On Sunday, April 21st, Aiden and Patrick decided that he was going to try to ride his bike without training wheels. I was so happy that he was so excited to learn how to do it. We made a quick, okay, as quick as can be trip to Target to get some elbow and knee pads. Safety first people. :-)
Once we got home, it was time to try it out!
This boy is ready!
Here's his first try without the wheels...
He liked to lean to the side, but he still wasn't nervous at all!
They moved onto the road because they had more room before they had to stop. Here's how it sort of started off...
Hahaha! He said that he could see Patrick's shadow so he knew when he had let go and that's when he would freak out and tip.
It took a few tries and he was really starting to get it!
I love that proud smile on his face
Starting to tip...
And...kaboom! But he would just jump right back up and get back on!
Here's another video after a few practice tries...
And by the time they were done for the day? He was starting himself and going the whole way he was allowed to go!! I am SO proud of him!!
Awhile back Aiden brought home a bookmark from school that the Shorebirds (a minor league baseball team in Salisbury, MD) sent home with the kids. They had to read 4 books, fill out the bookmarks with the title and send it back to school by a certain date and they would get 2 free tickets to a Shorebirds game.
The game that he got tickets for was this past Saturday (April 20, 2013). The deal was that Patrick was going to take him and I was going to stay home and do something with the girls. However, I'm one of those parents that has a hard time letting go and missing out on something that the kids do so we looked to see if it would be possible to buy tickets so the girls and I could tag along! Luckily we could! Yay!
Before the game started the kids that participated in the book challenge got to have a book parade and were able to go down and walk on the field. Pretty cool if you ask me!
Emma really liked the Shorebird mascot. As long as he stayed down on the field!!
Here we all are before the game got started:
And?? Patrick even caught a ball for Aiden that was shot out of the launcher in the truck driving around!
The kids loved the snacks! Fries, pretzels, and cotton candy! Yum!!
And our favorite part was the fireworks after the game! They were awesome and they were set to some of our favorite dance around the kitchen songs!!
I'm so glad we were all able to go! It was pretty cold, but well worth the memories!!
A few weeks ago (April 8th to be exact) we had beautiful weather here! It was up around 80 degrees! I thought it would be a great time to get the baby swing out and let Aubrey test it out for the first time.
She loved to swing when she was a bitty baby, so I thought she would like it. Turns out, she loved it!!
Just listen to these squeals :)
In fact, she loved it so much that she swung (Is that a word? Probably not.) until she fell asleep.
Every year in April a couple couples (and cousins of mine) and their families get together and we head down to Tall Pines Campground in VA for a long weekend of camping. It's usually a little chilly, sometimes rainy trip, but we always have a great time! This year was no different.
We headed down as early as we could on Thursday because it was a beautiful, warm day and we wanted to spend as much time as we could there while we had nice weather! I'm so glad we did because Friday was our rainy day. Like I said, there is usually a day where it's rainy. Thankfully by mid-day Friday the sun was out and it really warmed up! There was already a little mud there when we arrived. Well after Friday, it was Mud-dy, especially in between our camper and Kelly & Ron's camper. This trip we actually had to encourage our kids to play in the road because that was the only place that didn't have mud! Then there was when we discovered that Aiden had taken the opportunity to write his name on the picnic table that went with our site. That boy!
And? It's not always easy to go camping with a baby. Sometimes it's just to chilly for them to be outside and then when it's not, you worry about them being out in the sun too long. And then there's the naps that they have to take so they aren't extremely mean the rest of the day. Those naps don't always make it easy to do what you want and it's tough when they are crawling and you don't really want them down crawling on the ground outside. However, it all worked out and everyone seemed to be happy.
And Emma? She is fabulous. One of her favorite songs is, "This Girl is on Fire" by Alicia Keys. She will rock this song. Here she is one day after lunch putting on a concert for me, on her stage. She also told me while we were at the park one day that she's going to be a singing star. You know what? I believe her!
:-)
One of the best parts about this camping trip? The snacks!! Emma loves her snacks! She's just like her mommy!
Here's the kids entertaining themselves in the road again!
There's also cornhold tournaments...
There's also lots of snuggles with the baby that can't get down and crawl around in the mud...
And children who are way beyond exhausted...
And there's always a kid asking when we can go back up to the playground. Thank goodness Ronnie was old enough this year and we were close enough this time that he could take the bigger kids up there for a little bit.
There's always a pig roast on Saturday and a "concert" or "hoedown" as we call it that night. Here you take your cooler and listen to the band and let the kids have a great time. Aiden hates it. He's not quite into the public dancing (also like his mommy) and he's ready to go as soon as we get there. The other kids usually have a great time though and this year? Emma had her first slow dance with Hunter and it was his idea. He's such a sweetie and you could just see the hearts in her eyes. <3
And before we could check out on Sunday we had to go down to the beach and take our annual kids picture on the beach. They are usually pretty funny because without fail someone just won't work with us. This year, all the kids actually behaved themselves, but the sun was so bright in their eyes that it was hard to look at the camera and smile! Here's some of the ones I got...
And after we tortured them with the group photos, they went off to play for a little while...
Then it was back to home sweet home. And the giant pile of laundry!
