Father's Day, Grandpa and Grandma Visit, and a Trip to Claws and Paws

Samantha: 109 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 75 Months, Week 3
Owen: 33 Months, Week 2

Sunday, June 21st was Father's Day, and Ben was able to sleep in that morning. Then, the kids were excited to give Daddy the presents they picked out for him. With the virus and not really taking the kids into stores anymore, I just took them to the dollar store to pick out a few things for Ben. They got him a couple Sudoku books, some chocolate kisses and Reese's Cups, as well as the movie Benji. Samantha saw it on the shelf and thought it would be funny to get it for him since I call him Benji as a nickname sometimes. (I also got him a generic version of a Fitbit watch so he could track his steps and goals in our new endeavors to run for exercise.) I love how excited the kids get to see others open up presents from them, even if they are just simple presents, they picked them out especially for him, and that's all that really matters. Here are some pictures and videos from present time that morning.

I had the kids make these little crafts to give to Ben for Father's Day. Samantha wrote hers down herself, and I wrote down what Aedan and Owen said to me when I asked them what they loved about Daddy. I thought these would be cute and special, and they turned out well. (Aedan's is the top left, Samantha's is the top right, and Owen's is at the bottom.)

To go along with the theme, here are the five things I love about Ben:

1. How he is my best friend, who calls me "his person". There's no one else I would rather spend my days with.

2. How he loves me as his wife, putting my needs and wants above his own, more often than not.

3. How he is a wonderful, caring, attentive father to our children, as well as being willing to open his heart and home to more children through foster care.

4. How he is passionate about teaching not just as his career, but as a ministry to reach students and colleagues with the love of Jesus through being an example in his words and deeds.

5. How he is always willing to learn and listen so as to understand, both in his field of politics, but also religion and conversations with others.

We didn't have too many plans for Father's Day, and I felt a little guilty that I didn't have more planned. In fact, I had to spend most of the afternoon doing work for my graduate class. While I did work, Samantha and Aedan came up with a cookbook and snacks to try out like chocolate milk and veggie soup and a chips and sour cream snack. They were having a good time coming up with ideas and trying them out to see if they would work.

Once Owen woke up from his nap, we decided to head out to Whistle Pig to pick some fresh strawberries from their field. Here are some pictures from our time picking strawberries.

We picked ten pounds of strawberries, only paying $2 a pound. We got some cleaned up that night to make some strawberry jam, while keeping the rest in the refrigerator to eat throughout the week. Aren't they pretty little strawberries?

For some reason Owen has started this thing where he wants me to take a picture of him in his bed when I lay him down at night. He thinks it's silly that the light flashes for the picture, and he makes all these silly faces for me so he can see what he looks like afterwards. He is such a silly, cute little boy.

I had a big research assignment due on Monday night, so I stayed up late working on my assignment. I wanted to get it all typed out so that way I could spend time reading over it and making changes on Monday. However, I don't think it was the best idea for for me to stay up until 1:00 a.m. (I'm too old to do things like that anymore) because I was very tired on Monday morning, which probably had a lot to do with my bad mood on Monday morning. I think I also felt bad about not making Father's Day more special for Ben. The kids were causing quite a bit of frustration for him, and with my class work that I had to do, he had to deal with them more than what I would have wanted him to. He had to make two meals and run to the store twice. It wasn't a very fun or restful day for him, and I really just felt bad about it.

However, even though the day started out rough, the kids and I had a pretty good day. We went outside to play in the back yard and on the patio before it got too hot and sunny. The kids were using the tea set and little sink that Owen has to make a pretend restaurant. They were serving me food, and it was cute to see them all interacting and playing together in that way. After we played outside for awhile, we went across the street to check on our neighbor's chickens and cats that we were in charge of caring for while they were out of town. Then, we drove to the library quick to pick up the books we requested to be put on hold since the library is doing pick-up service now. The kids were excited to finally get some new books. We have missed the library being open!

The afternoon went pretty well. Owen took a good nap while Samantha and Aedan played Legos together in the cool basement. While all the kids were occupied, I was able to read through my Exploring the Research Paper and officially submit it.

That night for dinner we had zucchini lasagna followed by strawberry shortcake made with the strawberries we picked on Sunday and the shortcake that Ben lovingly made for us. It was a delicious dinner!

That night after dinner and bath time, the kids got in their pajamas and cozied up on the couch to start watching the movie "Benji" that we got Ben for Father's Day. The kids were really excited to watch it, and neither Ben nor I had ever seen it. It was made in 1974, and it was super cheesy with lots of footage of dogs wandering around town. Ben and I laughed out loud several times, but the kids thought the dogs were cute and were actually enjoying the movie, especially because they got to share the movie with Daddy.

I am trying really hard to stay consistent in exercising, and even though it was a little late by the time we got the kids to bed, I decided to still go out for a run along the lake. I usually go for about fifteen minutes, stop, and then run back home, so I just go as far as I go. I have never run at night before, and the look of dusk falling over Harvey's Lake was just so beautiful. Sometimes I can't believe that we are lucky enough to live in such a beautiful location, with water and mountains right at our doorstep. I had to stop and take pictures.

On Tuesday Ben stayed home with the kids and I went to work on campus in his office. I found out that I got 80% on my last discussion post. I wasn't sure why I did so well on the first ones, but not on the last two. I knew it wasn't a bad grade, but it was shaking my confidence in whether I'm understanding and doing what the professor wants. I decided I would see how I did on the next couple of assignments and then decide if I need to talk to her more. I just didn't want to keep losing points. It's not that I expect myself to get 100% all the time, although I am a little bit of a perfectionist, but I just wanted to do well and be successful in the class.

It was another really warm day and the kids were crabby. There was a mess in every room of the house when I got home from working. The kids took forever cleaning up their mess of Legos in the basement, which has been pretty typical lately. Then, after dinner I went back out again because I had a hair cut appointment. I was tired of my hair being so long, and I was glad to finally have the chance to get it cut off.

On Wednesday morning it wasn't going to be quite so hot, so I made plans to meet up at Frances Slocum with my friend, Grace, and her kids. Even though they are young, everyone had fun playing together, I brought some of our trucks along and the boys enjoyed playing with those in the mulch on the playground. Samantha was really good with their 1 year old, Renee, and they all had a good time playing outside for the morning until everyone was getting hot and hungry.

Owen took awhile to fall asleep for nap time, and I had to wake him up at 4:30 so he wouldn't sleep too long. Again, Samantha and Aedan made a huge mess of Legos in the basement and we had more issues with cleaning up and not cleaning up quickly when they were asked. However, even though Samantha can sulk and make something like that ruin her day, Aedan is always quick to apologize, and he immediately came up to nuzzle into me and say I'm sorry. He's such a sweet boy when he does that, so it's hard to stay upset at him for very long, even though he's the one who is usually responsible for most of the mess.

I was feeling like getting out for dinner that night, and a juicy cheeseburger was sounding good, so we decided to drive down to Wilkes-Barre to eat Five Guys for dinner. We actually sat outside at a picnic table to eat our food, and it was the first time we ate at a restaurant since the pandemic started. It felt so good to be able to do just a simple thing like that. Life felt normal for just a little while. However, Owen does not sit still very often when he eats, so he ended up falling sideways off the bench and hitting his head on a metal bar at the bottom of the table. He burst out into tears, so much so that I had to carry him away from the eating area until he calmed down a little. He was also left with a pretty large bump on his head, poor little guy. However, he was happy to sit next to me on the bench after that and allowed Daddy to help him eat.

I know I've mentioned this before, but Owen is definitely our cuddliest kid. He cuddled with me a lot that day, like after nap time since I had to wake him up, and during dinner when he came over, leaned in to me, and said "I love you" (which he does quite often). He cuddled up to me while watching the rest of Benji that night, and under the covers when I read books to Aedan before bed. I love that he is still so cuddly with us. It makes my heart happy.

After a few days of having trouble getting Samantha and Aedan to not make big messes all over the house and to actually clean up when they are done playing with things, I actually posted something on Facebook, asking for some help from other parents. This is what I said: "This summer is especially challenging because I feel like with the stay-at-home order we have already had a summer type feel for the last 3 months. However, it has been difficult to keep Samantha (9) and Aedan (6) engaged in a productive activity/free play time to pass the afternoons. Let me explain, so Owen (2 1/2) usually naps for a couple hours every afternoon, and Ben and I try to take that time to get work done whether around the house, outside, or on the graduate class that I'm taking or the summer class Ben is teaching. (Ben usually works on campus three days a week or so in the summertime, also.) So we have our own work that we need to be getting done. However, Samantha and Aedan have just been fighting with each other in the afternoons, not playing well, or making complete messes of whatever room they are playing in (e.g. Legos exploded!). I don't want to just rely on technology/screen time to keep them occupied, but it's hard to get work done when we have to be breaking up fights. They also have been terrible about cleaning up their toys when they make messes, and they will eventually clean them up, but sometimes they make the process take hours...when it should be no more than half an hour. With it being the beginning of summer, I feel like we need new strategies/ideas to help our days go smoother, help the afternoons not become a time of fighting so we can get work done, and encourage the kids to clean up when we tell them and in a timely manner. Hopefully this long post makes sense. Any advice from fellow parents out there? Anyone else experiencing something similar? Thanks!" Life as a parent has certainly been challenging lately, and I'm sure our kids are feeling it too.

Thursday night my parents were flying in to visit for a few days, so I took advantage of the day to clean the house while Ben went grocery shopping that morning at Aldi and then to Wegmans to get everything else on the list that Aldi didn't have. After dinner I left to drive down to Allentown to pick up my parents from the airport, and Ben was in charge of putting the kids to bed on his own. However, I didn't mind the drive too much because I was able to talk to my sister on the phone on the way down, and driving by yourself in the peace and quiet of a car without kids is kind of relaxing when you're a parent. We got back to our house late that night, spent some time talking in the kitchen, and got their bed set up in the basement before Ben and I headed off to bed. Owen started crying at one point so I went upstairs to see what was wrong. He said that his leg hurt, so I picked him and held him for a little while in the rocking chair, enjoying even more cuddles with my little boy that is growing bigger by the day. He didn't fall back asleep in my arms, but he was definitely pretty comfortable in the rocking chair with me, so much so that I almost didn't want to put him down.

After looking at the rainy weather predicted for the rest of the weekend, I decided that Friday would be the best day to go out and do something with Grandpa and Grandma outdoors. I heard of people talking about a place called Claws and Paws that was like a mini-zoo. It was about an hour and a half away, and it was smaller and less crowded than going somewhere like Philadelphia. The zoo was really nice because it was pretty shaded, and there was a large variety of animals, even though it was a smaller place. I packed us a picnic lunch to eat, and we were sure to wash our hands a lot, wear masks when needed, and keep our distance from others. However, it's really the first time I have taken the kids anywhere like this since the pandemic started. We have pretty much stayed around state parks and local playgrounds and trails, not going to too many public places. However, this place wasn't too crowded, and I felt comfortable with the safety precautions they had in place. Once again, it was so nice being able to actually go out and do something. It felt like life was normal again, although it made me a little sad for what a normal summer usually looks like for us where we are able to do a lot of family outings like this when the kids have time off school and Ben is more flexible in his work schedule. It's hard to not feel disappointed by all the changed that COVID has caused in so many areas, but I was glad we were able to take the kids to Claws and Paws and really enjoy our day out looking at animals. Here are some pictures from our time at the zoo.

Here are some cute meerkats that we watched for quite awhile...

...an owl...

...some river otters swimming around in the water...

...this cute little guy who came right over by us, sat down, and looked at us, almost like he was expecting us to give him some food...

The lions were pretty interesting as well. One of them kept periodically making this loud roaring noise that the kids found pretty interesting, although Owen was kind of scared by the noise that he was making. I don't know why it was making that noise. Some other people nearby were joking around that he was coughing up a hairball, which maybe that was the case! It was amazing just how loud that noise was, and I commented to the kids about how loud a real roar would sound like if we heard a lion in the wild.

Here are the kids posing by a giraffe statue.

I paid an additional fee so the kids could feed the giraffe. We got in line for the 2:00 feeding, and they each got a few carrots to feed to the giraffe. I was worried that Owen might be too afraid to feed it, but he was brave enough to do it, too. The kids thought it was really fun to feed the giraffe.

As the afternoon went on, the boys (especially Aedan) were getting more and more tired, and not so happy about walking around the zoo, but Samantha was having a blast. This kind of thing is right up Samantha's alley, and she would spend all day walking around the zoo, watching the animals, and learning about them. We always had to keep moving her along while telling Aedan to slow down and stay with us. Owen was getting tired, so I was carrying him a lot of the time at this point.

This is a picture of a butterfly on a rock that Samantha wanted me to take.

They had an area where the kids could go in and pet turtles. They had to wear masks since we were in closer proximity with each other. There were a lot of turtles in this exhibit! So much so that Owen was backing away from a turtle at one point, and he almost stepped on/tripped over another turtle that was behind him. I called out his name and grabbed his arm to help him, and even though I didn't do it in a harsh manner, I think it surprised him (plus, he was tired), so he just burst into tears and acted afraid of the turtles after that.

I also got the kids tickets to the petting zoo because they always enjoyed that as well. They got a cup full of food to feed the goats, and they all had a blast doing that, too. Samantha and Aedan were able to go off by themselves and do it, whereas I held the cup for Owen and just gave him a little bit at a time so it wouldn't all spill out. I was so proud of how brave Owen was to feed both the giraffe and goats. I just love the simple joys of being a child and that just feeding goats can be so exciting. Here are some videos of the kids with the goats.

Here's a monkey sitting on a branch.

I can't remember what kind of animal this was, but he looked a little like an anteater, and he was very interested in the people outside watching him, so much so that he was trying to climb up the fence.

And the kids paused to take pictures in the sign that made them look like a gorilla. I love these cute, silly kids, and we were having a great day together.

Our last two things for the day were a couple buildings with reptiles, insects, and things like that. The kids were really impressed by this HUGE snake!

And here was a Mommy, Daddy, and Baby Otter that weren't ready to be put in the otter habitat yet because the baby needed to learn how to swim.

We stayed at the zoo until after 3:00, and we had a great day together seeing animals with Grandpa and Grandma. I hoped that Owen would nap on the way home in the car, but that was not happening. He had passed his prime point of being tired, but he just sat happily and looked at books and talked to himself the whole way back home.

Ben went to work that day and also had a big meeting that afternoon with the president of Wilkes that he was nervous about. I thought about him and prayed for him whenever he came to my mind that afternoon. We planned to cook out for dinner that night, so Ben started to work on that as we made our way back home.

After having dinner that night and helping get the kids somewhat ready for bed, I left to go down to Wilkes-Barre for a baby shower for my friend, Alysse. It was held in another friend's backyard, and it was really nice to see all these ladies that I hadn't seen in a really long time. Again, after having a day at the zoo, having my parents visiting, and then going to a baby shower, it almost felt like normal life again, and I didn't realize how much I had been craving stuff like this to be taking place again.

Saturday was a rainy day, and I had a lot of work to do for my class, so I tried to stay in our bedroom and get things done while my parents were here to interact with the kids. It was really nice having two extra pairs of hands to help me out, and even though I felt a little guilty about not spending more time with them, I was glad to be able to have time to devote to my work. This class takes up a lot of my time!

Here's another silly picture that Owen asked  me to take of him when I put him to bed that night. He is so funny with the faces he makes when the light flashes! Plus, do you see his special monkey next to him? He loves that stuffed animal and sleeps with him every night. He has to be tucked under the covers right along with Owen.

(Blog about June 21-27, 2020)