The first of many...

We have had a few "firsts" in the last couple of weeks.  To start off Daniel finally took off his training wheels!  I think he has been ready for a while and just didn't realize it.  He has been a little nervous to even try until Eliana, our former neighbor girl, came back with her wheels off.  He thought it was so cool that she could ride her bike with not training wheels.  He wanted me to take his off, but I told him he had to wait until Dad could do it for him.  So he borrowed Eliana's bike and rode off on the first try.  He was super excited!  The next day he harassed his Dad until they took off the wheels and went for a ride.

Here we had Bradley and Daniel turning off the bike trail to go to the park.

Daniel was very excited to do this dirt track without his training wheels.  He was pretty fast at it.

He was also able to ride on the trail through the wood with no problems.  Before the roots would catch on his training wheels and stop him.  He is getting more brave the longer he rides without his training wheels.  Soon he will be doing all the stuff Bradley does.

This last week Eliza had her first girl play date.  Claudia is her best friend!  She loves to talk about Claudia and all the things they are going to do together.  She tells me often, "Claudia is my best friend.  I just love her." 

 

The next is the Fathers and Sons camp out!  Too bad Andy didn't take the camera.  :0)  This is the first year in a long time he was able to go with the boys.  Eliza and I kept Nathan this year, but next time we are going to send him!  Anyway, when they got to the parking lot and the campground they found out they had to hike in!  Andy said it was only about a quarter of a mile, but he ended up leaving half the stuff I sent in the car.  There were also a LOT of large spiders all over where they camped.  Daniel saw one that was the size of a golf ball with an egg sack on it's back.  He asked Andy about it and when Andy told him what it was he picked up a large rock and...SPLAT!  He squished it!  I just love this kid.  :0)  They also bought fishing poles and a tackle box so they could fish.  Andy finally broke down and got a fishing licence since the kids had so much fun on our last camping trip.  When I mentioned that I was a little disappointed that he got fishing poles when Father's Day is coming up he reassured me that there are still several things he needs that I could get for him.  Nice to know he has that covered!  After they guys finally made it home from camping they broke out the slip n' slide.  The first time this season!

The weather was pretty nice and Nathan loved his first experience.  He got to help squirt the water!  He loved it!!

Nathan would get so excited!

"My turn Dad!"

Andy would close his eyes and the boys would try to run and slide down before he turned the water on.  They didn't make it too many times without getting wet.

Daniel

Bradley

Daniel and Bradley

Eliza hasn't quite mastered how to slide down on her own yet.  She did think it was fun to tease Dad into spraying her.  She would hide behind the little raft when he would spray the water and then put it down and say, "Na na na na, Dad you can't get me!"

 

When it looked like it was going to rain they brought the slip n' slide in, but they wanted to play in the rain.

Daniel was enjoying the rain since it made Dad relinquish his control of the hose.  You give this kid a little bit of power and he goes wild!  I had to ask him a couple of times to turn the water off since it was raining.

 

Bradley was trying to build a dam in the gutter.

Daniel finally turned off the water.

"It's off Mom."

Daniel, Dad and Bradley getting ready to boat races down the road.  They used leaves.

 

Eliza is not one to be left behind.  She quickly joined in.  They followed their boats down the street until they went into the drain.  As soon as Daniel's went in he started to cry.  He didn't want to stop racing and apparently he was attached to his leave boat.  We had two fun packed weekends with Dad that we haven't had in a long time.  It has been so nice to have him around even if most days he gets home around 7 or 7:30 just in time to help get kids into bed.  We will take that over doing Face time any day!
May 4-11, 2013