Beautiful Weather, Ricketts Glen, Playing Outside, and Easter Activities

Samantha: 106 Months, Week 4
Aedan: 73 Months, Week 2
Owen: 30 Months, Week 4

Sunday, April 5th was a beautiful day. It was 64 degrees as a high, so we spent a lot of the day outside. It was wonderful to be able to sit outside in the afternoon and to do some work around the yard like putting the new sand in the sandbox and putting together the new fire pit we got from Home Depot. Owen has been wanting to play in his turtle sand box for awhile, but it still had wet, gross sand in it from last year, so we needed to take out the old sand, clean it out, and put the new sand in. Along with the new sand, we ordered a fire pit so that way as the weather gets warmer in the evenings, we can have fires together, roast marshmallows, and Ben and I could enjoy time outside around a fire after putting the kids to bed. I suggested it as an early birthday present for Ben because it was something we had talked about wanting since we moved here. We thought about building one, but we liked the idea of being able to move the fire pit to different locations if need be. Anyways, it was wonderful to spend so much time outside, and the kids always have such better attitudes when they have the freedom to run around and play outside. It's good for me too to just be in the sunshine. It makes the world feel a little bit bigger, even if we can't physically go many places.

Monday morning almost felt like a normal morning because I had to do my grocery shopping at Walmart. The biggest difference was that I had to go by myself and Owen couldn't come with me like he normally does. Ben and I made a menu and a list to last us a good one and a half to two weeks so that way we don't have to go shopping as much. I also was going to get candy and things for Easter baskets, resurrection rolls, and egg decorating kits since Easter was coming up on Sunday. It was kind of relaxing driving up to Tunkhannock and just listening to a podcast in the car. Going to the store was a little odd because there were so many people wearing masks, they were definitely out of some items I was looking for, and they had squares on the floor marking six feet of distance while you stood in line. Our grocery bill has definitely gone up significantly with everyone being home and eating at home more. Plus, with some things not being at the store, I buy brands or sizes that I may not normally buy because that is all they have. Nevertheless, shopping went okay, but it definitely is a weird feeling to feel "nervous" about going shopping and have that literally be the only place I go every week and a half or so. This staying at home is definitely strange.

While I went shopping, Ben stayed home with the kids and did their work with them. Here is a video of Aedan doing his Scholastic reading and questions, as well as some sort of dancing with Owen afterwards.

I went shopping pretty early that morning so that way I could hopefully get everything while the shelves were stocked. Plus, it was going to be another beautiful day, with temperatures in the mid-60s, so we decided to eat an early lunch and then take a trip out to Ricketts Glen State Park to do some hiking at Adams Falls and the nice loop path that goes through the woods. We knew Owen probably wouldn't nap, or maybe just nap in the car on the way back home, but we didn't want to waste our chance to get outside for the day.

Going to the waterfall and on a hike made our life seem so normal for a little while; we almost forgot that there was a worldwide pandemic going on around us. As the weather continues to warm up and the stay at home order continues, we will definitely have to continue checking out local state parks and spending time outside, exploring nature. The kids love it.

Here we are are looking at the top of the waterfall together. (We make sure one of us is always holding on to Owen because we don't quite trust him to not move rashly and accidentally fall down somewhere where he would get hurt.)

Samantha brought her camera to take pictures as well. She loved getting this camera from Uncle Timmy for Christmas, and she will often take it with her when we go places so she can take pictures on her own as well.

Owen decided he wanted to wear his blue baseball hat, and he looked so cute in his little Toy Story coat and tiny baseball hat.

I love these pictures of all three kids together! They are so sweet, and even though these times we find ourselves in are strange and difficult, we find solace in the fact that we still remain together as a family and that we can still find ways to have fun together.

We then hiked down to see the waterfall from the bottom. We talked about erosion and how the waterfall formed the path that it was on.

Then we continued on in our hike, letting Owen walk as much as he could so he could get some energy out as well. He is pretty steady on his feet and will do anything to stay up with Samantha and Aedan. Hiking with our kids involves quite a bit of stopping, climbing, and exploring off the side of the path. It's fun to see what interests them and let them use their imaginations. Samantha loves to learn about new things, and Aedan loves to tear things apart and play/hit things things sticks, so the outdoors are great for both of them. Owen could play all day, and the more time he has outside, the better. We always say that he is our little party animal. He could stay awake and play all day without a care in the world, and he's happy as long as he is a part of what we are doing.

At one point we stopped to look around for awhile and Aedan and Owen sat down on the ground together with their sticks and started having a little sword fight. Most of the time they are pretty gentle with each other, and it's fun to see their bond developing more as Owen is enjoying more of what Aedan enjoys as well.

Another mini-science lesson we had was learning about the rings on a tree and how that can tell you about how old a tree was before it died. Here we are studying the tree together.

There were a lot of trees in this area that had been knocked down due to wet ground and strong winds. The kids thought it was interesting to look at the huge root system of the trees, and to compare their size next to it as well. (Here is Samantha trying to take a selfie with her own camera in front of the tree.)

As we continued our hike, we stopped at another fallen tree and everyone wanted to get their picture taken sitting on top of it. Here is my sweet 5 year old who is usually too shy to let us take his picture very often.

Next, we piled Owen on the trunk as well. Aedan was really sweet wrapping his arms around Owen's stomach to keep him securely on the trunk.

Then, Samantha climbed on the trunk behind Aedan. We took so many pictures, and they were sitting there very nicely together. It's just hard to get pictures where everyone is smiling, and I think by the end Aedan was getting tired of smiling for us.

After we were all done, Samantha wanted some pictures on her own. I know I have said this a lot, but she looks so grown up these days. I love to see her interests blossom and her limitless curiosity about the world around her. She is a treasure to me, and I am very grateful for this extra time I get to spend with her during these days of staying home.

On these nice, warm days, the kids have been spending a lot of time outside, which is wonderful. Samantha and Aedan busted out the sidewalk chalk and got pretty creative in their pictures. Aedan drew these super heroes, one being Super-Man, and the other being Lex Luther. Super-Man is saying, "Miss me, miss me, now you got to kiss me." And Lex Luther has xs on his eyes because he's dead, apparently. Together, they drew a whole water scene, using the tracing tools for boats, and Aedan even made a bridge over the water, and Samantha was drawing mermaids.

Tuesday was another beautiful, sunny day, so we got our work done more quickly that morning and took the chance to play outside for awhile before lunch. Then, since I put the umbrella up on our patio table the other day, we decided to eat our lunch outside! I can't wait to spend more time sitting outside this spring and summer, and I'm so grateful for this wonderful weather that allows us to get out of the house.

Some days are just hard for Aedan and you can tell he is just overtired. Well, Tuesday was one of those days. He was acting super tired all morning and was being mean: pushing and kicking Owen, and being mean to me when I would tell him to do something. So I decided to have him take a nap. He wasn't too excited about that idea, but he enjoyed me sitting in his bed and reading to him before he laid down. I didn't know if he would fall asleep or not, but after quite a bit of time with no noise from his room, it was clear that he actually did fall asleep, which I was grateful for. He clearly needed the rest. I told him I would wake him up after a little while, so once it got to about 2:45, I went upstairs to wake him up. However, before I woke him up, I had to take a picture of him because he was so cute with how he was laying sideways in his bed with his foot hanging off. It made me wonder how often he sleeps in unconventional positions like this. He used to sleep sideways in his bed a lot has a baby and toddler, so it wouldn't surprise me if he would sleep like this now as well. When I woke him up, he looked at me and curled right back up again, so I told him to come downstairs when he was ready to get up.

That afternoon while Samantha and Aedan were playing outside, I went out to sit at the patio table and work on my blog so I could help keep an eye on Izzy as she chased the birds around the yard, and so I could sit in the warm sun as well. I decided to take a video of the birds singing all around me and what it looked like in our back yard in early spring. I've told Ben a few times lately that we will get to watch things bloom and grow right before our very eyes during this time that we are staying at home.

Ben had gone down to Wilkes-Barre to run a couple errands, so he was gone for the afternoon. This gave Samantha and Aedan free reign of the driveway (since the Subaru wasn't parked there), and they created quite the chalk drawing. I love it when they find creative things like this to do together, and I was able to capture a picture and video of them drawing together. I'm glad they have each other during this time, even though sometimes they get on each other's nerves.

Once Ben got back home, we all piled into the car to meet other families at Lake Lehman High School to form a car parade over to a boy's house from Aedan's class for a "Happy Birthday Parade." There was even an emergency vehicle with lights flashing at the front. When we pulled into the parking lot, Mrs. Weaver was walking around saying hello to everyone, and Aedan was so excited (although shy) to see her again. All the cars formed a train and drove to this little boy's house to drive by and say hello and wish him a happy birthday. They even had a little table of juice, fruit snacks, and bubbles for the kids to take as "party favors." If things had been normal, Aedan would have gone to this boy's birthday party at a local camp, so this was the best we could do given the situation. I think Aedan enjoyed being able to see some of his friends, but on the way home he was very quiet and contemplative, and I think it made him sad and made him remember what he was missing by not being at school right now.

We decided to order Grotto Pizza for dinner that night, so we enjoyed our pizza and pretzel rolls with cheese dip, as well as a dinnertime sing along to many of the songs from Frozen 2. Samantha and Aedan have most of the words memorized, and Owen tries to sing right along with them, hand motions and everything, as he carefully watches everything Samantha and Aedan do and say. I love Aedan's facial expressions as he belts the song out with all his emotion, and Samantha is the leader of the chorus and smiles at her brothers as they sing along with her.

I have to note that you can hear what Owen calls Kristoff at the end of the video. It sounds a lot more like "Tick-toff" and we think it's really cute. Also, you see the red mark on his nose? That's from getting hit in the nose with a plastic hockey puck. He has really been enjoying playing hockey with anyone who will play with him, and on this particular day, he was playing with Aedan, who accidentally hit the puck at his nose. Those two boys have some pretty good shots!

Wednesday, April 8th was another day much like the rest of the week where we spent the morning doing the kids's school work. Aedan and Samantha dressed in clothes that they though made them look like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia because they love playing "Star Wars" lately.

While Owen napped that afternoon, Samantha and Aedan decided to build with the Lego Duplos on the floor in the living room. They made all kinds of creations and were having a good time playing with something they don't normally play with. I took a few pictures while I watched them play and didn't know I had the Live button clicked, so there are random video snippets as well.

We let them keep out all their creations from Wednesday, and their play carried over into Thursday. This time Owen was glad to join in as well. (Do you see how Aedan is dressed all in black? He does this so he can look like Darth Vader.) It's times like these that make me so happy. They don't always play together happily. There are plenty of fights, arguments, bickering, hitting, and making each other cry; after all, they are still siblings. But overall, they have done a great job of playing together, and Aedan loves nothing more than having the attention of his sister, and Owen loves to be included in any type of play that they do.

On Wednesday night we decided to try making a fire in our new fire pit. I ordered one for Ben as an early birthday present, and the other day he picked it up and got it set up so we could use it when we wanted. The weather was going to turn colder and rainier for a few days, so we decided Wednesday would be the best night for us to try one out. However, we weren't very prepared and didn't have enough to get a fire going. I had bought stuff to make s'mores the last time I went shopping, so the kids had their hearts set on having s'mores that night. Since we couldn't get the fire to stay lit, we decided to just roast marshmallows over the grill, and that worked just as well to accomplish the task of melting a marshmallow for a gooey, delicious dessert.

I woke up Thursday really not feeling very well. I was having a lot of pressure in my sinuses in my cheeks, so much that it was actually pretty painful. I wasn't stuffed up or anything and didn't have a cold, so it was weird. That afternoon I went to CVS to get Owen's vitamins and more ibuprofen for myself and allergy medicine for Aedan because of the bumps that have reappeared on his hands, arms, and elbows. He gets these bumps every once in awhile. His doctor in Michigan said they were called molloscum, and we had some leftover cream from when he had them last in the fall, so we decided we would start using the cream again and try giving him allergy medicine, too, because he said they were really itching him. In fact, the night before I had him take a nap during the afternoon was the night he said he had trouble sleeping because they were so itchy.

Thursday was a hard day for me because we officially heard that school was closed for the rest of the year. I think I took the news harder than the kids and found myself fighting back tears most of the morning and even into the afternoon. I just found myself feeling sad for the kids since they are new here, and we haven't really found our place yet, so it makes this social distancing even more isolating for us. Samantha was just starting to make friends she felt closer with and was wanting to invite people over to play on the weekends. Aedan is only in Kindergarten, and I feel like he was just getting used to school and the schedule and the routine, and it made me feel sad that he would have such a different Kindergarten experience. It made me sad that the kids would miss out on all the fun field trips and school activities that are always planned for the end of the year. It made me sad that they weren't able to say good-bye to their teachers and friends. I don't know if they would do Kindergarten graduation like what Samantha had, but if they did, Aedan would miss out on that as well. I understood why they cancelled in-person school and were going to move to online learning for the remainder of the school year, but my heart was sad for the kids. Then, my mind was filled with questions about how that would look to finish out the remainder of the school year, how we would get through the work at home, and what this would mean for making up school days or even how starting school next year will look. I was not doing well with the news, as I was hoping that it could have been possible to at least go back for some time before the end of the school year. I think it also made me anxious because if schools aren't going to open, than the stay at home order certainly isn't going to lift anytime soon.

Some nights Izzy is just really tired out and she heads down to the basement to sleep. This night I was able to snap a couple of pictures of her curled up on the couch in the basement. I'm sure it was nice and peaceful and quiet down there.

I haven't said too much about how our school work went for the week, but by Friday I was just ready for the week to be over. It was challenging with school work that week. This was our second week of doing the packet work for Aedan and some packet work and Google Classroom assignments for Samantha. Samantha was just being really resistant to having us help or correct her. Sometimes she would treat us like we are stupid and don't know how to do her work, or like she knows better than us. Then, she gets in a bad mood if we tell her she is doing something wrong. We know that she doesn't act this way with her teachers, just with us, so it's been frustrating. Especially now with school being cancelled, she is going to have to get used to the fact that we are now her teachers for the remainder of the school year. I think that she has a little bit of a pride issue because she has a hard time admitting that she does anything wrong, and she rarely thinks to apologize for hurting other people's feelings or physically hurting someone. We often have to make her apologize for her behavior, and sometimes we aren't sure if she really feels like she did anything wrong. It is definitely a work in progress with her doing school at home, and I hope that next week will be better.

The weather was cold and wet on Friday. In fact, it even snowed a little that afternoon. It wasn't anything that would stick, but it was still sad that it was snowing in April.

With Sunday being Easter, Ben and I tried to plan a fun weekend of family Easter activities to do together. If not for the virus and the stay at home order, we would have left on Wednesday afternoon to head to Washington, D.C. for a fun weekend away: visiting museums, seeing monuments, and even getting tours of the Capitol and White House. However, all those plans had to be cancelled, and to say we were all disappointed would be an understatement. Ben and I love to travel, and especially now that we live in northeastern Pennsylvania, we have been excited to travel to all the places that are close to us in Philadelphia, New York City, and even Washington, D.C. which is only about four hours away. Samantha was particularly excited about this trip, so she was really disappointed that we had to stay home. She even made several comments about how if she had magic powers like Harry Potter, she would make the virus never happen. Luckily, we can go on this trip another time, but we were all sad about it. Because of that, we tried to make the weekend extra fun for the kids so we wouldn't think about the trip we were missing out on.

On Friday the kids helped Ben make the batter for our carrot cake that we bake in special bunny shaped tins. Aedan got the tins for Ben for Christmas a year ago, and we made these little bunny cakes last year for the first time. The kids really liked them, and I think we decided to make them a new Easter tradition. On Friday night I iced them and put little faces on them so we could enjoy eating them on Saturday and beyond.

On Saturday morning we dyed Easter eggs. I bought two different kits: one that you dip the eggs in the cups and then could put cute little chick stickers on to make them look like a chick was hatching from the eggs, and one that you used a bag and drops of coloring to smear around the egg to make it look like a space egg. It was fun to have different ways to decorate the eggs, and the kids had a blast being creative with their eggs. They particularly liked the ones that looked like chicks and were pretending like they were all talking to each other from their little nests.

Even though it was a bit chilly outside, Ben and I were able to go outside and hide some empty plastic Easter eggs for the kids to do an Easter egg hunt in our own back yard. They were excited to fun around the yard and find all the eggs. (We were planning on putting candy in them for their Easter baskets, but we figured it would be a problem for Owen if they had candy in them when they found them outside because he wouldn't understand why he couldn't open them up and eat them right away.) The Easter egg hunt was a success and fun for all!

After eating lunch we got in the car and drove to a local church that did a drive through Easter story book event. They basically had six or seven different trunks decorated to tell the story of the Bible from Creation to the resurrection of Jesus. They gave you a card with a verse to read for each trunk, and then each kid got a goody bag at the end. It was simple, but the kids enjoyed it, and it was a fun thing to do when there was nowhere to go to celebrate Easter in person.

That evening after dinner we decided to start watching a Sights and Sounds performance of "Jesus" that they were playing on TBN for free over Easter weekend. We thought it would be a good way to remind the kids what we are really celebrating at Easter, and we knew Samantha would enjoy watching the actors and actresses.

Samantha was entranced by the whole production. She couldn't take her eyes off the screen and even commented, "This is the best acting I have ever seen!" She didn't know people could perform like this, and now she has new goals of doing this in her future. I remarked to Ben later that I think we will be spending a lot of money on performance type activities for Samantha: from acting, to singing lessons, to music lessons. She has always been a performer. She loves being on stage, and it is definitely a developing passion of hers.

And here I am sitting with Aedan, and then with both my boys. They enjoyed watching it a lot more than I thought they would. The kids had good questions about the various Bible stories that were included in the production, some that they had never heard before and some needed a little more explanation. We were glad to be having these conversations with them about Jesus' life and his ministry here on earth before he died on the cross and rose from the dead to save us all from our sins.

We watched about an hour of the production before it was time to stop for the night and get the kids ready for bed. We told them we would watch the rest on Easter Sunday, which didn't make them happy, but our kids don't ever sleep in so it doesn't work to let them stay up late at night because it just gives Ben and me less time to ourselves and makes the kids crabby the following day.

I put Owen to bed that night, and especially with his hair getting so long, he has a lot of hair to twirl in the back. He has one spot right at the crown of his head that he always twirls around and around with his right hand, so I was trying to capture it on video. The second video is the most accurate depiction of what he does.

And here are a couple pictures of my silly boy and me. He loves to see himself in the camera.

(Blog about April 5-11, 2020)