Halloween Week Festivities

Samantha: 101 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 66 Months, Week 5
Owen: 25 Months, Week 2

Sunday, October 27th was a big, fun day because we had church in the morning and Trunk or Treat at our church that evening. The kids were really looking forward to dressing up in their costumes and getting some candy. Also, our community group had two tables to set up and pass out candy. We started out getting everything decorated at our tables and then passed out candy to the hundreds of people waiting outside. When there was a lull in the people, I took Aedan and Owen around trick or treating. Samantha was having too much fun passing out candy and wanted to stay up longer before going around herself. There were way more tables than I expected, and the kids got quite the haul of candy in their plastic pumpkins. It was crazy how many people from the community came through the church for Trunk or Treat, and it was great to be a part of this event.

Since we were there right through our dinnertime, and the kids already had several pieces of candy, we decided to go somewhere healthy for dinner at Core Life which has so many different choices of salads, and they had bowls with rice, beans, corn, and chicken that we got for the boys to share, and Samantha ordered a salad (although she wasn't a fan of the dressing). We were finishing up eating when it was 7:00, the time the kids are usually getting ready for bed, so it was a later night than we wanted with the half hour drive home, but it was definitely a fun community night.

Even though Sunday was a late night, the kids woke up in good moods on Monday morning. Aedan and Owen played well together before school, and I had Samantha work on some AWANA stuff to get ready for Wednesday. We are trying to help the kids work on stuff a little at time because there's no way we can cram it all in to one day. Plus, it kind of defeats the purpose of the program and teaching the kids the benefit of Scripture memorization.

Owen and I were outside that morning to get the trash cans taken out for trash collection, and we stayed outside for a little while to play. We checked out the pumpkins on our front porch, and I took a picture of him sitting on the porch with all the pumpkins we've gotten, as well as the mums down at the bottom of the stairs.

I also took some more pictures of the area around our house, you can tell that a lot of the leaves are now turning brown or have fallen off the trees, but you can see our bright red burning bushes in the second picture, and our tree with the beautiful yellow and orange leaves made even brighter with the sun shining on them in the third picture. I love the ever changing colors of fall. It's like the world around you looks different almost every day.

For lunch that day Owen and I sat at the counter together and we FaceTimed with Daddy. I didn't realize it, but he took some pictures and videos during our conversation. I thought they were pretty funny, so I decided to include them.

Owen is starting to get more and more wiggly at nap time and sometimes it takes him quite a long time to settle down, so I just never know when will be the last time that he falls asleep cuddling in my arms. He's also getting too big to put his head on my shoulder or to lay across my lap in the rocking chair, so he has had to come up with new positions to lay. As you can see in this picture, he is laying with his head resting on the arm of the chair, and his body is flat and diagonal across my lap so that his feet can hang off the side.

Here is Aedan's test on the Letter P on which he got 100%.

Here is a globe Samantha made when discussing the continents in Social Studies, even with an astronaut attached to a spaceship in outer space!

Here's more work from Aedan with letter work for C, pumpkin related pages, and his Chapter 2 Math Test on which he also got 100%. Way to go, Aedan!

On Tuesday, instead of going to the library for story hour again, I decided to take Owen to a Mommy and Me play time at a gym down in Kingston. I saw it advertised on Facebook, and it was only $4 for Owen to go. From the pictures I saw, it looked much more like something that Owen would enjoy. We got there a few minutes late, but we joined in with singing songs, making music with wooden sticks, and the parachute activities. Owen particularly liked sitting on the parachute with the other kids while the parents turned the parachute around and around in circles. He thought it was interesting during the next part where we lifted the parachute up into the sky, but he was too shy to run underneath it. Maybe next time!

After the group activities, the kids just had free play time in the gym. They had push toys, balls, a little slide, and this baby pool full of plastic balls. He loved playing in the ball pit and also pushing around a gigantic soccer ball that was so big he couldn't see over it. I had to keep watching out for him because he was almost going to run people over, and sometimes I described him as a bit of a bulldozer. Nevertheless, he had a really fun time there, and it was definitely a better decision than going to the library. We will definitely come back again next week. I was even able to talk with another couple moms that also go to Restored, so it's always nice to make those connections with people.

 

Samantha came home really upset on Tuesday afternoon because she got half of the questions wrong on her math quiz, after getting the 79 on her math test last week. She was very nervous going into the quiz that day, even though we had reviewed with her. In looking at her quiz, the majority of her errors were more careless mistakes like missing zeroes when she multiplied, not copying numbers right when working out the problem, or not following the directions. She was definitely finding this chapter on long and multi-step multiplication much more challenging. Samantha got home and just went straight up to lay in her bed and didn't want to talk to anyone. Ben gave her some space, and then just sat in the room with her for a little while, letting her know that he was available once she was ready to talk. Once she was finally ready to talk, Ben asked her what bothered her the most: the grade, the thought that we were mad, or the thought that she wasn't good enough, and she said it was the third thing. I have never seen the poor girl so upset before, and once she was allowed to get all those emotions out, which I know is healthy for her, he sat down with her and went over the quiz with her, showing her that she didn't get them wrong because she didn't understand it, but just because of simple mistakes. I also went upstairs at this point, too, and I made sure to take her little face in my hands and reassure her that she is more than a test or a quiz score, and that our love for her will never change because of a grade that she gets, whether good or bad. I explained to her how I felt as a child and how much pressure I put on myself to get As on everything, and how I would feel so bad about myself if I didn't. I told her that I never want her to feel pressure from me that she has to get certain grades or that I will be disappointed in her, because that will never be true. I wiped her tears away, gave her a kiss and a hug, and we moved on with our evening.

I ended up messaging her math teacher to see if we could set up a time to meet with her just to talk about Samantha's progress in math, how she compares to the other 4th graders, and just making sure she is following along in class okay and understanding the concepts. Her teacher responded right away and was very willing to meet and discuss things with us. She also explained that fourth grade is faster paced than third, and there's a lot of material to learn. However, she said that in class it doesn't appear that she's having difficulty, and that it doesn't appear that she doesn't understand the procedures, but rather is making errors from silly mistakes. We planned a conference for after school on Friday, as it was coming up on conference time anyways, and it would be a good idea to make sure we touch base with her math teacher as well as her homeroom teacher.

That night after getting the kids bathed ant putting them to bed, I sent a message to ladies from our old small group in Michigan because I was having one of those days where I really missed their friendship and closeness. Things have been difficult with the kids lately, and it's felt hard not having fellow moms who know me and I see on a regular basis to just talk things through with or commiserate with on bad days. We have made connections at church and are in a new small group, and I have been going to MOPS, but it's hard to be open with struggles and feelings when you don't really know anyone yet. The kids have been very tired and emotional lately. Samantha is struggling a little with keeping up in her advanced math class and being really hard on herself because she isn't doing as well as she would like. (They didn't really give grades at Bahweting, and now she gets grades here, so that is a change that she is getting used to. We never really knew how she was doing on anything at Bahweting.) Aedan is overtired from getting used to kindergarten still and is missing the time to play since he's at school all day. They are also sharing a room because we have everything done for our foster license and could get a call any day now. They have been sharing a room for a couple months now, but sometimes I feel like they aren't handling it well and aren't sleeping as well because of it. It's always hard to know how much to get involved in and what to do with kids so that we are still getting involved and getting to know people, without over-committing ourselves and making too much for our kids to handle. Then, for me personally, moving and making new friends is hard because I struggle to be myself around people sometimes. Plus, I go back and forth between being excited to follow God in opening our home to fostering again and being absolutely terrified about it and wondering if I will be able to handle more kids and a disruption to our schedule like that, when sometimes things seem so crazy as they are right now.

Throughout the day on Tuesday, Aedan's stomach started bothering him, and he was having diarrhea. It got worse during the evening, and there were a few times he didn't quite make it to the toilet fast enough. He had very little appetite the few days prior to this, so we were wondering if he was possibly coming down with something. We put the monitor back into their room that night in case he needed us during the night, and we left a change of clothes in the bathroom for him in case he needed them overnight. He seemed to do okay overnight, but it still was continuing some the next morning. I decided to keep him home from school on Wednesday morning just so I could keep an eye on him and see how he was doing. I didn't want to send him to school with diarrhea. However, I had to go to Walmart to get our groceries, which luckily I submitted through a pick-up order so I didn't have to go into the store, but just pull up and have it loaded in the back of the van before returning back home.

As the morning progressed, Aedan seemed to be doing better, and he really wanted to go to school that day because they were having their school Halloween parade, as well as their class Halloween party. We had lunch at home before I dropped him off at school for the afternoon. Since we had to go back shortly for the Halloween parade at 2:00, I had to just keep Owen up. We cleaned up lunch and played for a little while before heading back to school again. 

I parked and walked to find a spot to watch the parade, and it was so fun to see how happy Samantha and Aedan were to see Owen and me. Even though it made my afternoon with Owen a little more hectic, there's no way I would have missed them in the parade. Here are some pictures and videos of them in the parade. Samantha was SO excited to see Owen and kept waving at him and saying hello to him. Aedan was a little more shy and concerned with his friends around him keeping up and picking up the cones that got knocked over. Owen was tired, so he was perfectly content just sitting on my lap and watching all the kids walk by in costume. So fun!

As soon as the parade was over, I carried Owen back to the car and hoped that maybe he would just conk out on the way home and then I could just carry him upstairs and lay him down, but he just cried about having to leave Samantha and Aedan at school and having to be strapped into his car seat again. I took him right upstairs to put him down for a nap, but he had trouble taking a nap that day since we got home so late after the costume parade. He kept waking up crying, and I got him back to sleep twice and he still woke up again. It was not exactly a relaxing or productive afternoon for me, but that's okay. It was still worth it to have gone to the parade.

Wednesday night was another fun night as the kids had Trunk or Treat at AWANA as well. They had to dress up like characters from the Bible, so we scrounged around clothes for Samantha to dress up like Mary, Aedan to dress up like Joseph, and Owen wore his monkey costume from last year (you know, monkeys were on the ark!) They had normal AWANA for the beginning part of the night, and then we came to sign them out at 7:15 so they could do Trunk or Treat. However, in order to get candy they had to say their favorite memory verse. Samantha said Romans 8:38-39 and Aedan said John 3:16. On their last trunk I recorded it because I was so impressed with how well they were learning and saying their verses. When AWANA first started back a few weeks ago, Aedan was pretty resistant in learning verses, but he has gotten so much better at it, and he's doing so well. Aedan was kind of embarrassed that he had to say the verse to each car, but even though sometimes he had to turn away and look a different direction in order to get enough courage to say his verse out loud to a stranger, he did it, and I was so proud of him. Samantha, of course, rocked her verses, and she picked such long ones that everyone was super impressed with her.

Here is more work from Aedan using the letter C.

A lot of activities that were scheduled for Halloween were rescheduled for either October 30th or November 1st because the weather forecast for Halloween was cold, dreary, and rainy. It snowed in Chicago, which I was glad we didn't have, but we were going to have tons of heavy rain and wind throughout the afternoon and evening. A lot of trees had already lost their leaves, but I imagined that after this storm many more trees would be bare.

Thursday morning I had Bible Study down in Wilkes-Barre, brought coffee to Ben afterwards, and then stopped at a Redbox to rent a couple Halloween movies. "The Nightmare Before Christmas" for the kids to watch during nap time, since they had an early release day and had never seen the movie before, and then "Hocus Pocus" because it had been such a long time since I'd seen that movie and thought it would be fun to watch on Halloween night. Because of that, we got home a little later than I would have liked. We ate a quick lunch and then we went to pick Samantha and Aedan up from the van. I had bought stuff to make a pumpkin pie, and I wanted the kids to help me make it, if they wanted. Samantha decided not to help, but Aedan and Owen took turns adding the ingredients and turning the mixer on and off. I got the pumpkin pie in the oven and then took Owen upstairs for his nap, but at that point it was already close to 2:00 again. After only about forty-five minutes he was awake and crying again. I didn't know why he was having so much trouble napping. I thought maybe because I've been putting him to bed too late, I don't know. I went up to his room to get him back to sleep, and he fell asleep on my shoulder again, but he woke up as soon as I tried to lay him down, so his nap didn't last very long that day, unfortunately. However, Samantha and Aedan had fun watching "The Nightmare Before Christmas" while I dealt with Owen.

Here are two great quiz grades that Samantha came home with on Thursday. She loves when she gets 100% and even more when she gets extra credit.

I have a cute video of Aedan and Owen playing in the bath tub together that night, but there's a little too much revealed, so I will just a make a note of it to remind myself, but not include it in the blog. The two of them have been playing with each other a lot more lately, and it's cute to see their relationship grow and develop.

Friday and Saturday I decided my job would be to to clean the house. It had been awhile since I did a full-fledged clean, and I have to be in the right mood to tackle the job because it takes me the better part of two days to get it all done from top to bottom. Owen was pretty happy just following me around as I cleaned on Friday, even bringing his own vacuum along as I vacuumed, and I know he watched a couple episodes of Sesame Street that morning as well to help amuse him for a little while.

Friday after school was our conference with Mrs. Richards about Math. I was going to meet Ben at school so I could go too, but it as about time for me to leave to get to school and Owen was still napping. I figured with how little he had napped that week, I should probably let him sleep. Ben ended up just going on his own and then reporting back to me what he found out. She said that she thinks Samantha is very capable of doing 4th grade math, so we don't have to worry about that. But they did discover that on the test and quiz that she did poorly on, she needed extra time to complete them, so she sent them along with Samantha. Well, Samantha ended up taking them outside for recess and finishing them there, which obviously is not the most ideal place to do a test or quiz. That explains a lot of her careless mistakes and the fact that she didn't go  back and check over her work like she knows she is supposed to. Mrs. Richards said she will now make sure she stays in her classroom to finish anything that she needs extra time on, and she went over some tools we can use to help Samantha better prepare when a quiz or test is coming up.  It was a good conference, and he was impressed with how professional she was. She had done her research and even had the Michigan testing standards printed out to compare what she was supposed to have learned last year in 3rd grade. I was glad that Ben was able to meet with her just to make sure we were all on the same page and that we can help Samantha be as successful as possible.

Since the kids didn't get to go out trick-or-treating on Halloween, we decided to take them downtown Wilkes-Barre to do trick-or-treating at the local businesses. Aedan was the most disappointed about not going out on Thursday, even though we explained to him that it was pouring down rain, so we hoped this would make him happy. We went up and down the main road to the square in Wilkes-Barre, and they got a decent amount of candy. However, the best part of the evening was seeing someone wearing a blow-up costume where it looked like a dog was biting someone's behind. Owen thought it was hilarious and talked about it for days after that. In fact, as I was putting him to bed later that night he was reliving his day for me, mentioning what he did and saw, in particular the costume. He would say, "Doggy...bite," touch his bottom, and then just start laughing, throwing his head backwards. Anyways, it was pretty chilly outside as a cold front came through with the rain the previous day, and they were wearing their winter coats, so after getting candy at all the locations, we walked back to the car and drove to Five Guys for some burgers and fries for dinner. We hadn't eaten at one since when we lived in Michigan, and it was sounding good to us. The kids were super hungry and gobbled down their food, then it was time to drive back home and get everyone tucked into bed.

After a busy week of Halloween festivities, we took it easy on Saturday. Samantha had her play practice in the morning, but other than that we just stayed home, the kids had free time to play, and I got all the rest of the house cleaned that day. It was a pretty productive day, and I felt good when the whole house was cleaned and picked up by the end of the day.

(Blog about October 27-November 2, 2019)

Becoming Licensed Foster Parents, Chaperoning Aedan's Pumpkin Patch Field Trip, and Horseback Riding with my Girl

Samantha: 101 Months, Week 1
Aedan: 66 Months, Week 4
Owen: 25 Months, Week 1

Going into this week, I knew it was going to be busy. The kids and/or I had something every single night during the week, and then unusual days planned for Thursday and Friday. They were all good things, but it was going to be a little hectic.

In fact, Sunday afternoon, after putting Owen down for his nap, Ben and I decided to show Samantha and Aedan the video "ReMoved" so that we could talk more about how we are getting back into fostering, why we are doing it, and help them understand the kids that may stay in our home with us. We wanted to talk about the background that a lot of these kids come from, the feelings that they will have coming into our home, but most of all, how that should influence how we treat each other at home, how we are called to show love to these kids--no matter what, and that this is what Jesus has called us to. Ben and I feel called to serve the Lord through accepting children into our home, and we are challenged by the mandate in James 1:27, which says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." The conversation with the kids went really well. We paused the video many times to discuss what was happening and answer any questions they had. It's hard for me to watch this video without crying, and it deeply impacted Samantha as well. In fact, she was acting rather somber for the rest of the day, finally admitting to Ben later that she just couldn't get the girl's face out of her head, and she felt so sad for all the horrible things she had to go through. I know that being a foster family with be challenging for everyone, but I know God will use it to grow us as a family, to strengthen our reliance on him, and to instill a sense of compassion for others in our children that hopefully will influence how they choose to live their life to honor and serve the Lord by putting faith into action. (Here is the link for the ReMoved video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOeQUwdAjE0&t=105s&fbclid=IwAR01OqjC_Nzt-NiVVWShHvd5xI6zP326_Y72op6AyxNDzfeoVzrsWShqJiw)

Sunday nights are usually my nights to get things organized and ready for the week, as well as get our menu and list ready for grocery shopping on Monday mornings. Here are some papers the kids brought home from school. Here is Samantha's chapter 2 test for math. Samantha was worried that we would be upset with her because of the grade she got. I had her go through all the questions she got wrong and redo them, and she understood them all. A lot of it was just small errors or not completely answering the question, which then caused her to get the wrong answer. I don't want Samantha to think that her grades aren't good enough for us, because I felt that way a lot growing up and put a lot of pressure on myself to get perfect grades, feeling like a failure if I didn't get an A. I told her that I wasn't upset with her, that it was just one test grade, but that the important thing was just to learn from her mistakes and keep on trying hard on every test in the future.

Here is some work Aedan brought home. They have been studying the letter S.

After a pretty restful Sunday and getting the kids to bed at a decent time on Sunday night, Monday morning went really well with the kids. Samantha woke up in a really good mood, and the kids were playing well together. Aedan didn't really want to stop playing to go to school, but he did it more willingly than some mornings lately.

After getting Samantha and Aedan dropped off at the van, Owen and I went to Walmart for our weekly shopping trip. I didn't do a pick-up order this week, but it didn't take too long going through the store together. Owen enjoys sitting in the cart, helping me put things in the cart after I have picked them out, and running around in the produce area with me.

That afternoon while Owen was napping, I was just blown away by the beautiful colors around our house. The weather was wonderful with bright blue skies and sunlight streaming in through the trees. It seemed like it might be peak color time, so I took some pictures of what it looked like around our home.

I also took a close-up picture of the scarecrows that the kids made. I hadn't noticed at first, but Samantha put the chairs right next to each other and then put the scarecrows arms around each other. She can be so cute and sweet with Aedan sometimes. They definitely love each other, and she showed her love for Aedan through the sweet way she set up the scarecrows.

Aedan's new letter for the week was P. I love seeing these papers, and he has gotten so good at writing his name and it's funny to see which papers he colors neatly and which ones he scribbles on more.

Here are some pictures Ben took of the colors in the mountains around us, as he walked down to pick Samantha and Aedan up from the van.

On Monday nights we have small group, which is always great. The kids love going, eating snacks, and playing with other kids. Ben and I have enjoyed the conversation about Colossians and getting to know new people, but sometimes being out past 8:00 and getting the kids to bed late comes back to bite us on Tuesday morning. The kids don't sleep in anymore, even though they go to bed over an hour later than usual, and on this particular Tuesday morning, the kids were in bad moods. They were overtired and were not thinking clearly enough to obey and think of others.

Owen and I went to story hour at the library that morning, but it was still not his favorite thing. He doesn't find the nursery rhymes interesting, and the format of the story hour, as well as the personality of the lady doing it, does not hold his attention. He just wants to get up and wander around and play. He isn't interested in participating very much, and it ends up being more of a battle to get him to just sit with me. I figured I'd give it another try, but after this week, I decided maybe we would be better off not going to story hour any more. We could always just go to the library another day to pick out books and let him play, which is what he really wants to do. I just don't know if it's worth our time to do story time every week, which is sad because it's something I have always done with the kids, but it's just different here.

Tuesday night Ben worked late, and then I had invited moms from MOPS over for Mom's Night Out to have snacks and play games. I was a little nervous about opening up our home, but I'm glad I did. There were probably six other moms that came over, and it was a lot of fun. Everyone brought a snack to share, we sat and talked for awhile in the living room, and then we played a couple games. Ben held down the fort with the kids, giving them baths and putting them to bed, and it was a nice night of getting to know some of the other moms at MOPS. I'm glad that we have a home that we can invite people over to, so I will take advantage of it and try to be welcoming in my invitations.

After a busy but fun Tuesday night, Wednesday was another big day as we had our final home visit to become foster parents. All our paperwork was turned in, we had to sign one more additional form. show our resource worker around the house to show that we had done baby-proofing, that we had a working smoke detector, and that we had the room all set up and ready to accept a placement. Our resource worker was going to turn our file in to her supervisor that day, so she said it's just a matter of the supervisor approving us. But at the same time, she said that if they needed us, we could be approved right away, so we could technically get our first call for a placement anytime now. I was full of mixed emotions with that news, probably more nervous, but excited as well. I feel like there were so many things I didn't handle well when we had our placement in Michigan, and I want so much to do better this time, to not get so overwhelmed, and to have a better understanding of the type of trauma children in foster care experience. However, I also know that there was just way too much going on with me personally when we had our placement in Michigan, with me accepting the long-term sub job at Samantha's school, then finding out I was pregnant, so I was just exhausted every day, plus emotional from being pregnant. Then, we took on our foster child, and I just didn't have any energy for him or patience like I should have had. I feel bad admitting to this, but at the time I often wished that we didn't say yes to that placement because it all just felt too hard and too overwhelming to me at that time. In most things in my life, I try to do too much on my own, and things are hard or I fail, and I wonder why that happened, only to realize that it's because I'm not supposed to be doing it on my own. It's not my strength that is going to help me be a good foster parent, but Christ's strength in me. I want 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 to be my mantra as we head back into fostering again: "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, insults, in hardships, in persecution, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." I fluctuate between being excited to step out in faith on this journey that Ben and I are called to, and totally full of fear and doubt in my ability to handle new children coming into our family and all the craziness and disruption to our flow as a family that that will cause. I keep praying Colossians 1:11, that I will be strengthened with all the power according to HIS glorious might so that I may have great endurance and patience. And also Hebrews 13:21, that he will equip me with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in me what is pleasing to him.

The rest of my Wednesday was spent switching Owen's clothes over to 2T. He has started to get a little big for some of his 24 months clothes, and our options were a little limited with what we had. Here are a couple pictures I took of our pretty girl looking out the patio door, keeping an eye on everything going on outside.

Here are some pictures Ben took from the top of a parking garage in Wilkes-Barre of the changing colors on the mountains surrounding the valley. The pictures also give a nice perspective of what Wilkes-Barre looks like.

Jenn

Here is some work the kids came home with on Wednesday.

Samantha had these weekly review quizzes for math, a reading quiz, and then extra work practicing the box method for multiplication. Samantha is doing some pretty complicated work in fourth grade math, and I am so glad she is being challenged and that she is consistently going to math class. All of this with Samantha's education in going up a grade for math and receiving gifted services has been so smooth at Lehman-Jackson, and I am so thankful that the kids get to go to such a good school.

Wednesday was an exciting day as all the costumes that we ordered for the kids for Halloween either came in or were picked up at the store. After homework was done, the kids were SO excited to try on all their costumes. Even though it doesn't look like it, Owen was excited to be wearing his Mickey Mouse costume. Samantha and Aedan were pleased that they got the costumes they wanted, and they were excited for all the Halloween activities that were coming up in the next week.

Wednesday nights are AWANA nights, and when we get back home Owen tends be a little wired from all the excitement. As I was rocking him and cuddling with him that night, he just kept talking and talking about so many things. I thought it was so cute to hear what was on his mind, so I turned the video on on my phone so I could record his running dialogue. I was happy to listen to him process through the things that happened in his day.

On Thursday I was supposed to drive to meet up with my friend, Melissa, in State College, since she was in Pittsburgh visiting her brother, but our plans fell through, and I was really disappointed. She and I try to get together anytime we can, especially when we are anywhere relatively close to each other. We made a few trips to Madison during our time living in the UP, and they came to visit us once as well. However, that's going to be a lot more of a challenge now that we live in Pennsylvania. We will have to try and make a point of seeing each other around Christmastime when our paths cross visiting family, or over the summertime.

Since I was no longer going out of town on Thursday, I went to Bible study just like I normally do on Thursday mornings. Also, Ben was so kind in seeing that I was disappointed to not be meeting with Melissa, and he asked me if I wanted to have lunch with him after Bible study that afternoon. I put Owen in the stroller and we walked the couple of blocks to a local restaurant on the square, and it was nice to have this time in the middle of the day to eat together, talk, and enjoy each other's company, even if that also meant wrangling a two year old who thought it would be more fun to jump and climb on the seats in the booth.

Thursday evening was another busy night. Once the kids got home from school, we had them do their homework quickly, and then we went back over to school for the book fair. The kids really wanted to pick out books, but we didn't really want to just send them with money and have them pick books that wouldn't be good for them. Samantha was able to pick a chapter book called "Words on Fire" and Aedan picked a Ninjago book because it had a Lego person attached to the front of the book that you could build.

From there we drove out to Whistle Pig Pumpkin Patch for a get together with our small group and the other small group that meets on Monday nights in Wilkes-Barre. We were able to go on the wagon ride out to our campsite where we cooked hot dogs for dinner. It got dark within an hour of us all getting there, so it wasn't long before we were using lanterns and flashlights to see so we could make s'mores. It also got rather chilly as the sun went down, so it felt good to stand close to the fire and get warmed up. The kids had a great time playing and running around with other kids, but as the night wore on Aedan was starting to lose his ability to function properly. The kids were throwing leaves around and some got in his eyes, which caused him to burst into tears and spearheaded the movement to get ready to go home. It was already past their bedtime and we still had to drive home and get everyone ready for bed. It was fun to get together, but doing it on a school night so late in the evening was a little difficult for our family, especially since every night that week had been busy in one way or another.

Friday, October 25th was a day I had been looking forward to for awhile because my friend, Heather, offered to babysit Owen for me in the afternoon so that I could go on Aedan's field trip. I really wanted to be able to chaperone, but Owen obviously couldn't go along with me. I got everything ready that morning and then left around 10:30 to drop Owen off down in Wilkes-Barre before driving back up to meet up at Aedan's school. He was so excited to see me waiting in the lobby when his class came around the corner. From then on, he never left my side. He wanted me to sit by him on the bus, walk with him in line, and most of the time he held my hand as we walked around. It was so sweet and just melted my heart. I loved this special time with my little boy. His field trip was at Whistle Pig Pumpkin Patch, the same place we just were the night before, and the same place they went to for Julian's birthday party. However, this was a different experience since it was with his class. Aedan's class first started out jumping in the hay. He did this over and over again, and he was acting crazy and wild. It was kind of fun to watch how he interacted with his classmates and friends.

Jenny

From there, they got to go through the string maze before posing for a group picture. Aedan is in the back left of the picture.

The corn maze was our next activity, and even though all his friends were running around, he only wanted to go through the maze with me. He had fun spotting the Halloween decorations that they had put up periodically, and he wanted me to take his picture next to his favorite one.

Aedan and I went through the corn maze a number of times before it was time to get on the wagon that would take us back to the pumpkin patch. He took quite a long time picking a pumpkin because he was very particular about what it looked like, but then he found a couple that once you picked them up, you discovered it had a mushy, soft spot.

After picking out the pumpkins, everyone got back on the wagon, and it took us back to the campsite. They did not have a fire going, as that would not have been safe with 50 kindergartners running around, but they did have all the supplies out for the kids to decorate their pumpkins. Aedan was again very serious about decorating his pumpkin, putting stickers on it symmetrically, and making it look exactly how he wanted it.

You could tell Aedan was tired from being out late on Thursday night because he cried a couple times during the field trip. One time a boy hurt his feelings by calling him a girl and trying to put a flower in his hair. Aedan asked the boy nicely multiple times to stop and he wouldn't, so eventually Aedan started crying, and then got up and walked away, probably because he was embarrassed about crying in front of his friends. Another time, he tripped and fell because he was running where there was uneven ground while we were on the way to go to the bathroom. I don't think he normally cries this much at school, although Mrs. Weaver did tell me that he cried on Thursday and refused to leave the library because he wanted a book at the book fair and didn't have any money to buy it, even though I had told him that we would go to the book fair after school so they could buy something. She had actually messaged me about him wanting that book because she said she had never seen him like that before.

The kids got to eat lunch and drink some apple cider before loading back up the wagon and riding the bus back to school. Here are some cute pictures of Aedan and I together. I just love this sweet, sensitive little boy of mine with his brown, almond eyes, and sly smile. He is shy but feels things so deeply. He is a good friend and is just one of those boys who is nice and friendly to everyone. I'm so proud of him and honored to be his mommy.

With Halloween coming up the following week, I decided Friday night would be a perfect night to carve pumpkins. We didn't have homework to do or anywhere to be, so we got started cutting the tops off and scooping out the guts while Daddy was on his way home from picking up Owen from Heather's house. Before I get started on the pumpkins, here is a cute picture of Owen and Lucy playing while he was at her house. She said he did a great job and they got along well. They had a fun time playing outside together, and then he ate all his lunch and played nicely inside for a little bit. She rocked him and read a couple books to him before putting him down in the pack and play. He was quiet for awhile, and she thought that he was asleep, but I think he had pooped, so she had to change him and then put him back down again. He was quiet in the pack and play, but she wasn't totally sure if he went back to sleep again after that. Nevertheless, he had a great time at Lucy's house, and I was so grateful to Heather for watching him for me so I could spend this time with Aedan.

And now back to the pumpkin decorating. Ben took a few pictures of the kids and I working hard on their pumpkins. This is more my thing, as he never really grew up carving pumpkins. The kids did a pretty good job of getting in their scoop all the guts out. I helped Aedan quite a bit, but Samantha largely did most of it by herself. Owen just had some markers to color on his pumpkin.

I had the kids draw their designs on the pumpkins and then I just cut it out for them. We don't have any special kid-friendly tools to carve the pumpkins, and they aren't quite old enough to use giant knives, so once they drew what they wanted, they went outside to play while I finished the carving.

I saw on Facebook that Grotto Pizza in Harvey's Lake was giving free personal kids' pizzas to any kid that came in to eat dressed in costume. We decided that would be a fun plan for the evening, and the kids loved to have an excuse to put their costumes on. All the employees at Grotto were dressed up, and the kids got lots of adoring looks from older people out to dinner. The pizza was good, the kids had fun going out to eat, and it was a fun and special way to round out such a good day.

When we got back home it was dark, and the kids wanted to see what their pumpkins looked like with candles inside, so I lit the candles and had each kid pose in front of their pumpkin. I think they turned out pretty well!

I then took the pumpkins out onto the front porch, and Owen insisted on coming out to help me, so I took a picture of him sitting on the porch next to the pumpkins.

Saturdays are always more relaxed in our house, especially with Samantha doing with play practice every Saturday from 10-12:30. Ben and I never set our alarms, and just wake up with the first kid that makes noise, which is usually Owen since we have a monitor for him still and the older kids would know to just leave us alone if we were still sleeping. Then, we almost always have pancakes on Saturday morning. Ben spent part of the morning installing our new Nest thermostat, which came as a deal from our electric company. Oh, the things you find exciting when you are an adult.

This Saturday was a special day because it was my date day with Samantha. We were going to go last Sunday, but with the rain that came, I decided to cancel our plans and wait for a day with better weather. Our horse trail ride was originally scheduled for 2:00, but I called the other day to check since I never got a confirmation message, and they didn't have us scheduled, so then the only other time they had was 5:00, which was not ideal. Samantha was disappointed when I picked her up from play practice and told her we weren't going on our date until later, but she eventually understood and perked back up.

In order to extend our date a little more, we went to Barnes and Noble for a little while first so she could wander around and look at books. I even bought her a big piece of cheesecake for a special snack. She probably could have stayed in Barnes and Noble, all night, but we left a around 4:20 to drive to the horse stable for our trail ride at 5:00. It started raining some as we were driving there and while we were waiting outside the barn, but it wasn't a hard rain. We had coats on, and we would be fine, even if we got a little wet.

Here is Samantha petting a horse from the barn as we waited for our turn. She just loves horses right now. This was the perfect idea for a date with her.

I got on my horse first, and then Samantha got on hers, but they ended up switching her to another horse because apparently my horse wouldn't like it if her horse got to close up behind me. You can tell by the huge smile in these pictures that she was just in heaven sitting on top that horse.

Other than the girls from the stable, Samantha and I were the only ones on the trail ride. It sprinkled on us a little, but most of the ride was through the forest so the trees gave us a good covering. The trail was quiet and beautiful. We talked a little bit, but mostly we just enjoyed the ride. 

The trail ride lasted around forty-five minutes. Here we are posing for a picture with our horses at the end of the ride. Samantha was sad that the ride was over and definitely could have kept going for awhile longer. I'm so glad she liked it.

My date with my little girl was so fun. It was wonderful to spend time with just her. It's so easy to overlook her sometimes because she's so independent and likes to spend time by herself reading. Sometimes I don't realize how little time I have just to talk to her without having to deal with one of boys as well. It's times like these that make me nostalgic for the days when it was just her and I, or when she was more interested in playing with us than doing things on her own. But it was encouraging to me to be able to show her that I love her by doing something with her that she loves, by listening to her talk about whatever came to her mind, and to show her that even in the busyness of life, she is still my little girl, the one who made me a mom in the first place. I want to cultivate my relationship with her more, and I need to look for more opportunities to just be with her, to listen to her, and to show her that she is important to me and that I love her so very much. She is growing up so fast, and I want to hold on to these years where she wants to go on dates with me, show me books she finds interesting, and talk to me over some chips and queso at Moes.

(Blog about October 20-26, 2019)