national bike to school day...

Last wednesday it was national bike to school day. Not that our school pushed it or even knew about it. I found it just by chance one day while looking for other things. But I put it on our calendar and the boys were pretty excited about it. We got up at the normal time and had breakfast. Then we tried to leave earlier rather than later, but we failed to leave when I would have liked. Oliver has outgrown his smaller bike but isn't tall enough for the bigger bike. He can ride on it, but is very nervous on it, which also means he rides really slowly.

Lucius on the other hand has been riding to school at least once a week with me so he just flies when he rides his bike. Oliver had to ride the bigger one and therefore we were late to school. Marmee might have lost her cool a few times on that bike ride to Oliver's school because it's next to near impossible for me to ride as slow as my first born was riding that day. AND Lucius, sweet guy that he is, would at least stop to wait for us every so often when he got too far ahead.

BUT in the end we made it and only ten minutes late. Not to bad. Before we reached school Oliver had already decided that we would be the ONLY people riding our bikes that day. I told him more than likely we might be but that it took someone to start doing it for others to follow. Lead by example, right?!

We walked Oliver back to his classroom and then left to ride home before it rained on us. 

On the ride home we stopped by this skateboard park to check it out.

Then it was back over the freeway bridge towards home.

A Hail Storm...

Sometime last week or maybe even two weeks ago (my mind and blog posts can't keep up with the flurry of activity & photos) we had a storm come through. It was a lot of rain and then hail. It lasted all of five or ten minutes and then it was finished. Lucius (who happens to be terrified of wind, rain and tornados) was in a complete state of panic. It was all we could do to keep him from bursting into a million pieces. But as soon as the storm was done, he went out on the deck to inspect and play in all the hail stones that were left behind.

Oliver drew a picture of his "fun day" to share with his class the next day for his sharing time at school. He even wrote it out in Spanish.  Mi Dia Divertido (con hail) (translation: my fun day with hail).

Art Museum adventure...

The last few years we've been going to the Art in Bloom event at the Minnesota Institute of Arts. This year the boys did not have school on Friday May 1st so we took an adventure to see the flowers and artwork. I told the boys when we got into the car where we were heading and much to my surprise they were really excited about a visit to that museum. They started listing off things they remembered from past years, things they wanted to look for again this year. I'm not a huge art museum person, but I love a good indoor activity when its raining outside, but I'm glad they now think museums are cool.

We arrived right when they opened but they were already quite busy. We bought tickets to go see their special exhibit. It was going to cost $20 for me and $10 for Oliver, Lucius is still young enough to be free. When I went to pay the awesome man behind the counter said he'd give us Oliver's ticket for free! Score- love it when nice surprises happen. we walked around taking a few pictures before we could get into the special exhibit- The Hapsburg Collection Exhibit.

Lucius and Oliver love taking pictures and they do a pretty good job. Plus it engages them into finding things they don't usually stop to notice, giving me more time to take their pictures or look at things myself.

 It's only too bad we couldn't take pictures in the special exhibit cause they were soon bored. They both really loved seeing the jousting horses and armor on display and the little movie playing beside it about jousting. Then they were finished- and it was just the first gallery. Oh well, we had a little chat about being nice and taking it all in for my sake.

We walked back to our car for a picnic lunch after we made it through the Hapsburg stuff. Then they decided they weren't done, so we went back inside to find what they wanted to look at. Taking more pictures along the way and seeing fun flowers too.

Here's a few photos I took with my big camera:

Book photos...

We love books. I'm planning a half birthday party for the boys this summer and its going to be book themed. WHY?! because reading is a big percentage of our days and I seem to always catch them with books in their hands.

Soccer night...

Last Wednesday evening we went to Auntie Mick's house. Their police station in Fridley was haven't a bike helmet fitting and we found out one of our bike helmets didn't fit correctly and the other was expired. So new bike helmets were purchased for the boys and me. (Helmets expire after five years- I had no idea.) After that we went back to Auntie Micks house for dinner and a Soccer game. At one point Uncle hung was even playing with Addie in his arms. Impressive. Always a good time- thanks Mick for the invite.

A day with a second cousin...

Marmee has a lot of cousins on my mom's side. Some of them have kids and we get chances to play with them. One day last week Lucius and I agreed to watch my cousins kid. Lucius and he are second cousins (if I understand blood relationship rules). We walked to the playground to play for a while. They enjoyed the slides and filling buckets with rocks. Then we walked home to have a picnic lunch and outdoor quiet reading time. After which we played in the front yard and across the street on a big rock.

It was a pretty enjoyable day with two little people who are very easy to watch. It's so adorable to hear them talk to each other and see Lucius helping his cousin when he needs help.

Quotable: Old Fashion Way...

The Misters and the neighbor boys have been playing a lot of tag lately. Occasionally we hear a bunch of "NOT IT", but there's been enough "1,2,3 old fashioned way!" to get me curious. What is this old fashion way you speak of? So I asked Oliver and this is what he told me:

"It's where you can not talk and if you were in the 1970's and you wanted to play a game there would be no bubble gum invented so you would have to do old fashion way"

We've seen them play whole games of tag without speaking. I guess the first person to talk is 'it' but you can gesture and point to communicate to others. Interestingly quiet game- I kind of enjoy this old fashion way! Silly kiddo, I love the things that you come up with.