The Bike Has Arrived!

Picked up the Mundo today. It is HUGE. When I walked into the shop, I was actually a little afraid of it. It reminded me of the first time I drove a big, big truck--it seemed that I ought to need a special license to drive it.

First things first, I bought a massive lock for my Mundo. I don't want this baby to slip away anytime soon. I'm sure I'll be spiffing it up soon enough--rearview mirror and panniers perhaps?

Once I was brave enough to hop on board I found it surprisingly easy to maneuver. I had to quickly figure out how to shift properly; it has been nearly 20 years since I've been on a proper bike if you don't count indoor spin class...and I don't.

When I got home, the boys were thrilled to take it for a ride. It is a little harder to maneuver with the kids on board but I think I'll get used to it with practice. The hardest part is getting going from a full stop and putting down the kickstand while on the bike. The first will surely get easier as I get a little more muscle development in my legs. If I can't figure the second out, I'll surely need to develop my arms to be able to hold the bike up while dismounting while kids are on board.

The best part is how much fun it is to ride this thing. It has been in my possession for three hours and we've been on two bike rides so far. Wheee!

Stop, look, listen

A lot of folks ask me how to get kids to enjoy hiking. To me that's like asking how to get kids to enjoy reading...it depends on your ultimate goal. Early on, Tim and I realized that we enjoyed different parts of hiking: Tim likes the physical challenge of a tough hike of long miles followed by a good meal. Cold and rain only make it even better. I, on the other hand, enjoy looking at birds, flowers and chatting with other hikers we come across. We both love the connection that being in nature give us to our "right sized" place in this world. Successful hiking with kids involves both

With young kids, I think it is important to realize that the primary joy they will get from hiking while it is happening is finding and discovering things: a frog, a big rock, a sign. Then of course there are always those special treats that only seem to show up on hikes: peanut M&Ms, honey and peanut butter wraps, etc. It is only after the hike itself that they seem to revel in the challenge completed.

If you think about it, it isn't unlike the many other challenges young children face everyday. Using the potty, buttoning their shirt, writing letters. The process is often full of frustration and patience and pacing are important. But once you are done, nothing beats the sense of accomplishment a kid exudes when he proclaims, "Look what I did, Mom!"

A Pizza Making Party

Just a quick catch up post about Xavier's birthday party last May.

The theme: a pizza parlor. I used checkered table cloths, a blackboard as a "today's special" and some balloons and streamers.

The activities: Each child made their own pizza and decorated a chef's hat

The games: musical chairs, red light/green light, pin the tail on the donkey

The cake: a tub of Bluebell ice-cream with four candles in it. The kids got to "cook" their own sundaes

The favors: a balloon to go with their hat to take home

Simple and fun.

What Our Homeschool Looks Like

Just pulling some old photos off the camera and thought some of you would like to know what our homeschool looks like. As Xavier gets closer and closer to five, we are slowly but surely being "outed" as homeschoolers to our friends and neighbors. But for us homeschooling isn't a solitary endeavor at home devoid of any friends.

Twice a week we participate in a preschool co-op. None of the other kids come from homeschooling families (older sibs are in conventional school) but neither are any of them in preschool or MDO. Its sort of a halfway point between homeschooling and conventional schooling. In addition to this, once a week I run a music co-op. I take the boys with me to the gym 2-3 times a week where they play with other boys and girls in the kid's gym. And of course, there always at least one or two playdates with friends.

On to academics. These photos are from February when Xavier was mad about numbers and counting. He put the numbers in order than counted out their "cargo." These days he's more into letters and reading but math is still a steady part of our week.

One last benefit of homeschooling is eliminating the need to get up and go first thing in the morning to beat the carpool line. While we have a set routine each morning of cuddle, eat, dress; if the boys have had a restless night and need a little more sleep, we just take our time transitioning. As you can see, this morning both boys got up before they were ready and promptly fell back asleep on the couch. Notice the identical body position!

Music Lover's Punishment

My boys have always been music lovers. It might have something to do with the fact that I'm singing all the time. We love to make up songs together. A hiking ditty is called "Watch Where You Put Your Feet."

Watch where you put your feet,
Watch where you put your feet,
Snakes, and puddles and logs,
Watch where you put your feet.

For about two months we've been working with a special music curriculum called Making Music Praying Twice. One day a week we have friends come over and we sing songs, dance, and play instruments. The curriculum is very broad and includes songs from other cultures and musical traditions as well as some lovely hymns and fun nursery rhymes.

Xavier loves sitting on his new bed and listening to CDs now. Yesterday I overheard my husband settling a skirmish between the boys in their room. It ended this way:

"Xavier, do NOT slam the door on your brother again. Share the room or I'm turning off the jazz!"

It was quite the motivator for fraternal peace.

Big Beds

Goodbye, toddler bed and crib; hello, big beds. Tim and I teamed up to build the boys a pair of beds that will eventually be stacked into a bunk bed in a few years. We used these plans. Tim bought and cut the wood while I did the sanding and most of the build. We bought the mattresses at Big Lots and the bedding at Target.

This was technically the boys' big Christmas gift--it just took a little longer than I thought to complete. I didn't want to rush the process. Xavier got such a kick out of seeing his new bed under various stages of construction. As you can see, though, Jack doesn't seem to mind the delay either.

I'm very happy with the results. These beds are SOLID. And if the boys manage to scratch or break them, we've got the skills, supplies and tools to fix them.

Easel to Love

It's amazing how a simple easel makes learning letters so much more fun. One side is a chalkboard and the other is a magnetic dry-erase board. Both have jump started the boys' letter drawing efforts. They don't even know yet that I can clip paper onto this and they can paint standing up. Wonderful!

Tot School -- January 2011

Fine motor skills, aka sticker fun. Hanging laundry in the dining room. I'm convinced Montessori will eventually turn my sons into little houseminions.

Dressing up to go outside. Jack and Xavier suited up and then came to find me to let them into the back yard.

Working on the letter C.

Hot Wheels

Forgive me. I'm nearly an entire month behind in posting photos so you, dear readers, are going to have to endure some Christmas photos. Tim took Xavier to the park today for a bike riding "lesson" which reminded me that I have a backlog of adorable riding toy photos and one hillarious video. Enjoy!

Yup. That's Jack on Xavier's "big boy" bike. He can't ride it but he likes to try.

Here he is on the Hot Wheel while Xavier puts on his helmet.

Now on to the smaller training bike.

Nope, even if he can't make it go, Jack still wants to sit on his big brother's bike.

And a few days later...

Opposites

Xavier: Mom, what's the opposite of car?

Me: It doesn't have an opposite, sweetie.

Xavier: Yes, it does!

Dad: Yeah? What is it?

Xavier: (pause). Skateboard!

Halloween Pics

Xavier was a construction worker and Jack was an owl. We opted for daytime trick-or-treating at the Ames Main Street Trick-or-Treat on Friday. Tim took off work for the afternoon and the boys had a blast.

A Tale of Two Coats

Nearly six weeks ago Grandma and Grandpa McNicholl sent the boys their very first full-fledged winter coats via the fairies at Land's End. Jack loved his so much that he refused to take it off for about an hour after arrival. These coats are fantastic: lots of pockets for little boys, built in fingerless gloves, water and dirt resistant fabric, and even the ability to add two more inches to the sleeve legnth as the boys grow.

It has been an unseasonably warm autumn here in Iowa so up until now the coats haven't gotten much day-to-day use. Since we are such an outdoors-loving family the coats did come in handy for all the weekend camping trips where we were outside first thing in the morning and the temperatures were quite chilly.

Here are the coats at Grinnell college's homecoming weekend.


At Rock Creek State Park.

This morning it is finally a very chilly 24 degrees with an expected high of 45 degrees. Our first official Coat Day!

Why Is It...

Why is it that whenever I don't have a camera with me, we see the most unusual things? I suppose I should start from the beginning. I had the best intentions this morning of doing craft time at the library and then heading out for a few hours of play and picnic at one of the many local parks. I'm finally getting around to reading Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv and am feeling even more inspired to make sure my kids get plenty of time with nature.

So we woke up, dressed, threw a load of laundry in downstairs, and had breakfast. We were all set to head off for our planned adventure when, as often happens, life had other plans for us. Tim had accidentally gone to work this morning with our car keys in his backpack.

Desperate not to give up so soon on my resolve to spend more time outdoors, I took the boys on a little walk around the office park that encircles our hotel. It is still Iowa you know and the development is surrounded by corn fields and woods. The funny thing about walking when you aren't going anywhere and don't have a set time frame--you start to see things. Sure enough we saw something...goose poop. And lots of it. Then we began to notice goose feathers too. Xavier spotted first the rarest of finds. A goose egg! I have no idea why it was there and I imagine the mama goose was long gone on her flight south for the winter. I just wish I had brought the camera but even then I'm not sure a photo would have captured the amount of awe and wonder we all had at the discovery. It was as if we had found a secret door into fairyland or a leprechaun.

The Great Lakes of Iowa

This past weekend we decided to out drive the rainy weather and headed north to the "Iowa Great Lakes" region. If the name is confusing, no, there hasn't been a great shift in geography--Iowa doesn't border on one of the Great Lakes (Superior, Eerie, etc.). These are the Iowa Great Lakes, folks. See, it's different.

Actually despite the name confusion, this area earns its moniker as "Iowa's number one resort." Frankly, it is probably the only resort but who's quibbling? It reminds me of a midwestern Highlands, NC or Seaside, FL. Lots of big houses, lots of resorts, lots of cabin rentals. It being September we were there in the "off season" so things were relatively quiet.

We enjoyed some quiet camping by one of the lakes. Temperatures got a bit chilly—it was about 45 degrees in the morning with the bonus wind coming off the lake. Some good coffee and cocoa warmed us up quickly though.

Here's our new 6-man tent that we got for the bargain price of $100 after triple markdown and end-of-season sale. (Frugal note: September is a great time to get camping equipment on sale!)

Here's a quick shot of Xavier helping daddy tote water back from the pump a few campsites away.

Our plan is to keep camping on the weekends until the weather just doesn't allow it anymore. We love being outside and enjoying Jiffy pop around the campfire at night and singing campfire songs. Good clean family fun.

Main Street Music Night

Thursday night after dinner we all went down to Main Street for their annual Music Night. About 40 different shops and restaurants had small musical acts in or just outside their doors. Not only did the event encourage folks to take a closer look at some of the downtown businesses but to also get a sense of all the musical talent in the city.

Most of the acts were amateurs but obviously very talented. Some of the acts fit the store. For example the candy store had a series of recitals by the local Suzuki violin students. (Xavier wanted to "take a turn" on the violin after seeing a young boy play.) The genres ranged from bluegrass barn dance to xylophone jazz.

Jack had as much fun watching the people go by as dancing to the music.

This was Tim's favorite...a jug-band styled group.

Xavier enjoyed the acoustic guitars too.

Oh Happy Day!

We finally got an honest-to-goodness piece of forwarded mail here in Iowa. While it was nice to get the thank you note from my nephew, it was even better to be able to go to the Ames library and use the envelope to get our library card. The boys and I have been on a meager book diet over the past few months. While in Winston-Salem we did hit the Goodwill to stock up on a few new books at the bargain price of $0.50 a piece but there just wasn't enough room in the truck to get too many.

The Ames library has a single location downtown with a very active bookmobile program that goes all over the city. I don't know if the lack of branches accounts for it but this is the loveliest community library I've ever seen. They have all the whistles and bells of technology: self check out, online reservations, MP3 downloads, e-mail reminders when books are about to be due, extensive and current DVD collection...and I've only been on the first floor!

The children's section is equally impressive. They have a dedicated room for storytime, which occurs about 12 times a week. Some of you may have heard my complaints about our usual storytime in Beaumont. The folks who run this do a fantastic job of really engaging the kids while also giving the parents pre-reading tips. The rest of the children's section includes a fish tank, a puppet theatre, several play areas, rockers for mothers to read to their children in, picture books in kid-friendly bins rather than standard stacks, and so much more. The collection for kids includes toys, CDs, DVDs, musical instruments, puzzles and other toys. It is a godsend for us since we don't really want to fill our small apartment with new toys but do want the boys to have a variety of playthings to keep them interested.

I fully plan to make this library a stop several times a week while we are here.

A Tale of Two Gardens...

...and two cats.

On our way to Iowa we spent a few days in Winston-Salem with Grandma and Grandpa M. Each day we took the boys on a little outing to see some of the sites of Winston-Salem. Sometimes it was just a playground but we did get to see two lovely historic gardens while we were there.

The first was Reynolda Gardens on the campus of Wake Forest. The formal gardens and greenhouse host dozens upon dozens of vegetables, roses, and rare plants. These were the most manicured vegetable gardens that I've ever seen. The dirt in these gardens looks like brownie mix. I can't imagine that the suns sets on a weed in Reynolda gardens.

While looking around a little one-eared, white kitty took to being our tour guide. The boys were enchanted. I suppose I was too as all my photos are of the boys with the cat...none of the garden itself. I'm such a poor archivist! Anyway, here is a photo of Xavier taking an imaginary photo of the cat with his map.

The second garden we visited was a historical recreation of the garden at Historic Bethabara Park. It is a Williamstown-like recreation of the original Morovian settlement of Winston-Salem. It was a weekday so there were no reenactors other than in the gift shop. We had a fun time exploring the fort but my favorite part by far was the community garden. They rent out space with the two rules that you can't plant corn (as it was considered a field crop only in the past) and tomatoes (as they were considered poisonous!). We saw lots of okra, herbs, flowers, beans, peppers and these HUGE sunflowers. Down the middle was a grapevine-covered walk. At this garden we met a black cat/caretaker who was very interested in our turkey sandwiches!

After seeing the gleam in my eye at both these garden tours, my husband told me he thought we might need to get a house with a larger yard. I'll admit I'm inspired to begin planning the winter garden when we get home to Texas.