Yesterday.

In case folks were wondering, we didn't really do anything in particular for Labor Day. Growing up, Labor Day was called States Day and was a big deal in my little hometown. We always had a big parade and carnival and it was great fun. My sister says they had a blast there this year. I miss that. :) 

Sigh. We did, though, manage to go on a bit of a family bike ride yesterday:

Okay, so it wasn't really a very lengthy ride. Asher's training wheels somewhat limit how far we go right now. So, we all biked to the neighborhood park...the boys played some soccer with Nathan...and then we split up. Nathan and Noah took the bike path to its southern end while I led the other two home. It was good. :) Hoping to manage more and longer rides this fall.

Also, did you notice? We bumped all three boys up on bikes. Asher's now on Noah's old 18" bike (still with training wheels, though he's working on that)...Noah's on a new 20" bike complete with gears and suspension and all...and Micah's on Asher's old 16" bike, though for any distances we stick him in the trailer for speed's sake, lol. 

And, yes, this transition on bikes prompted numerous complaints about the justice of hand-me-downs, since Noah continually gets to pick something new and the other two settle for what's been outgrown. As neither Nathan nor I ever really had to experience hand-me-downs (being the only and the oldest children), we do feel for the boys. But. As we pointed out, in this particular case, all the bikes involved were really in very good condition, having been used infrequently. Plus, it's generally only bigger things like this that get the hand-me-down treatment...I still have a tendency to buy them all clothes (since I like them to coordinate, lol) and such. And our neighbor even chimed in about how her younger brother always complained about getting *her* hand-me-down bikes, so we pointed out to the boys that at least they like the things Noah picks. Still. As you can guess, Asher and Micah are a little irked. But they'll live. ;)

Happy Cakes!

Just a quick picture from yesterday...was called upon for some impromptu girlfriend time with two of my best friends (have known Melissa and Molly since undergrad and am so glad that we all ended up here in Colorado)...

We gathered at my pal Molly's place and then did lunch, window shopping and dessert. ;) The first part of our dessert was stopping at Happy Cakes and each getting a cupcake. Just outside, I realized that their purple brick wall would be a great place to take a picture, so here we are, holding our bags with our cupcakes. (Yes, you may bow down to our patience...we took them to go in those little bags and didn't actually eat them until later, lol.)

For the record, we contemplated taking a jumping picture (scroll down) since it was such an awesome wall, but I wasn't confident that I could land in the wedge sandals that I was wearing without twisting something, LOL. 

After that, we headed to Little Man Ice Cream and enjoyed some delicious ice cream yumminess before going back to Molly's for some good girl talk. ;) Happy day!

More than ready...

So. Local public schools here started two weeks ago. We've been homeschooling through the summer. Asher will bump up to doing karate twice a week now (Micah's still at just once a week). Our first soccer practice of the fall season is later today. But. The boys' Options program (one day a week during the school year) doesn't start until September 13.

The boys are tired of waiting. ;) 

On the plus side, yesterday we had the Options "orientation" to pick up class schedules and all. The boys are stoked. Noah's pleased with his schedule...he got most of the classes he wanted and will be taking:

• Investigative Science 
• PE
• Art
• Gadgets & Gizmos
• Music/Drama
• Ameritowne

Technically, this year Noah is in fourth grade. At Options, all classes for that age range are 4-6th grade combined classes, so it works well for us. Asher's similarly happy. Though this is technically his second grade year (given that summer birthday, we'd have waited a year to keep Asher and Noah two years apart in school), he takes third grade classes at Options. He'll have:

• Science
• Reading
• PE
• Recorder/Chimes
• Music/Drama
• Math

And Micah. Well, Micah's pretty much thrilled that he gets to go this year.  We went over to meet his kindergarten teacher (one we have experience with, as she taught Noah a couple years ago for science and reading). Got to talking (as she was gathering information on her students). And, apparently, we're going to bump Micah to the first grade classes for reading and math. He'll stay with the kindergarten class most of the time, but will join the first graders for those two classes, as he's already beyond what she'll be teaching in kindergarten. :) Yet another reason I love this program. So willing to work with the individual student needs. :) Hopefully it'll all be good. (I think so.)

Sidenote. Part of me is reluctant to let him join the first grade classes. He only just turned five at the end of July after all. If we were enrolling him in public school, we might well wait another year before starting kindergarten. Okay. We probably wouldn't wait with this one. ;) But. It's only one day a week and I already do higher than kindergarten level stuff with him at home all the time. So. I suppose it just makes good sense to continue to challenge him while he's willing and able. Just hard to think about my baby being ready for kindergarten, let alone first grade. Sigh. :)

As further proof that the boy is just growing up too fast...here's a replay of a conversation overheard yesterday:

Noah: “What’s 9 times 9?”

Micah: “81. I know because there were two tree houses and one grew 8 apples and the other grew only 1. That means that one tree house grew 7 more apples than the other.”

Noah: “How did you figure that out?” (I *think* Noah was looking to see if Micah knew that he'd multiplied and subtracted.)

Micah: (looking at Noah in a baffled sort of way) “With ease.” Duh.

(Note: Micah's "story" that helped him figure out the multiplication problem comes from Times Tales. The boys use Times Tales as a math supplement and it’s awesome…has a little story for each multiplication problem...totally easy and quick to use. I think I neglected to include this in the post I did on what we use for math...serious oversight.)

So. Yeah. They're ready. ;)

Two wheelin'

Finally. Yesterday we finally convinced Noah to learn to ride a bike without training wheels. To be fair, we haven't really tried all that hard or all too often. This may have been the first time this year that we actually even got the bikes out. (Sad, but true.) So, after almost five years of having various bikes and one or two attempts previously without the training wheels (which lasted all of a few minutes), he got on the bike and started pedaling. And within minutes of Nathan helping him around the cul-de-saq, the boy was two wheelin' all on his own. And lovin' it. I told him so. ;)

Whew. I can now disregard that niggling little worry in the very back of my mind that we wouldn't get him on a two wheeler before he turned 10. ;) 

True to form, the younger two followed suit fairly quickly...not actually mastering the two wheel thing but happily volunteering to try it out without the training wheels. (This had been the sticking point with Noah...getting him to try for longer than a few minutes or at all.) Now that Noah's not anti-bike-riding any more (he'd gotten to the point where he never wanted to go out because he'd realized that most kids his age can ride without training wheels...hence the lesson today being while all the neighborhood kids were in school and Nathan was working from home), I anticipate that getting the other two on just two wheels won't be long. Hopefully. ;)

Note. Nathan and I were realizing today, as we were working with the younger two in particular, that those balance bikes (without pedals or training wheels...you can find them at a lot more places these days) are really an excellent idea. If we hadn't already invested in all these bikes, we'd go back and start with one of those for sure. So. If you happen to have a kid just about ready to want a bike...look into those balance bikes first, instead of something with training wheels that will become a crutch and make them apprehensive about learning to balance on their own. Really. I think it will work better. As a bonus, you won't spend your afternoon hunched over a kid on a bike trying to hold the seat and run up and down the street in the 90+ degree heat. All good things. :) 

Cheaper by the Dozen

So. I recently finished reading "Mr. Popper's Penguins" to the boys (based on the "Deconstructing Penguins" book that I've mentioned before). It's all part of my goal to do even more reading with the boys this year. (Sidenote to clarify that we do read a lot already, but I'd like to start reading more things that I choose instead of constantly reading about the periodic table or Star Wars, lol.) Anyhow, the boys really enjoyed it and got the point, and it was great. As we were discussing the book, we got to talking about what it would be like to have 12 penguins and somehow this led us to the book "Cheaper by the Dozen." 

I started reading it to the boys this morning. It's going well so far and the boys are enjoying hearing about times before computers for a change. ;) During lunch, then, I jokingly asked the boys whether they think we should have 9 more kids to make a dozen. Unsurprisingly, they all replied an adamant, "NO!" But. Then, they all said that they do think we could have one more, though. Excuse me? Obviously, I promptly asked them to explain themselves...wondering whether they've all been secretly longing for a little sister or some equally unrealistic thing, lol. At this point, Asher stepped right in to explain..."having four of us would make things like playing tag more fun." 

Ah. Of course. Gotta have priorities.

When I then explained that even if we had another child it would be 4-5 years before he or she would be able to play tag with them, Asher didn't blink an eye as he simply declared, "oh, in that case, I just wish we could clone me." Discussions of which boy to clone ensued. Man, reading is cool. ;)