Bike Rodeo

Last night's Cub Scout Pack Meeting was a big hit...they had a bike rodeo out behind the church.

Here are Aaron & Christopher lined up ready to go on the "fastest race":

And off they go (yeah, Aaron's last...)

George was in charge of the "slowest race" in which the kids had to go as slow as they could without putting their feet down. My boys crushed everyone in this one, ha!

So here's Anthony, who set the first record for slowest, until...

...Aaron stole the record from him! (And if I could share a little heartwarming moment from last night...so before Aaron beat Anthony's record, George had already turned in the results to the "officials" with the awards so Anthony won the 1st place ribbon for slowest...but he knew Aaron had beat him so he gave his ribbon to Aaron...wasn't that sweet? He did end up winning 2 other 1st place ribbons so it wasn't as big a sacrifice as it might have been, ha.)

Anthony didn't go down without a fight though...he took 1st place for the fastest race and also for the obstacle course race.

But even with Anthony & Aaron's big wins for the evening, this little man stole the show with his newfound talent for the night: (Sorry to those who've already seen this on FB)

I am still blown away each and every time I see him do this. It was fun enough that he was striding along on that tiny bike but for him to pick his feet up...WHOA! He did it repeatedly last night and today kept at it.

We do love our bikes and our boys who ride them. : )

School Wrap-Up

I got so far behind in blogging that I missed some noteworthy events. School has been out for a couple weeks now but here are a few school activities the boys took part in before it ended:

The Annual Jog-a-thon:

The school hosts a number of fundraisers through the year (too many!) but a fun one is this jog-a-thon in which the kids try to run as many laps as they can in 20 or 30 minutes (I forget.)

Aaron ran 7 laps (1-3/4 miles!)...good job, Aaron!

Anthony ran 8 laps (2 miles!!!)...way to go, Anthony!

Christopher got in on the action and ran laps during both Aaron's & Anthony's "heats"...I think he ended up doing 9 laps between the 2! Super-Christopher!!!

Art Lit:

So I was in charge of the last project of the year in Art Lit. The artist was Eugene Delacroix and we did Lion portraits! I had step-by-step instructions for how to draw a lion...the kids did a good job!

This was Aaron's class...without meaning to, Aaron's lion ended up dead center--the yellow one!

And Anthony's class...Anthony's is directly under the 'P' in "Masterpieces":

And lastly, Aaron's class hosted a cute little Mother's Day Poetry Tea for all the moms:

Here Aaron stands in front of his desk, with his book of poetry open to his poem about me, a plate of cookies & a glass of punch, and some baby marigolds for me...all very cute!

And there he is reading one of his poems aloud. All the kids in the class shared their poetry. It was really very cute.

I was dreading the end of school and having all the boys home all day every day but so far summer's gotten off to a good start...we're having fun!

He did it!!!!

Boys Team try-outs (in gymnastics) were in the middle of May. Aaron's teacher suggested he try out but not to expect too much, so I didn't. I knew he was good but I wasn't sure that he was good enough to be team material.

Imagine our excitement and surprise when a week after try-outs we got an email welcoming Aaron to the team!!!

To make it all the more exciting for our family, Anthony is going to stay as a level 4 this year, which means he and Aaron will be on the SAME TEAM!!!! (Which is such a relief to me especially...same practice schedule, same meet schedule...hooray!) They are way excited to be together and it's going to be a great year!

I only had my phone with me that day so here are a couple bad phone-camera shots I took during the try-out. Yay, Aaron!

Benno and his Bike

For Benno's 2nd birthday, we found a fun new bike for him--the Strider bikes are made without pedals so that the kids push it with their feet. When he gets better at it, he can put his feet up on the little rests by the back wheel and coast along.

Benno LOVES his new bike. He asks for it when he wakes up in the morning and after naps. He pushes it around the house, in the backyard and when he's able to sneak out the gate, in the front yard.

Now that school is out, in order to get some exercise, my friend & I push the little guys in jogging strollers while all our older kids ride their bikes (we are always quite the parade going down the street: between us 2 moms, there are 9 kids and counting!)

Yesterday when we went for our run, Benno insisted on riding his bike along with the big kids. He did a fairly good job! He ended up last in the procession but he kept moving along just as determined as ever to do it all himself!

Here is a bad video of him striding along. This was after the run so he's pretty worn out and moving a little slower than before. It gives you the general idea though.

YW Girls' Camp 2009

I am the YW Secretary in my ward...this past week was girls' camp and on Thursday, all the YW leaders were invited up to visit the girls and see the camp.

We did our girls' nails (and a few good hand massages too.)

Here is Lisa, our wonderful intrepid leader who was up there for the entire week with the girls. I would have had to go up too had I not conveniently become pregnant (and no, I did NOT get pregnant just to get out of going!) She has 4 young boys just like me so huge kudos to her and her husband too.

Baby Henry got to come along with his mom who is the Beehive Counselor...he got plenty of attention from the girls!

These girls have no idea how great they have it up there at this camp! First off, the setting is incredible! Secondly, they have amazing facilities! The photos above were taken in the cafeteria area. (I always had to eat around the campfire...the best we had was a pavilion to eat under in case a thunderstorm came!)

Here is the Destiny Cabin...way cute and the girls get a special destiny thing there (still not clear on what that is exactly, but it was cool anyway!)

Check out their duck pond with boats! So nice!!!

This is the clincher...here they have CABINS! (And I heard that the newest ones have electricity & running water TOO!) I never got to stay in a cabin when I was at girls' camp! We roughed it in tents with all the Daddy-Long-Legs and the Fireflies and other creepy-crawlies.

Here are 5 of us leaders with a bunch of the Beehive girls (all 1st years I think.) A few more leaders from our ward made it up there too...we had great turn-out! Fun day and a fun camp!

Berry Picking

For the first time in the almost 6 years we've lived here, we went strawberry picking! We always try to go but forget to do it until strawberry season is past (but luckily raspberries & blueberries follow strawberries so we're not disappointed.)

I love the farms out here. The scenery is gorgeous.

We went with our friends...Benno made sure to check on baby Henry periodically.

In line with friends to pay for the berries...they taste even better when they're just $1/lb!

Hawaii--Going Home!!!

At long last it was time to say goodbye to Hawaii.

First, as I said before, I like to take photos of the places we stay...so here's the wonderful little condo we called home for the week.

This is the boys' room:

The boys' bathroom:

The pool, just 30 steps outside the back door:

The patio:

The boys sprawled out watching TV:

This master bathroom was awesome...wish we could have taken that home with us:

The shower had one of those ginormous showerheads and soft smooth black pebbles on the floor.

Master bedroom:

The kitchen too...wish I could've taken that home too--it's a mess here since we were cleaning for departure:

Dining area (and laundry in that little closet there on the left)

From the outside, and the open garage door was ours.

That place was worth every penny we paid for it! Wonderful place to stay and I'd be happy to pass on the info for it to anyone who is planning a vacation to the Big Island.

We made it onto our flight...and there goes the Island (I think that peak there is the highest on the island, Mauna Kea, also the tallest mountain in the world when measured from the ocean floor!)

Me in my comfortable seating...the flight back did not have any spare seats so we were cozy the whole way.

Then here are the boys on our 2nd flight out of San Francisco. Thankfully with being on Hawaiian time, they were totally fine for the 10pm flight.

And finally, we pulled in at home at 1am! Wonderful and memorable trip!

Hawaii--Shave Ice & Street Performers

After the fun & excitement of riding the waves at Kekaha Kai, we ventured toward Kailua-Kona for our last evening in Hawaii. And what's a visit to Hawaii without shave ice???

This place was deliciously wonderful...highly recommend it:

Benno became a madman about the shave ice...we should have bought him his own small shave ice because he tried his best to usurp control of mine, making a big scene as only a 2 year old can.

Delicious down to the last drop!

While finishing off our shave ice, a street performer caught our attention:

This guy was just plain weird if you ask me. More of an oddity than an entertainer.

From there we headed back to Waikoloa and paid a visit to poor old ailing Grandma & Papu (who'd been in bed with a fever for much of the day!) We said our goodbyes and headed back for one last night of sleep at the condo.