Memorial Day

For a holiday we spent very little of our day in down time.

Since we are a "biking" family now, DH decided to take the two bigger ones on a trail ride. Since we had no idea what shape the trails were, we decided that I would stay home with the younger two for this ride.
To ease the pain of being left behind, I pulled out the 'special' paper for Emily to color on.

The bikers returned around noon with great reports and a little pouting over the fact that daddy wouldn't take them on the 22-mile ride. Now we know that one bike trail has a playground/picnic area and the other one they stopped by, but didn't ride is actually paved even though the website list it as dirt. Good to know since Emily is on training wheels. Both are within 10 miles of our house, so I see a lot of riding in our future.

DH had a tee time at 2pm, so we were on our own for the afternoon. Mary settled herself in with the legos, while Katie headed back to her bedroom to play with her stuffed animals. Robbie was down for his nap, and that left me with Emily. We decided it would be a good day to lay outside and just relax. We closed our eyes and practiced listening to the birds and the wind. We would have enjoyed watching the clouds, but it was such a beautiful day there were none to watch. I actually managed to get a half-an-hour out of Emily before she ran off to play in the sandbox. Darn, I had to entertain myself by reading.

When Robbie woke up we headed out to the playground the girls had been 'dying' to go to all weekend. We really had a good time until one of the meanest groups of nine-year-old girls I have ever had the pleasure to be around show up. Seriously, the entire time I watched them play with Mary, I had flashbacks to Middle School. They totally had the eye-roll, hands of hips, sneer going on. Finally when I heard them taunting Mary about being homeschooled, I just had to call her over and talk to Mary. But, before she walked away she did ask the leader "Do you like school?" and when the girl responded with "Not really," Mary replied, "then why would I want to go?" I was kind of proud of her. We still had a talk about choosing what types of people we want to be around and how you don't have to play with someone just because they are there.

The kids were hot and getting hungry, the run in with the mean girls had put the damper on Mary's enthusiasm so we headed home. I set the kids up with some paint, stencils and paper while I put together our pizzas for dinner. DH got home just as I was pulling the pizzas out of the oven. We ate, DH fixed Katie's bike (the chain had fallen off) and they took off on an evening ride through the neighborhood.

I put a very tired Robbie in the bath, checked him for ticks (they are everywhere this Spring) and put him to bed. The rest of the gang stayed outside playing until after 9pm.

It was a very long and enjoyable day!

Peace,

Amy