The Last Week of Summer

Samantha: 63 Months, Week 3
Aedan: 28 Months, Week 1

Since this was our last week of summer before Samantha begins kindergarten and is in school full time, I wanted to make sure we did a few more fun things before our schedule forces us to be around town more and to bed earlier at night. I did have to get a few chores and errands done, so I tried to get those out of the way at the beginning of the week so we could play the rest of the week. On Tuesday morning I had to get the grocery shopping done, so after playing in the house for awhile, we got that errand taken care of. Here are a few pictures Ben took of the kids that morning after they got up and got dressed for the day. They both decided to wear their Cubs shirts. Samantha has really enjoyed matching clothes with people lately.

Our day was a little busy because I also had to drop Roscoe off at the groomer for a hair cut right around lunch time, which made lunch time and getting ready for nap time a little hectic. I thought about having Samantha nap that afternoon, but with school starting in a week, I knew she needed to start getting used to not napping during the day, especially during the week. However, when she got out of her room from quiet time, she was acting very tired and was refusing to do things that I asked her to do without crying and whining about it. She had a pretty interrupted sleep on Monday night with getting up to go potty twice and then also coming downstairs once to wake me up and tell me that she had a bad dream. She's been doing that a lot more lately. She never came into our room previously, but for some reason since we've moved to our new house, she has come downstairs a handful of times and will stand by my side of the bed and tap my shoulder to wake me up. It's been for a few different reasons, like a mosquito bite that was itching her, not being able to find her blankie, or having bad dreams. It sometimes surprises me to be awoken from sleep to find her standing next to my bed, but I find it interesting that she always chooses to wake me up, not Ben. I don't know why, but I'll take it, because I feel like she prefers Daddy during the day a lot of the time because he is sillier and rough houses with her more.

On Tuesday evening we had a very special occasion: Meet the Teacher night at Samantha's school. She was really looking forward to this night when she could meet her teacher, see her classroom, and see where she would sit and hang up her backpack. However, as we got ready to leave for her school, Samantha came down to the bathroom while I was finishing getting ready. I sprayed some perfume on myself, so then Samantha reached into the cabinet to get perfume out, too. She has done this before, so it didn't worry me. However, just as she was in the middle of asking me if she could use perfume, she already had the cap off and sprayed it right into her eyes. Immediately Samantha started screaming and crying, saying that her eyes hurt, which I'm sure they did. I got a towel wet and tried wiping her face off, but she still said that her eyes were burning. They were very red, and she kept blinking because they were still feeling so irritated. I wasn't sure what to do or even how much spray she actually got in her eyes. It was time for us to leave for Meet the Teacher night, and I was frustrated that Samantha was all ready to go and wasn't patient enough to wait to spray until after she asked. I would have gladly sprayed some perfume on her for her. I know it's good to flush your eyes out with water when you get chemical sprays in it, so I had her lay on the counter and put her head under the water so I could rinse out her eye. Needless to say, she was not a fan of this, and her hair was getting all wet and messed up. I tried my best to clean her eyes out, but the water hitting her eyeball felt weird, so she wasn't very willing to hold her eye open for me. I did the best I could, and then I just had her sit on the counter until she could calm down some. She was crying and hyperventilating, and her face and eyes were bright red from crying. This was not the most ideal thing to have happen right before going to school to meet her teacher for the first time.

After hugs and consoling, I was able to calm her down enough to head out to see her teacher and classroom. Ben has a class from 5-6 so he wasn't able to come. I put Aedan in the stroller so that he wouldn't try to run away from me or get into things in Sissy's classroom. We met Samantha's teachers, Ms. Cornwell and Ms. Newell, and they seemed like really nice ladies. Like all the kindergarten classes, Samantha has 22 kids in her class, including herself, and she is sitting at a table with three other students, two boys and one girl. We thought it was funny that the boy sitting right next to her was named Aidan, so that will be easy for Samantha to remember. Here is Samantha sitting at her table in her special spot in the classroom.

The kids had a little scavenger hunt to complete to find different areas of the classroom, and once we completed that we got a picture with Ms. Cornwell before it was time to go back home.

Here are a couple pictures of Samantha's classroom. It is very neat and tidy. There's lots of natural light coming in through the windows. There are plenty of activities and areas for free play, as well as a couple rugs where kids can sit to listen to stories or to do work not at their tables. The classroom is very nice, and I am excited for Samantha to start school here. I think we made a good choice in schools for Samantha. I know she will have a wonderful school year because she is smart, kind, obedient, helpful, hard-working, wants to please, and loves to learn new things.

On Wednesday morning after walking/biking over to campus with Daddy and dropping him off at his office, we went to the playground across the street from our house to play for awhile. This was an activity Samantha requested, and I was glad to oblige. However, shortly after arriving there, Samantha chose to go on the swings. She knows how to swing and how to pump her legs back and forth, but for some reason she was just flailing her legs around and getting frustrated that she was getting nowhere on her swing. I am glad to give her a push or two to get her started, if she asks nicely and is actually trying to pump on her own. However, I knew she wasn't really trying on this occasion, so I didn't give in and help her until she tried to solve the problem on her own. I just went on pushing Aedan until Samantha calmed down enough to actually start pumping her legs on her won. I didn't say anything for awhile, and then once she actually got herself going and was really fast and really high, I said, "See? Once you stopped freaking out and flailing your feet around, you were able to push yourself just as high as I would be if I were pushing you. You just have to try, and it's not going to help the problem to cry and freak out about it." I hoped she learned a good lesson from that experience.

I did take the kids out to a couple places that Wednesday morning. I wanted to look for another pair of tennis shoes for Samantha, as well as some rain boots. We made a special stop at a cupcake place to purchase some cupcakes as a little snack. We took our mini-cupcakes, found a bench downtown, and enjoyed our sweet treat together. After looking at a couple places for shoes, we ended up at Payless. Both kids got their feet measured, and Samantha measured bigger than I expected. After some convincing, I steered her away from the Frozen light-up shoes, and she picked some black and pink shoes with lots of different colors on the sides, like the Lisa Frank patterns back in the day. Samantha needs to have a separate pair of shoes for gym class, so I figured another pair of tennis shoes would be helpful. We then went through the drive-thru at Biggby coffee to use our buy one get one free coupon for some coffee for Daddy and me.

I gave Samantha the option that afternoon to either not take a nap and stay home from the concert in the park, or take a nap and then be able to stay out later at the concert. It was the last one we would be able to attend since school starts next week, and Samantha will not be able to be out late on a school night. After eating potato soup, bread, and green beans for dinner, we headed out for the concert. It was a bit of a chilly evening, so I had the kids wear sweaters just in case. The band was a Mo-town type band, and there were several kids dancing around up in front, so Samantha wasted no time going up to join them. Aedan danced some, too, but he was more concerned about getting back to the chairs to eat popcorn every couple minutes. I didn't know how it would go taking the kids to the concert on my own, since Ben has night class from 6-8 on Mondays and Wednesdays, but I figured it would be worth a shot. Plus, it was one more grasp at summer time fun. The kids really enjoy going to the concert, eating popcorn, dancing to the music, and then running around in the locks park for awhile. It was a good evening, and by the time we got home, Daddy was done with class which made the kids extremely happy. They sure do miss him when he's gone, and these days with the late night classes make for very long days for everyone involved. However, Ben had no choice in the schedule since he was coming in as a new professor and the schedule was already set ahead of time. Plus, he is getting paid extra for teaching overtime hours which is also helpful for us to get more secure financially after depleting most of our bank accounts moving up here, starting over, and not getting paid for three months. Anyways, here is a picture and video of the kids dancing that evening at the concert.

Since Ben has to be on campus a lot later due to his evening classes, he has been staying around the house longer in the morning. It's been nice for him to be able to play with the kids in the morning, since he misses out on some time with them at night. While they were all downstairs together, the kids found our Cubs hats and decided to run upstairs and show off their cool look. I think they both look pretty cute in baseball hats!

It was a bit chilly this week, only getting to the low 70s as a high. I wanted to take the kids to Sherman Park one more time for the summer so they could play and also swim in the water and dig in the sand. I had them get their swim suits on, and I packed a picnic lunch for us, hoping that it would at least be nice enough to play after the sun had been out for awhile. However, it was a lot windier than I realized it would be once we got to the water. The kids were shivering a little as we ate our lunch, so I told them it would be best to not get in the water at all, but that we could stay and play on the playground for awhile. There were a couple other kids there that were actually camping for the weekend, so Samantha really enjoyed interacting and playing with them. It was a fun time out at the playground, even if we couldn't actually go in the water or play on the beach. Maybe it will be warm again another day and we can try to go then.

I had been looking forward to Friday for awhile because we were going to take advantage of the fact that Samantha wasn't in school yet and go on a day trip together as a family. The weather actually cooperated this time and it was going to be sunny and in the mid-70s, perfect weather. So, we planned to take the kids to Mackinac Island for the day. We bought tickets for the Arnold Transit Line ferry because it was the cheapest out of the ones we looked at and to our kids the boat ride was going to be cool enough as it was. A boat left at 9:00 a.m., and we decided that would be the best boat to ride on so that we could get to the island and maximize the time the kids were in good moods. They were pretty excited about the boat ride to island, as neither of them had really been on anything like that before. We sat in seats and looked around for awhile, but you know how it is with kids, they don't sit for very long, so we were up walking around the boat, watching the captain drive the boat, and looking out over the side of the boat at the water and the Mackinac Bridge in the background.

Once we got on the island, we walked around a little bit, found a map at the information center, and made our way over to this grassy area in front of the fort. Everything on Mackinac Island costs a lot of money since it is such a tourist trap, so our only plan was to rent bikes at some point to bike around the island. Samantha really wanted to go on a horse-drawn carriage ride, but it was definitely too expensive, which we tried to explain to her. We stopped in this grassy area in front of the statue to have a little snack before making our way to a playground to let the kids run around an play for awhile. It was nice that we didn't have too much of an agenda, we just wanted to do whatever looked fun and interesting to us.

After the kids played on the playground for awhile, we decided to walk through the main part of the town and up the road to the Grand Hotel. This hotel is too well-known not to check it out. However, they charge $10 a person (for an adult) just to be able to go into the hotel and walk around. I thought that was a little ridiculous, but I could also understand how they wouldn't want thousands of people traipsing around the hotel when they have paying guests trying to enjoy their experience. The hotel was elegant and decadent, which we expected it to be considering they call themselves the Grand Hotel. Here are a couple pictures of the inside.

After seeing the inside of the hotel, we made our way to the outside patio that stretches the entire length of the hotel, with rocking chairs up and down the patio for people to sit on to take in the wonderful views of the Mackinac Bridge.

After seeing the hotel, we went down into the gardens for awhile and had fun walking (or running, in the kids' case) around the labyrinth.

Once we made our way out, Samantha wanted her picture taken on this bench with a carved out turtle statue. She is sitting on top of the turtle and it's head is sticking out between her legs. I'm not quite sure why they both have their hands up in the air. Samantha was just doing it to be funny, I think, and Aedan will copy anything his big sister is doing.

We walked back to the main area of town to eat some lunch before renting bikes for the afternoon. We got a tagalong bike for Samantha where she was just hooked on to the back of Daddy's bike. She could pedal or she could just ride, whatever she wanted to do, and she thought that was pretty cool. We got a bike trailer for Aedan to sit in, and that was attached to my bike. We left the screen up so that Aedan could see better and feel the cool breeze as we rode our bikes. It was really fun riding bikes around the island together.

About halfway around, we stopped at a beach to let the kids play and throw rocks in the water. Aedan was pretty comfortable in the bike trailer and looked like he was almost asleep when we pulled over to stop. However, he perked up pretty quickly when it was time to get out and play. We had Samantha take her pants off so she could wade in the water without getting herself all wet, and I took Aedan's pants off as well which at first made him very uncomfortable and he kept asking for shorts to put on. This beach was full of rocks, so Ben and I just sat down together and watched our kids play and throw rocks. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we were having a great time together as a family.

It was so fun just playing and relaxing, but we had to get on our bikes to ride the rest of the way around the island to return our bikes and make the 3:00 ferry back to St. Ignace. The next ferry wasn't until 5:00, and we didn't want to wait that long. For some reason the lady that helped us with our bikes told us to go around the island clockwise, even though Ben had read on the internet that the best way to go is counter-clockwise. We listened to the lady, but I'm pretty sure she told us the wrong direction. Most everyone was going the other direction, and it seemed like we were going uphill and against the wind a lot more than the people coming the other way. Nevertheless, we made it back to the bike stand with plenty of time, and I was even able to go to a local coffee shop to buy some coffee for Ben and me and a fruit smoothie for the kids to share.

Once back on the boat, the kids were super excited to drink their strawberry-banana smoothie with whipped cream on top. (Who knew they would be so easy to please!) Then, we just enjoyed our boat ride back to the mainland. We spent a lot of time up in the front of the ship looking out over the water. We had such a wonderful family day, and I'm so glad we were able to do this together. The kids had a blast, Ben and I had a blast, and I'm so glad we could spend these last days of summer together. Here are my two wonderful little kiddos. I just love watching them interact with one another.

On the way back home from our day trip, Aedan felt asleep right away in the car with his paci. Samantha probably could have fallen asleep, but she didn't let herself, choosing to color instead, but that's okay because it was only a forty-five minute drive anyways. Then, we spent the rest of the evening relaxing at home, cooking out hot dogs for dinner, and I cleaned the house while Samantha and Aedan locked Daddy up in jail in the basement. This is one of their favorite games to play with him lately. They will "lock him up" in jail somewhere, fully expecting him to escape. Then, they will go in the other room and wait for him to escape. Once they've discovered that he escaped, they go look for him in his hiding place, and then he will jump out at them and chase them around. The kids love playing this game, and I can always hear shrieks of delight coming up from the basement.

Saturday was the day the kids had been waiting for all week because Ema and Papa were coming to visit us from Upland. They drove part of the way on Friday night and then stopped in a hotel, so they still had a few hours to drive on Saturday morning. Instead of impatiently waiting around the house, we decided to let Samantha ride her bike and Aedan ride his tricycle over to campus while there weren't students around. We stopped by the Norris Center first to that I could get my guest membership pass to use to get in to the Norris Center, whether for swimming in the pool or going to work out in the fitness center. It's nice that I can get a pass for only $30 because at Miami it was so expensive to become a member of recreation center, that we could never afford that, not even for Ben. It's also wonderful living right down the street because we can just walk there in two minutes from our house, meaning that we can utilize the facilities a lot more.

Anyways, the kids had a good time riding their bikes around campus, climbing on rocks, and enjoying the sunshine while they waited for Ema and Papa to arrive.

Ema and Papa arrived between 11:00 and 11:30, and the kids were SO excited. They couldn't wait to run outside and give them great big hugs. Then, the kids took them all around the house to show them their rooms, our decorations, and the play room in the basement. They hadn't been here since we moved in at the beginning of June, so it looked much different than the last time they were here. Ema and Papa got to work being great grandparents by playing blocks in the basement and reading books to both of them after lunch.

Once we got the kids down for naps, we put the grandparents to work around our house. They brought special tools along with them to help us cut floor and trim to go around the dishwasher and base of our cabinets in the kitchen. Bill tried to help fix the light above our counter that doesn't work, but it doesn't seem to be reparable. He also fixed the water spout on our sink so that it wasn't lopsided anymore. Donna and I went outside and got to work on cleaning out the rest of the garden area in front and on the side of our house. She helped me pull weeds and cut off dead branches. She helped me know how to cut back my bushes to help them grow back even fuller. She dug out trees that had sprouted up, and between the two of us and 3 hours of work, we pretty much cleared up the whole area, something that I've wanted to get done for a long time. These pictures aren't the greatest because of the shade from the trees, but it give you a little glimpse of the before and after view of the front of the house. Now that it's cleaned up, next spring I will be able to get new bushes and plants planted to really spruce up the look of the front of the house.

Before

After

I felt like we had a really productive afternoon getting work done at the house, and I was very grateful for the help from Bill and Donna. Owning a home for the first time is overwhelming at times, especially when neither Ben nor me are particularly handy or know much about troubleshooting problems around the house. We were grateful for some help of seasoned home owners and experienced do-it-yourselfers.

Saturday evening we decided to go out to eat at Zorba's, the local Greek restaurant, before going over the to see the locks. The kids have been to the locks a lot this summer, and a boat slowly rising in the water is not that interesting to a kid in the first place, so I just took the kids over to the park to let them run around and climb trees while Ben stayed back with the grandparents to watch the boat go through the locks.

On Sunday we relaxed some in the morning before going to church together. Then after lunch and getting the kids down for naps, Ben took the grandparents on a walk around campus. When Samantha woke up from her nap, she wasn't feeling the greatest. She looked pretty tired and almost like she wasn't feeling well, and she complained of her tummy hurting, so she and I just sat and cuddled on the couch together while we watched a show. During the past week Samantha finished all the pages in the workbook that we've been working on all summer to help her keep up with what she learned in preschool about letters, numbers, shapes, patterns, and handwriting. Her handwriting has greatly improved, and I'm pleased to say that she almost always makes her letters with the correct form now instead of starting at the bottom and going backwards. It's amazing how just doing a few pages a day like that can boost her skills so dramatically. She is a smart girl, and she will learn so much in her days at school.

On Sunday evening I made a Mexican casserole dish for dinner, and Ema always likes to have ice cream after eating Mexican food, so we decided to make a trip to Dairy Queen. Ema and Papa walked there, while the rest of us road on our bikes. The kids were very excited to get their ice cream cones while the adults enjoyed their blizzards. Samantha did a fantastic job riding there on her bike, but for some reason she tired out quickly on the way back. She didn't want to pedal anymore, but we told her she had to because there was no other way to get her bike back home. So from then on, she cried pretty much the whole way back home. We had no idea what was going on and why she was crying so much. She took a nap that afternoon so she shouldn't have been that tired even though she was acting like she was very overtired. Kids are strange sometimes and oftentimes their actions and emotions are a mystery or nonsensical.

Monday was Labor Day, so Ema and Papa were able to stay through Monday morning, which was nice. We decided to go out to the Point Iroquois Lighthouse to show them the beautiful view of Lake Superior, kind of as a little outing before they had to hit the road. We left about 9:00 so that way they could spend some time there before driving back to Upland. We had a fun morning together, and I think it was a good distraction for the kids to say good-bye to Ema and Papa while we were already out doing something fun. It made them a lot less sad about it. Ema and Papa left around 10:30 or so, but the rest of us stayed at the lighthouse for awhile, playing some more and having some crackers as a snack.

Once we were done at the lighthouse, I suggested that we stop at a local pizza place called Superior Pizza & Subs for lunch. It had really good reviews from people in the area, and so far we haven't found a pizza place that we really like, so we were excited to try this place. We got some garlic knots as an appetizer, and the waitress put on Nick Jr. for the kids while we waited for our pizza. Oh man, this pizza was delicious! By far our favorite pizza place. In fact, Ben remarked that we haven't had pizza like this since Mother Bear's in Bloomington. This pizza place is in Brimley, so it's probably about 15-20 minutes away from our house which is the downfall, but it may be worth it to drive to Brimley when we really have a hankering for good pizza.

The rest of Monday evening we spent at home, spending the last few moments of summer together. We ate dinner early, had Samantha take a shower, and we got all ready for her first day of kindergarten on Tuesday, September 6th. I can't believe that we have a kid in kindergarten now. I can't believe that Samantha is old enough, but at the same time, I know that she is old enough, and I know that she is ready for it. Ema and Papa left behind a sweet little note for Samantha to read before going to bed that night, and here is a video of her listening to Ben read it out loud. It was so sweet and thoughtful of them to take the time to encourage Samantha in that way.

(Blog about August 30-September 5, 2016)

My Trip Alone with the Kids to Chicago

Samantha: 63 Months, Week 2
Aedan, 27 Months, Week 4

As I wrote my blog from last week, I forgot to include this picture of the kids posing with Ronald McDonald outside the McDonald's that we stopped at for lunch. Too silly and cute not to include.

Well, even though we made it to Chicago, Aurora to be exact, I was totally exhausted on Monday evening as I sat in the living room with Matthew and Christy. I also didn't sleep very well that night because of various things waking me up and then Aedan was up making noise at 5:40. I told him to go back to sleep, but it was pretty bright in the room he was sleeping in. He got quiet, so hopefully he actually fell back asleep. Samantha's bedroom only had blinds covering the windows, so it was also pretty bright in her room that morning. I put a clock in her room so she would know not to get up before 7:00, but she started talking as soon as the clock turned 7:00, so you could tell she had been up for awhile just waiting for the clock to change. Needless to say, the kids were tired that morning and weren't exactly in the best of moods.

Christy and I wanted to take the kids to the Brookfield Zoo and Tuesday was the only day without a chance for rain, so we planned to spend the day at the zoo. Samantha and Aedan were up at 7:00 that morning, but we didn't get out of the house for awhile because Christy had a Comcast guy at the house connecting their internet and TV. He showed up at 7:40, which was nice, but we obviously had to be around while he was working. It's difficult to get showered with three kids around, and I felt bad leaving Christy in charge of all three kids, but I was able to sneak a quick shower in which helped me to feel more alive. Then, I had to switch the car seats over to Christy's car so that we could all ride together, and that always takes much longer then you'd think. I think that's one of the hardest things about being alone with the kids because I have to do everything by myself. I don't realize how much I rely on Ben's help until I have to do it all on my own. We eventually got out the door and arrived at the zoo a little after 11:00. It was a warm, sunny day, and after stopping for a potty break and getting tickets for the dolphin show later in the afternoon, we started walking around the zoo. 

We didn't see too many animals in the first exhibits we visited because they must have been inside or off resting in the shade. As it was getting close to noon, Samantha and Aedan were starting to lose it. They weren't listening anymore. Aedan didn't want to ride in the stroller, but he also wouldn't stay with us as we walked. In fact, he actually ran away from me one time, which caused him to get a time out right by the giraffe exhibit. Then, the kids were trying to look through these binoculars that gave you a view like you were a giraffe. Aedan wanted a turn, but Samantha wouldn't move out of the way for him, pushing him and causing him to scream. So then I gave her a time out. It was at this point, when both my kids were crying and melting down, and Christy and Brielle were just waiting for me to deal with their misbehavior, that I wondered why I even thought it was a good idea to bring them to the zoo. Samantha and Aedan were just so tired, and going out for the day, right after we were just in the car all day the day before and didn't get enough sleep the night before, probably was not the best idea. I was tired of dealing with them whining, crying, and fighting, so it was not the greatest day so far.

After the time outs, I decided it was time for us to stop to eat lunch. Christy was nice enough to pack a lunch for us, and we found a picnic table to eat at. However, something I should have realized ahead of time, the bees really liked the picnic area and especially liked our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and yogurt. It was difficult to keep the bees away, and Samantha overreacts terribly to bees flying around her. Instead of just eating her food, she was too worried about the bees flying around her. Eventually I had her just get up and eat so that she could walk away from any bee flying near her. However, at one point a bee landed on the lid to Samantha's yogurt, and she just freaked out crying and dropped her yogurt, causing it to spill all over the ground. At this point, I took her over to a picnic table off to the side so she could have a time out and just calm herself. I was pretty frustrated with her behavior because I felt like she was causing our day to be no fun. I wasn't able to really talk with Christy much because I feel like all I was doing was monitoring the kids' behavior. I was exhausted already, and it was only noon.

Once we were finished with our lunch, we let the kids play on the playground and then went to look at the bears before going into the large monkey house. Samantha and Aedan did much better after lunch, so maybe they were just hungry and that was part of the reason for their crankiness. Even though they had a snack right when we got to the zoo, sometimes I forget that hunger can cause so many problems. We had a good rest of the afternoon seeing all the monkeys and walking around the zoo a little more until it was time to see the dolphin show at 2:30.

The kids were all pretty excited about the dolphin show. We used to go to the dolphin show at the Indianapolis Zoo all the time, but it's been a couple years since we've been to that zoo, and Aedan had never seen a dolphin show before. It was a little difficult trying to keep Aedan in one place during the show, but everyone thought it was pretty cool to see the  dolphins swimming and jumping out of the water. Here's a great picture of my sister and I with all the kids. What a great picture of everyone!

Aedan was very tired and fell asleep before we even left the parking lot of the zoo. Samantha was tired, too, but she was distracted by the movie on Brielle's DVD player and didn't fall asleep until we were like five minutes from the house. It was okay though because we planned on having an early bedtime that night. When we got back to the house, the kids played for a little while before dinner. Here's a cute picture of Brielle and Aedan playing with play-doh together.

Christy made tacos for dinner which the kids ate well, then it was time for all the kids to take a bath. It was kind of funny having all the cousins in the bathtub together. They had fun splashing around playing with toys together. After bath time, I got the kids ready for bed, we were able to Face Time with Daddy, and then the kids got to bed early. I was hoping for a better night's sleep that night and more well-rested kids the next day.

On Wednesday morning Samantha again was making noise right at 7:00. Everyone else in the house was still asleep, so I had her color quietly in her room for awhile so she wouldn't wake everyone up. Once Aedan got up, I let her come downstairs, and then the kids and I played together until Christy and Brielle got up. The kids really liked the cats, especially this one you can see in the picture, whom Samantha affectionately called Coley-cat.

Wednesday was a pretty low-key day. It was rainy most of the morning, and Christy was watching Ava, so we just hung around the house, played, had waffles for breakfast, and eventually played outside once the weather cleared up. I had Samantha take a nap that afternoon as well as Aedan because I knew it would be a later night with family coming over to hang out. I stayed in the room with Samantha and laid on the floor until she fell asleep. It took awhile for her to calm down, but she gave up eventually, and I was glad. We had a few moments that morning that she was very emotional and was pushing my buttons. I was grateful for a few moments of peace and quiet while the kids slept.

On Wednesday evening Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Matt came over for dinner and to spend some time with us. Christy made a good pasta dish for dinner, the kids played outside in the backyard, and then we out for ice cream at Oberweis. The kids all enjoyed their birthday cake ice cream and played with the chess pieces when they were finished.

The kids got to bed a little later on Wednesday night since we went out for ice cream, but they were in pretty good moods on Thursday morning. We planned to go to the DuPage Children's Museum since we all could get in on Christy's pass. I hoped that we could all stay together so that Christy and I could talk to each other more while the kids played. But you know how kids are, all three of them were off in different directions and sometimes I didn't even know where Christy and Brielle were. Nevertheless, the kids had a lot of fun playing with and exploring all the different hands-on exhibits. This is definitely a fun museum to spend a couple hours playing. Here are some pictures from our day at the museum.

We bought lunch at the museum so that way we didn't have to worry about bringing food with us. Then, we spent a little more time in the upstairs of the museum. The kids were getting tired, so a little after 1:00 we decided to head back to the house. Samantha went to the bathroom right before we left, and we headed out the door. However, as soon as we left the building, she started whining about needing to go to the bathroom again. I was not about to take her back in to go to the bathroom when she just went. Plus, we only had to drive fifteen minutes to be back at the house, and I knew she could hold it until then. I held my ground, but it was difficult because Samantha continued to whine and cry and carry on, all the way down the block and half to the car and most of the way back to the house. It was taking all my energy to keep calm and not get angry. I knew Samantha was tired and was overreacting. I knew she would not pee her pants and could hold it. I tried my best to ignore her, and after awhile of not getting attention from me in the car, she actually stopped whining and just sat calmly. Once we got back to the house, it was nap time for all the kids and this time I didn't stay in the room with Samantha because it didn't seem to help the previous day. All was quiet, and she slept a little over an hour, which is pretty good for her. Aedan slept past 5:00, and I actually had to wake him up. He was definitely a tired little boy.

Thursday evening we had more family coming over. Grandma and Don, Grandpa and Grandma, and Uncle Matt. We decided to just order deep dish pizza that night so Christy wouldn't have to make dinner for everyone. We got Lou Malnati's, which is my favorite kind, and it made me happy to have deep dish pizza again. Samantha and Aedan were in really good moods on Thursday evening, finally acting like themselves after getting caught up on sleep. It was nice for my family to be able to see who they really are, not the tired overly emotional kids they were before. The kids all had a really fun time playing outside in the backyard, climbing on the play set, digging in the sandbox, coloring and playing games with chalk, and enjoying the attention of various family members. It was a really nice evening, and a good way to spend our last night in Chicago.

Samantha really enjoyed Grandpa Don. He is so good with kids, and she just soaked up his one-on-one attention. He actually got down on the ground and colored with chalk with her and also challenged her to a few games of tic-tac-toe.

At one point Samantha pretended to be a kitty and crawled around in the grass. Aedan joined in, as he usually does, and followed her across the grass. Well, Brielle decided she had to get in on the action as well, so she crawled behind Aedan. It was so adorable to watch the younger kids following behind Samantha, copying her every move. You don't realize how much younger siblings look up to older siblings until you observe your own children interacting with each other.

Even though it was getting close to 8:00 and the kids should have been getting ready for bed, everyone was having so much fun that I let it continue for awhile. It was fun to see Samantha and Aedan interacting with and forming bonds with my family. Even though it was a crazy trip coming here by myself and dealing with cranky kids for the first half of it, I'm glad we came and spent this time with everyone.

I tried to be as ready as I could on Friday so we could get on the road, especially with losing an hour, but we didn't head out as early as I would have liked. However, our drive went pretty well. The kids really did great for being stuck in the car most of the day. We stopped once mid-morning for a potty break, stopped at a McDonald's for lunch and time to play, and then stopped at a rest area for another potty break after nap time. We went through some traffic getting around Grand Rapids, so I told the kids to wait until after we got through  the traffic to fall asleep so they wouldn't get woken up by the stop and go of the car. I put a book on CD for Samantha to listen to while in the traffic, but Aedan ended up falling asleep anyways. Unlike on our way down, Samantha actually let herself fall asleep and slept for almost an hour. Then, she just sat quietly while Aedan continued to sleep for another hour. Here are my cute kiddos fast asleep in the back of the car.

The last hour or so everyone was getting antsy to get home and see Daddy. Even though we would get home close to 8:00 Michigan time, I decided it would be better to just push through and eat a late dinner at home all together. Many people thought I was crazy to take a trip like this on by myself, and maybe I was, but I would say it was a successful trip to Chicago and a successful trip as the first time with just the kids and me.

It was so good to be back home with everyone back in their own beds. Ben even let me sleep until after 9:00 on Saturday morning. The rest of the weekend we just spent playing at home and relaxing together. It was nice not to have anything on the agenda. Plus, it was another rainy weekend which gave us another reason to stay inside.

On Sunday night after dinner we decided to take a bike ride to Dairy Queen to get ice cream as an early celebration for Ben's first day of teaching. His new schedule has him teaching an evening class on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6-8, so we wouldn't be able to go on his real first day of school, as is tradition in his family. Samantha was excited to ride her bike again, especially now that we fixed her handlebars so she wasn't falling off her bike as much. I pulled Aedan in the bike carrier, and Ben helped Samantha by riding behind her. It was a fun little outing, and even though it was a little cooler than the last time we went to get ice cream, we all got very messy eating our melting ice cream cones. But that's half the fun of it!

It still is strange to me that school doesn't start until after Labor Day in Michigan due to tourism, so even though Ben started his semester on Monday, August 29, Samantha doesn't start kindergarten for another week, on Tuesday, September 6. It was nice to have a week to kind of ease back into the routine of school, plus it was nice having another week with my little girl before she goes to school full time. We stayed around the house on Monday because I had to mow the lawn. The kids did a great job playing outside together, looking at slugs in the grass, and moving rocks from one place to another with Ben's play tractor from when he was a kid. It's fun to see what they come up with to play when left to their own devices. They were both getting along really well that morning, and I enjoyed watching them interact. The one thing I know for sure is that there will be two people at home sorely missing Samantha's presence come next Tuesday, but I have a feeling Aedan will be missing his Sissy more that we could ever know. When she is around, he wants to spend every moment with her, copies everything she does, and looks up to her in every way. I'm so glad they've had this summer to spend so much time together.

(Blog about August 23-29, 2016)