Pocono Weekend

Aunt Anita and Uncle Ron let us, with Matt and Jackie, stay at their place in the Poconos last weekend.
Besides the slow moving trucks and all the RV/campers, it was an easy drive up. The kids were great in the car too! Whew!

Saturday was supposed to be on the cool side, but clear. But it was still cloudy and cold when we got there. At least it wasn't raining. After we settled into the house, we walked to the lake so Luc could go fishing. No fish were biting because it was cold and later in the day, but Luc still had fun. Aria tried to chase the geese to feed them bread but they kept walking away.

When we were done trying to get fish, we headed back to house where the kids played on the big rocks around the house. We found some salamanders under rocks and Aria tried to killed one.

Later that night, Luc went to bed in the tent set up on the screened-in deck. He was so excited to go "camping" and have Frederic in the tent with him all night.

We ate our BBQ dinner and hung out outside talking. Frederic decided to put branches into the Weber charcoal grill to help keep us warm. But it really didn't do much. It was getting down to 32 degrees that night. I started feeling sick and went inside to go to bed. Around the time everyone else was going to get ready for bed, I got sick. Aria woke up and decided she wanted to sleep on the cot and not in the bed with me anymore (which worked out fine by me since that gave me more room to get comfortable and not have to worry about her falling off when I had to run to the bathroom again). I got sick a few more times that night and didn't get much sleep. No one else got sick, so I'm not entirely sure how I got it.

Sunday morning everyone else had a big breakfast while I finished watching Moana. Then we headed back to the lake to fish. Matt helped Luc get hot dog bait onto the hook and tempt the fish. Luc caught one and reeled it in. Then Matt got another one to bite and let Luc reel that one in. Luc was so ecstatic and proud for his first catches.

Aria was playing by the edge of the water trying to grab pine cones she threw into the lake when she lost her balance and half fell in. So that called it a day.

"I fell! I all wet."

After lunch, we headed home. Luckily it didn't take us long at all, and we pulled into the driveway after 3 hours on the road. The kids slept half way (and Luc slept more than that). And thankfully, my stomach stayed calm the whole way home. Whew!

Easter 2017

What a busy weekend! I need two of just rest now (but that won't happen).

Friday night before Easter about 10 kids from the street were out on their bikes. Four of those kids had just gotten new bikes since seeing Luc out on his all the time now. This gave Frederic and I a chance to talk with some parents whose kids go to the local elementary school. Our county is ranked quite well for public schools, but even within the county you have not-the-best schools. And of course our house is zoned for one of those. This has made us a little nervous. Obviously you want your kids to have the best education. We are already thinking about when Aria is done with preschool what we'll do. We're keeping Luc in the private school with Aria until she's done, then we have to decide if want to pay for both kids to stay where they are, or move them into public school near home. The neighbors have reassured us that the elementary school is good, the teachers are young and attentive, there are lots of activities and involvement opportunities. It's not as bad as we think it is. And if nothing else, it still beats higher than other counties in the state. So that was a sigh of relief.

Saturday was another packed day and Luc's friend from school, Kira, came over with her bike that afternoon. She'll be in the Philippines with her family for 6 weeks, so we planned a play date before she left. But the kids were having so much fun (the neighbors came out again), that we didn't go inside until almost 8pm and she didn't go home until 9:30pm. The kids kept going, but Aria hasn't been sleeping well in general this past week (up 2-3 times a night), and Luc was still up at 7am on Sunday.

I'm so glad I took a video of the kids opening their Easter baskets because I was sad I didn't on Christmas with their stockings. Luc was so ecstatic and Aria was very funny. After a long bike ride since it was gorgeous outside, and Aria took a nap, we headed to my parent's house for Easter. The kids were too energetic the whole day. And then hopped up on sugar from dessert. And note to self, don't let Aria have so much dessert (or spray Whipped Cream right into her mouth- yes, I did) and then put her in the car less than an hour later. She complained of her belly hurting the whole way home and I thought for sure she was going to be sick in the car.

Other Updates:

*Aria can count to 10 (playing hide and seek has paid off).

*We're finding that giving Luc 10 pennies (or a few dimes) in the morning and telling him he'll loose one every time he does something he's not supposed to, doesn't listen, or teases his sister, is a great way to improve his behavior. All you have to say is "Penny!" and he catches himself and stops. If does get a coin taken away, we tell him he can do something genuinely nice to get it back.

*We started Luc on allergy shots a few weeks ago. Tuesdays are now long and tiring. After a day of work, I pick up the kids, jump right back in the car, and drive past home to the doctor's office. Luc gets his shot and we sit in the office for 30 minutes before heading home. Then I rush to feed him and Aria dinner because they're tired and cranky and on the verge of a meltdown.
Luc is a real trooper. The nurses told me he's the youngest in the practice getting allergy shots. And each time they try to distract him when they're about to give him the shot, but he looks right at his arm and barely flinches when the needle goes in. Then he runs back to the toy corner in the waiting room. The nurses are so impressed that he handles the shot a million times better than teens and some adults.
We're really hoping by the end of the allergy shot course (5 years later!) that he won't be allergic and can have a less worried life wondering if something will trigger an asthma attack while he's visiting some place new and unknown. 

Easter Prep 2017

We got some pre-Easter activities into our weekend.

Saturday afternoon when Aria woke up from her nap, we helped the kids color eggs. This was Aria's first time and she didn't really understand the concept of coloring them and kinda made up her own rules. She refused to use the egg holder and just dug in with her whole hands. She put the same egg into multiple colors, which I thought would turn the egg brown, but they were actually more colorful than Luc's. haha She also insisted on dipping a sponge into the dye to decorate afterwards. After awhile I was loosing my patience because she was starting to get sloppy and make a huge mess and almost tipped over a few cups. So we wrapped it up. They each did a dozen eggs.

Frederic helped Luc draw on the eggs with crayons first and Luc took over the coloring. He probably would've done 50 eggs if we had them.

"I do it Myself!"

"ooOoooOo"

Luc's eggs

Aria's eggs

Shrek hands

 And when Aria napped, I busted these out. I've been meaning to make these for about 2 years since I saw them on Pinterest. Of course they didn't turn out as well as what I pinned, but ...

Sunday we headed to Bonne-Maman and Bon-Papa's house for an Easter egg hunt. Luc was being a little greedy trying to grab them all before Aria could. Aria still made out with 11 out of the 30.