Kite Flying

The boys are exhausted tonight. We started the day swimming then came home to ride bikes and play outside in the beautiful weather.

As I was cleaning upstairs today I looked outside to see Geremu flying a kite, he was not watching where the kite was headed. So I started to knock on the window to get his attention, I wanted him to watch his kite to avoid disaster. He couldn't figure out where the knocking was coming from and continued to not watch where he was going which resulted in the kite getting tangled in the tree. The funny thing was he had no idea it was tangled because he was still walking/looking around for the knocking sound. I snapped a picture of Nick trying to help the situation, once Geremu became aware of the kite stuck in the tree.

Once I was able to talk with Geremu about keeping an eye on his kite he seemed to do a pretty good job of keeping it out of the trees.

Take note of the "lake" of water next to our driveway. This is what happens when you pay attention to the kite and not to where you are headed.
Some days you just can't win.

Sorry for the advice Geremu, you were kind of right, "Dat not funny, you all wrong."

I was wrong but it was sort of funny:)

Biking

Geremu LOVES to bike. He doesn't care if he falls off his bike (which happens often because he doesn't watch where he is going) and he rides fast. Here he is prepping to bike today.

We make Geremu wear a helmet, he chooses to wear the goggles for style, not safety.

Cullen dislikes biking, he really doesn't want anything to do with it, he would rather run along side the bikes. It might have something to do with the fact that every time he tried biking last summer Geremu would hop on another bike and try to play chicken with Cullen. Cullen would end up bailing because he was afraid. Cullen does not have the fearless personality Geremu does. It takes a lot to talk him into getting on a bike, I usually have to promise that Geremu will not come- LOL. Today I was able to talk Cullen into getting on the tag-along bike, you might notice from his foot position that he was ready to bail because Geremu came along with us.

By the end of our bike ride Cullen told me he was having fun and he was helping peddle so that was progress. I had to promise him we would not tip over. Which between you and me it was a promise I should not have been making, I was riding Nick's bike and the seat was to high for me to sit on.

Geremu had 3 falls because he was so busy biking ahead of us then turning around to look at us that he would tip. He had a bloody knee by the time we made it home and I'm pretty sure that Cullen will never get on a bike by himself after watching Geremu fall so many times.

The Boys and the Babysitter

We have an amazing babysitter- AMAZING. Not sure how we got so lucky but we have seriously always been lucky on the child care front. Our boys love the sitter and our sitter loves the boys. She comes into our house and basically does it all. I'm not going to start naming everything she does or else you might start to wonder what I do and frankly, I'm not going there. I like to paint myself in a beautiful light on my blog- LOL.

Sometimes she takes pictures of things they do. I love it when she does this because then the boys get to tell me a picture story of their day or afternoon. The following pictures/descriptions are from the boys of their afternoon with the sitter.

"In this picture we're hugging."

"Now we are fire fighters, wooo-ooo."

"Now we're crying like babies, booo-hoooo, waaaa-baby."

"This time we are smiling and saying cheese with Clifford. Look Mom, I'm getting so big. I can touch Clifford ear if I reach up."

"Now I'm drumming, dododododo-DO."

"Us smiling."

"Hey Mom, where is the frog picture? These aren't all of them."

Blog on the Back-burner

I don't have much to write but we are good and nothing big is new. We have just been really busy so the blog has been pushed to the back burner. We are anticipating St. Patrick's Day in our house. The boys are positive they will catch the leprechaun, they have been trying for a year. I've seen an improvement on the traps with each month that has passed. They have upgraded the main part of the trap from a box to a lantern to the cheese grader.

Tonight Cullen prepared an "Ethiopian Feast" for the family. He basically took some of the baskets we got in Ethiopia and added zucchini and oranges to them and called it a meal. It was delightful and Cullen could not have been more proud of himself.

Cullen got in trouble the other day, I don't even remember what it was for but there was some overtired 4 year old drama involved. Geremu sat just out of view of Nick and Cullen with a HUGE smile on his face, he was enjoying not being the one in trouble.

I walked into this the other day...

That my friends is pretty much all I've got.

Um, We've Got A Gas Problem...

Please don't judge me by what I'm about to tell you. Here is my short version: we were headed down to see my Grandparents on Saturday and we ran out of gas on a pretty busy interstate.

So we were...

Literally, to get some gas. *The above picture is the gas station we filled up with once we were back in business.

I'd love to say this is my first time running out of gas but it seems to be a minor problem I've had before. You may remember this post. If the truth be told this has happened to me WAY more times then it should but in my defense my first vehicle's gas gage didn't read 100% accurately. I do have a gas light that goes on when the vehicle gets low but apparently I need a bell. I have NEVER run out of gas with my kids in my vehicle, well until yesterday I hadn't. I have however run out of gas on the interstate with my mother in the car. Right after passing a gas station and telling her to "be a gambler" because I wanted to make it to the next exit with a Kwik Trip (I love Kwik Trip!). The good news is I've always had my running shoes in the vehicle and I've been able to solve the problem relatively quickly.

This was Nick's first time running out of gas and for the record I blame him completely. Since he was a Rookie he got the honor of running to the next exit and running back with a gallon of gas. I'm going to give him a score of 8 out of 10 on his timeliness and efficiency, not a shabby score for a beginner.

The weather was BEAUTIFUL this weekend. We had a great time visiting my grandparents and parents yesterday. Then spent today outside with the boys. We got the bikes out and as you can see from Geremu's enthusiasm he was excited to get off and riding.

Cullen on the other hand doesn't like riding his bike. Cullen is a cautious biker and Geremu really isn't, he is basically FULL SPEED AHEAD. Cullen got scard and tired of Geremu playing chicken with him everytime he got on his bike so he now prefers to run.

And run he does...

Today Nick and Geremu biked around the neighborhood while Cullen ran after them.

It really was a sight to see.

Will they always

love each other this much?

I'm so glad they have each other.

My Drummer Boys

When we attend basketball games Geremu begs to bring his drum because he thinks he is part of the band. He usually stands in the balcony (behind the band) playing along on his Parenting Drum. Today he got the chance to join the band and play with the pregame pep band as well as the half-time bucket band. Here he is getting a little instruction before the game from his drummer friend.

Cullen also participated because the students bribed him with M&M's. Here he is taking his bucket to the half-time performance with his "buddy".

Both boys paired up with a student that helped them before and during their performances. The students were not assigned, they just sort of gravitated towards certain people.

Both boys paired up with people that they felt comfortable with. Their buddy's seemed to have the same energy level/personality as themselves so it worked out well.
Geremu would point at me and give the the "get lost" look when I would try and take pictures of him.
Here's a short video of Geremu, I never got a very good video/view of both boys playing. Take note of how Geremu starts to scold me when I try to get a better picture.