family bike ride

we have been talking about taking a family bike ride all summer.  well, today was the day!  we didn't start very strong.  mason's bike brake kept locking up his wheel and it took us about 30 minutes just to get that straightened out.  by that time, maddux was crying to get out of the trailer he and manning we riding in behind daddy's bike and madelyn just didn't want to be on the bikes at all.

so off we went with the promise of ice cream.

the ride actually went better than we had thought, once we got going that is.  madelyn and matt were a team and mason and i were a team.  we hadn't discussed it but it made it easier.  i was with mason because it was easier me to get off my bike to help him get going again after each stop that it was for matt with the trailer.

once we got going it was actually a pretty decent ride.  there are a lot of hills that even matt and i couldn't bike up so we kept having to walk our bikes and then get everyone going again but it wasn't as bad as i was expecting.  madelyn did pick up a little too much speed coming down a hill and wiped out on the next turn.  what was amazing was that she screamed and cried and then got right back up on her bike and kept going.  the kids were all rewarded with a cold, sweet treat.  they all agreed that biking was much better than walking.

maddux was thrilled that they had a orange option

they didn't have madelyn's favorite flavor, cotton candy, so she opted for a spider man popsicle 

mason and i almost split his ice cream cone because he kept asking for help with the drips

even manning got his own little cone

as we were finishing up the sky was quickly darkening so we decided we better get going - and quick.  the ride home was a little more exciting than the ride there.  there was a lot of crying (some injury, some fear and some exhaustion), there were a lot of bandaids used (thank goodness i decided to pack them to take with us) and we got wet.  but no one gave up.  all of the kids still thought it was a great time.  we look forward to many, many more rides in our future.

mason is so excited about biking again that once the rain cleared out he went out to ride some more.  maddux wiped out on the sidewalk while playing t-ball with madelyn in the yard and took a lot of skin off one of his knees so i brought him and manning in for baths.  when i was finished with them i went back out to call mason and madelyn in, but i found them and daddy riding bikes round and round the cul-du-sac or "the circle".  it was so cute to see the three of them that i decided baths could wait a little longer.  matt said that he had to practically pry mason off of his bike.

madelyn wasn't the only one with multiple bandaids, but she had the most so i had to take a picture - four on her legs and one on her thumb.

squeezing out the last ounces of summer

this has been on cool (as in cold) summer!  except for madelyn's birthday, of course, were it was around 100 degrees.  but in a cruel twist of fate, it has gotten pretty hot the past two weeks.  you know, now that the kids are back in school.  sigh.

matt has had a few evenings where he wasn't able to be home this week so the kids and i have been hitting up the pool after school.  and i am so glad because the kids have had a breakthrough in the swimming department!  madelyn, who has by far been the most cautious in the pool, swims without her floaties all of the time (we even leave them at home now) and she dives under to swim without holding her nose.  she has just turned into a little fish!

mason is getting braver too.  he just started swimming with his face in the water and float on his back with feet up ("when you see my feet up, i am floating, mom!").

it was a really big day for mason.  because not only was he swimming with his face in the water but he decided that he would ride his bike to the pool!  this was such a super big deal!  a few weeks after he got his bike, he took a nasty fall and has not been willing to get back on it - until this week.  i ask him periodically, but he has just been too scared.  i don't know what changed but for the past two days he has been riding his bike all of the time and has ridden to the pool twice.  he still needs me to help hold the bike steady for his first two petal rotations while he gets going, but then he is fine.  he can even stop without falling.  i think he must have grown and inch or two since his birthday (i do know that he grew an inch in the first month) and it has made a huge difference.  here he is in his triumphant return to riding.

he rode his bike on thursday and friday but matt wasn't home before bedtime either day.  so this morning the first thing mason told matt about was swimming and riding his bike.  he has been so excited to tell him and mason tried to stay up late enough last night to see daddy but he couldn't wait long enough.

we have been doing more than i can possibly post.  matt took the kids putt-putting last weekend (no pictures) and daddy has been doing a lot with the big kids on the weekends.  i am so thankful for this last little pop of warm weather before the pool closes for the winter this weekend.

love.

family walk

on the drive home from the airport i was thinking that it was such a shame that we had spent this warm (40s), sunny day inside.  so i called matt and told him that we were going for a walk when we got home.  and then i told the kids the game plan because we were going to have to be quick if we were going to get out and back before the sun went down.

happily, everyone hustled in for warmer coat, gloves and hats and then back out to get on their helmets and bike gear while i ran manning in for a clean diaper and to grab a blanket for the wagon.  and off we went!

we really can not wait for it to be warm enough to do this most days, but we enjoyed the time we had while we had it. 

when we got back home, the moon was a beautiful orange and very low in the sky.  i had to help the kids see it from the driveway between the trees.  madelyn and mason thought it was pretty neat but when i showed maddux he just said, "no".  he would not believe that the orange circle he was seeing was the moon.  that silly kid.

so thankful for some family fun outside.  love.

packers saturday

so on the day when everyone is glued to their t.v.s around here, i decide to host a pampered chef party. i wasn't thinking about the playoffs and i should have been - oh well. we even went to church tonight instead of tomorrow morning. i was seriously worried that we would be the only people in wisconsin not watching the packers game, but surprisingly there was a fairly decent turnout - not great, but decent.

we spent the whole morning cleaning up the house, then the party went from around 12:30 to 4:00 and after that we were at church by 5:00. not a lot accomplished today, but we did get a lot of fun maddie pictures for your viewing enjoyment. love.

maddie riding on her new toy lion from grandma and big pop. we tried to have her walk with it first, but she didn't like when it moved. when we sat her on it she was accidentally rolling herself backwards.

here she is standing in her crib for the first time. well the first time she was able to stand herself up in her crib anyway.

just hanging around with daddy.

my little volleyball baby.

standing in her church dress from grandma and big pop. she is getting to be such a big girl!

madelyn and grandma

on a side note, the pampered chef party was a gluten-free one because a few of the kids in the neighborhood have allergies and i wanted to know more about cooking snacks for them when i hosted playgroup. i have a whole new level of respect for anyone who has to prepare meals around allergies. one of the mom's even got a little teary-eyed talking about it - granted she is pregnant with baby #2 - because her daughter is 16 months and has some severe allergies.