Aedan: 63 Months, Week 1
Owen: 21 Months, Week 3
Since it was our first Sunday in Pennsylvania, we tried out a new church. We went to the first service at Parker Hill Church in Wilkes-Barre. It was about 25 minutes from our house, so a little bit of a drive, but we were excited about trying it out. They use the orange curriculum, which is the same thing that SWC used, so we knew the kids would be familiar with it, and that would be helpful in trying a new place. The people were very welcoming, and the check-in process for the kids was fairly smooth. They had a separate area for nursery, preschool, and then elementary age. During the school year, they divide the elementary kids even more into groups by grade. Aedan was a little bit nervous to go into his classroom, Samantha was just fine, and Owen didn't have any trouble either. Since checking in at a new church always takes longer than you would think, even though we got there early, we still walked into the sanctuary late, which neither of us liked. The church meets in an office building where they have a section of rooms for the church. The music was contemporary and very well-done. They had videos to announce what was happening at the church, and the campus pastor spoke for a few minutes before and after the sermon. This church has a main campus and then a few offshoots that get the video broadcast for the sermon. However, the screen they use to play the sermon is large, with the image appearing as big as if the pastor was standing on the stage, which made it feel less like you were just watching a video. They are doing a series on the Sermon on the Mount, and the sermon was very engaging. Ben and I both enjoyed the speaking style and felt challenged by the sermon. We did not get a chance to talk to many people, but the campus pastor, Errol, introduced himself to us, and the people in charge of welcoming guests were very friendly. We left the church with a good impression, and the kids loved their classrooms. They recognized some of the same music and were familiar with the lessons from the orange curriculum. Both kids remarked how nice and friendly their teachers were, so it was a good first week at church in a new city.
After church we stopped at Target (Yay! We have a Target near us!) to get some things that never turned up in our unpacking like bathroom trash cans, an iron, detergent for Owen's cloth diapers, as well as some more shorts and summer pajamas for the kids. It's funny because in leaving the U.P., we were just starting to get into shorts weather, and the kids were still wearing pants to sleep at night. However, it's like we skipped spring and went straight to mid-summer in moving out to Pennsylvania. It's definitely warmer here, and the kids were trying to get used to the warmer weather. After getting everything we needed at Target, we decided to eat lunch at Moe's instead of driving back home to eat. The food there was good, and we got lots of chips to take home with us.
Since I finally got an iron, I was also able to finish the kids' curtains, which involved ironing them because they were pretty wrinkled from being washed right before moving, and then also hanging the blackout panels on the back of the curtains. The upstairs in our new house does not have any blinds like our previous house, so I decided blackout panels would be our best bet for right now until we decide what we want to do with possibly ordering shades of some kind. I like the honeycomb shaped blinds that you just push and pull up and down, so maybe we will look into those at some point, but for now, we just needed something to help block out a little of the early morning sunlight. Our kids already wake up early enough, so I wanted something to help make it a little darker in their rooms.
When I was outside at some point on Sunday afternoon, I saw this little snake slithering around in the grass. It must live back there under our large flowering bush. I took a video and some pictures so I could show the kids later. It's fun to have more wildlife around us.
Once Owen woke up from his nap that afternoon, the kids were playing outside and decided they wanted to eat some yogurt for a snack. They took it outside to eat at our patio table, and I was able to catch this adorable video of Aedan feeding Owen his yogurt. He was being so sweet with him and even wiped up the little spills he had on his shirt. I love how well Aedan takes care of his little brother (at times). You can see Samantha pop her head into the video towards the end. :)
On Monday Samantha and Aedan went back to their reading and art camp at Wilkes. They were excited to go again, even though they knew that our visitors would be arriving that afternoon while they were gone. During the day I worked on doing a little bit of cleaning and picking up in preparation for their arrival. As I went around to each room, I decided to take some pictures of the progress I had made. We haven't put up any decorations or pictures, but everything else is unpacked and put away where we would like it to be. Things were really coming together, and I was enjoying seeing how everything was fitting in the house. (As I'm looking through these pictures, I realize that I don't have any of the main floor, and I'm not sure why, but I have the basement and upstairs pictures.)
I picked the kids up from camp that afternoon so that Ben could be at the house when his family arrived. Samantha and Aedan were so excited to go back to the house and see everyone, and meet Pla for the first time. The kids warmed up to her very quickly, and she was very involved with the kids, even going up to Samantha's room to play with her for awhile. I was so glad we were able to host them at our house, even though we just moved in a week ago.
After playing at home for a little while, we decided to go out to dinner at Thai Thai so Bla could introduce us to some traditional Thai food. The kids were very adventurous and respectful, trying so many new foods, and most of them they liked. Owen was a little tricky to keep happy while we sat and waited for food, but Ben and I took turns taking him outside and walking around with him.
When we got back home it was almost bedtime, so we got the kids down for bed before helping to figure things out for everyone else to sleep. We moved the futon upstairs to the living room for Ben and I to sleep on, pulled out the queen mattress for Ema and Papa to sleep on in the basement, and Tim and Bla were going to sleep in our bedroom. I was glad it was going to work for everyone to have a place to sleep, and I was very glad that our house was big enough to accommodate everyone.
We let the kids skip out going to camp on Tuesday so they could spend more time with the family. We had a good time just having a relaxing morning together. Here is Pla holding Owen for us so that we could get breakfast ready for everyone.
The kids wanted to go play outside, so we had them get dressed and go out to play. Pla offered to do Samantha's hair for her that day, and she did this pretty little topsy tail ponytail. Samantha loved it and really enjoyed having the attention of Pla.
Aedan decided to dress up in his Spider-Man costume before going outside, and Pla took these cute pictures of Aedan hanging on the monkey bars like Spider-Man.
That afternoon, after getting Owen down for his nap, Ema offered to stay at the house while the rest of us went to Hillside Farm to get ice cream. We had a good time eating our ice cream and then walking around and seeing the farm animals.
That night was a little rough for Samantha and Aedan. I don't know if they were just tired from our whirlwind week of moving in or what, but I was very glad to put them to bed that night. Aedan had been very emotional, crying and and then happy from one minute to the next. He also had started saying no whenever I ask him to do something. Samantha had been rather mean and was talking with such a mean tone of voice. Then, that night at bedtime, she was really having a hard time. She had been resisting going to bed quite a bit, and when Ben was putting her to bed that night, she was crying because she wasn't going to be able to say good night to me. Ben was getting tired of her attitude, and her way of seeming to manipulate us into doing things exactly how she wants, or reacting like a baby sometimes. Moving and having visitors was a lot for the kids, and I'm sure a lot of what was going on was just their reaction to all the change that that had taken place in their lives lately. We were trying to be patient with them and take all that to consideration, but at times it was difficult.
On Wednesday our out of town family had to leave to make the drive back to Upland. Samantha and Aedan had their last day of reading and art camp, so they said good-bye to everyone before leaving that morning. I had everyone get together for a picture before taking the kids off to camp that morning. They were very sad to see them go, but Aedan made Ema promise that she would be back in six weeks with canned peaches. (They thought six weeks was a good enough time to pass before seeing them again, but I think they would be okay if they just permanently moved into our basement.) We had a blast hosting Tim and Pla at our house, meeting her for the first time, and we were glad they made the trip all the way out to see us.
Daddy picked up the kids from camp that afternoon and was able to get the key to his new office. Here are the kids sitting in the window of his new office at Wilkes University.
Thursday was the 4th of July, and we debated what we should do about seeing fireworks. We decided to be risky and go as a family to fireworks on July 3rd, even though we knew it would be hard to be out so late. We also decided to go to fireworks down in a city called Mountain Top because we thought that might be a little more low key than Wilkes-Barre. We ate dinner at home, and then headed out, not knowing how early we would have to get there or what all there was to do. We found a spot to park up near the street and walked down to where most of the people were setting up chairs. There was a playground nearby that I took the kids to play on for awhile, they ran around on the volleyball court, caught some fireflies, and enjoyed drinking lemonade and eating cupcakes while we waited for it to get dark enough for the fireworks.
Even though the kids were tired, they enjoyed watching the fireworks, and everyone fell asleep on our drive back home.
July 4th we just had a more relaxing day at home. Ben mowed the yard for the first time with our new self-propelled lawnmower. We wanted a riding mower since our yard is much larger, but with how steep it is in places and with all the rocks in the yard, a riding mower just wasn't going to work. It took Ben about two hours to mow the yard, but it's amazing how much nicer it was using a new lawnmower that works. It looked great when he was finished!
That afternoon I took Samantha and Aedan to see Toy Story 4 while Owen napped. I was actually pretty excited to see it myself, and the kids were excited that we actually had a movie theater near us that we could go to. It was a fun outing with just my two big kids, and a fun way to spend a warm afternoon.
With there being so many new things around us to try, we are trying to limit ourselves one bigger outing each week. Since we went to the children's museum last week, we decided to go to the Electric City Aquarium in Scranton on this Saturday. (We took these pictures of the kids before we left because Samantha was wearing jewelry from Miss Linda and Aedan has become very attached to his stuffed bunny, also a present from Miss Linda.)
Scranton is about forty-five minutes from our house, so it was a quick trip and we got to the aquarium shortly after it opened. We looked around at reptiles like lizards and frogs for awhile before going into the program room for a reptile demonstration. Owen was being really cute and wanting to sit right next to Samantha and Aedan. He even put his little arm around Samantha's back, and she just turned around with this expression on her face like she thought he was the cutest thing ever. Owen just loves his big sister and brother so much.
After that we got to see this larger alligator being fed, and then we explored the aquarium more, seeing fish, sharks, and other underwater animals. It wasn't huge, but it was just what we needed for a morning activity. We took a little break for lunch and then went back in to see more animals. The kids were very engaged and interested in the animals, and I feel like they learned new things as well.
They enjoyed seeing the sharks swim back and forth and even saw them get fed before it was time for us to head back home.
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(Blog about June 30-July 6, 2019)
