Fun on Harvey's Lake & Exploring Fun Kids' Activities

Samantha: 98 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 63 Months, Week 4
Owen: 22 Months, Week 1

Sunday, July 21st we decided to try out a new church called Cross Creek Community Church. We figured we would try out a different place, and it's always an interesting experience going to new churches and trying to figure out how to drop the kids off for their children's program. This church had no check-in system, which was a little strange to us. They didn't even make out name tags for the kids, so I wondered how they would even know who the kids are or that they are new. The service was a little different this week because they were preparing for VBS coming up that week, so the music was different than usual. The pastor was on the older side, and I kept having to tell myself to keep an open mind. The church is rather large, compared to the others we've visited, and there were quite a few families there, but his preaching style was not quite what Ben and I are looking for. There were also a few things that he said that rubbed us the wrong way. After church they had some food spread out in the fellowship area, and we aren't sure if they do this every week, but we decided to stay for a little while and let the kids eat and give us a chance to get more of a sense of the church. However, as we sat there at the table, even though there were people right across from us, no one talked to us at all. The pastor breezed by and shook our hands, saying "I don't think I've seen you here before, welcome!" But didn't ask our names or anything. Nevertheless, we didn't leave this church with very good feelings that this would be the place we would end up, so Ben and I fairly well crossed it off our list.

The rest of our Sunday was pretty relaxing and fun. We just spent time at home as a family. Samantha took the opportunity of nap time to sit outside under the tree in our front yard and read a book. I just love how voracious a reader she is. It would be amazing to know the number of books she has actually read this summer. I see so much of myself in her because I was like this as a girl, always had a book in my hand, and loved to go read outdoors where it would be quiet and I wouldn't be interrupted. I always tell her that she does what I would do if I had the free time to do whatever I wanted.

That evening we had plans with our neighbors from across the street to meet them at their boat house on Harvey's Lake, go out in their boat, and go swimming for awhile. Some storms moved through the area, but it cleared up in enough time to go, and the kids were so excited. Our neighbors have two young kids, and the boat house belongs to the husband's parents. We hung out on the dock for awhile before they got the boat ready and then they took us on a tour around Harvey's Lake. Here are the faces of the kids as we rode on the boat. I just love Aedan's expressions in these pictures, which is why I included so many of them. (Samantha was being a little pouty in the background because she had to wear her floatie as a life jacket, and she didn't like it because it was too tight on her.)

The highlight of the night was being able to go swimming in the lake off the boat near their dock. Since they couldn't touch the bottom, they had to wear their floaties, which again did not make Samantha happy. She tried to wear a life jacket, but she didn't like how it kept slipping up around her neck. However, the waves were just too strong when boats came by, and it made me uncomfortable having Samantha swim without a life jacket. Aedan had a blast jumping in the water from the side of the boat and the dock, showing off his silliness with the jumps he was doing. Owen got in for a little while, but he mostly just wanted me to hold him because the water was a little chilly for him. Seeing the kids have so much fun in the water, made me excited about getting a membership to one of the local beaches next summer so we can spend time on the lake that is right near our house. They have three different beach areas, and there's one that has sand and water access with a water slide and diving board as well, so I am going to look into how much it would cost for us to get a family membership there. I could see us using that a lot next summer, and it would be great to take advantage of the fact that we live a block away from Harvey's Lake. It was super nice of our neighbors to invite us out on their boat, and the kids are already asking when we can do it again.

Monday, July 22nd was our 13th wedding anniversary. We don't really know anyone here yet that we can ask to babysit, so we decided to just spend the day as a family. We went to an indoor play place in Scranton called Bee's Backyard, and let the kids play play together while Ben and I were able to just stand and talk to each other. The kids had a fun time playing together, and it was just the right amount of activity for them that morning. This will definitely be a good place to come in the winter when it's cold and we need to take the kids somewhere to let them get some energy out. Here are a couple videos of the kids playing that morning.

We ended up packing a lunch and eating it at the play place so that we weren't rushed to come back and eat lunch quickly before nap time. That afternoon, Ben took Samantha to the Reader's Theater program at the library. It was just Samantha and a few other boys, but she had a blast. They get different stories to read out loud the assigned parts, and Samantha enjoyed reading with a lot of expression. It was fun for her to be able to do this as a special activity just for her, and I hope that we can take her for the other reader's theater events for the rest of the summer.

After being at Cross Creek on Sunday and hearing about the VBS, we decided to sign Samantha and Aedan up for it, even though we knew it would keep them out late at night all week. I thought that it would be fun for them, and they would be able to meet other kids, too. They were really excited about being able to go that night after dinner. In fact, we found a babysitter through our neighbors across the street so that Ben and I could at least go out to eat for our anniversary. She came over, we left to take the big kids to VBS, and then Ben and I went on our way to dinner. We decided to try out a Greek restaurant that looked good, but wasn't too pricey or too far away. The food was pretty good, but Zorba's in Sault Ste. Marie was definitely still better as far as Greek food goes. It was nice to be able to get out with Ben for awhile that evening. With all the craziness of getting ready to move and then moving, we have not had a date in a long time. I felt a little nervous leaving Owen with someone we didn't really know, but we figured it was only two hours, so it would be fine. After eating a relaxed dinner and talking about our new area as well as what we thought of the churches we have visited, it was time to go pick Samantha and Aedan up again. Our babysitter, Megan, said that Owen did really well and was easy to put to bed, which was good. When we got back home, we tucked Samantha and Aedan into bed and then watched some of our wedding video. This used to be a tradition that we would do every year, but we have gotten out of the habit the last several years. It was kind of fun just sitting on the couch together, reminiscing about how different life was and how different we were when we first got married.

Owen is a pretty lovey kid, and he loves to give Samantha and Aedan hugs. Tuesday morning at breakfast he wanted both of them to come up to so he could wrap his arms around them and give them a great big squeeze. The three of them were so cute together that I just had to get a few pictures.

Here is one of the things on our to-do list: finally dispose of all our moving boxes. I was getting tired of having them piled up by our garage getting wet and gross from being outside, so I was glad when we were able to get this pink tag from the city so that the garbage truck would pick them up on their way by.

It was going to be a pretty hot, sunny day on that Wednesday, so I decided to take the kids into Wilkes-Barre to a playground that has a splash pad. We were home all day on Tuesday because we had car appointments for inspections and a meeting with the foster care worker that will be assigned to us as we go through the licensing process, so we were ready to get out of the house and do something fun for awhile. We started off playing on the playground, but the sun really was beating down on us pretty hard, so it wasn't long before the kids changed into their bathing suits so they could run around and get wet. Aedan gave me a hard time about not wanting to go in the splash pad, but I made him get his bathing suit on anyway, and it wasn't long before he was running around and having a great time. Here are some videos of the kids running around playing together. It's so great that we have more things like this to go do together in the summertime. It was a blast!

As we were sitting in the grass having our snack, Samantha commented that we hadn't been to Chipotle yet since moving to the area. So, I texted Ben to see if he would want to take a break from work to go out to lunch with us. We picked him up from campus, since the splash pad wasn't from away from where he was, and we had a great lunch at Chipotle. In fact, Samantha and Aedan even branched out and ordered the build-your-own tacos instead of the quesadilla kids' meals. It was good food, and it was fun to see Daddy for a little while in the middle of the day.

Throughout the past couple of days, I noticed a bumpy popping up on Izzy's left eye. I wasn't sure what it was at first, thinking maybe it was a bug bite or something since she is always running through the woods behind our house or the flowering bush that has been covered in bees lately. I took a picture of her eye to send to my friend from Sault Ste. Marie who is a veterinarian, and she said it looked like a sty and recommended I put lavender oil on it to see if that would help. It's definitely something I will be keeping my eye on.

The evenings this week have been a little different since Samantha and Aedan have been off at VBS. Ben and I have had some good time with just little Owen like going on a walk on the trail and even taking him to ice cream one night without the big kids. He has really enjoyed all the one-on-one attention, and it's fun being able to devote time and attention to just him. Here are some cute pictures I took of Owen as we sat at the patio table outside that evening. I just love his sweet little face, his cheesy grin, and his dimples. :)

Our plans for Thursday were to go over to someone's house that we met at Parker Hill Church. She invited us over for lunch and time to swim in their pool. The kids were really looking forward to being able to play with other kids and swim in a pool. The hardest part is that we got there around 11:00, and with the kids being up late for VBS, they were already pretty tired at that point. They enjoyed playing in the basement with the two girls while I talked with the mom in the kitchen as she prepared the last of lunch. She grilled out hamburgers and hot dogs, and had fresh fruit and veggies. All the food was very good, and Samantha and Aedan ate pretty well, even though Owen was too distracted to make himself sit down to eat. Once everyone was done eating out on the patio, we went back inside to get everyone's bathing suits on, which sometimes is quite the process. Samantha was eager to get right in the water, and Aedan thought it was a little cold at first but warmed up quickly. Owen played outside on the deck for quite awhile before he finally wanted to get in the water as well, so I got his ear plugs in and went in the water with the kids. It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad they invited us over, but it's always hard to really talk when you have play dates because you are too busy attending to your kids and you are constantly interrupted. Once it got to mid-afternoon, all the kids were acting tired and cranky. Samantha was being mean to Aedan and kept splashing him when he didn't want to get wet, and then she wouldn't leave a frog that lives in their pool alone. Aedan freaked out and cried several times over nothing, like he does when he's tired, and Owen did okay, but then was just getting tired toward the end because it was his nap time. It was nice being invited over by another family, and I hope that I will be able to find friends here that I can spend time with, especially once Samantha and Aedan go back to school and I am just at home with Owen. However, it's just so hard to make friends when you have kids because you want friends for you, but you also want your husbands to get along, and for them to have kids of similar ages, so it's all difficult. It was nice to have our first invitation to someone else's house though.

As we have started to get more settled in, Ben and I are thinking more and more about how to incorporate exercise into our day. We know it's very important for our bodies and minds, but it's just making the plan and sticking to it, at least for me. I am not a morning person; I have always preferred to stay up later at night and sleep in later in the morning, but that is not really an option when you have kids that are up before 7:00, ready for the day. However, it is much easier for Ben to wake up early, and he is more disciplined than me in that regard (something I would like to work on improving). He took this beautiful picture of the sun rising over Harvey's Lake on Friday morning as he rode his bike the 8 some odd miles that make up the loop around the lake.

It was Papa's birthday on Friday, so at dinner that night Ben recorded a video of the kids singing "Happy Birthday" to send along to him. Owen was very interested in talking to Papa, but didn't have anything to say other than, "yeah," which was pretty cute anyways.

We didn't do anything much on Friday because we were getting ready for our week trip out of town, first stopping in Chicago to visit my family, and then going to the cabin up in Glen Arbor, Michigan for a few nights with Ben's college friends. We did laundry, packed clothes, and got the car as ready as we could so that we could leave first thing in the morning on Saturday.

Our new house has a cat door from the previous owners, and Izzy quickly discovered that she can stick her head out the door to see us when we are in the garage. I thought it was too funny, so I stopped and took a picture of her peeking out at us.

We did well getting as much packed up on Friday as we could, and got out of the house at a decent time for dropping off Izzy at the boarding place. However, as we drove the tire pressure light came on, so we stopped at a gas station to fill up and check that out. Ben filled the tires, and the air pressure seemed good, but the light was still on. With the issues we have had with a nail being stuck in the tire and getting a flat over the last year, we didn't really want to risk starting a long trip with something wrong with a tire, so we decided to stop at a service center and see if someone could look at our tires and make sure everything was okay. It was not really how we wanted to start our day, and it definitely delayed us, but we were glad to have the reassurance that our tires were in good shape. What they think happened is that one tire needed more air, but then Ben accidentally overfilled it, which caused the light to stay on. Once they reset the service late, we were finally on the road, planning to drive about 7 hours and stay overnight in Toledo, Ohio.

The kids did pretty well in the car, considering our late start. Owen was a little whiny in his car seat, but that isn't too much out of the ordinary. We left the little seat in the middle of the car, so I sat next to him for awhile to play with him and interact with to make him happy. We stopped for lunch and then had nap time for the boys since they were tired. Samantha probably should have napped too, since she was up late at VBS all week, too, but we don't fight that battle too much anymore. We figure her reading quietly is just as good and gives her the alone time that she needs. Here are all the kids during nap time that day. (I love how Aedan's hair gets all pushed up on the side where he lays his head.)

We arrived in Toledo and got situated in our Staybridge Suites. We had one room with a bedroom, bathroom, and then separate living room area. We set up Owen's pack and play in the bedroom and planned to have Samantha and Aedan share a bed. That way we could put the kids to bed and have some time to hang out in the living room area before Ben and I went to bed ourselves. We ate a late dinner at a local pizza restaurant at the mall across the street, and let the kids play outside in the outdoor sand pit for awhile before heading back to get the kids in bed. We thought about going swimming, but it was just too late, the kids were too tired, and we needed everyone to get settled in for the night. Owen was a bit of a trouble maker at bed time, making noise in his pack and play, playing with the blinds, and opening and closing the drawers. It took us several times of going in and talking to him and/or holding him before he finally gave in and fell asleep. Luckily, he slept well the rest of the night, so it went fairly well considering we were all sleeping in the same hotel room together. We had a 4 hour drive the next day, and then we would be in Aurora, where my sister lives.

(Blog about July 21-27, 2019)

Becoming Foster Parents, Cuddles with My Kids, My Birthday, and Finishing the Book Nook

Samantha: 98 Months, Week 1
Aedan: 63 Months, Week 3
Owen: 21 Months, Week 5

Sunday, July 14th was our third Sunday in our new area, and we actually decided to go back to Parker Hill Church again because they were having a Next meeting, king of like a "get to know the church" type event. They provided lunch and childcare, and this church is in the top of our list, so we decided it would be worth it to check out and find out more information about the church. The event was very well organized, we got a lot of good information about the church, and we were able to connect with other people in the church and ask questions. In fact, I exchanged numbers with another lady who has two little girls, and she texted me that afternoon inviting us over to their house to swim and play, so that was very kind of her. We have two more churches we will try, and then make a decision from there.

Here is my sweet Samantha reading a book to Owen that afternoon once he got up from his nap.

Monday morning Ben and I had our first meeting with Children and Youth Services to begin the process of becoming foster parents in Pennsylvania. We have quite a few things to do, but since we already went through the process in Michigan, some of our training and paperwork with carry over. We have an application to fill out, autobiographies to complete, as well as background checks, health appraisals, and a few trainings that we need to complete. Ben and I enjoyed talking with the foster worker for awhile, and she said we would be most likely transferred to someone else, and they would like to get everything done within 90 days so we can be matched with a child in need. We are excited to get licensed in Pennsylvania. I feel like God's purpose for me over these next few years while I am home with Owen, with Samantha and Aedan in school, and before I go back to work full time, is to put my energy into helping kids and families in need through foster care. We bought our home on purpose so that we would have enough room to open our doors to other kids. In fact, we said we would be willing to have a sibling group of two, so that way we don't have to split kids up. Samantha and Aedan are excited about getting bunk beds and sharing a room, so we will look into bunk beds sometime soon and probably have them share Samantha's current room because it is bigger and has a larger closet space.

As we are thinking about getting back into foster care, my heart feels very sure about this call on our hearts as a way our family can help out other families and children in need. Part of me feels nervous because I feel disappointed with how I handled things and myself during our last placement, but I know most of that was because there was just way too much going on in my life for me to handle at one time (just started working full time, found out I was pregnant, and then accepted our first placement). Ben and I have received more training on how to handle trauma, and we learned a lot from our mistakes of last time that will help us become better this time. But most of me feels an overwhelming burden on my heart to be a family that welcomes children, caring for the least of these, as Jesus commands in the Bible. Also, this video, NF- How Could You Leave Us, that was played during a foster parent training in Sault Ste. Marie has stuck in my mind ever since. They played it early on in our training, and tears were just streaming down my cheeks, and my heart was breaking for every kid that feels this kind of pain from family where they should feel the most safe, attached, and loved. I am already praying for the child(ren) that will come into our home, as well as for ourselves as we look to care for children that are broken and hurting in so many ways.

In an effort to entertain Owen, he got a hold of my phone during the meeting and took many, many pictures just like these. He would hold the phone up to himself and say, "Cheese!"

I love it when I get to put Owen down for his nap because he will fall asleep on your lap every day, and it has become my favorite part of most days. For such a busy toddler, he doesn't stay still for long, but I find myself lingering in the rocking chair with him in the afternoons. His sweet little soft cheeks resting against my arm or my shoulder. He has always enjoyed being held and cuddled, and I will take it while I still can. (That afternoon he also insisted on sleeping with this stuffed bunny from Miss Linda.)

Finally, once I decided to lay him down, he still had his arm draped around his bunny, and I thought it was just too cute not to get a picture of. This boy was prayed for for so long, and he has been such a blessing to our family. I can't imagine our family without his sweet, energetic personality.

When Owen got up from his nap that day, he saw some pictures that I had up on my computer. One was of our time in Upland, and Ema's left arm was in the picture. He pointed to her arm and said, "Me-ma," and something that sounded like watch. He kept repeating "Me-ma" over and over again, and it made me smile that he recognized her just by her arm. I got my phone out to take a video of him talking and saying "Me-ma" because I figured Ema would love hearing her youngest grandchild saying her name.

I also took this next video to show that Owen has definitely gotten taller lately and now instead of scooting down the stairs, he is able to walk down the stairs while holding on to the railing. Sometimes the changes he makes are so small from day to day, that I don't realize how much he has grown and changed. In fact, Ben and I have remarked several times lately how many words he knows and how he seems to learn new words every day. It's amazing how much language he has picked up since May when he got his ear tubes put in, and we love to try and figure out what he's trying to tell us, and I feel like he is pretty understandable most of the time.

That afternoon Ben took the kids into Wilkes-Barre to go grocery shopping (this particular grocery store has a place where you can drop off your kids, I think ages 3-9 while you go shopping) and to look for new shoes for the kids. They both desperately needed new shoes. Aedan measured at a 12.5 and Samantha was a 4.5 which was up a size and a half from where she was before. I knew she had gotten taller lately, but I had no idea that she had gone through that big of a growth spurt for her feet to grow that much. Here are the pictures Ben sent me of the shoes they picked out.

That evening as the kids were getting ready for bed, we saw a deer in our back yard, investigating our apple tree. Aedan thought it was interesting to watch the deer out our window for awhile.

I'm not sure why, but I think most of us felt a little "homesick" for our old home and community that Monday. As I was putting Aedan to bed that night, he was talking to me for awhile, saying that he doesn't really know anyone here, and that all his friends are too far away to come over to play. He even asked when Mr. Ken and Miss Linda were going to come for a visit. Then, I showed Samantha a video of the new family that's in our old house because the kids were running around our old back yard, and Samantha said watching it made her sad. She has also expressed several times how she was not happy when we told her we were going to move to Pennsylvania. We try to reassure them (and ourselves), that we didn't really meet a lot of our friends in Sault Ste. Marie until the last year or so that we lived there, so it takes time, but it can be a slow process at times when all you want is something or someone familiar. I know things will get better, but it's hard for all of us in the meantime. I think it's hard for me to see Samantha and Aedan feeling sad, missing friends, and not really having anyone here to play with except each other. I have tried reaching out to a few people, but people haven't responded or have just been busy. I know once we find a church, we can hopefully find a group of people that we can be friends with, and once school starts the kids will have other kids to be around every day, but I really hope we can find another family that has kids of similar ages that we could connect with. I think that would do our hearts so much good.

Tuesday morning we decided to make the trip down to the DMV so Ben and I could get our new driver's licenses. Mine expired the next day, on my birthday, anyways, plus we had to get our PA driver's licenses before we could register our cars and all that jazz. It wasn't exactly fun waiting with our three rascals in tow, and I actually ended up taking them outside for awhile because they were getting too restless inside waiting. They gave us a little bit of a hard time about the documentation we brought, even though Ben looked it up ahead of time to make sure it was valid, but it was frustrating that they were second guessing their own rules. 

After getting our new licenses, Ben went off to work in his office, and I stopped at Petco with the kids so they could pick out their Betta Fish for the fish tanks that we had worked on putting together from Uncle Timmy years ago. Aedan picked out a red Delta Tail Male and named him Stephen, and Samantha picked out a purple Elephant Ear Female and named her Esther. After reading the directions of how to transfer the fish to the new tank, they put their decorative plants and new fish in the water. They were so happy and proud of their new fish. I was glad we finally busted these tanks out for the kids. Oh yeah, and we also have a frog named Peter, who the kids caught in our back yard. Now, I hope we can keep them alive for awhile!

The other good news of the day was that we finally got official confirmation that our missing stuff was shipped to us. He sent me pictures of the items and of the receipt, so I felt very relieved that all that drama was finally over, even if it was a month later.

In thinking about Samantha growing up, especially with the recent growth spurt she has had, I decided it would be good to have a discussion about the changes that will happen during puberty. I don't want something to catch her off guard, and I don't want her to hear something from someone else before she hears it from me. So after looking around a little and reading some reviews, I ordered this book called "Celebrate Your Body (and Its Changes, Too)." I decided I would read parts of this book to her at night, and we could talk about things along the way. After reading to Samantha that night, I was praying for her and scratching her back like I usually do, and as I leaned in to give her a hug and say good night, she grabbed my arm, pulled me close, and said, "I don't want you to go, please stay with me." So I chose to stay and get some extra cuddles with my 8-year-old, who normally isn't a big cuddler. However, that night she cuddled up to me, as we laid there together, I reminisced about our time together when she was a little girl: taking her to story time at the library, going to parks, teaching her some preschool lessons, having to stay in her room in order to get her to fall asleep for naps, her long curly hair, taking her on day trips and over to friend's houses, just everything about how she was our first child. The memories brought tears to my eyes. Man, do I love her, and I cherish moments like these. I know these moments are fleeting, so I will soak them up as much as I can now. She has been having a hard time lately with our move, especially at bedtime, and I know she just needs this extra connection with us, especially at night. I am glad I was able to connect with her in this way, and it meant so much to my Mommy heart.

Wednesday, July 17th was my 35th birthday, and the kids told me the night before that I had to stay in bed in the morning so they could give me breakfast in bed. I was awake when I heard everyone up, but tried to follow directions and stay in bed. They came in with my breakfast on a tray, singing "Happy Birthday" to me. I ended up having to come out and eat breakfast with everyone in the kitchen because Owen was too upset to see me and not have me come out with him, but it was really sweet, and Samantha and Aedan had my whole birthday planned out.

Ben decided to stay home from work that day so that we could spend the day together for my birthday, and what's the best way to spend my 35th birthday? With my family at the Please Touch Children's Museum in Philadelphia. It was our first time visiting, but we had heard good things about it. We actually ended up getting a membership because it was only $60 more, and we figured we would come back at least once more in the next year.

We started our visit in this water play area, and all the kids were having fun playing with the water in their own unique ways. It was fun to observe them as they played.

From there, we went across to the other side where there were many different modes of transportation the kids could pretend to ride in, from cars to buses to trains. They had a lot of fun flitting from one place to another. Samantha and Aedan mostly stayed together, while Owen largely wanted to sit in the cars and pretend to drive.

After this area, we decided it was time to stop and eat lunch. We packed sandwiches and other food to have for lunch, so we sat near the carousel to eat. These pictures are taken in some cut-outs right near the carousel. I love the different expressions on all of their faces. (I was holding Owen up so his head could reach the top hole.)

From there we went to an area with big, blue, foam blocks you could use to build, then a treehouse with an area where you could experiment with pulleys and gears to make lights turn on. Owen got bored in that area quickly, and found this huge turtle sculpture that he thought it was great fun to climb on.

Going down from the treehouse, there was an Alice in Wonderland area with mazes and this area where you used paintbrushes to change the white flowers to red flowers.

Then, we went into a room with a huge train exhibit and a few train tables that Owen found very interesting, but Samantha and Aedan were ready to move on faster and had to wait until their little brother was ready. Then, we made our way to the pretend city area where there was a hospital, a grocery store, and a house they could pretend play in. They spent a LONG time here and had a blast. 

They would have stayed much longer, but it was already 3:00 and Owen was super tired and ready for a nap, so we decided to have the carousel be our last thing for the day. We all had a blast that day and were excited about coming back again another day in the future. I am a quality time person, so it was a wonderful way to spend my birthday with the people I love. 

The museum is a good two hours away from our house, so it was the perfect length of time for Aedan and Owen to take naps, and for Samantha to have some time to herself to read in peace.

When we got back home, we had a nice family dinner, followed by a scavenger hunt (complete with a map) to find my presents that the kids hid around the house. Here are pictures and videos Ben took of the scavenger hunt.

After the scavenger hunt, the kids brushed and styled my hair with braids, flowers, and a ponytail. They were very particular about how it looked and took a lot of time on it. Even Owen joined in!

Here is my finished hair style from behind. I made sure to leave it like this for the rest of the evening (until the kids were tucked in bed).

For my birthday presents, the kids picked out flowers and chocolate for me, and Ben listened to my idea from awhile ago of wanting coasters with all the places we have lived in our married life. So we have Cedar Park, Texas then Waco, Texas then Bloomington, Indiana then Oxford, Ohio then Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan then Harvey's Lake, Pennsylvania. That is a lot of places and a lot of different states in 13 years.

When Ben asked me awhile ago what kind of cake I wanted, I requested this homemade strawberry cake that I saw someone post a recipe for on Facebook awhile back. He spent a lot of time baking it and cutting up all the strawberries for the homemade icing. I was excited to try it, and the kids were excited to sing to me and eat cake. :)

I love how Owen is just in his diaper (we often take his clothes of when he eats dinner because it's just easier that way), and he's rocking himself back and forth during the song, while Aedan also scoots himself up on the counter on his knees so he can be closer to the cake. I love my family, and even though birthdays aren't that exciting as you get older, I enjoy that they get excited for me. :) I had a wonderful birthday and felt extremely loved.

On Thursday, Ben and I decided to get everything taken care of with our cars in getting them registered and transferring the titles to Pennsylvania. We just went to a local office, so luckily, we didn't have to wait for too long, we just had to pay over $400. Then, the next step is getting them inspected since that is required in PA. Moving to a new state is always so expensive, and there are always these little things that you don't think about that you have to take care of, but we were glad to get one more thing checked off our list of things to do. Other things on our list were trying to figure out how to dispose of all our moving boxes that have just been stacked next to our driveway and setting up new bank accounts since our bank in Sault Ste. Marie was just a local bank.

I had been playing phone take with the Lake-Lehman schools regarding getting the kids registered. I had to make an appointment, but was having trouble getting a hold of the lady I needed an appointment with. However, I finally got a call from her that morning while we were at the library. I didn't want to miss out on our opportunity to get them registered, so we quickly went back home so I could gather the paperwork and then we went to the school. I brought a bag of pretzels for a snack to tide the kids over, and kept Owen in the stroller so I wouldn't have to wrangle him during the meeting, but it was hard for the kids to be patient and wait for the paperwork to be taken care of.

We got home past lunchtime, but accomplished the task of registering the kids for school, one more thing that we had to get done in our process of moving. I was anxious to get them registered so we could get Samantha tested for the gifted program which would then decide which school they were going to attend, so everything with schooling is a little up in the air until we can figure these things out.

Here is Owen looking at books that afternoon when he woke up from his nap.

He was looking at Samantha's American Girl book about Kaya, and there was a horse on the front cover. I heard him say "horse" and was trying to catch it on video. He learns so many new words every day, that sometimes it's hard to keep track of all the words he knows. I feel like he has grown up so much this summer, from how tall he has grown to the interests he has developed to the words he can say and the conversations he can understand.

And here is his big sister reading him a book that evening.

We have a large, beautiful hydrangea bush in our back yard, right next to our deck, and when we first moved in all the flowers were white. Well now the bush has been covered in bees and butterflies that have been pollinating the flowers, and they are slowly turning this beautiful pink color. Sometimes we can spot six or seven butterflies on our bush at one time.

After our meeting with the foster care worker on Monday, our list of things to do got even longer so that we can be licensed in Pennsylvania, so I called our pediatrician in Sault Ste. Marie to see if she would be willing to fill out a health appraisal for each kid, since she had recently seen them. That way we will be saved the step of having to find a doctor right now just for them to fill out a form, signing off on our kids being in good health.

In our front play room, we have just a few baskets/bins of toys that we are going to rotate out so there are always different things for the kids to play with together upstairs, and on this particular day after lunch, they were playing so well together with Barbies, that I decided to sneak around the corner and take a video of them playing together.  I love these moments where they are all engaged in play together.

That night there was a STEAM event at an art studio on campus in Wilkes-Barre that Ben heard about through his faculty email. We decided to go downtown and eat dinner at a local Mexican restaurant before going to the event. They had different tables set up for the kids to go around and make different art projects that all were connected to science in some way as well. There were kaleidoscopes, light shadows, and these cool light boxes that they could use to observe the art exhibits that all incorporated elements of light. Samantha and Aedan really had a blast. This kind of thing is right up their alley. Owen mostly just wandered around, and Ben and I took turns hanging out with him. Sometimes it's hard having school aged kids that want to do more involved activities, and then a toddler with a short attention span, but we had a great night out together.

Izzy spied a deer out in our back yard that evening and was looking at it very intently until it bounded away towards the back of our yard. I think deer like this are the reason a lot of our apples and blueberries close to ground have disappeared.

It was going to be super hot over the weekend. In fact, on Friday night it was 86 degrees upstairs, so it was way too hot for the kids to sleep up there. We have a window unit in the front room, so it's fine on the main level and for us to sleep in our bedroom, but the upstairs is miserable. So, we decided to have the kids sleep in the basement. We set up the futon as a bed for Samantha and Aedan, and popped up Owen's pack and play back in the corner so he couldn't see them. However, since they were all sleeping in a new place, it took awhile for them all to settle down for sleep. Ben had to go down and tell Owen to stop babbling to himself so he wasn't preventing Samantha and Aedan from falling asleep, but I was glad we had an alternate place for everyone to sleep.

On Saturday, since it was going to be a hot day, we decided to go into Wilkes-Barre to go to Barnes and Noble, let the kids play, and have them look at books for awhile. We also stopped by Joann Fabrics so we could get the material to make our own window seat cover. I had looked online and there weren't too many choices of things to order, especially since it is not an average shape for a window seat. I watched a few DIY videos so I could learn how to make one myself, we measured our space, and then we bought the fabric, batting, foam, and a staple gun. Then, I took the fabric into another store called Tuesday Morning to find throw pillows to match.

Our outing ended up taking longer than we expected that day, so we decided to stay in Wilkes-Barre for lunch and ate at Olive Garden. The kids thought it was one of the greatest places ever, and the lunch portions were the perfect size for us. It's so nice living near a city that actually has different restaurant choices now. I don't even know the last time we were able to eat at an Olive Garden.

After getting Owen and Aedan down for naps that afternoon, Ben and I worked together on our window seat, and it didn't take too long at all. We cut the plywood to the right size, which was the part that took the longest since we don't have a table saw, just a hand saw. Then, we measured and cut the fabric, batting, and foam, laid everything out on the ping pong table, and stapled the fabric around the board. The moment of truth was putting it in place, and it was a perfect fit. Ben and I were pretty proud of our crafty selves. We thought it looked really good. The pattern brings good color to the space, we saved money by doing it ourselves, and we were able to make it look exactly how we wanted. Samantha now has a lovely place to sit and read, and we are affectionately calling it, "The Book Nook."

That evening since the weather was so hot, we decided to try out the Kingston Pool. I heard good things about it, and we were hoping it would be a welcome reprieve from the heat. However, by the time we ate dinner, got ready, and drove down there, we didn't get there until around 6:30. Apparently they close the water slides down an hour before the pool closes, so Samantha didn't have a chance to go on any of the water slides. The water was a decent temperature, but the boys probably would have preferred it to be a little warmer. They still enjoyed swimming around the pool even though it was a bit crowded. There was a little splash pad type area with fountains and sprayers that the boys liked a lot, and we ended the evening by doing some races across part of the pool. Aedan told us what we had to do, and we had to follow his lead and see who would cross the imaginary line first. It was a fun evening at the pool, and it was fun to try out new things around our community.

(Blog about July 14-20, 2019)