact, he got pretty upset when I told him it was someone else's turn and he had to get off. However, he had fun just floating and kicking around the pool with his little Puddle Jumper. Samantha road on the shark a couple times, but it was slippery and she kept falling off. Then, at the very end when it was almost time to get out of the pool, she wanted to dive in one last time. It was something new she had just learned the day before, and she felt like a pretty big kid being able to do that. So I took her life jacket off, and helped her bend over and go in head first. It was a great day to celebrate everything they learned in swimming lessons over the past two weeks through a little pool party.

As I've said before, most days we are trying to just give Samantha quiet time so that her body can get used to not napping before kindergarten starts, so on Friday we didn't have her nap. Both kids were very excited because Chicago Grandpa and Grandma were coming to visit for the weekend. They arrived right around dinnertime, and everyone was so excited to see each other. It was fun to give them a tour of our new home and to have dinner with them.

After dinner we decided to take them to the locks to see the big freighters go through. After all, it is the big tourist attraction for Sault Ste. Marie. Grandpa and Grandma really enjoyed seeing the locks and watching the boat get ready to pass through, but our kids didn't find it that amusing, especially since we were just there last weekend as well. Plus, Samantha was getting really tired as it was past 7:00, and she didn't nap that day, so it is at that point where she starts losing her ability to think about her actions. Plus, just like the rest of the week, she had issues with needing to go to the bathroom a lot. She went right before we left the house, and then as soon as we parked to see the locks she had to go again, so we let her go in the public restroom in the park. Then, while we were in the observation tower, she started whining about having to go again. We got pretty frustrated with her because we tried to be nice the first time and let her go without making a big deal about it, but then when she had to go again 15 minutes later, we didn't know what to think. We don't know if she has that frequent daytime urination thing called pollakiuria that she had back awhile ago in Oxford, or if she was simply bored because the adults were doing something she didn't enjoy. Sometimes it seems like she goes a normal amount when she is doing something fun that she wants to do or playing, but when we ask her to do something or she has to wait on something she deems boring, then she all of a sudden has to go to the bathroom all the time. However, we don't know how to handle it because she will whine and whimper and hold herself, making it seem urgent, that if she doesn't go she will pee her pants. We, of course, don't want to make her pee her pants or pee in her car seat or pee in her bed, but how do we know if she really has to go or if she's just being disrespectful? It has been a frustrating last week knowing how to handle this issue without getting upset about it or just not knowing what to do. Ben and I feel pretty clueless and confused.

After getting back to the house and getting the kids to bed, we enjoyed watching the opening ceremony of the Olymics with my parents. It was funny because we actually remembered that they were in Bloomington visiting us during the opening ceremony four years ago as well.

On Saturday I went back and forth about what to do together, thinking of possibly going to Mackinac Island for the day, because I knew my parents would enjoy that. However, I decided that we would just stay in Sault Ste. Marie and go to the Downtown Days festival. It seemed like there would be some fun kid-related activities, and then my parents would get a better sense of what our town looks like and what it has to offer. Part of Ashmun Street was blocked off and the first thing we came to was lots of vintage cars parked along the road. The kids found this mildly entertaining, although it was hard for them to understand why they couldn't touch the cars or get in them. Grandpa and Grandma really enjoyed this part, I think, because they noticed cars that were popular back when they were born or when they first got married. I like looking at how technology has changed, how much bigger cars were back then, and also how some didn't even have seat belts, let alone places where you could strap in a car seat. I told my mom that she was probably carried home from the hospital in her mother's arms, no buckling a baby into straps. Now, I am grateful for the extra protection to keep us safe if we are ever in a car accident, but sometimes it would be nice for the kids to have more freedom to move around in the car, especially on longer trips.

There was a section of various businesses with booths set up, and the kids found this one with bubbles and chalk.

There was a fire truck there for the kids to ride on, which was one of Aedan's favorite things, as he loves to pretend to drive. In fact, when it was time to let someone else have a turn, he just screamed and I had to pull him out of the seat. (He's been screaming a lot more lately when we keep him from doing something he wants to do or tell him no.)

Both kids said hi to Seymour, Lake State's mascot, but Aedan wasn't interested in standing next to him for a picture.

Then, we finally reached the area where there was a small petting zoo. This was definitely Samantha's favorite part. She just loves animals that she can touch. (It's a shame our dog is so grouchy and old, and the kids can't pet him for fear of getting snapped at.) There was a turtle...

...and a little hedgehog...

...a rabbit...

...and then a fenced in area with some ponies, a donkey, some sheep, and some goats. Samantha REALLY enjoyed this part.

She found a pony that loved to be scratched and petted, so Samantha just stood there petting it and talking to it for along time, even giving it a few hugs and kisses. She kept talking about how she would love to have a horse of her own and how much this pony loved her.

Aedan was brave enough to touch the pony as well, although it took some encouragement since he's still a little afraid of big animals, especially if their noses or mouths get to close to his face. We're working on his fear of animals, helping him to know that most animals are nice and won't hurt him. Once he gets over the initial fear, he is much better.

After eating sandwiches for lunch, we got Aedan down for a nap and just let Samantha have quiet time in her room, with the deal that she was going to have to be in bed early that evening. Then, after a little while Ben and I left to go out on our date. It's so nice that my parents offer to watch the kids for us every time they visit so that Ben and I can go out on a date with free babysitting. We decided to go over to Canada to see a movie at the movie theater in the mall, and then go out to dinner at an Italian restaurant. There really are no Italian restaurants in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. We got to the mall and walked around a little bit before the movie started. There is no mall on the Michigan side, and this one is decent, although there are quite a few Canadian stores that I didn't recognize. Then, we went into the theater to watch Jason Bourne. I know we have seen all the other Bourne movies in the past and enjoyed them, so I figured this would be a good show to see, one that we would both like.

From there, we walked to the Italian restaurant and discovered that it was closed because they were catering an event. In Canada they charge you a lot for using international data, and we didn't want to just pick a random restaurant and have it not be any good, so we decided to just go back to the States and eat at a restaurant called Karl's Cuisine. Ben went there when he was up here on his campus visit and said good things about it, but it really is not too suitable for young children. It was a good place to go just the two of us where we could talk and enjoy our meal together. Our food was very good, and we even split a brownie sundae for dessert. With the kids around, we don't have much of a chance to have a conversation. So, it was really enjoyable just going out to eat together, talking about our new town, and our new life and schedule once the semester begins. We discussed how we can prioritize things like both of us finding time to exercise on a daily basis, as well as making sure to read the Bible every day, things that have been lacking in both our lives as of late. It's amazing how much more complicated things like this become when you have kids because you have so little free time or time to yourself. Plus, now that Samantha will need to leave for school by 8:00 every day, Ben and I will need to get up early and be ready to go ourselves by 7:00 so that we can help Samantha get ready and have breakfast before 8:00. Our life will certainly be different once school starts. No more staying up too late and sleeping in on some days. We got home once the kids were already in bed, so then we were able to just hang out with my parents some more. It was a nice break that day for us, and they enjoyed time alone with Samantha and Aedan. They took them to McDonald's for dinner and let them play in the play place. We got a great report about Samantha's behavior, how helpful she was with Aedan in the play place, and how she didn't fight going to bed at all. It was a good day for Samantha, and I'm glad that she was so respectful for them.

My parents usually leave on Sunday after lunch when coming to stay for the weekend, but they decided to take an extra day off so they could stay longer and make the longer trip more worth their time. So on Sunday we had a good morning playing and reading books at home before going to church. It was fun to be able to share our new church with them. They enjoyed the service and were impressed with how much the kids enjoyed their classrooms and teachers.

We tried a new recipe for a chicken, rice, and vegetable crock pot dish for lunch that was really yummy and made our house smell very good. Then, we got Aedan down for a nap and let Samantha have quiet time. I took my parents out for a driving tour of the town, and while I was gone Ben said that Samantha got up three times to go to the bathroom. She was hard to keep calm and wanted to nap, but it was already too late and she had been in her room for over an hour already. Ben told her she could lay down if she wanted, so when her alarm was going off to let her know her quiet time was over, he went in there and she was fast asleep in her bed, snoring, and sleeping right through the alarm. He turned the alarm off and tried to sneak out of her room, but the creaking of her door ended up waking her up. She is very confusing sometimes. I was hoping that she would be better adjusted to not napping at this point since school starts a month from now, but it seems like she can go a couple days without napping but then her body is just too tired and needs to rest. I hope that the adjustment to kindergarten isn't too rough on her or us, and that her body will get used to getting all her sleep at night without that daytime break.

We decided to wake Aedan up from his nap slightly early so that way we could take Grandpa and Grandma to the lighthouse that is not too far from our house. We had not been back since the first time we visited, and the kids really enjoyed it so were excited to go back again. My parents had beautiful weather for their visit, and once again, I'm so glad it wasn't super hot or rainy while they were here because it made it so easy to go out and show them the many beautiful locations around where we live in the U.P. Here are some pictures of our time at the lighthouse.

We spent a long time on the beach, letting the kids throw rocks in the water and play in the sand. It was definitely a fun outing, and I'm glad we decided to take them here on their last night in Sault Ste. Marie.

Before leaving the lighthouse, we took advantage of the beautiful natural backdrop to take some family pictures, and some pictures of the kids with Grandpa and Grandma. Right before we took pictures, Aedan was running down the side walk, tripped, and scraped his forehead on the sidewalk, so it took awhile to calm him down in order to get any decent pictures. Here's how they all turned out. There's a few cute ones in there. It's fun to actually take a chance to get posed pictures with family.

After leaving the lighthouse, we stopped by Walmart to get Samantha a lunch box and a new water bottle, before going back to the house to eat pizza we picked up from Guido's. After that it was a quick shower for the kids before getting ready for bed. We all had a big day the next day and needed to get some good rest.

On Monday, August 8, Samantha had her first day at her summer camp at Bahweting. It went from about 8:15-12:30, and Samantha was SO excited about it. She got her clothes ready the night before, and got right up in the morning to get dressed and brush her teeth. I think she was ready by 7:30 that morning, which is the fastest she has ever gotten ready to go in the morning. She was excited to take her lunch to school in her back pack and to ride the bus home at the end of their morning. Ben, Aedan, and I all took Samantha to school that morning so that we could drop her off and see where she would be spending her morning. Here she is waiting outside her school, ready for her first day.

One thing I love about Samantha is that she is so brave and doesn't seem afraid to try anything new. When we dropped her off at school, she was not afraid at all to run right out and start playing on the playground. I'm so glad that she's confident enough in herself to do this, and I'm so glad that she's excited about school. I hope that excitement never fades.

Grandpa and Grandma stayed for most of the morning, leaving just before noon, so Aedan had lots of time to play with them one-on-one. We played together in the basement, and of course he wanted to play outside quite a bit and ride his new tricycle. Aedan and I made sure to be done with lunch before Sissy would be dropped off at our house around 12:45. Aedan was thrilled to see the bus pull up in front of our house, and he ran out down the driveway to greet Samantha with a big hug. Samantha had a great first day. However, she did not eat much of her lunch (which I figured would happen), so I let her sit up at the counter to finish her lunch and tell me all about school. Aedan joined her, and it was no time before they got back to their silly ways together. I think they both missed each other. :)

That evening after dinner, we decided to go over to campus to let Samantha ride her bike and Aedan ride his new tricycle. I had Christy get one for me off a website where people sell their used items, and it was much cheaper than buying a brand new tricycle from Walmart. Samantha never really got the hang of riding a tricycle when she was Aedan's age, so we didn't really think much of getting one for Aedan. However, he was really enjoying the tricycle that Ema and Papa had in Upland, so I figured it would be fun for us to have our own for him. He picked it up very quickly, pedaling all by himself and even steering himself without any help. I was amazed at how good he was, and he really enjoyed pedaling around campus like a big boy, trailing behind his big sister. It's so fun living so close to campus and being able to just walk across the street and enjoy riding bikes or take a walk. We definitely need to do this more often.

As the kids rode around, Ben and I were able to actually carry on a conversation, which made our evening outing even better. Samantha found this big rock to climb on, and we had them both sit on it because it was a pretty cool view with the International Bridge in the background. Man, these two kids are so great, so cute together, and they love each other so much, you can just see it in Aedan's face in the second picture. What a great way to round off a great day!

(Blog about August 2-8, 2016)