Saturday, May 9, 2009

Sledding

No, I'm not uploading pictures from a couple of months ago, nor did we have a surprise May snowstorm today. No, today Trace and I were putting together more cabinets for the store out in the garage, and the kids were playing in the front yard with us. Jackson saw the sled in the garage (left here by the previous owners, with a line to pull it already attached and everything--thanks!), and asked me to get it out for him, so he could pull his sister. He rode his "old bike" (the three wheeler, which does a better job of "four-wheeling" across country than his "new bike," the two wheeler with training wheels, which has brakes--great for some things, like not crashing into your mother or sister, but not for going cross country), hooked the line from the sled around it, and rode down the slope of the driveway into the dirt. The best part was, it worked! I supervised a little, but mostly they did it on their own. The photos show it all:Caroline getting in the sled. Purple, her favorite color. Pedalling hard to get going down the hill.
Here we go! Let me out!
Caroline tried to pull her brother too, but it took a lot of help from Mom, since she doesn't quite reach the pedals at their farthest.
The other pictures I took today are of the crazy Stellar Jay's nest on our awning rack. We're going to put in an awning above the sliding glass door at the store. In the meantime, the rack is sitting on it's side outside our garage. A blue jay decided this would be a good place to build a nest, and in a matter of days, voila! Now we can't move the rack until the eggs hatch and the baby birds fly away. The nest is actually between the awning rack and the downspout from our gutter, the oddest place I've ever seen a jay's nest. Actually, I've never seen a jay's nest up close before: they seem to choose (wisely) spots far from my vision. But this mother jay has no problem with all the commotion in front of our house, especially as we've been working in there. She doesn't even mind when we spend all day, with our dog, in front of the house. Here she is, as peaceful as could be, as we prance around her, as noisy as could be. Best wishes mother jay!
This is a picture of Jackson this morning. It was a beautiful day, after almost a week of rain, so we ate our breakfast outside in appreciation of the great weather. Jack wanted to show us how he could climb down the railing of the bench, and he did. I took his picture right at the end, before he jumped off.
The final picture is of Miss Caroline, playing in one of the new cabinets we built. She put the sled under the countertop and said she was taking a bath. "This my bath mama. I taking a bath now. Now I'm all clean!" I love the creativity of children.

2 comments:

katie said...

I love unstructured time and open ended toys. When do we learn the concept of boredom? Definitely not by 4! At least not in your house!

akamilby said...

And certainly not in yours either! Can't wait to see the farm pictures.