Learning to Ride a Bike: November 2012 (minus Thanksgiving)

The most monumental thing about November was the kids all learning to ride their bikes.  Woohoo!

Our good friends Josh and Cris had shown us the trainer bike they had gotten for their kids.  It’s basically a bike with no pedals.  It allows the child to just practice getting balance.  So Jim took one of our kids’ bikes and removed the pedals to make our own trainer bike. (Note: in case you decide to do this to your kid’s bike, in removing the pedals, Jim made it impossible to reattach them, so that bike was permanently pedal-less)

This is not our bike, but you get the idea!

 

Boy, was that kid not happy! But the others were pretty nice about taking turns with it, especially the boys, and it wasn’t long before they were coasting easily down the street, their feet poised inches above the ground, balancing like pros!

So one day Thomas looked at Jim and said, “Take the training wheels off my bike!” So Jim did, and Thomas hopped on, and in almost no time, he was riding his bike!  Zachary said, “Me too!” and in one day we had two kids riding bikes!  On day 2, Jonathan was riding his too! (His was the one Jim removed the pedals from, so we had to buy him a new one)

Reagan was not happy about the boys taking off and gaining this skill without her, so she put some extra effort into the trainer bike, and within a week, she was pedaling off with the boys too!

I took video of all the kids riding their bikes, but I took it with my phone, and now it’s all sideways.  Nobody wants to look at that, so you’ll just have to use your imagination!

In addition to riding a bike, the kids also went to their first UT basketball game!  Super fun and a lot less expensive than football games!



Go Vols!  So glad Josh, Cris, Carter, and Kennedy invited us on this outing!  It was lots of fun, although I think the kids’ favorite part was riding the bus from the parking lot to the stadium!

Another treat this month was getting to sit it on one of Reagan's ballet classes.  Look at her go!

Halloween 2012

This was a sad, sad Halloween for me.

For the first time since the kids were born, their costumes did not all match.  Alas.

We were close!  If we could have found a Black Widow outfit to fit Reagan, they would have all been Avengers!

But it was not to be.  And then Reagan fell in love with a Cinderella dress.  Sigh.

Oh, well.  They were still cute!

Cinderella

 

Thor (I wish the costume had come with a wig!)

 

Captain America

 

Hawkeye (Not a very exciting costume, but what 7yo boy doesn’t want a bow and arrow set?)

 

We continued our Halloween tradition of trick-or-treating with Carter and Kennedy!  Happily, this created two coordinated sets!

 

The Avengers

 

The Princesses

 

Happy belated Halloween everyone!

August 2012

Okay, it’s summer vacation!  Let’s get this catchup started!

Last August, just minutes before the new school year started (so it seemed to me!), we moved into our new house!

Strangely, I can’t seem to find any pictures of the front of it.  I should probably take care of that at some point!

If you asked the kids what their favorite thing was about the new house, they unanimously answered, “The stairs!!”

 

The view from the back deck

 

Don’t worry!  Jim is right behind them, and he put the screens in the windows right after I snapped this picture!

 

In case you’re curious, four first graders need so many school supplies that they don’t all fit in the giant tub!  Thank goodness the elementary school has a pre-first day Open house so parents can cart all the loot to school!

 

Of course, MY school days started a week before the kids’ did.  This year, the super-fun and awesome Miss Mandy kept the kids while I went to work. 

 

We love Miss Mandy!

 

First day of First Grade!

 

Dropping the kids off for their first day of first grade was a COMPLETELY different experience from their first day of kindergarten!  (First day of kindergarten)  I drove to the school, got in the drop-off line, AND THEY JUST GOT OUT OF THE CAR AND WALKED AWAY!!!!!

 

Love you, Mom!  And off they went! 

 

It must be so much easier for them because they have siblings, plus they were two-and-two this year, so no one was going alone to a classroom.  They were SO BIG!  No tears at all! 

 

At least not from them…I might have gotten a little misty-eyed…but only for a couple minutes!

 

Also in August:

Reagan lost some teeth.

 

We had a visit from Mr. Scott, Mrs. Laura, and Baby Grant!  What a cutie!

6

We took this picture.  I don’t know why.

 

And we discovered what happens when you throw laundry in the air near an intake vent.

 

All in all, a pretty full month!

 

Next time? September!

Superlatives

I realize this is really random, but it seems like a quick and easy way to capture some of the cute and quirky things that make my kids special at this moment of their lives.  So, if five-year-olds got superlatives, here are the ones we would win.
Most likely to randomly lean over and give you a kiss and say I love you…Zachary
Most likely to be sent to timeout…Zachary
Most likely to sing really long songs that have no actual words in them…Thomas
Most likely to sing really long made-up songs with actual words…Reagan
Most likely to be kidnapped by his kindergarten teacher because he is so adorable you just want to take him home…Jonathan
Most likely to fall down on the soccer field…Thomas
Most likely to score on the soccer field…Thomas
Most likely to need to go to the bathroom IMMEDIATELY upon sitting down for a meal…Thomas
Most likely to ask for extra stickers or suckers at the doctor’s office so he can share with his siblings when he gets home…Jonathan
Most likely to come home with a green dot instead of a yellow dot…Zachary
Most likely to get in trouble at school because he is yelling at other kids WHO AREN’T DOING WHAT THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING…Zachary
Most likely to get in trouble at home because she’s screaming at her brothers…Reagan
Most likely to ask a bizarre out-of-the-blue question at bedtime to put off actually going to bed…Reagan
Most likely to visit Mom and Dad in the wee hours of the morning…Thomas
Most likely to do a chore without being asked…Jonathan
Most likely to tell you a story you don’t think will ever end…Jonathan
Most likely to ask a stranger in a waiting room to read her a story…Reagan
Most likely to name a pet Rainbow Heart Love…Reagan
Most likely to explain to you very intellectually why you are wrong…Jonathan
Most likely to explain with much crying and hysterics why you are wrong…Reagan
Most likely to just cry…Thomas
Most likely to throw himself in the floor while crying…Zachary
Most likely to still not eat chocolate…Jonathan
Okay, I better stop before this post takes you two years to read.  I’m certain I could think of a hundred more.  Some of you could probably think of a few as well!  Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into our little lives!  Happy weekend!

We’re Going to Keep this Box of Kleenex

Today the kids went to kindergarten, each child to his or her own classroom.
That’s right, 4 kids, 4 teachers, 4 classrooms.
And I lost it.
I could have held it together to drop off just one child, but trailing from room to room dropping off one child after another was more than I could take.  In fact, I’m tearing up right now just writing about it.  By the time we dropped off Thomas at the last room, I was just short of sobbing. 
I’m not sure why this is so hard.  THEY were fine.  The kids walked into their rooms and barely looked back.  They were fine with being separated from each other.  Their teachers were wonderful!  Their classmates looked great too. 
They were SO BIG.  And maybe that’s it.  My babies are so big now.  They’re in SCHOOL.  THEY GO TO SCHOOL!!!
I’m so excited for them, and I’m so proud of them.  And I know that they will love school, but…they’re my babies…and they’re just so big. 

And just in case you’re curious, this is what we took with us to school today:
8 boxed of crayons, 4 boxes of markers, 4 pairs of scissors, 24 glue sticks, 12 bottles of glue, 8 boxes of Kleenex, 4 bookbags, 24 pencils, 4 changes of clothes, and 4 bottles of hand sanitizer

So now I’m going to go to work and surround myself with teenagers and talk about Beowulf and hope that NO ONE asks me how kindergarten went because I really need to stop crying.

Learning to Write

The kids are learning to write, which means they write their names a lot since those are the best words to write! Here’s a few shots of how they are doing these days:

Obviously, there’s lots of room for improvement, but I think they’re doing pretty well so far!

Gone Fishin’

Father’s Day was also JonZReaTom’s actual birthday. We had already had the party, but shouldn’t the actual birthday be special too? OF COURSE!! And it was!

PawPaw and NeNe and Aunt Jayne came for a visit that day, and as the grand finale to the giftapalooza, PawPaw pulled out four brand-new fishing poles and said, “Let’s go fishing!” This suggestion was met with shrieks of excitement from the kiddos, so off we went! Of course, mom and dad were expecting this trip, so Jim had already scouted the area for a good (and convenient) spot to fish. We took the kids to Ned McWherter Park downtown on the river.

PawPaw helped Zachary cast his first line and within minutes he had a bite. It was SO FAST! Daddy stepped in quickly and helped Zachary land his first fish!

Daddy and Zachary with the prize fish (I’m told it’s a sun perch) before we let it go.

But wait! We didn’t catch just ONE fish! Minutes later, Zachary caught a second fish! Then Reagan managed to get into Zachary’s honey spot and she caught a fish too!

Thomas got a bite too, but lost it…or so we thought! Zachary wandered over to Thomas’ spot and Thomas, thinking his fish had gotten away, let Zachary have his seat. Zachary picked up the pole and reeled in fish #4!!

Poor Jonathan tried patiently the whole time and never caught a thing. I don’t think he even had a nibble. But he was a trooper and never complained!

After fishing we made our way over to the playground to drain every last bit of remaining energy from the birthday boys and girl.

It’s never occurred to me before, but in THIS picture, Reagan looks A LOT like my sister when she was little!

Jonathan and Reagan both wanted to climb this swirly pole, but then when they got halfway up, they didn’t know what to do and had to be helped back down!

Happy Fourth Birthday to Jonathan, Zachary, Thomas, and Reagan!!

And Happy Father’s Day too!

Our first fishing trip was so much more successful than I expected. I really thought we’d sit around in the sweltering heat for 10, maybe 15, minutes without a single nibble and then pack up four whining children and leave. I didn’t expect us to catch a fish. I certainly didn’t expect us to catch FOUR!! It was still sweltering, but at least it was shady, and the excitement of catching fish kept us from focusing on the heat.

Thank you PawPaw, NeNe, and Aunt Jayne for coming to visit and helping us have a fantastic birthday! We’re ready to go fishing again, so come back anytime!

We Have Now Entered the Fourth Dimension

That’s right. JonZReaTom has turned four. FOUR!! I just can’t believe it. My little babies are long gone. Sigh. Let’s not even talk about how I started to tear up telling them each good night the night of their birthday. It’s going by so fast! And all I can think about is that we are one short year away from FIVE and KINDERGARTEN. Sniffle, sniffle.

But enough of that! I have all year to cry about my babies growing up. No need to do it now while the blog is so quad-deprived. There is so much to write about. We have been SO BUSY!! But my time is limited, so I’ll just share some pics from their actual birthday, which also happened to be Father’s Day!

Jim made his traditional birthday pancakes. Yum! Pretty good, huh? He’s getting quite talented at writing with pancake batter!

We got the kids their first bikes, and they were SO excited! The boys, especially Zachary, are naturals on them (with the training wheels, of course). Like with the tricycles, Reagan has been a little slower to fall in love with her bike, but she’s catching on much faster than she did with the trike and is doing pretty good herself. Zachary looks like he’s been riding a bike for months! The hardest thing for them all to get used to is the brake system. On the tricycles, they pedaled backwards to GO backwards, now they must pedal backwards to stop, and there is no GOING backwards. But they’re catching on!

Here’s a few pics of the kids riding their bikes for the first time:

It was hard to get good pictures of them because they kept looking down at their feet and the wheels. Jim and I kept yelling, “Watch where you’re going!” I’ll get more pictures soon!

Well, here was a little taste to keep you going! Coming soon: the PARTY, our first fishing trip, garden update, Memphis, and probably so much more that I can’t even think of right now!

A Few More Pictures

I have received a request for a few more pictures from our big anniversary weekend, so here they are!

Me, don’t I look like a pro?

Angelo’s, from the helicopter—we landed in the grassy area in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture

The dam on Douglas Lake

Me and Jim with our pilot, Dan, after the big flight