summer week 9

The end of summer vacation.  This was our most "lazy summer days" kind of week.  Mark went back to school for meetings and classroom set up/planning. Jared, Lydia and I bought school supplies one day.  We stopped by Baker Butler one morning for back to school pictures then went out to donuts to celebrate after. We visited the library to turn in our last summer reading challenge. Went to a friends house for lunch, slip n sliding, and playing, and Mark took Jared and Lydia swimming twice.  I ordered a few new items for preschool and that got Jared and Lydia down in the basement and they rediscovered how fun our basement can be. Mark and a friend also installed a new sliding glass door in the basement. It was a fun relaxing week. I could not handle a whole summer of that much free unplanned time but the week before school was a great time to do it. I know I am one of the few people who don't really look forward to summer vacation but each year keeps getting better and better.  It's so great.  Charlottesville is for sure a big part of it. For all the negative press it got last week I really love this place and the people here.

New door.  This project like all projects we take on, ended up being more complicated than hoped for but they got it done and it looks great.  The old door really needed to go. Nobody could open it from the outside which was really unhelpful.  Its especially great that it is done before preschool starts.

Surfer Girl. 

These girls have grown a lot in their friendship. I'm glad they can be buddies a majority of the time now. And, I want a porch swing or in my case a "deck swing" since I don't have a porch, so badly!  

 I hope we make it happen this Fall.

Jared did such an awesome job on his reading challenge he is sad it is over.  Lydia did great too.  I love this summer tradition. We will see what theme they pick next year!

Up the wall and onto the ceiling. He was very proud of this. And he of course chose money pieces. 

Lydia has been into Koalas the last 6 months or so so this is an eucalyptus tree,  I tried to add a Koala at the beginning but she wanted to wait.

 

A common sight this summer. I loved it. 

We also got more....

Peaches!  Because we didn't already have enough.  Some friends let us know of a great deal they found on their way home from Pennsylvania.  A bushel of peaches for 15 dollars.  Mark was pretty excited.  It was really nice of them to pick us up some and he did a great job getting them all cut up and then finding spots for all of them in the freezer.  We currently have 17 one gallon Ziploc bags in our freezer.  There is a distinct difference between smoothies with fresh and canned peaches.  It is great that Mark is willing to do all the work.  

Summer week 8

Week 8 for us included hours of reading, kid dates, a trip into Washington DC, Kindergarten camp, celebrating Mark's birthday at Walnut Creek, paddling/floating down 8 miles of the Shenandoah River, preschool news, finishing cleaning the grout in the kitchen (a much more time consuming task than I hoped it would be), a rough Saturday which included a complete stranger crashing into a tree at the top of our driveway, and a Bishopric BBQ.

This was the last week of summer vacation for Mark so I tried to get him to choose our outings.  Monday was pretty rainy but Mark and Jared had made plans to go frisbee golfing with the missionaries so they went and got soaking wet.  They played 9 holes then called it.  Lydia and I went over to Barnes and Noble to read some books and enjoy a hot chocolate.  She is always so excited to get hot chocolate and then starts drinking it and comments on how the stuff we make at home is so much better.  It really is.  But we enjoyed our date together.  We also spent a good amount of time reading that day.  Jared and Lydia have both been doing a great job with our reading "program".  Jared has earned 5 rewards and I think Lydia has done 3.  I have spent a fair amount of time looking up books at their reading levels and found this great series for Jared called the "I survived" series.  They take a famous event and a survivors experience and he loves them.  He is a big fan of Historic Fiction. Its been so lovely to see him start a book and not want to stop reading, to sit read it from start to finish.  I have had time to read more books this summer and its been so nice.  Hooray for reading all around.  We also did another science experiment which was kind of a dud and will not be repeated. Its been helpful to try these out for preschool next year too. Speaking of preschool, I had 2 more families sign up on Friday and another one email me about preschool!  That means I have a full class of 8 students and like a wait list!!! It's an amazing feeling.  What an answer to hours of prayer, stress and frustrations. I am thrilled to have a full class and am anxious to see what it will be like to A. not have Lydia in the class and B. have 8 students to teach, love, prepare for and manage. It will be great to see if I like that many or will aim for 6 next year.  I am so grateful.

Tuesday was spent in DC.  We were thinking of new things to do and even though it was pricey we decided to try out the paddle boats at the tidal basin.  I really wanted one of the swan boats that come with a motor but sadly they are only made for 2 people.  We did get a paddle boat with the canopy though which was quite helpful.  It was actually a beautiful day there.  Clouds with a nice breeze and only like 75 degrees!  Really unusual for August.  The paddle boats were fun but really tiring too. Fortunately for me, Jared was feeling a little extra competitive that day and wanted to be the one who paddled the most.  I was happy to give him extra padding time!  After an hour on the water we walked over to the World War II memorial. I had not been yet and its really nice.  I really like how they designed it.  We stopped for Cafe Rio on the way out of town and in the same parking lot there happened to be a goodwill.  I like to stop in them and see if I can find any great deals for preschool.  This was a pretty good one with some fun Melissa and Doug toys and new snow boots for Jared and Lydia. We toyed with the idea of stopping at the temple but Mark was in a hurry to get home as a friend had offered to take him to pick up our new sliding glass door for the basement!  The old one has been so hard to open.  It should be installed tomorrow so more about that then. We did take the time to stop at Moo-Thru and enjoy some delicious ice cream.

World War II Memorial. 

Wednesday was Mark's birthday and Lydia's first day of Kindergarten Camp.  Mark requested crepes for breakfast and opened presents first thing.  He also wanted to play Frisbee golf and go kayaking so we spent the day at Walnut Creek and had a nice time.  Mark always wants Tri Tip for his dinner so that is what he had. It kind of makes me laugh because if that is what he wants then he is cooking his own birthday dinner but if it makes him happy then so be it.  One gift was the book Planted, one we have both wanted to read for awhile.  I am excited for him to finish it so I can read it too.

Lydia was at camp from 9:00-11:00 and had a great time!  She has never been super excited about going to Kindergarten. It's not that she doesn't want to go or doesn't think she will like it, she just seems to think she would prefer preschool.  I am pretty sure the only negative thing I have ever said is that its long and really that is just the truth! But I think she will have a good year. She met with 2 different teachers, one on each day and ended up with her teacher from the first day, Ms. Hunter which I am thrilled about.  Everyone I talked to had only good things to say about her and I have been impressed with what I saw of her at school.  There are about 6 kids from primary who are all going to Baker Butler next year but it doesn't look like Lydia has class with any of them.  It's totally fine but it could have been fun to have one of them in her class.  It looks like most of the "mormon" kids ended up in separate classes.  There are 6 classes I believe and I do know 2 kids are together but not the others.  Hopefully she will feel comfortable and love Ms. Hunter.  I know I will be sad to have her gone all day but she is ready and will do great. Its a happy-sad. We found out Jared's teacher too.  He has Annie Martin, a new hire.  We found out that a friend from church is in his class and his good buddy from last year Marcus, who lives just down the street from us, is in his class. He hoped to have class with Tyler again but no luck. He is so happy to have Marcus though. Hard to believe the new school year is just a week away.

Mark really wanted to float down this section of the Shenandoah River so we made the hour and 25 minute drive over to Luray and made it happen. We drove to the end spot, dropped off his car and then drove back to the put in spot and got ready.  This stretch was 8 miles long so it would take roughly 3 hours.  We got our kayaks in and I had this strange feeling of almost anxiety.  Were we really committing to being in kayaks for 3 hours?  It's not like a pool or park where if we got tired of it we could just walk away, no we would be doing this for the next 3 hours.  I was concerned about Jared paddling that long too.  The river didn't really have rapids but it did have a decent current that helped.  It wasn't completely flat, it had parts where the current picked up they were sort of like ledges or "steps" and Jared and Lydia loved them. We got stuck more than once and scraped up the bottom of our kayaks but using them was way better then floating in a tube.  That would have taken even longer than 3 hours and our bums would be soar from rocks!  We knew we would scrape the kayaks up and had decided it was what they were made for, what would be the point of having kayaks that we didn't use for adventures?  After about 3 miles Mark attached Jared's kayak to his and towed him and Lydia.  This was a really good arrangement.  Lydia started out in Mark's kayak but then there was a bee so she was not wiling to stay in his and came into mine.  It was fine having her with me but way more fun when she rode on the back of Jared's.  On the map Mark looked up the night before it showed a good spot for swimming and Jared and Lydia took advantage of that. I'm glad they could swim some.  We had really nice weather with good cloud coverage and low humidity which helped a ton, it was a fun adventure. I'm not sure its an every summer kind of thing (Mark would say yes it was and I would be willing to do it every year) and we both agreed it would be even more fun with friends so we will try that next time. We finished the 8 miles at just over 3 hours. Mark drove his car to the put in spot about 10 minutes away, came back with the Highlander to load up the kayaks and then we drove back to the put in spot so he could drive his car home. It definitely takes some coordinating but it all worked out great. It was a pretty spot and a fun different thing to do.

You can see the "rapids" here.  Jared really did an excellent job. 

Beautiful. 

Saturday was a rough day here.  A horrible, hate filled rally was planned in downtown Charlottesville.  We live a good 20 minutes away from the area where it took place, which living here, seems far removed but when you look at it on TV it seems really close.  My Mom and one of my brothers texted to make sure we were okay. We had no intention of going anywhere near this rally and spent the morning quietly at home having a play date with a friend of Jared's from school and getting ready for the Bishopric BBQ Mark planned.  It makes me angry and sad that Charlottesville, (or anywhere really) this city I love so much is attracting people with so much hate who feel a need to proclaim how they feel. It was strange to see all these people on FB talking about the town I now live in.  I have been to that area, in fact we were there just a few months ago for an entirely different event.  It was the international culture festival a fun event celebrating diversity. And we have been to UVA more than once, those very grounds they held their disgusting march on.  I hope so much that similar events are not about to be held but find it hard to believe it will quietly go away. These events remind me of all the things I have been given and the responsibility I have to teach Jared and Lydia about these things.  The conversations we need to regularly have and the example I must set. To help them be aware. Its hard at their current ages, to know how to explain it, how much background to give, how many details to make them understand things that happen.  Once I try to explain one thing it just leads to more and more examples and stories.

So, Mark wanted to have a BBQ with the families serving in the Bishopric and planned it all out with those he's serves with.  I just needed to show up. But before that could happen another crazy event took place.  Jared, Lydia and I were in the front room reading when all of a sudden we heard a crash in our front yard. A car crashed into some trees at the top of our driveway!  Mark had been walking down the hall way and saw the car come across our driveway and crash.  We stood there for a moment and then rushed out to see if we could help.  The driver was a young girl right around 20 and said she blacked out which caused the crash. Mark called 911 and they arrived shortly after.  It was amazing that the girl could walk away from her car.  Her door got jammed by some trees so she ended up climbing out the sun roof.  I was thinking of worst case scenarios and wanted her away from the car as soon as possible in case it blew up or caught fire.  She seemed in pretty good shape, a cut on her arm and leg and sore ribs.  Our neighbors heard the noise and came up to help.  One is a nurse so it was nice to have her there.  A fire truck, ambulance and sheriff all showed up. The paramedics checked her out and she seemed fine.  This was at 4:00 and everyone was supposed to arrive at 5:00. It was scary and crazy!  She came over today to drop off a nice card thanking us for helping her and bought brownies. We allow Jared and Lydia to play at the top of the driveway but had a good talk with them about where they need to go if they hear a car coming.  Our mailman also came by shortly after and his first question was to see if Jared and Lydia were okay.  They love greeting him and he looks forward to seeing them, it was sweet of him.  We were just so relieved the driver wasn't hurt more!

The BBQ turned out well.  The tow truck was removing the car when people started arriving, an unexpected sight I am sure. We planned on eating outside on the deck but were concerned we would be rained out.  It rained for about 20 minutes but then stopped and we were able to enjoy our newly stained deck. It really is great outdoor space. I am glad we could eat out there as finding space where 20+ people could be together and covered would have been a challenge.  Mark grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and everyone brought delicious sides.  It was low key, loud and fun.  The kids enjoyed playing together and it was nice to have a chance to visit with some of these people.  The men talk regularly but I have rarely gotten to visit with any of their wives and was glad I could some. They are great families and we are so appreciative of their willingness to give of their time and their family time to help Mark and our ward.  I am sure we will have more gatherings together. I enjoy getting together with people but can't decide if Mark maybe likes it even more.

Summer week 7

This week we crossed off go to a "water park", science project day and parent child dates.  We also threw in another Harrisonburg day.  I spent a fair amount of time looking up fun simple science projects and then we got our supplies and began experimenting.  I had about 8 projects and we did half of them.  I think when Mark goes back to school we will have another science project day and do the rest.  It was good for me to start to get back in the habit of looking up activities online at night.  I told myself that I would not worry about preschool work until August so I have been far away from Pinterest and preschool blogs which has been a nice break. Last night I finally got down to work and started looking at my lesson plans from last year to try to remember what my notes meant and if I needed to replace stay activities or mix up the lessons a bit.  It took me awhile to get going but as I did I really enjoyed it.  I am ready to start getting stuff ready and am looking forward to next year.

The science projects were fun and interesting and we enjoyed doing them.

Pencil and Ziploc Bag experiment:

The first attempt at this was so bad.  Jared grabbed a pencil and jabbed it at the bag so hard.  The bag almost tore in half and therefore water spilled all over.  We were at the dining room table and the water of course slipped right into the crack so water was on the table, ground and inside the table.  That was a bummer.  I should have done the first one myself but I wanted the surprise to be from their actions not mine, oh well. Lesson learned.  It ended up working perfectly and was pretty cool.

The next experiment was melting skittles and it was the favorite. It was so easy to set up.  It was great for patterns and patience and science.

The runner up was a Star Wars themed experiment.  We made a baking soda and water paste and used it as "carbonite." Jared and Lydia picked small items to freeze in ice cube trays and then rescue after they froze with vinegar. I bought one of those really large vinegar containers and they went through more than half of it. But thats okay, that why I bought it.  It was a hit.

The last one was a rocket experiment.  They were much more complex to make and harder to make work but once you figured it out they flew really well. Mark and I did most of the putting together and I didn't really ever figure out how to make them fly well but everyone else did.

We drove up to Staunton one day to check out their public pool and it was my favorite one of the summer so far.   While we were there Lydia all of a sudden figured out how to dive! And then Jared did shortly after that.  It was very exciting and unexpected. Swim team all summer and he couldn't get it but then at the Staunton Pool it clicks! I am not sure they could do it anywhere but the side of the pool but they did it.  It always cool to see your kids learn these new skills. They are really great little swimmers.  When we put water park on our summer fun list we planned on going back to Roanoke to go to the pool there.  It has big slides and more water features. I didn't really like the slides there and it is 2 hours away so when we found out the Staunton pool had slides we decided it would be this years water park.  We don't see any point in going to one of the big expensive ones yet because A. they are pricey and B. Lydia isn't tall enough to go on most the slides at them and that just sounds unfair and frustrating and a waste of money.  They will be in for quite a surprise when we do actually go to one, then we may not be able to go back to the Staunton pool.  I really liked this pool though.  It was really clean and well kept up, it had 2 simple slides and wasn't too crowded.  It is located in a really nice park so before we went swimming Jared and Mark played some tennis and Lydia and I enjoyed the playground.  Mark also found an awesome old fashioned 50's diner that was a great find.  You got to sit at the old booths and place your order on a telephone.  They had old menus there that showed the price of food in the 50's and 60's which was fun to show Jared.  They had a juke box and delicious ice cream type drinks. We were glad we stopped in.  After swimming we stopped by the duck pond and fed the ducks.  There were cute little ducklings an dit was fun to see them waddle with the Mama Duck.  At the lake there were the little candy dispensers filled with duck food. Jared and Lydia each got a quarter to get some food.  Lydia got hers and crouched down to feed the ducks. I think she as expecting them to eat politely from her hand but this big swan came and nipped at her really aggressively which she was not expecting and it made her drop all her food.  She handled it really well but it did really shake her up, I don't know how excited she will be to feed ducks again.  I have lots of memories of feeding ducks with my family at Ellis Lake. I also had similar experiences with swans. One in particular where my sister Susanna and I were far ahead of our parents and these swans started chasing us.  We ran away and of course one of us fell and we were sure we were going to be pecked over and over again.  Luckily that was not that case, they are really aggressive for sure!  I have wanted to take them to feed ducks for a long time but its been surprisingly hard to do in Charlottesville. Its nice to know this pond is there and we can avoid swans in the future if needs be. It was a fun day in Staunton.

Jared and I went to Jefferson Coin for our date with a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts.  He had an eye appointment that morning so after that we went out.  It was great.  The eye appointment was not that great but the date was.  We have ben putting eye drops in for the last 9 weeks or so and sadly they haven't helped his vision at all.  When we started this process his eyesight was 20/300 in his left eye and now he is at 80-20.  Not great but some serious progress. The Doctor let us know that he will always have to wear glasses.  That made me sad. I handled it better than I did 2 years ago when it started.  It's frustrating because it we had caught it when he was younger he would have had a better chance of correcting it but such was not the case.  Oh well.  Having eye sight is 1000 times better than not so glasses it is.  He was bummed but seemed to already have accepted that, which I think I had too but now its really final. Its just hard because he can see great with his right eye, 20/20 vision but if it were to be injured he would lose vision which sounds awful so he will wear glasses just in case there is some freak accident where his right eye got injured in just the right way.

 We stopped by the bank and Jared took 10 dollars out of his account and loved checking out and learning about different coins.  He bought a few and has been happily examine them.  Mark and Lydia went out to Yoders and fed the animals.  The plan was to do that then get ice cream but when they got there the Donut Kitchen Truck was there so they started with donuts.  Then they fed animals and they got ice cream!  She was pretty excited.  Mark loves ice cream  and eats generous scoops regularly but once they got the serving even he was impressed with the amount scooped. I'm really glad we did these dates. I really want to make them a somewhat regular event. I am going out with Lydia tomorrow and Mark and Jared will go out too.

Their special this month was a "s'mores" donut which Jared thought was amazing. 

For this Harrisonburg day we went roller skating. Always a good time in my book.  After some practice loops with the "walker" Jared pretty much figured it out and could skate around without it.  Lydia had a small summer cold and passed it on to Jared so he wasn't feeling great and took lots of breaks but seemed to have a good time.  Lydia also took many breaks but had fun.  She seemed to prefer skating with Mark and I more than the walker which made Mark really nervous.  She pulled him down one time and then he was ready for a break.  She was really sweet and sincere when she apologized for making him crash. It was sweet.  It was even more fun as two of our friends joined us.  There were some injuries but overall I think everyone was glad they made the trip. We skated around and then stopped for ice cream on the way home.  Neither of these families had been to Funkys and I hope they had enough fun to go again. I am sure we will be back this winter.  I do love roller skating!

This wasn't on our summer fun list but Jared started piano lessons this week.  He will be going to the same teacher as me and having a 15 minute lesson once a week. He was pretty apprehensive about it and was not looking forward to it whenever we talked about it but he loved his first lesson.  He is worried that it will be too hard and he won't be able to do it and it will be hard but he can totally figure it out and Breanne is great. We planned to have him start when school started but things just lined up for him to start now.  I know there will be battles and he will not always love it but we are doing it and I am happy about it. There were multiple times this week when he mentioned wishing it was Tuesday so he could go to piano , or that he couldn't wait for his next lesson.  Feels my heart right up.  I will have to read this paragraph a lot in the coming months/years I am sure. When we were in California I went through my Mom's old music and found sheet music for "Walk Tall You're a Daughter of God" and knew it was the next song I wanted to play. Luckily it was at my level. I have been working on it the last few weeks and finished it this week.  It makes me so happy to play it and having those lyrics in my head the past weeks has been really lovely.  It fills me up with the spirit and makes me feel proud of myself.  That I am playing a song I love on the piano and doing it well.  It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. I really love playing the piano. My new song is Let It Snow and while it doesn't make me feel quite the same way, it does make me really happy to be playing Christmas music which is one of the big reasons I wanted to learn to play.