Almost Off Training Wheels

Ryleigh announced a couple weeks ago that she was ready to try riding her bike without training wheels.  Finally, on Saturday, we had a warm day.  So, off we went to a city park.  Ryleigh was a trooper--she tried a number of times to ride.  She got frustrated and was ready to give up, but we convinced her to do one last ride.  The video is below.  She doesn't go long without any assistance, but we're pretty sure she felt what it takes.  A couple more outings, and we're sure she'll have it down.  Ryleigh is so eager to keep up with RJ and Aless, so the motivation is there.  She just needs to find a little confidence.

The rest of our week was pleasant.  We had a very nice evening with our friends visiting from San Diego.  And, Jip and the kids went to the new Power Rangers movie while I took a photography class.

We are looking forward to some warmer weather to wrap up our March. Hopefully we can spend some time outside as we enjoy this nice part of the year where it is warm, but not humid.

As always, pics to come.  Until next time, cheers!

St. Patrick's Day and Shenanigans

The kids were both pretty excited to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  Ryleigh had a bunch of green food and a rainbow fruit platter in her class.  RJ just liked the idea of everyone wearing green.  To keep them from getting pinched, I made them t-shirts, mimicking designs I found on Pinterest.  I think they turned out pretty cute!

Ryleigh decided she was cold, so she accessorized before she went to school.

Saturday night, the kids enjoyed some shenanigans by way of BrickHeadZ Kids' Night Out.  They participated in Nerf gun wars, building Legos, eating pizza and cookies, playing Minecraft, and more. Jip and I weren't quite sure what to do with 3 hours of free time on a Saturday evening.  We did manage to find some delicious Japanese curry and gyoza at a hole-in-the-wall ramen shop.  We reminisced about our days in Japan and kept telling the waiter how much we enjoyed the curry.  We then wandered around a few stores before getting to BrickHeadZ too early.  We sat in the car and let them get the most out of their time there.  They managed to stay awake for the ride home, but they were exhausted and actually slept until 7. Woo hoo!

Sunday morning we got some snow.  It was a surprise--it wasn't supposed to snow south of Williamsburg.  But, it snowed for a good 45 minutes before it turned back to rain.  RJ was at Ninja Zone while it snowed, but Ryleigh got to take advantage of our unexpected white stuff.

We are anticipating a quick visit from some San Diego friends this week.  I haven't told RJ and Ryleigh in case plans fall through or weather hampers the visit.  But, I'm crossing my fingers I get to see my friend Torii and her family for a couple hours.

As always, pics to come of our week, whatever it ends up holding.  Until next time, cheers!

Student of the Month

As I alluded to last week, we had something extra going on this week.  Drum roll, please...

RJ was named First Grade Student of the Month for Principles of American Citizenship: Honesty.  He was nominated by his teacher and then chosen by the other teachers and the principal.  Jip and I are very proud.  And, RJ was pretty proud of himself.

The blue sign gets to be in our window for a few weeks.

Way to go, RJ!  Love ya, buddy!

The rest of the week was pretty normal.  We had a chilly weekend, so we didn't get to do anything outside.  On Saturday, Jip took the kids to Jump for an hour of jumping on the trampolines to get rid of the stir-craziness.  But, the cabin fever returned on Sunday.  We're not going to get much relief this week, either.  Hopefully, school will be their outlet!

The kids finally got to finish putting their rooms back together, as it is now okay to have stuff on their dressers.  So, here are a few more pics.  First, Ryleigh's nightstand with pink drawers, her crystal lamp with color-changing bulb, snapshots hanging on pom pom fringe with glittered clothespins we made, and a couple other wall things I made.

And, RJ's artwork above his bed:

And, finally, RJ's nightstand with the small copper pulls Jip made.  The clear lamp base you see will be filled with Legos as soon as they get here from Denmark.

It's going to be a chilly week, but hopefully it will be otherwise non-eventful.  As always, pics to come.  Until next time, cheers!

Freshening Up

Both kids had been using the same dressers as when they were babies.  Needless to say, as their clothes got bigger, the amount of room in the dressers dwindled.  And, I'm not ashamed to say that I really like clothing my kids, so they have a lot of clothes.  That didn't help the drawer space situation.  So, it was time for them to graduate.

We hope we chose dressers that can carry them well into their teens.  They are solid wood, and we bought them unfinished to allow us to customize them to fit our kiddos' personalities and styles.  They are both officially done.  In one more week, the kids can put things on top, so I thought I should take advantage now of the clean look and take a couple of snapshots.

Jip made RJ's pulls from copper pipe and bell-shaped pipe hangers.  He put his soldering skills to work and in no time at all, created this industrial look.

Ryleigh's pulls are round-ish, faceted balls.  She loves them.

We also improved their nightstands--RJ's got matching pulls and Ryleigh's got hot pink drawers and matching pulls.  But, pics of those will have to wait until they aren't holding all of the clutter that will soon be on top of the dressers.  :)

We also changed out their walls and lamps.  The lamps are still in progress (no Prime shipping for those), as is one of RJ's walls.  But, Ryleigh's wall above her bed is done.  She picked out the crown and "love", and I repainted some frames, incorporated an "R" from her cousins, repurposed her old bulletin board fabric, and made the "sparkle" sign using my die-cutting machine.   I love how it turned out.

When we weren't redecorating the kiddos' bedrooms, we were having a very normal week.  RJ started a weekly robotics workshop at BrickHeadZ.  He had a blast!  Ryleigh and I stayed for open build, and she played dress-up, as usual.

On Saturday morning, we did the monthly Home Depot workshop.  But, Ryleigh wasn't feeling well and didn't look well, so we made it quick.  Thankfully I was able to get her into her regular doctor later that morning.  I love her doctor, and Ryleigh loves her--even when she tells us that Ryleigh has pink eye.  The medicine helped right away and Ry looked pretty good Saturday night.  But, Sunday morning, the other eye was looking icky.  And, the medicine didn't seem to be working as fast on that eye.  We'll see in the morning how the medicine worked overnight and if some rest helped. To top it off, I think all four of us are fighting colds again.  Maybe by June, we'll have a healthy household?  One can dream...

It should be a pretty routine week.  We have a couple of extra things going on, but more about that next week.  :)  As always, pics to come.  Until next time, cheers!