Settling In (April 18th - May 3rd)

"Today is best day ever! Why? Because today is moving day!" --Lion, spontaneously quoting Oh from Home during our drive to the new house.

They were so excited to be moving into our new place! They were bouncing like it was Christmas morning on the front porch before we let them in to see it for the first time. They immediately rushed through the house, naming all the rooms and marveling at how much space we have now (literally twice the square footage of our townhouse on the west coast).

We arrived on Monday afternoon in order to receive the fridge on Tuesday, but the moving truck wasn't going to arrive until Wednesday. Rather than wait around an empty house all Tuesday morning, the girls and I acquired library cards and YMCA memberships,  got them signed up for swimming lessons, and came home with a stack of books to read! As usual, we hit the ground running!

Move-in day was just as exciting as Lion anticipated! The girls were particularly excited about figuring out where their beds and dressers would go: their room is big enough to accomodate three twin beds (nobody had to be bunked this time!), and we were able to buy them each a new dresser to replace the two they'd been sharing (which had fallen apart and been ditched before the move). Also for the first time ever, their playroom is an upstairs room (with a door and everything!), so we put them in charge of arranging their playthings. I did eventually pitch in to help them sort out the bins and organize the closet, but they were thrilled to be taking responsibility for some of the unpacking!

(Just a note about our move-in process: We make the movers unpack and take all the empty boxes with them. Not only do we not have to deal with discarding a ton of boxes, but I'm much more motivated to clear the piles of stuff from the middle of the floor--or our bed--than I would be to empty neatly stacked boxes. Within a week we had it all put away and most of the pictures hung.)

Among the prioritized settling-in projects, the girls were also able to help Daddy construct their climbing dome (we haven't had room for it in two years!) and a raised garden bed. Unfortunately, since then it's rained too much for them to get much use out the dome yet. (I'll talk more about the garden bed in my next post about Grandma coming to visit.)

The climbing dome in progress!

The girls contemplate the tools for the job while waiting for Daddy to help with the garden bed.

While the girls didn't actually get to help with the next project, they were very enthusiastic observers of the process of Daddy finishing their dressers. We decided to buy good quality unfinished furniture, then Daddy found a stain that reasonably matched their beds. Everyone is very pleased with the results!

(At some point I'll do a "Where It Happens: Mid-Atlantic Edition," and you'll all get to see photos of our new digs!)

Now the round-up of new activities:

Church: We surprised ourselves a bit, and already found our church home! It's a liturgical church only a mile from our house (and coincidently, the one I was baptized in as an infant). The congregation is small and friendly, and the girls immediately made friends with the pastor's kids, who interestingly enough, sat with us our first Sunday there! The pastor's husband was out of town that weekend, and when their mom instructed them to "find a grown up to sit with during the service," they beelined for the new family with three little girls. (What's a couple more, right?) On our second visit, we attended Sunday school (They have that here! Hooray!), which includes children's choir for the kids. The girls went their separate ways with their new teachers without hesitation!

 Swimming: The girls are thrilled to be back in the pool! I even managed to get them signed up for back-to-back lessons two nights a week. Their first lesson was all very basic, and they were a little disappointed. I assured them their teacher was just figuring out where everyone was, and sure enough their next lesson was more challenging--just enough to keep everybody interested. By far their favorite part about this pool is the indoor splash pad! Mr. C turns it on for free time, but there are also family open swim times that we'll be getting in on!

Music: We also got the girls started with their music lessons already! God worked another miracle: not only did we find a music school where all the girls can study, but they're even scheduled for the same thirty minute time slot! This, despite the fact that two of them are now playing piano. Bug decided to break off her love/hate relationship with violin and try piano. So far she is loving it, and she and Lion both really like their teachers. Monkey is cheerfully sticking with drums (and thrilled that we finally have room to get her a real drum); however, she's less than cheerful about her new teacher. Mr. R is actually great, but he's very high energy and talks loud and fast. He's going to take our introverted Monkey a little getting used to. Also, he had her trying to play standing up at a real snare drum, when she's only ever played sitting with either a full electric kit or drum pads. It was just too much, and the poor girl broke down. We discussed the situation, and next week is going to be much better. She's been practicing enthusiastically, so I have high hopes for a relatively smooth transition going forward.

Library: Our local library is a mere mile away, and right next to our church and the Y! It's a nice little branch library with a kids' wing that has several kid-sized tables along with lots of armchair seating and bean bag seating. The girls have decided (accurately, I believe) that they are too old for storytime. However, we're still there every week for our usual large stack of books!

Martial Arts: They're not actually signed up for any yet, but Daddy visited a couple schools. We think we'll be going with Brazilian jujutsu at an MMA school. We were hoping to find another Japanese-style dojo, but sadly that doesn't seem to exist around here. I'll keep you posted!