Plants and Flowers Blooming, Outside time, and the Kids Pet Garter Snake

Samantha: 108 Months, Week 1
Aedan: 74 Months, Week 4
Owen: 32 Months, Week 1

After a super fun week in Upland, which we were grateful to be able to do in the middle of May when our kids would normally be in school, we decided it was time to head back on Sunday, May 17th. We technically could have stayed longer because we really don't have anything we have to be back home for, but the kids have work to do during the week and Zoom calls with their classes, so it really wouldn't be convenient to leave on a week day. Plus, with our summer looking more and more open as the impacts of covid-19 last longer and longer, I'm sure we will have another chance to visit Upland for an extended period of time over the summer.

Ben and I tried to get things somewhat packed up and organized on Saturday night so that way we could just do last minute things and load up the car that Sunday morning. The kids enjoyed their last time playing with Ema and Papa, and we left around 9:00. The kids are always quieter in the car after we leave, and Aedan cried and snuggled with Happy Bear as we drove away. Samantha usually makes herself feel better by distracting herself in a book. It's pretty cute to see how much they enjoy themselves in Upland. In fact, at the beginning of this week, before the virus, Ben and I made reservations for a night at Great Wolf Lodge, and when we told the kids about that, they were totally fine with that because they said spending a week in Upland was much better than spending one night at Great Wolf Lodge. They love going to visit Ema and Papa so much, and it's sad when we have to leave, but it's a good thing that they miss it so much when we leave.

The ride back home always seems longer because everyone is ready to be home and not really in the mood to drive nine hours in order to get there. Samantha said that it would be nice if we could apparate like the characters in Harry Potter so that we could just go from one place to another in the blink of an eye. Owen was pretty tired that day, so we decided to bust out a movie in the morning before lunch to help pass the time a little more. We have traveled long distances so much in the last four years that our kids have kind of gotten used to it at this point, and really I can't complain because they do a great job for being stuck in car seats essentially for nine hours without having much time to get out or move much. We arrived home that evening, picked up Grotto Pizza on our way, and ate some dinner before attacking the job of unpacking the car and getting stuff out that we needed for the night, leaving the other stuff to deal with the next day.

It's been interesting largely being home the last two months because we have literally watched spring unfold before our eyes, noticing which things bloomed when, and we were totally amazed to see all the changes that took place in our yard over the week we were gone. All of the trees were budding and you could see small spurts of green all around, but now all the leaves were fully grown. Plus, this tree in our front yard at the front right corner of our house, that I think is a dogwood tree, was full of beautiful, white, lovely smelling flowers! It was so gorgeous that I had to go out and take pictures of it, even though it was getting dark outside. Plus, our hostas were starting to grow up as well, and you could tell that some animal had been eating them while we were gone. It's fun living in this house with the beautiful property that we get to enjoy as things start to bloom and grow.

Monday morning meant getting back to the kids' school work and getting things put away from our trip. Samantha was really excited to bust out her new Lego sets that she got for her birthday that afternoon. Aedan was excited to watch her build and help her find pieces, and Samantha was happy enough to let him share in her excitement. I don't have pictures of all of it, but over the next few days Samantha successfully built all her Star Wars and Harry Potter Lego sets, and they were excited to join their sets and people together to play and make some creative stories of how all the characters would interact with each other.

Here are some other areas that bloomed a lot more while we were gone. Here are the flower bulbs that I forgot to plant last fall/winter. Donna Toll encouraged me to plant them in some gardening soil and wait for the ground to unfreeze, and then try to plant them and see what happens. Well, Samantha helped me figure out where to plant them, and they may not be as big or strong as they would be had I planted them earlier, but they are looking pretty good, and I'm glad I didn't just throw all these bulbs away! It will be fun to watch these now bloom every spring.

You can also see the thickness of the undergrowth on the trees in the background, the purple flowers that grew on these rocks, the leaves that are growing on our large hydrangea bush, as well as peony plants that grew up so high while we were gone.

Monday felt like kind of a busy day because we pretty much ran ourselves out of food before we left, so I went grocery shopping that morning to stock back up. Plus, our grass needed to be mowed so Ben spent the afternoon doing that and using our new weed whacker, too. Ben did schoolwork with the kids that morning while I shopped, and the kids enjoyed playing outside in the back yard that afternoon while Owen napped.

Aedan was excited about building his pod racer Lego set, and he brought it upstairs to show me how it turned out. I thought it was pretty cool how they used clear plastic pieces for the parts that hold it together, but to still make it look invisible. Plus, it had a built in handle. He did a great job building this all by himself!

As we were outside playing Tuesday after school work was done but before lunch, I took some pictures of these bushes along our driveway that appear to be partially dying so I could ask Donna Toll why they might be doing that and if I should prune them back. She said yes to cut those dead branches off, and that maybe it was caused by the ice melt that we sprinkled on the driveway over the winter. We used a little hand sprayer thing where you turn a handle and the ice melt comes spraying out to cover more ground, and I bet some of it got on the bushes. If that's the case, we will have to figure out a way to have that not happen next year. I will cut off these dead branches sometime soon, and hopefully they will grow back and not look too strange all cut up.

Samantha decided to climb the tree in our back yard next to our play set. She is always talking about how there aren't any good trees to climb in our back yard, but once she figured out how to get up in this tree, she realized how high she could actually climb. I think she's changed her mind now!

Samantha got a birthday card in the mail from Grandpa and Grandma on Tuesday, so she asked if she could send a video to them to say thank you. I think they appreciated it, and they commented on how grown-up she is getting. 

That evening before before dinner we went down to ride around and play in the Skillet parking lot, only to find that they have now posted signs saying no riding bikes, scooters, or anything like that is allowed in their parking lot. The kids were disappointed, and so were we because it was such an easy place to take the kids for a little bit of flat ground to ride around and play on. But we wanted to be respectful of the signs and obey their directions. So instead of that we just went on this little side street by Harvey's Creek where it's a nice flat place for the kids to ride their scooters or tricycle, in Owen's case. As we went along the street, we noticed lots of smashed toads, which made the kids a little sad since they love to be able to find toads in our back yard.

I'm trying to remember and record little expressions and words that Owen says in a special toddler way, and Samantha's name is one of those words. He says her names more like "Sa-ban-tha," and I think it's super cute. I was combing Samantha's hair while Owen finished up in the bath, and he asked her, "What are you reading, Sa-ban-tha?" I asked if he could repeat it so I could record him saying it, and he obliged. Aedan called Samantha "Sissy" for a long time, and now Owen has his own special name for her as well.

After getting the kids to bed on Tuesday, Ben and I decided to have a fire together so we could spend time together talking and relaxing. A lot of times we end up just sitting in front of the TV at night watching a show, and we don't really take the time to talk, so it was nice to just sit outside, enjoying the weather, our beautiful views, and the warmth of conversation and fire. The kids don't always have to be involved in our fires, right? And, they don't have to know that we had s'mores without them! 

Here is some of the work the kids did on Wednesday. Samantha had to create landmarks for her city, as well as drawing a picture of one of them. Since Samantha decided that her city would have been a place for slaves to escape to, and a place where Harriet Tubman would have would have visited, she decided to create a Harriet Tubman statue.

For art they had to make something creative out of these circles so Aedan of course made the face of Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper, and Samantha make Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, with light sabers to go along with them. These kids are very obsessed with Star Wars! I still have not actually seen all the original six episodes, so Ben and I are going to go back and watch the movies so that we can understand the story line and characters that they talk about with each other so much.

That evening as I was making dinner, Ben went out to play with Izzy while Samantha and Aedan roller skated back and forth on our patio. Our driveway is so steep that it's difficult to roller skate there safely, so this was the best they could do. It's cute to see how much they are enjoying their roller skates because I didn't really think they would enjoy them this much. They can't wait for the indoor skating rink to open up so they can skate on the smooth floor in there.

The kids were disappointed that we had a fire without them, so we told them we would have a fire and s'mores with them as well that evening after dinner. Here are Samantha and Aedan helping to get the fire ready for Daddy.

Here is some of the kids' work from Thursday. Samantha finished her spiral review for the week, and Aedan was learning about the letter Yy, having to draw things that started with Yy. Of course, he had to draw Yoda! And I think he did a really good job drawing him. The second picture of him he even has a yo-yo in his hand, which was perfect and creative. You can tell how much detail he put into Yoda in comparison to the rest of his drawings on his board. Then, he and I made a yo-yo craft together, tracing his hand, and making a yo-yo out of a cupcake liner.

Both Samantha and Aedan had Zoom meetings that morning, and I think the kids are at the point where they are just over this online schooling, just as we are! Zoom meetings are hard, and seeing their teachers and friends over a computer screen is just not the same. Aedan, in particular, doesn't enjoy his Zoom meetings and can't wait for them to be over. Samantha does a good job of listening and staying engaged, and her teachers do more actual instruction in their meetings, but sometimes her meetings can go on a lot longer than they need to which then makes her work take longer to complete for the day. It's certainly weird to think that we are now in our tenth week of staying at home and doing some form of online school. I never in a million years thought this is how we would be ending our first year of our kids' school experience in Pennsylvania, and Aedan's first year of full-time school as a kindergartner.

In this video Samantha and Aedan were playing along with Owen hiding under the table, pretending like they couldn't see him. He thought it was hilarious and had the greatest laugh as he thinks he tricked his brother and sister. Hey, this was the best we could do to make him happy because a few minutes later he was going to be taken upstairs for a nap which he is not enjoying lately. He always falls asleep and still takes a decent nap, but he definitely loudly protests being taken upstairs when he knows Samantha and Aedan are awake and playing.

That afternoon I was sitting out at our patio table working on my blog because it was so beautiful outside there was no way I was going to stay inside. As I was sitting there, I kept hearing this tapping noise, and as I got up to see what it was, I saw this woodpecker pecking at the trunk of an old, dead tree. It was so cool to see it, and I tried to get up as close as I could, but once Izzy saw it she rushed into the woods and then it flew away.

On Friday morning the kids finished up their week of work, and they were excited to have a longer weekend since Monday was Memorial Day and no new work would be posted. The kids did P.E. together that day where they had to create a game using a ball. They took turns throwing some balls into the basket, with the person on the ground trying to catch them. I think it was a little bit harder than they thought it would be. One of my favorite things from these videos is hearing all the beautiful bird sounds in the background as well as just looking out over our beautiful back yard and house. I truly love where we live. I feel so lucky to have found the house.

Samantha also had to do her Innovations assignment where they had to use some household objects to create a boat for "the three billy goats" to cross to the other side so they could avoid the "troll" that is hiding under the bridge. Here is what she came up with. It was pretty simple and easy, and another assignment was checked off her list.

Here is a project Aedan made on Friday using lots of cut outs of his hand, kind of like a wreath in recognition of Memorial Day coming up.

And here is Samantha's Climate page for her city. We were able to help her find the information online for her to copy down, so it wasn't too difficult.

We took extra time playing outside that morning because we knew rain was coming and we would be stuck in the house, so that afternoon/early evening, we decided to watch a movie together as a family. We noticed that "The Princess Bride" was on Disney+, and we thought the kids would enjoy that. Owen was a little bored, but Samantha and Aedan enjoyed it. It was kind of fun watching one of these classic movies together from our childhood.

Luckily, even though it rained on Friday night, Saturday was a pretty nice day. Ben had his Bible study in the morning, and I let the kids watch a few little music videos on Samantha's Kindle. They were so cute sitting there next to each other on the couch like that.

Before lunch that day we went to Lehman Nursery, and I took each kid in one at a time (so that they could wear a mask since they are required in Pennsylvania and we only have two right now), and pick out flowers to plant in some of our containers, pots, and planters underneath our front windows. I usually let the kids pick out flowers and help me plant them so that way they can take ownership of them and help me take care of them.

That afternoon as I sat in the living room during nap time, I was able to enjoy the quietness of the house, listen to the birds chirping outside, and watch as the wind blew the pretty white petals off the dogwood tree. I love spring so much, although I am sad that these petals won't stay on the tree for much longer.

I pointed out a garter snake to the kids int he back yard that afternoon, and Samantha and Aedan were so excited about it that they spent the rest of the afternoon researching, building a habitat, and learning about and finding in our yard what it would like to eat. These kids are so curious, you don't have to force them to learn and discover; it just comes naturally, and I love to encourage it in any way I can.

Here they are posing with their snake that afternoon. (Aedan didn't want to smile for a picture while Samantha was holding it, but was happy when it was his turn.)

Samantha got another special present in the mail for her birthday from my grandma. She sent her a few pairs of some little earrings, which was really sweet of her to think of Samantha and send her something during this crazy time.

And to wrap up my post, here's Owen being silly, talking, saying funny things, and making faces, recording and seeing himself on my phone before bed. Man, he's so sweet and cute. I love his little voice and his little laugh. I love sitting with him at night, reading him books, singing to him, and cuddling with him for awhile. I wish he could always stay this little and be this easily amused and entertained. He loves to be silly and loves to laugh. He makes me smile every day.

(Blog about May 17-23, 2020)