Cheetah underwear and best bike trick of the day.

"I was biking along with Rory ... then I went around a turn and there was a scout's house, then there was this metal thing, then I hit it  --- flew side ways.  Did not some flip wheels (and that's after my front tire popped off) and then when I landed, my handles fell off .... then I slid.  And I stopped sliding like two feet away from pavement."

That was Seth's rendition of what was nominated the "best bike trick of the day."  Don't worry, he completely decimated his bike (the fork in his bike snapped; his bike is in three parts) ... has scrapes on his stomach..  dented his helmet ...and it's reported he did four somersaults and slid off of this small cliff/hill/ditch--thing.  Seth's first concern was for his bike, and didn't cry until he saw Grace (a girl who was biking with them) bringing him his severed handlebars.  Scott (Rory's dad) said that Seth was very adamant that I was not to be called ... he didn't want to go home, so he didn't want Scott to call me and he still wanted to go to the skate park with the other bikers.   Seth was pretty shaken up at first, but now it's an adventure story which he tells with great enthusiasm.  He has already told two strangers about his adventure today.


Onto the cheetah underwear....

We tie-died (underwear) w/ Rory and Scott's bike camp group (if I was going to buy something... it had to be something that they needed!  Lucky them it was underwear :) at least they're too young for it to be embarrassing).  I seriously laughed and laughed when I noticed that Seth wrote cheetah on  his crotch.  Slightly inappropraite? Probably, but I'm still laughing.

I thrive... love.. live summer.  There's so much sunlight and our days are so full and we're never indoors.  I wish summer would last all year around.

Summer Lovin' and a sidenote

It was the Summer Reading finale tonight -- crazy, this summer has gone by quick.  I look forward to this concert all summer --

 Victor Johnson @ Reaney Park :)

I love our library and the staff, and I'm glad that the kids have such a great relationship with them.  Today I decided I would walk to the library with the kids (a little over a mile) and they stopped to pick wild flowers along the way for Ms. Kathleen.  

We really do love and appreciate her.

 Concert, dancing, wrestling, warm summer night, giant lentil, free ice cream .... perfect.

Side note memory:  Something I don't want to forget (and kind'of do), we had to take Levi to the doctors last night, he wasn't able to walk on his foot because of an infection .... small, green, gross, red streaks. It was a thorn buried deep in his foot.  I was so impressed at how stoic Levi was... the doctor was digging with tweezers in a sensitive infected area... and still not getting deep enough to get the thorn out started digging with a needle.  You could tell he was in intense pain, but he stayed calm and braced the  pain.  Even with a tear trickling down his face he never yelled or cried.  I'm pretty sure I would have cried with someone digging in my foot like that.  The doctor was so impressed and said, "I wish every kid was that tough!"

I called the doctor at 5:20 ... got an appointment at 5:45 ... made it to Levi's tball game at 6:10.  That little guy is such a trooper, he still wanted to go to his game!

1 Summer day ='s 4 Regular days ... continued

I took the kids + Rory to Boyer park this morning.  I love the beach, even if it's a miniature one.  I remember the first time I saw Boyer Park, and thinking what an ugly place it was ... that it was tacky with it's parking lot camping.  After being away from the ocean for 6 years... I'll take what I can get, and now it has become a pleasant spot for me.

Is it weird that I like hanging out with kids?  They're so entertaining!  We made sand art...  pretended the water squirting from the squirt toys were fireworks, we buried our feet in the sand, and ate oreos.

"My Precious," -- I think Raya looks like Gollum here ... ok maybe not looks like Gollum, but her stance... you get the idea:

The day continued with more water fights... Raya got the hose to even things out, popsicles, Reaney Park, the kids first venture to the skate park (it was fun until the older kids showed up... and they were unbelievably rude), more bike riding at Lincoln Middle school (my new favorite hide out...), and $1 scoop Tuesday at Baskin Robins.

I love that there is still light outside as I type, and that my kids are up giggling in their bedroom -- talking away like they haven't seen each other all day.

iheartfaces| Water

I love watching my kids explore the different textures at the beach.

The "iheartfaces" theme of the week is water, click the button below for more water entries.

New Gig

I have a new "business" -- Actually  my friend at Cali Jenae Photography basically did it all for me :)  She kicked started this.. now we'll see how far it goes ... Oh... and you should "like" me at Miss Knit (please?)

Turbo

Today we decided to pack up the kids (and their bikes) and ride on the Chipman Trail.
but first we stopped for a very healthy breakfast of donuts and chocolate milk -- Levi put his hands over his mouth and squealed with delight when he found out -- it was a good start to the day.

I'm so impressed with my little guys.

Levi biked 6 miles.

Seth biked 14 miles.

!!!!

This was the first time Seth has rode his two wheeler outside of a parking lot, and he went 14 miles! Crazy.  And Levi pressed on like a champ!  It takes a lot to turn those small wheels on his bike.  

The world should be fueled by the energy of children... after biking we went swimming at Reaney ..  as I type they're all still going, running around our yard squirting each other with squirt toys and the hose.  What else do I have to do to get these kids tired??

And random thought for the night -- Jeff was teasing me earlier that I had more bruises on my legs than the kids... I just counted, I have 12.  Summer time makes for playing hard!

Random thoughts and memories

We were eating taco casserole for dinner (I know super fancy).  Before I even sat down Levi had eaten all the sour cream off of his plate, "Can I have some more whipped cream please?"

Raya calls Levi... "'Oh-la" --- and she belts it. Kind'of sounds like "hola"  Trust me, it is unbearably cute and
funny.

Thought: Last Saturday I bought a large carton of goldfish crackers... to mix up our snacks a bit.  5 days later that very large carton was gone.  Is that normal?  That is seriously a lot of crackers!

In attempts to eat less peanut butter and cut back on the handful of chocolate chips I inevitably eat throughout the day I bought Nutella.... thinking I would cut a few calories. .. but really? Now Jeff and I use Nutella and peanut butter and glory in our Reese's peanut butter toast.

Thought: If I see another girl dressed as a pink blob I might scream.  Seriously.  Girls getting the "special" pink bats and the "special" pink helmets during t-ball raised hairs on my neck.  Ok, apparently I'm turning into a freak'n feline, but seriously I find it devastating how our girls are being portrayed and brainwashed/stunted/sexualized/manipulatated -- you may go to a thesaurus now and find other synonyms that follow the same thread... because I could continue. Please read Cinderella ate my Daughter.   Oh, and if you go out of the way to give Raya the pink cup or ball, shoes, socks etc, OR princess memorabelia that is plastered on every tooth brush - lightsocket in this country --- don't be surprised if I give you the stink eye.  You've been warned.

Thought:  One of the cutest things I have ever seen.... Levi playing tball!

 Raya is cheering him on, "Oh-la!"

More cute stuff... Seth and Levi like to sleep with out their shirts on... Raya refused to wear a shirt last night too.  2 boys then a girl makes for a fun dynamic!

1 Summer day ='s 4 Regular days

The kids and I do so much over the summer... and my camera is usually an after thought or stowed away even when I do bring it because we're playing with water. 

Here was our Monday morning: (after my 5:30 spin class)

8:30 Tennis Lesson

Levi, Raya and I play at Military Hill Park during the lesson, or we go for a walk on the path, or fly airplanes.  It's nice being outside in the morning while it is still quiet.

 Seth loves Tennis, I think a lot of that is due to his coach.  He is a young Weezer looking guy who communicates well with children and makes tennis fun. I need to emphasize the HE -- I am really grateful when I can expose Seth to a positive male influence -- in my opinion there are not enough male educator role models for children (Librarian is female, swim instructor is female, science center teacher is female, pre-school teachers are 90% female, etc).

 9:00-9:30 we all play at the park
Seth and Levi ... mainly Seth is OBSESSED (completely nuts) over cheetahs. They were pretending to be cheetahs on the rocks... Levi was probably a wolf or a lion actually, but Seth is always a cheetah.

 10:00-12:00 We hang out at Rory's house.
The kids have so much fun with Rory (aka Seth's new best friend).  They hang out basically every day...

12:00-1:00 Eat and get ready for swimming
1:00-3:00 Swim at Reaney Park
3:00-3:30 Play at the Park
4:00-5:00 Ride bikes/ play outside
5:00-5:30 Eat (outside of course)
6:00-7:00 Levi's Tball

Raya was so tired during Levi's tball practice that she fell asleep in the grass.  While Levi was working on his batting and catching Seth was practicing getting on and off his bike as a two wheeler -- He's starting to get the hang of it, which is exciting since I wont have to have him on the trail-a-bike much longer!!

Summer days are so full, I love it.  We have to soak and store as much sun as possible to get us through the awful Pullman winters!

The forgotten fourth..

Fourth of July has become my favorite holiday -- not necessarily because I'm overly patriotic... (because I'm not...) but because the Fourth of July has become more of a celebration of summer/life, celebrating more than just a flag or a war, but appreciating and recognizing and enjoying our wonderful world. Simply put: It's time to have fun!

Dan and Jane visited with us through the fourth.  We had so much fun, really, I hope they had as much fun as we did!  We went to the farmer's market, ate Mexican food, they spontaneously bought bikes (crazy!) and for their first bike ride in ... quite some years, rode the chipman trail. Jeff and I caught up with them and biked around Pullman ... their first day totaled about 15 miles!

There were lots of playing in the sprinkler, bubbles, cooking, flying airplanes and I'm sure lots of other little moments that I have forgotten by now.  The weather was pretty perfect too.

At the Johnson Parade:

 The quirkiest parade around:

 Family fun activities: watermelon eating contest, potato sack races, wheel barrow races, water balloon toss, and of course water balloon fight.

 Hanging out at Sunnyside -- the firefighters really liked the kids.  We have such a great community.

 Hanging out, staying up late.  The kids wrestled with their grandparents mainly...

 Jeff and I took it pretty easy :)

We had a fun weekend.

Down by the Riverside

We had a fun morning at the river today. It really was just what I needed.  It was quiet and peaceful -- like we were the only ones at the park -- and the temperature was perfect.  I love me a lazy morning. I could have stayed a lot longer laying in the grass... but I couldn't coax Raya to take a nap on a towel (you can't really blame her though).

Raya: baby model extrodinaire... she saw that I had my camera and instantly said, "Cheese."

Raya

Some loves/thoughts/milestones on my little side-kick:

She sucks her blanket.  She does it when she wants comfort before bed.

She is a fantastic dancer... and has the most outrageous sidestep and twirls

She is giggly, and over-the-top girly: She runs with her arms flapping like a little bird, she squeals, she is constantly telling me that she is "scared" and wants to be picked up.

How did Jeff and I get such a girly girl? It's a complete mystery to me, but I love it.

I love her curly hair. AND that she always wants something in her hair.

She is extremely thoughtful and helpful and is always making sure her brothers have their hats, shoes, goggles, babies, blankets etc.

She would rather help me unload the dishwasher than play.

She loves riding her tricycle.

She knows her letters, and can sign them.

She knows a lot of the letters' sounds.

She can count to ten... assisted.  She'll go back and forth, she'll say 1... then I'll say 2.. then she'll say 3 ... etc

She knows her shapes and colors.

Some favorite books: Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems; Olivia by Ian Falconer; Bark George by Jules Feiffer; Hondo and Fabian by Peter McCarty; Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins;  and Whose Nose and Toes by John Butler.