More Bike Riding Skills to Celebrate

In less than a week of riding his bike without training wheels, Jack looked like he had been doing it for years.  He was riding off curbs, going across the grass, standing up and looking like a pro.  I couldn't believe how fast he picked it up and how good he got in such a short amount of time.

We have been outdoors every single day since the training wheels were left behind.  Usually, our neighbor and her daughter, T, are out there too.  One of my neighbors thought I had been on a vacation somewhere to get a tan but it's just been afternoons in the sun watching the kids ride their bikes.

A few days ago, another neighbor mentioned that he thought Casey would be riding without training wheels soon too.  She kept trying to ride on the grass like Jack and T but the training wheels were slowing her down too much.  I kind of shrugged my shoulders and said, "Someday."  On the day that Jack learned, I let Casey try it out a couple times and she seemed to have no balance.

Now it's three weeks later.  Casey was playing outside while I was making lunch.  When I got outside, she had pulled Jack's bike out and told me she was trying to ride it.  She asked if I would help her.  I did, but I was thinking I was just going to hold her up again.

As soon as she got on there, I barely touched her.  She went right down the driveway, circled around both cul-de-sacs and back up the driveway with me just running as close to her as I could.  It blew my mind.  I couldn't believe she was going to start riding her bike without training wheels at 3 years old!

Later in the afternoon, we took the training wheels off her bike and she hopped on with so much confidence and rode around the cul-de-sacs again much to everyone's amazement.  10 minutes later she was trying to ride it through the grass and keep up with the 5 year olds!

She's had her share of spills and she still needs a little help to get going.  The seat is as low as it can go and she can barely touch the ground with her tippy toes.  By the end of today she could stop by herself without falling most of the time.  It's amazing.  Between watching Jack ride without training wheels and all the riding she's been doing to keep up with him, she figured out how to keep her balance.

It's also amazing to see the differences in learning styles between Jack and Casey.  I've noticed it before, but this further reinforced what I saw.  Jack spent the first ten minutes without training wheels just riding up and down the driveway very carefully, making no turns and going over no bumps.  When he was comfortable with that, he decided to try to turn.  Then he decided he could do the bump at the end of the driveway.  Casey...she jumps in head first and believes she can do it.  She jumped on that bike and went straight down the driveway over the bump and started turning.

I'm very proud of both of them and their bike skills this past few weeks.  But mostly I can't believe I have a 3 year old without training wheels!

2011 Pumpkin Patch Class Trip

Bright and early this morning, we headed to another farm for the school pumpkin patch field trip.  Casey started whimpering halfway there and told me that she didn't feel good.  Eventually she asked for something for the yuckies to go in.  Luckily there was a nice little bucket she had gotten at McDonald's this weekend and sure enough, she threw up into it two minutes before we reached the farm.  Thankfully, it all went into the bucket and didn't make a mess.  And since she had no other illness symptoms, I decided that she got carsick from all the turns and stoplights I manuevered through while trying to avoid traffic and get there on time.  She was ready to go into the pumpkin patch as soon as we stopped.  Since she threw up all her breakfast, she was hungry all morning but other than that, you would never know she was sick.

We started out with a hayride to the field where the pumpkins were.  The kids got to pick a little pumpkin and play in the field.  They had a bouncy house, a haystack slide and a teepee out there.  The haystack slide was pretty neat and the kids spent most of their time on it.

Jack was a different person from last year to this year.  Last year he didn't interact with any of his classmates and he clung to me.  I might as well have taken them there by myself for all it felt like a class trip.  This year, he found his friends and was pretty happy playing with them.  He certainly wasn't concerned about where I was.

The hayride then brought us back to the main area.  There were all kinds of wooden structures for the kids to climb and play on and picnic tables galore for snacking.  We went into a goat pen and hung out with the goats for a bit too.  It was a great area for the kids and they had a great time.

Casey liked pointing out all her classmates to me and I finally have faces to go with the names that she recites every night during snuggle time.  Before everyone was about to go home, we did some class pictures.  Jack's was fun with all the kids in a wooden train.  And Casey's was hilarious.  There were at least two temper tantrums occurring and I'm pretty sure there isn't a single picture of them all together, let alone looking at a camera.  I think all you could do was laugh, but then it wasn't my child having a tantrum.  She was actually sitting with a couple of the other little girls and they acted liked they had no idea there was a tantrum happening right in front of them.  They were adorable.

Check your camera settings before taking what would have been a great picture!

Navy jets flying over the pumpkin patch...Jack loved it!

Kindergarten Class

Casey and the girls!

Casey and her teacher

2011 Pumpkin Patch Adventures

Yesterday was a busy day!  We started with soccer pictures, soccer game and then headed to the pumpkin patch.  This was our fifth annual trip to the pumpkin patch with the kids and our third to this farm, although it's set up a little differently every year.

We met up with our friend Michelle and Little J and Little P.

We started by searching for the perfect pumpkins to bring home.  The farm a wheelbarrow we borrowed for our many pounds of pumpkin and the kids had fun searching and pushing the wheelbarrow.  Casey was the first to find hers.  But Jack was really looking for the perfect pumpkin.  His standards are pretty high.  It has to be taller than Casey's but still nice and round and perfectly orange.  And he doesn't really want anyone else finding it for him.  He wants one that he found so he can decide on its perfection.

Little J supervises as Pat cuts his pumpkin from the vine

I think we arrived at peak pumpkin picking time because there was a little bit of a wait to weigh and purchase our pumpkins.  While we were waiting, the kids got to shell and jar their own popcorn with a 100 year old shelling machine.  They were very serious about their work!  Jack got to carry the jar and he was not interested in letting Daddy take it to the car before the hayride.  We haven't tried the popcorn yet but I think that's in the plan for this week.

Our last adventure was a horse-drawn hayride.  The horses were Belgian work horses and they are the strongest breed (of 128) horses in the world.  It was a nice ride.  Michelle stayed back with Little P and was afraid that J might be a little shy and scared on the hayride.  It turns out that he was very interested in asking the driver questions and had no problem piping up with an, "Excuse me!!  Why did the horses just run?" or "Excuse me!!  Why do the horses have bells on them?"  He was so funny and cute.

Great picture except the sun and the camera weren't getting along

It was a gorgeous day to get pumpkins and the kids are proud to see their pumpkins on the front steps.  Now they're trying to figure out how to carve some sort of Star Wars picture into the pumpkins.

Tomorrow we have the school field trip...more pumpkin adventures to come!

Only Two Wheels!

Yesterday after school, the bickering started and the only way I could stop it was to institute some quiet time.  I sent the kids to their rooms and re-arranged my kitchen cabinets in peace.  Probably just when I was tossing out old and duplicate spices, I heard the kids yelling to the girl who lives across the street.

Jack asked if they could be done with quiet time (which was more separate time than quiet time) because he wanted to go out and play with T across the street.  I was just about done with the cupboards so we headed out.

It turns out that T had her training wheels off and her mom was helping her ride.  I asked Jack if he wanted to try it with his bike and at first he said no.  Then he watched T for 2 minutes and changed his mind.

He was very cautious about it at first.  He only wanted to go up and down the driveway and he didn't want to attempt any turns.  We had taken the training wheels off once before and he had a tough time with the turns.

As soon as he tried it, he barely needed me to hang on to him.  I think his scooter has helped him work on his balance a lot.  He was scared to try a turn at first but once he was comfortable with going straight, he went into the cul-de-sac and had no problem with turning.  After about 30 minutes, both he and T were riding from one cul-de-sac to the other.  There were some occasional falls, but they both got up again and hopped on their bikes because they loved it so much.

Jack was really excited about it and I think he was very proud of himself.  I was pretty bursting with pride too.  I was pretty sure we wouldn't be putting the training wheels back on again before he even tried it, but it was great to see how happy he was with his newfound freedom.

Today he spent hours on the bike again and he didn't need my help at all.  I knew he could do it but it's still amazing how quickly he picked it up.

Here is a little video from yesterday...Casey indicates a few times that she wants to see the video.  She had a great time on her bike yesterday and wanted to try it without the training wheels, but settled for pretending.

Ride 'Em Cowboy!

A couple weeks ago, Jack was trying to play cowboy and he announced, "Mommy, while we're at school tomorrow can you go to a cowboy store and get me one of those horse heads on a stick?"  If I'd had food in my mouth I would have spit it out laughing.  I like that he didn't ask for a toy horse, but for a "horse head on a stick."

I didn't come across any cowboy stores in my travels so he had to rein in (pun intended) his cowboy ambitions for a bit.  Luckily for wanna-be cowboys, Nana and Pop Pop came in town this weekend and Nana's friend, Miss Deb, let her know about a potential cowboy store.  Sometimes it's called Big Lots and sometimes it's called The Cowboy Store.

After lunch out with Nana, we headed over to the store to see if they had any horse heads for sale.  In the meantime, Jack had gotten a little hung up on some Cars 2 toys that he wanted.  He's pretty sure that if he talks about something for long enough and is very serious about his "needs" that he will get what he wants.  He decided he needed some special Cars 2 Action Agents cars and the Battle Station that they accessorize.  Of course this Battle Station can't use the same size cars that we already have.  It needs newer, smaller, specially built cars.

It's really my fault that he even knows about the existence of these cars in the first place.  I let him watch YouTube videos that review a lot of the toys.  It started off with reviews of some of the Lego sets that he likes/has and has moved on to Cars 2 toys.  He knows a lot of random facts about toys that he doesn't even own.  I think it's safe to say that his letter to Santa might have a long list in it.

Anyway, while Jack was busy searching for Action Agents, Nana found the horse barn and as soon as Jack saw Nana holding his new pet, he forgot all about those cars.  The horse heads on sticks turned out to be pretty nice.  They even had a pink one for Casey.

The nice lady at checkout spent some time putting the horses in bags and covering them all up so they wouldn't get wet in the walk to the car.  Jack and Casey were appreciative but it really was a wasted effort since it took her longer to cover them that it did to walk to the car and rip them out of the bags.  These horses had to get saddled up immediately!  Or at least get named.  There were a few trial names, but I think they've settled on Tipper for Jack and Marley for Casey.

Tired Cowboy

Fashionable Cowgirl

Since then, we've been living all rodeo, all day.  I can't buy apples and carrots fast enough.  In between watching YouTube videos about toys we don't have, that is.

Jack just figured out that he can record the music he plays on his toy piano and he has composed a special cowboy song.  Today they also attached the horse to a storage box that has wheels so that it would be like the horses pulling Cinderella's carriage.  I love their imaginations!  It never would have crossed my mind that my kids might like one of those horse heads on a stick, but now I'm the proud mama of two little equestrians and I hope they continue to ride the range as far as their imaginations can take them.



 

Early Christmas Wishes

Jack and Casey were just talking about some things they would like for Christmas, inspired by the show Max & Ruby.  Jack would like a remote controlled crane that is blue.  Casey would like a "dancing baby baby doll".

Jack very confidently said, "Santa's going to get that crane for me."  Casey echoed Jack.

I decided it was time to remind them that Santa only brings things for good behavior.  I asked, "What do you have to do to get presents from Santa?"

Jack said, "Be good."

Casey said, "Never mind.  I want to get my baby doll from Auntie."

I'm still laughing!

I ran over to the computer to write that down and Jack came over to say, "If you see a remote controlled crane just get it for me because I want to get it sooner than Christmas.  Do you mind if you order it for me?"  He is getting a little too wise about internet shopping!

Casey and her Friends

Casey finally made it back to school yesterday.  Poor girl was sick on Friday and missed her second day of school.  With my free time yesterday, I made it to three grocery stores and got the groceries put away before I had to pick up the kids.  It's amazing how fast I can scoot through the commissary when I'm not driving the big rig that Casey still calls the "car cart."  I didn't have to stop numerous times for someone to walk or to get back in the cart or to pick out fruit snacks or to look at all the random crap that only Jack can spy and ask for.

After the commissary I headed to the Natural Heritage Market.  I got a groupon for it back in June and was just waiting for school to start so I could look at things at my leisure.  I'm pretty sure it was the greenest, crunchiest, granola-iest store I've ever shopped.  Any item I've ever come across in a recipe and could never find at any other grocery store is there.  I've been looking for months for unsweetened coconut and no other store has it but I finally found it.  There is a great collection of bulk items and it's worth shopping for them, but everything else was highly overpriced.

I wasn't really intending to write about grocery stores, but it's already done :)  Back to Casey.  Unlike Jack, she is more than willing to share with me what she does at school.  Unfortunately, I'm trying to figure out how many grains of salt I need with her stories.  This summer, she began telling me really nice stories about her "friends."  Her friends are named Neela, Keela, Darma, Karma, Katie, and Caroline or maybe its the group with Nasa, Lacey, Meena and Kumba.  She starts talking about these girls and the random names just roll off her tongue.  If we're driving somewhere, she'll tell me that a friend lives in a house we just passed or down a certain road.  She also has a special friend who lives in a house near the beach we visited in Maine.  She talks about her a lot.  It was too rainy for her friend to come out and say hi while we were there though.  Needless to say, all these stories are made up but if you didn't know her and you didn't notice the suspicious names, you might actually believe her.

Now that she's in school and I'm not with her to know exactly what happened, I'll have to decide whether it's a true story or not.  Luckily I know the names of a lot of the kids in her class.  Hopefully she'll tell me some real stories about them!  I'm already trying to figure out if someone gave her a piece of cheese on her first day or she just made that up.