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| Look Mom...no training wheels! |
- Despite the late night, the kids were still up around 7:30. Robby and I could have slept for awhile longer. I know that Anderson and Graham had asked me about breakfast but before I got around to it, they were upstairs playing.
- Campbell helped me put together new drawers for school. We managed to get one set finished and tried to fit it in the school room but will have to rearrange the desks. I am not too crazy about rearranging the whole room but you do what you must. I was about to have my assistant (the big one (Robby) and not the little one (Campbell)) help me but he moved outside to start working.
- Grannymom and Grandpa came over to help re hang the tire swing-little did they know they would get to stay past lunch. As the kids were rushing to get their clothes on to head outside, they remembered that they were starving. So they all had their pop tarts and then rushed outside. Grannymom fed Whitman while I straightened and got myself ready for the day.
- The first order of outside business was hanging the tire swing. To prevent the neighbor kids from knocking it down again, we have purchased bb guns for the boys. Ha! That would be funny. They could also practice shooting at the neighbor dog that comes and barks at us all the time. Anyway, everyone loved swinging on the swing once it was re hung. Keaton was so funny looking-she is so small compared to that huge tire. And my Anderson is just plumb chicken. Robby would swing him high and the branch and leaves would shake and he would start asking to get off the swing.
- Meanwhile, Reagan had out her jump rope and jumped by herself. Then she made us swing the rope for her. Since her jump rope was really too small for this, Grandpa cut us a longer one. So everyone jumped rope-felt like I was back in elementary school. Anderson could jump maybe twice and Graham once. Campbell could only jump over the rope when it was still on the ground and Keaton just sat on the back of the truck watching the action. But Reagan was quite the jumping queen-I have a feeling that I will be swinging a jump rope for the next few afternoons.
- Soon Graham and Grandpa were taking Graham's training wheels off of his bike. Robby pointed the bike down the hill, gave him a push and away he went. Seriously, he did great. He rode down the hill and as far as he could go until he could only go back up the hill. He really can't stop well-it is more of a controlled fall (he is not tall enough, I guess).
- Well, Anderson was not to be outdone so after a few runs down the hill on Graham's bike, his training wheels were off. He was just as good as Graham. By the end of the morning, the boys were riding up and down the street out front and up and down our road without falling. By the end of the afternoon, they were circling the house and riding up and over the dirt pile. Graham still doesn't have the getting started part down and can't do that by himself. But other than that, I would still say that I now have 3 bike riders.
- Yes, 3. After seeing her brothers ride their bikes, Reagan wanted a turn on Graham's bike. She rode down the hill and across just like they did-now she rode down with quite a bit more whining, squealing and chattering but she still made it. Reagan has never enjoyed riding her bike and is a bit afraid of riding. It might be a bit big for her but Anderson who is her size does fine with his bike which is the same size. Her little legs are just so tiny that they can't be too strong at all. She only rode down the grassy hill this morning. But by this afternoon, she had pretty much taken over Graham's bike anytime that he laid it down. She figured out how to start by herself for the most part and rode up and down the road and even made circles around the dirt pile and swing set this afternoon. I don't think that she is really to ride in the street like the boys can but she will be before too long. Well, she will be on Graham's bike-she refuses to ride hers. I need to get her to practice on it some now before we take the training wheels off. But I bet that she won't do that!
- We probably should have just taken Campbell's training wheels off as well. Once the boys hit the street, Campbell was right behind them. Anderson asked me "aren't you proud of me?" and few times and when Campbell was around he would then follow up with "and aren't you proud of Campbell for riding so good?" Campbell will probably ride without her training wheels next summer-she has accomplished her summer goal though-pumping on the swing.
- Since Campbell can pump and the others can ride bikes, our only other summer goals are Anderson tying his shoes and learning to swim. Swimming lessons are in two weeks and hopefully at least 2 can learn to swim.
- After Grannymom and Grandpa left this afternoon, I continued to alternate between working on my mulch garden and giving kids pushing on their bikes. Robby eventually started work on cleaning out his shed-I meant to say sheds! It didn't take too long but after the rodent the other day, I didn't want to be around too much to help. I did help some but managed to push those bikers, feed Whitman and even took a coke break. Everything was pulled out of the sheds and then put back in. Once Reagan came up to me and said "don't you wish you were a queen?" I said that I really didn't because I would just set around and be lazy (I mentally added to that "and get fat" but didn't say it to her). I was about to say that the Bible talked about being lazy. But she went on to say that if I was queen, when we went swimming everyone else would have to get out of the pool. And then I added that the pool would probably be heated just for me.
- It was nearly 5 now and Robby gave the sign to start putting on swim suits and we headed out to see if I was indeed queen. And no, no one climbed out of the pool when I climbed in and the pool was definitely not heated! The kids didn't care and all went down the slide. Even Campbell-she had to have Robby catch her despite her floatees. And each and everytime she came down, she looked terrified and would hit the water pretty hard. After watching everyone else go down the slide, Keaton went to the line at least twice and would have gone down the slide if I wouldn't have stopped her. She is still a bit too small for that but she sure didn't think so. Needless to say, the entire neighborhood heard that child screaming as I pulled her out of the slide line.
- Whitman just sat in his stroller kicking his feet most of our swim time. We stayed almost 2 hours and then dried off and had our juice boxes at the car. Then we picked up a pizza on the way home-even saw some other people from the pool getting a pizza (probably because there was a family at the pool eating pizza and it just seemed like a good idea).
- The kids ate and then showered off. After that they went to bed and we heard not a peep out of them. My poor kids are going to be so tired this entire summer-they will probably be thankful when we start back to school and they can rest a bit!
