Maiden Trek

Finally, all of the stars aligned and made everything come together so Seth could accomplish a maiden trek on his scooter. We found a paved path - check, helmet on - check, the weather was actually nice - check, had Seth and scooter at the paved path with nice weather - check!

It wasn't without some difficulty of course, Seth always assumes first that he cannot accomplish the task at hand. So, after I unloaded the behemoth scooter and had it all ready to go, Seth would not get on it. We had a little struggle but he eventually got on and made his way across the parking lot and onto the path. Then, there was maneuvering around the post that blocks the path so vehicles won't decide to go for a joyride. He got off the scooter and was done. Well.....Mom wasn't done so we had a little standoff -- about 5 minutes -- but I'm pretty good at waiting him out anymore. After a small amount of bribing (I might have threatened to take away his movies for life), and a healthy staredown to see if I really meant it, he got on the scooter and took off at full speed.

He had a blast! I am so glad that this turned out to be such a fun experience because he now knows that he is more than capable, I mean just check out the turns he was doing!

He is excited to do this again and I now know that there is no problem with him keeping up with Lacey and I on a bike. We did 5 miles (2.5 each direction) and the scooter didn't even come off a full-charge. It is supposed to do 10 miles easily and I think it would have done 20. The entire path is 6.25 miles so I don't know if I would chance it unless I had another adult with me who could ride to the car and drive to our nearest location just in case it ran out of juice. I would be curious to know how far it would actually go. There are a few nice rises on this path where the scooter can be heard bogging down a bit but it didn't really slow it much and for the most part the path is relatively flat. The hillier the path of course the more the battery would be drained.

All in all, I am very pleased with how the ride went. I have a few obnoxious bruises for my troubles, both of which were not totally the fault of the scooter but happened as I was preparing to put the scooter in the car or when I was securing it once there.

Is this absurd or what!?

Hawke's New Digs

Hawke has a new home! We decided he had to be bored with his tiny little platform in his other house. So, after a lot of searching, I found a wire cage which incorporated tubes. Hawke loves it! We had to do a little tough-love teaching for him to utilize the tubes, but he has figured it out. He still will sometimes kamikaze off the top shelf all the way to the bottom, but he's getting better. This usually happens when he fills his cheeks from the top feeder (where he is in this photo) and then can't comfortably fit in the tubes -- so he just jumps. For some reason, he doesn't like to eat when up on the top shelf. A hamster with acrophobia -- perhaps.

He finally discovered that he likes his cottage too! Is that an adorable face or what?

The Last Drop

Just ask Lily. The last drop is the best. She will beg and beg for a little dribble of anything that comes out of a bottle. Beer, wine, root beer, cream soda -- she doesn't care, it's the bottle that she is fascinated with. Here is her latest exchange.

If I look at it longingly, maybe he'll get the hint.
Pleeeeaaaasssseee Dad, can I, can I???

That's good....I'd like a little more!

Aaaah, that's it!

Thank you! Thank you very much, let me clean your face!

Maybe if I sweet talk, he'll find another drop.

12 Pounds of Fish in 15 Minutes!

Today was the Special Fishing Day at our local hatchery. We were allowed five fish and it took only minutes to fill our quota. The picture below is Seth telling his dad the "perfect place" that he should cast the bait.
And, the product of that cast. This is Seth's second fish and he wanted to thread the line in like he had seen Phil (our volunteer) do with the first fish.

Seth and Erik reeling in the biggest fish of the five -- a 5 pounder.

Showing off his big fish for the cameras!

And, showing off the whole haul -- 12 pounds total.

After fishing, there is a shooting gallery where the kids could shoot a pellet gun at a target. Check out the concentration here. Lacey is actually a very good shot -- watch out!

More concentration here:

As usual, it was a great day. Short considering we caught the fish, had them weighed and cleaned, shot the pellet guns and had the fish on ice and headed home in one hour! That's what happens when you get there early, you get really hungry fish. Very fun!

Dear Mr. President

Lacey, along with some other 5th graders, received the President's Outstanding Academic Achievement Certificate. She received a number of other certificates too which you can see spelled out in her letter, but the one she was the most proud of was this one signed by the President.

So......when you want to thank the President, you write him a letter, like this:

This will be going in the good ol USPS tomorrow, so let's cross our fingers and see if she gets an answer. She asked me if I thought Malia could write to her but I told her I think they are pretty strict parents and there would be thousands of kids that might want to be her pen-pal...so probably not. She agreed that was true, it might be too much to ask. = )

Blue Haired Girl

Lacey has been dye-ing (get it?) to have blue/purple/orange/green hair for a while now. She was sure there was a shampoo-out hair dye. I didn't think there was and sure enough all of the neon color hair dyes are semi-permanent. But, they do have this fun product that is basically a hairspray and it comes in bright neon colors. There wasn't any purple so blue had to do.

All I can say is.......interesting.

Soccer

Lacey has been enjoying soccer, but the last couple of games have been much more pleasant because we are not sitting in a freezing rain and wind. The kids are happy to not be getting all wet and muddy but the sun is a little much too when you are running for an hour and half. I actually got a little color on my arms and face out there today watching them but it felt great!

The team has had some challenges -- kids moving, small team to begin with so very limited subs, coaches work schedule, etc., but they are dealing with it and doing a great job out on the field.

Lacey hasn't decided if she wants to do this particular sport again but she should, she is good at it and is made to be a runner so we'll see.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

A few weeks ago, I won 4 tickets to a minor league baseball game. Since the kids and I had never been to a "real" ball game, I thought it would be a blast to take them. I invited friend Maurice along. She knows a lot about baseball and so was able to fill us in on a lot of details we would never have known.

The game was fun except that we lost. The weather could have been better but, truly, the way our Spring has been going, it could have been a whole lot worse! We came prepared with layered clothing, hoods, and blankets and we used every bit of it! It was about 43 degrees with a fair wind. But, we were better off than a lot because we were under cover so didn't get rained on. At one point, Maurice went below the stands to buy us a pretzel but came back not longer after empty-handed because the wind was howling through the line and the line was not moving. So much for having a pretzel, we bought Cracker Jacks from the vendor in the stands instead.

Going to a game like this was a lot of fun and I would certainly consider doing it again.

Brrrrr!

On Saturday we attended Seth's track regionals. The weather was horrendous! Temp - 43 degrees; wind -- 25 to 30 mph; rain - showers, more accurately very CHILLY pelting showers! The atheletes (and spectators) were troopers; armed with many layers of clothes, gloves, blankets and a lot of moving around, nobody froze to death. Although at times it seemed like we might.

Now, looking at these pictures of Seth throwing shotput, the skies don't look too bad. Trust me, whenever the sun gave a brief peek of blue skies it was only a tease before the storm. Black clouds and even stronger winds were sure to follow! Nothing like Spring in the Northwest!
We didn't get to find out where Seth placed in the shotput event, probably won't know until later this week, but he placed 5th in 50m Dash, 4th in 200m Walk and received a silver in the 4x100m relay. He didn't have quite the same luck as he had last year but he had a good time even with the horrid weather. He was ready to go home by the end of the day though!

Bike Riding

I took Seth and Lacey to a local park that has a huge parking lot so they could get a little bike riding in without having to deal with traffic. This was Seth's first outing away from home with the scooter and he did really well. He was actually doing a steady cruising speed instead of the start/stop action we get at home. He started getting more comfortable turning also.

Lacey enjoyed getting out and stretching her legs too. It was a beautiful sunny day!