Ira Learns to Ride a Bike!

One thing that most kids learn to do but Ira never did, was ride a bike.  I'd seen her on a bike before but she never tried very hard.  A couple of weeks ago my neighbors were having a moving sale and I walked down to check it out.  I don't do yard sales, for the most part, but since this one was across the street I figured, "Why not?"  There were two bikes there that called my name and I took both of them.

That was a Saturday but the girls were with their dad.  Monday afternoon the three of us hopped on and started the process.  Little One learned to do a two wheeler last summer and I used to live on my bike.  Ira didn't even make it to the corner before she told me she was done and didn't want to learn to ride.

Feeling a little nudge from the Spirit I insisted we continue.  We have a park by our house and it has a path around it, perfect for riding.  I told her we were going around once and then we could be done for the day.  We were going to do it every day until she got the hang of it though.  Then, once she could ride, if she never wanted to get back on a bike again, I was okay with that.  She needed to know that she could do something that took a little bit of effort.  It honestly had nothing at all to do with learning to ride a bike.

Going around this path and back home would take me less than 5 minutes.  For someone that couldn't yet ride it should have taken maybe 20-30, tops.  Around 45 minutes later we weren't even half way.  She kept hurting herself with the pedels, really scraping up her shins pretty bad, in an effort to prove to me she couldn't do it and I should let her quit.  Little One kept trying to encourage her and tell her how great she was doing but it wasn't helping.

Finally, when we had a slight hill to climb, she decided I wasn't going to give up and she was going to have to do this or we wouldn't be going home.  We went the rest of the way very quickly at that point.  When we got to the place to turn to go home she asked if we could go around again. :)  Tuesday she could sit on the seat consistently and even peddle downhill a little.  By Wednesday she was peddling uphill (not too steep) and even able to stand and peddle a little bit.  No, she didn't want to give it up now that she could ride.

Thursday we decided to celebrate by riding down to DQ and getting a treat.  It's about 6 1/2 miles, round trip.  We had a blast and even did a little shopping while we were in the area.  I was so proud of both girls.  Ira for the accomplishment and Little One for persistence.  She doesn't have a bike that can switch gears and it was quite hard coming home.  We live on the side of a mountain so we have to get back UP.  All three of us walked our bikes up, honestly.  It was awesome though!

Here we are before we left.

At DQ

Little One was having trouble finishing hers so we shared.

Just before we headed home.

End of School

I've been wanting to take Little One for a tour of the Sweet's Candy Factory all year long.  I took my activity day girls once back in my old ward and I remember it being SO fun!  Finally we got an appointment and got together with our neighbors and went.  It was really cool and the kids really enjoyed it.  We even got some treats after the fact.

On the very last day of school we had an end of school party.  We had Cambrie, Jared and Max come over and they played a game.  It's called "Body Jam" and I had a blast with it when I was growing up.  You have to get these foam faces into a bucket by touching the body parts that you draw from the cards.  Then the boys took off for the park for a little bit while the girls played Polly Pockets and Mom packed lunch.  

After we were all ready we went down to the Gateway fountain and ended the year right where we started.  Sweet!  It was more crowded this time, but still a lot of fun!  Here's to a great year homeschooling!!!!

It was so funny to see their faces when the water came out of the holes they laid on!

Memorial Day!

We had a great day for Memorial Day.  We don't have any graves nearby to visit so that's something we don't do unless we're out of town.  I was hoping to take the girls swimming but it was too cold so we did mini-golf instead!  We had a blast!  We didn't plan to all match with pink shirts, but just happened to have it work that way. LOL

We, of course, had the most yummy BBQ for dinner, thanks to Dad.  Before he started though, the girls asked to play on the deck with Little One's Barbie cruise ship she got for Christmas.  Well, I think it was Little One that asked if they could and then asked Ira if she would play with her.  They were so cute playing together though.  It was fun to watch. :)  They even added the pool I had from when I was Little One's age so there was more room for swimming.  

And last but not least, we did smores over the grill after dinner.  SO yummy!

I Don't Speak Utah

I have a thing for accents.  Always have.  Scottish has always been one of my favorites.  So has Australian.  But I love them all.  British, Russian, Polish (yes, that's for you, Jan and Eva!), Chinese even.  It's rather ironic I have a daughter with an accent and I love it!

I even love all the different accents within America.  I grew up moving all over the country and wouldn't trade that for the world.  In the English I learned we park the car, but I've lived in Rhode Island where they pahk the kah and I've been to Boston where they pack the ka.  I can do New York and I love the midwest with that flat "a" they use, even though I can't seem to say it myself.

I can even speak some of them.  I was 4-7 when I lived in Rhode Island and Mom got after me for telling a friend I was going to ask my "muthuh" something.  "No." she said. "We may live here but we don't have to talk that way.  Mother has an 'r' at the end of it.  I am your mother, not your 'muthuh.'"  Seems to me there may have been a similar story from when we lived in Charlotte, NC and I was trying to speak southern but I'm not sure.  Oh, and just in case you're wondering, yes, they do sing in a southern accent in those states.  Just like there was seriously an add in the paper in Rhode Island one time advertising a "5 draw dresser."  You know, those things in the dresser you put your clothes in?  Yep.  Draws.

I remember one time in Rhode Island where mom was having a really hard time understanding the nurse at the doctor's office.  She asked her how her "hot and longs" were.  Now remember, I was a small child at the time but it went something like this.

Nurse: "How are your hot and longs?
Mom: "What?"
Nurse: "Your hot and longs."
Mom: "Excuse me?  What was that?"
Nurse, getting a bit annoyed: "Your hot and longs!"
Mom: "I'm really sorry but I'm not quite sure what you're asking about."
Nurse: "You know!  Your hot beat!"
Mom:  "Oh!  Yes!  My heart and lungs are fine."

There is one accent I can't seem to quite get a grasp on though and that's Utah.  I've lived here for more than half my life and I still can't get it.  I realize that most of you reading this are probably born and raised here and have no idea you actually have an accent.  Please don't be offended.  Remember, I love accents. :)  I just can't get yours.  To me, those things at the bottoms of your windows are sills (short I), not seals (long E.)  And those black animals that flap their flippers are seals, not sills.  Dale has a long A sound and is not pronounced "Del" with a short E.

I used to work as an ASL interpreter.  I was in a 5th grade class and we were doing English.  The teacher, a very good friend of mine, happened to be teaching about homophones.  I was trying to explain this concept to my student.  Rather interesting since he's Deaf and all.  The teacher started to give examples of homophones and at one point I stopped interpreting, turned to her and asked, "Those are homophones to you??"  I wish I could remember what the words were, but yes.  They were homophones to her.  Not to me though.  I'd have said them very differently.

Just yesterday I was chatting with my cute neighbor that I love.  She was telling me all about how we won't be seeing her daughter visit much anymore (her granddaughter comes over to play when they're in town) because they're moving to Wells for a year.  In my head I'm thinking, "Wells.  Okay.  That's not so far they can't come visit now and then.  It's just in Nevada.  I wonder why in the world they'd be going there though."  She was looking at me, obviously not expecting me to be somewhat confused at why they couldn't visit anymore.  Then she mentioned the UK.  Oh!  That makes much more sense as to why they won't be visiting anymore.  I'm still thinking that I've never heard of this place though.  Must be some smaller town in the UK or something.  It wasn't until dinner last night when I was telling my parents about the conversation that it finally clicked, thanks to Mom.  Wales.  She meant Wales.  Yes, I've heard of Wales.  To me though, it has a long A sound and not a short E sound.

18 years here and I still can't get it.

Pen Pals!

I LOVED having pen pals as I was growing up.  I had a ton, honestly.  I had kids all over the country I did a sticker exchange with for a few months.  I had a pen pal from Germany once when I lived in Vegas and was in the 5th grade.  During the Gulf War I was even pen pals with a couple of soldiers.

One of my best friends now started out as my pen pal.  Back when homeschooling was still pretty "new" we subscribed to a homeschool magazine.  There was a place in the back where there were ads for pen pals.  I put my name in it once and had a few people write back to me.  One of them, Laurie Ann, and I wrote to each other for many years.  When I ended up moving to the same state she was from our families finally met in person.  When email became the rage we started communicating that way, but her hand written letters to me are still precious.  I have a 4 inch binder full of them.  The girls and I spent a weekend with her, her husband and their two little boys this last summer and plan on making it an annual tradition. :)

Little One and I were doing grammer a few weeks ago and she was learning to address a postcard.  I though, "Hey!  I know she's younger than I was when I started writing to pen pals, but this would be so cool!"  I contacted a couple friends of mine who's girls she actually already knows a little.  One is the daughter of my two best friends in college, now living in Idaho.  The other is the daughter of a good friend from when we lived in Florida.  Both the other girls were super excited at the prospect of getting mail and so off we were.

Little One checked the mailbox every day for a few weeks.  She was SO excited to get something back.  Finally, Emma's letter came and then two days later, Kira's came.  She came running into the house both days so excited to have gotten mail. :)  She's just about got her two letters back to them ready to mail off.  What a fun adventure. :)

Opening Emma's letter.

She sent a necklace she made too.

Kira's letter.  She sent a picture and added some stickers. :)

Baptism Photo Shoot

It's been a long time since I've done a real live photo shoot.  My sweet friend texted me and asked if I would take some baptism pictures of her cute little girl.  We headed over to a local park and got some really nice ones.  These are some of my favorites.

Easter

We did our Easter the last Sunday in March since the girls were with their dad on the actual holiday.  Yummy dinner and awesome company.  Can't ask for more than that!

After church we colored eggs.  This was a marble kit and they turned out really pretty.

I went super light on the candy, not wanting to spoil things for the actual holiday.

Our yummy dessert!

It was cold outside so we did our egg hunt inside.