Bike Riding Kind of Afternoon

While our yummy dinner was cooking away in the crockpot, the kids enjoyed a nice bike ride on the trail this afternoon. 

 

Did you notice Justin is on two wheels?  I am so proud of my determined little boy.  He has been wanting those training wheels off for probably a year now and we tend to put them off and then back on again, but this time he is refusing to let anyone put them back on.  An entire bike ride today and he just went with it.  He starts, stops, falls, but he just keeps on getting up and trying again and again.  He doesn't even care if anyone pushes him off (which if we do, he can ride quite a while on his own.  I end up stopping him because the child has no fear and just keeps going faster and faster.  I seriously was afraid he might ride into the creek today at one point!)  He will push himself off and ride a few feets, then stop and go again.  Sometimes he is walking it with his feet, but it is really helping him learn his balance.  I don't think it will be long at all before he is right there with his big sister.  I wish I had been videoing today.  He just did such a great  job!

 

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

So, today wasn't exactly what I had planned.  When you have your house up for sale, your plans tend to get compromised when you get kicked out of your house with only an hour or two notice, but we still made the best of the day!

This is our first year doing more than just dressing in green.  Justin has been very obsessed with leprchauns all year for the most part.  He talks about them on a weekly basis, asking if he will ever find one.  Last week in school was probably his favorite because they talked about them all week and then found a pot of gold chocolates that the leprachaun had left at school.  I wanted to make today a little more special for him since he loves the subject so much.  So.. despite the fact that we had to skip out on eating our shamrock green pancakes this morning, the kids did have a few surprises from a leprachaun visit when they awoke:

-  While they were sleeping, those silly leprachauns went into their room and stamped their hands with "Happy St. Patricks' Day!"  and their cheeks with shamrocks.  They didn't notice it had occurred until they looked at one another.  Quite comical!  Then they proceeded to the bathroom to look in the mirror and those crazy leprachauns had fingerpainted the mirror green with shamrocks.  They also discovered our milk had been colored green and the toliets were all green water.  Katelynn and Justin went hunting for more and thought they might have spotted some things the leprachaun put out of place, but I think they might just be using some wishful thinking on that....  :)

To soften the blow of no pancakes, we crashed Dunkin Donuts and had some yummy green frosted donuts and then enjoyed our corned beef, cabbage, and potato dinner!  I wonder what fun the leprachaun will bring next year....

Ryan's First Extracurricular Activity!

What a fun day it was for Ryan and I while Justin and Katelynn were both in school!  We attended our first Mommy & Me Gym Class!

I kind of stumbled upon this kid's activity center while getting my oil changed last week.  Katelynn actually took classes there at a young age, but I had since forgotten about it over the years, and it was nice to get the reminder.  Ryan has just hit that age that I had both the other two in extracurricular activities so it was the perfect time to start.  I don't feel like he gets as much interaction with kids his age as my other two had at this age so I was psyched to start our first class.  We talked another mom from Justin's preschool and her 2-year old into joining us too, and we're going to make it a weekly thing!  So much nicer than spending our mornings running errands or home by ourselves!!

Ryan was not really shy at all.  He ran around and interacted and played pretty well.  He wasn't sure what to think about the hands-on songs, but I am sure in a few weeks he will get the hang of it.  Can anyone guess his favorite activity??

Yep, freetime with the BALLS of course!

Superheroes Want the Spotlight too!

All that picture-taking tonight for our princess going to the first ball left our two superhero boys feeling a little left out.  When I finished snapping pictures of Katelynn, they jumped up and starting yelling "Cheese!" as they struck their superhero poses!

Full Disclosure:  Yes, I do realize Ryan is in only a diaper.  It's a new thing with him to remove ALL his clothes, including his diaper 572 times a day.  It's a pretty exhausting cycle of dressing and undressing him all day.  It was almost bedtime so I gave up on the re-dressing him part.  I just have to keep putting back on his diaper (which is why it looks so saggy and off.. he keeps pulling it off. )  He hasn't mastered taking off the flaps so he just yanks on it and pulls it off like a pair of pants over and over again!

First Date to the Dance

Tonight I sent Katelynn off to her very first school dance.  I think it's safe to say that her date this year is probably the only date I will ever not worry about her being with the entire time she is gone!

She was so excited about attending the Me & My Guy Dance at school tonight.  We went out shopping for her dress this week (which we ended up finding at a consignment sale), and she requested that her hair be curled.  It took a few tries to get her hair curled since it's a bit short, but we were finally successful with my hot rollers.

And I think curling her hair is becoming a new hit.. she is already requesting we do it for school Monday!

I probably went a little overkill on the pictures, but this is my baby girl's first dance!  I would have liked more pictures of her and Jonathan, but I didn't get any more.  :(

 

They had a great time.  This was possibly even Jonathan's very first school dance!  Ha,ha.  He never attended any high school dances, and his great memory is failing him on if he actually attended any at all.  I really, really wish I could have been a fly on the wall to watch them at the dance.  Jonathan says they danced together for about 10 minutes before Katelynn found some friends and spent the rest of the evening "ditching" him as he says and dancing and running around with her friends.  Already at age 6!!  They said that Jonathan even did the cupid slide though so I really, really wish I could have been there for that!  I haven't even ever witnessed that in the 12 years we have been together!

American Girl or Ryan's?

Everything that Katelynn owns for her American Girl dolls somehow becomes something that Ryan thinks is for him.  It started at Christmas.  He has riden her American Girl scooter, crawled into her American Girl doll tent, and now the latest... he is cruising in the American Girl doll's jeep!

We found this jeep at a consignment sale this week.  I made sure to get the boys each a toy as well, but I almost wish I would have just made this a toy for all three of them to share- the boys are enjoying it almost more than Katelynn! 

Snow! It is finally snowing!!

The long awaited wish for snow has finally been granted in Charlotte!  We have had so many forecasts for possible snow this year, and they have never come true.  My poor kids have been begging for a day of snow, and I was so excited for them that it finally happened!

Katelynn and Justin had both seen snowfall at least once a year ever since they were born, but then last year (2012), it never snowed.  So, this was Ryan's very first experience with snow!

It happened so suddenly and fast.  It had been "snowing" on and off all day, but nothing was sticking to the ground.  When we got home, it had just started again and Katelynn was standing there trying to tell that it was even snow when all of a sudden it started falling heavy and thick!  It was covering the ground within minutes!

We had to head inside to load up on snow wear so we could get back outside to play.  In NC, you can't waste anytime because the snow could be gone in a flash!  Luckily, we still had three pair of snowpants that fit the kids good enough to make it work.. and we always just load up on socks and wear rainboots because snowboots in NC don't exist (and we don't really need them either)!

 Snowball FIGHT!  (And I love that she knows to go hit her daddy and leave her mommy warm and dry!)

 Of course the toys had to come out in the snow for Justin to make sure he had a super awesome time.  He caked those tires in snow so much that he got stuck and our neighbor pulled him out with his lawnmower!  Haha.

 When it snows, it automatically becomes a huge cul de sac party with all the neighbors.. big and small outside to play!

 Snow Angels!

 It isn't always good snow for making a snowman, but this time it was!  Granted, it took most of the snow we had in our front yard but we were successful!

 Okay, mean mommy, but this might be my favorite snow picture.  Ryan fell face first in the snow and it was COLD!  He was so mad for all of three minutes and then he was right back at it!

 

What a great evening of playing in the snow!  Now, we are ready for our warm weather to return since we have had our snow fix for the year!