Learning to Swing

We enjoyed a beautiful Saturday afternoon playing outside. The DH trimmed the tree in the front yard so he could start the Halloween decorations. The kids enjoyed all of us being outside together. It was a wonderful fall day and we made the most of it by playing and working outside! My daughter has learned to swing. She has mastered the art of pumping her legs so she can swing by herself! The swing is one of her favorite things in our backyard and at preschool.

She has had so much fun the last few days swinging by herself. She will ask my husband and I to "come outside and watch me swing real high."

Her sense of accomplishment is very high. This is something that she has mastered before her brother. She is quite proud of herself. Can you tell?

The joy on her face is evident.

It is nice that I will not be needed for pushes anymore. But it is sad because I know this is the start of many things that she no longer needs me for. Oh how I wish I could slow things down.

Fair Fun!

We went to the fair this last Saturday and had a really good time. This was the first time that both the children had fun riding the carnival rides. We bought pre-sale wrist bands so they could ride as many times as they wanted. This is the only way to go. It was overcast that day so the crowd was light most of the day. This made it even easier to get on all the rides and the kids loved it!

We also got tickets to take the kids to their first Rock Concert. They were excited to be able to see the Doodlebops! They performed a fun, high energy show, but it was very short. For the price of the tickets, I was surprised how short the show was. The kids didn't notice and were happy, so I guess that is what is the most important.

This is the slide taking them out of the fun house. Both kids went through this attraction at least 30 times. They would come down the slide and then go right back in. Mom even went through once, but I won't post that picture!

The rocket ships were safe and fun. My son decided that these didn't go to fast, so he would go on them. This got him started on going on more of the bigger kid rides.

The hay ride was a safe one for both kids. It just went around in a circle at a very slow pace!

The motorcycles were also a favorite of both kids. The motorcycles popped wheelies and did jumps so they thought they were cool! They also had red and purple ones so each got to have one of their favorite colors.

I had noticed that my son seemed very preoccupied during some of the rides. I realized that he was watching the mechanical parts to see how they worked! For the first part of each ride, he would watch the mechanisms work. His little mind is always working!

We thought the kids would love the big slide. They both love slides and wanted to go on this one. But when they got to the top, neither one of them wanted to go down. My daughter started crying and wanted to walk down the steps. There were people waiting so my husband made them go down. He held my daughter on his lap and held my son's hand to make things better. When they got down, they both wanted to go again. My husband said no way!

We had decent seats for the Doodlebops and could see them pretty good. The kids had fun dancing and singing to the songs. It was nice most of the time, but the sun had come out and we all had long sleeves on, so it got hot. It was probably a good thing that it didn't last too long!

This slide was at the end of another fun house type attraction. The slide was very long! My son stalled at the top, but finally made it down. Once he went down once, they both kept going back again and again.

My daughter never had a problem going down!

The semi-truck ride was a nice slow ride with a loud horn. It was a good prelude to the next ride ...

The hang gliders! My daughter rode it by herself the first time. She had so much fun that our son decided to go the next time. They both said that it felt like they were flying. My son said that he was like Superman!

And of course how could you not ride the Merry-go-Round? My son got to ride the dragon and my daughter got to ride a pretty horsey. All was good in the world!

After all that walking and riding, the kids were tired. So they both got on the foot vibrator with their ice cream cones!

We had a great time with lots of fun and of course lots of food! We had corn dogs, soft tacos, ice cream, funnel cakes, cinnamon roles and so much more! It is a good thing the fair only comes once a year!

Friday Night Football

We were able to attend my nephews football game on Friday night. We had a quick trip over to the neighboring town, who happened to be the rival when I was in high school. We had fun routing for Big #75! (We didn't know his number before we got there but it was easy for us to pick him out.) It was a great night for football and it was made even better when we won!

The game went back and forth and we were trailing at half time 6 to 18. We scored twice and did a conversion making it 20 to 18. My six year old son looked at me and said with a big smile on his face, "Mommy, 20 is bigger than 18! Were winning!" We never looked backed. It is always fun to prevail over a rival. The team is doing great so far and are 4-1. Here's to having a great season.

USA Swimming

It has been so much fun watching the Olympics and especially the swimming events. Michael Phelps was just amazing! I remember my older sister having a poster of Mark Spitz in his speedo and 7 gold medals hanging in our room after the Olympics. Oh how I wish I was younger and could get away with having a poster of Michael Phelps on my wall with his 8 gold medals, and his speedo!

And I also enjoyed Dara Torres! Give it up for the 41 year old mother! She won two silvers medals instead of gold, but she was a class act! When she got the field to wait for the one swimmer who had tore her suit was first class sportsmanship! (I also thought that the Australians left early on the second leg of the relay, but I guess I was wrong.)

The rest of the Olympics won't be as fun as the first was, but I will continue to watch and cheer for the Americans! Go USA!

Home

This has been home for the last nine days. While we had a great time, I am so glad to be HOME! It was so nice to get home, get the kids in the bathtub, get them dressed, go get a shower myself and come back and find that they were still clean! Both the kids were crying when we left the campground, but they were so happy to get home! And so was I!

A sweet visitor.

On Friday night our good friends came over with their granddaughter to plan for our upcoming camping trip. My kids were excited to have a little friend over to play with. They had fun dragging out all their toys to try and entertain the little one year old. It was sweet watching them try to impress her with different toys.
They were trying to get her to lay down with them and watch a movie but they soon realized that a one year old has a mind of her own! She wasn't having anything to do with laying down!

She is such a funny little girl. She has the funniest laugh. It sounds like the toy canister that when you turn it over, you hear the sound of an animal. Well her laugh sounds just like that with the lamb sound. We were all cracking up!

We had a good time but didn't get much planning done!

Pee Wee Track Meet

I present the 2008 Kindergarten C Team for the Pee Wee Track Meet! The team is made up of Carlo, My Son and Mickey. They were excited and ready to compete.

While they waited for the fun to begin they posed with their Eight Grade Coach, Miss T. She also happens to be my niece and my son's big Buddy! He was able to get her to trade teams so she could be his coach. Can you tell he loves his "Big Buddy" cousin?

The first event that the three amigos had was the ring toss! They got three rings to toss onto a large board filled with pegs. The kids were grouped together according to the number of "ringers" that they got.

Our group each got one ringer and so they were awarded third place ribbons! The boys were all happy with their accomplishment and were excited to go to the next event.

This was the first time that my son has ever gotten a ribbon for a sporting event, so he was happy with the ribbon. The place or the color of the ribbon did not matter. I was having a good time watching him participate and be excited in his endeavor.

My daughter went with us to the track meet. She also loves her big cousin, Miss T. She was happy to get to sit with her while we waited to go to the next event.

The ball toss was our next event. The boys each got a tennis ball to throw. Lines had been sprayed in the grass to designate first, second and third place finishes. Mickey and Carlo both threw into the second place range. My son's landed in the third place section, just missing the second place section. All of a sudden, things were beginning to change. He was still happy with his third place ribbon, but didn't like the fact that the other two got red ribbons. Red being his favorite color.

Next we headed over to the 50 yard dash. They separated the kids into three or four groups. Our three boys did not compete against each other. Mickey went first and he got a first place ribbon. Yeah Mickey! Next Carlo went and I think he got a second place finish. When it was my son's turn, he got all set at the starting line, making sure his feet were right at the line.

When it was time to go, he took off fast. He was out in the lead for a little bit, but he started looking to his side and behind him! Suddenly the pack caught up and he was in second place. By the time they were 3/4 of the way, he looked sideways and behind again and then he was in third. When he got third again, he wasn't so happy. When he came over to where I was he said, "I lost again Mommy." I tried to reassure him that third place was not last. They were giving out fourth place ribbons as well and he had not gotten one of them. I think this made him feel a little better, but it made me sad.

Luckily after the running event, they got to go to the rest area. Here they participated in a music/dance event and got to drink cold water. Everyone got a purple participation ribbon, so they did not have to compare ribbons.

The fifth event was the bean bag toss. In this event they had to throw three bean bags into a circle several feet away. If the bean bag landed in the circle they got a point. Once again, this is how they placed the kids. Both Mickey and Carlo got two, and my son only got one! This time he was not happy. It was a good thing that his coach was his cousin because she was able to make him feel better! When it came time to give out the ribbons, they had run out of third place ribbons, so when they got to my son, he got to pick what color he wanted! He wanted a blue one of course! He was now pretty happy again!

The last event was the broad jump. I was hoping that my son would do good in this event. He is one of the smallest kids in his class and also in this group, so I wasn't expecting too much. Here he is hanging out in the shade with Mickey before the big jump.

My son was all set to go. He is a rule follower so he made sure that he lined his feet up just as the lady told him.

When it came time to jump, he did a great job! He jumped farther than either of his other two team mates and also farther than most of the other kids. He was finally going to get at least a red ribbon! Yeah!!

The track meet brought back lots of fun memories for me. I was excited to be going back to a favorite event from my past. I was always very competitive and loved sports. I can remember how this track meet stirred my competitive nature in sports. I was hoping that it would do the same for my son. Seeing him get his little heart broke made me sad. It is hard to protect them from all of life's disappointments. He probably won't be my athlete, maybe only my scholar! I guess if I had to pick between the two, I would want it to be just the way it is. As long as he is happy!

My Black and White Cuties

What I love the most about learning how to download my pictures to my computer, is being able to play around with them. I love to play with changing them from color to black and white. The program on my computer lets me play around with the color without deleting the original picture, so I can go back to the original at any time. It has been fun seeing which pictures look better as a black and white. It is interesting because I have found that not all look good when you change them.

I think the black and white finish makes the kids stand out more, especially when it is a single shot. I talk like I know what I am doing! Anyway I had fun playing with the ones that I posted yesterday and I think I am going to have them printed. The first one of my daughter and the last one of my son were my favorites.

How things change!

When I was young, things were sure different then they are now. I lived in a quiet little neighborhood that was made up of families with children about my age. I must have had at least 5 or 6 kids that I could play with. I also had a brother a year older and a younger sister; the Grasshopper, three years younger than me. They too had several kids around their ages to play with.

I remember in the evenings we would play hide-n-go seek until after dark. We played dodge ball and football in the street after school as well as an occasional game of baseball or woofle ball. We rode bikes, went to each other's houses, and ran through sprinklers and all the fun things of youth.

But one thing we never did, at least at our house, was draw with chalk all over the sidewalks. We could do it at other houses, but not at ours! My father, who is a wonderful father and grandfater, is Dutch and a meticulous gardener. He always had our yard looking great. He would even plant rye grass so we could have green grass in the Winter! He just always liked things to look neat and tidy. So, he did not like the sidewalks covered in chalk, it was just one of those things that bothered him; sort of like finger nails on the chalk board. He was a wonderful father and let us get away with lots of things he just didn't want chalk all over the sidewalk.

So of course, it was much to my dismay and surprise, when I returned from the Divine Mercy Novena on Easter Sunday that I would arrive to this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

There was not one stretch of sidewalk in front of the house that was not covered with writing, drawings, hop scotches and the likes. Two of the culprits were still in the act! The funniest thing is that the father that raised me, aka "Papa" was sitting in the front yard with the fathers of these children and watched it happen! He had no problem with them doing this it at all! What happened in the few years (ha ha) since my youth that has brought about this change? Maybe it is called becoming a Grandparent twelve times, soon to be thirteen, that mellowed him.

I will say that he had my nephew wash the sidewalk off the next morning, so all was new again!