The Sario Speedway

 The weather around here has been beautiful so we decided to take it outdoors and spend some time at the Sario Speedway.  For Christmas my awesome dad (AKA "Dad Dad") built the kids this push cart and dubbed it the "Sario Speeder."  He brought it over to test it out with the kids only to find out that our topography wasn't quite as conducive to speeding around as he though...that is except for the GIANT hill behind our house.  So, of coarse, that is the hill that Will decided to put the Sario Speedway on.  Yikes.  We tested it out last weekend slowly taking the kids higher and higher.  This weekend the kids felt like old pros and were OK with starting right where they left off last weekend.  Uh oh.  The first run was a disaster.  As you can see in the photo to the left, Molly froze and sped straight off the speedway (the blue lines).  They hit a bump flipped in the air and landed with the cart on top of them.  Will said I jinxed it by taking a photo (who knows, maybe I did!).  Thankfully 

they were totally fine with not even a scratch thanks to the grass.  Willy was pretty much done after that.  He was sure that it was too scary for him and he would have more fun watching from the sidelines with me.  Molly seemed totally unfazed by the crash and was ready to try again.  You can see her succeeding in the first picture of this post.  She still wanted to turn the opposite way than what we recommended (wow, that just sums her up to a "T", haha), but she was concentrating hard the whole time and took the turn like a champ.
We managed to get Willy to try it again with Daddy at the helm.  He was sure to wear his safety goggles and was still really nervous but he did it!  Still shaken by the first crash, he was happy to end on a good note and just watch.

Molly wanted a turn with Daddy too.  They made it all the way down the big hill and around to the front of the house.  It was super cool.

Will made me try it too.  I was seriously SO scared!  My heart was pounding a million miles an hour and I screamed the whole way down.  Not on purpose either.  Hilarious.  Molly took the photo for me on my phone.

And, of coarse, Will had to push the boundaries taking it up higher than we have ever gone before.  What is it with men?

Anyway, thanks Dad.  We all LOVE the Sario Speeder! :)

Rockets

This weekend we had some fun family time out on the town and out in our field.  On Saturday we went to Visalia to get out of the house and have fun "on the town" as a family.  We went to Hobby Lobby (one of our favorite places because they have fun stuff to look at for all of our interests.  Molly got a calligraphy writing set since she has been interested in learning to write in cursive and make fancy letters.  Willy and Daddy each got a rocket to put together and shoot later at home.  

After shopping we went out to a fancy lunch at Olive Garden.  While we waited the boys read the instructions for their rockets and Molly and I had fun with her calligraphy book.

Today we had a nice lazy morning hanging around the house.  Will made some AMAZING omelets.  I love the way a few simple ingredients can make something that is so scrumptious: Eggs, cheese, broccoli, and bacon.  Wow.  

After omelets and some Wii family time we started putting the rockets together.  That took a good hour even though they were supposed to be easy enough for Willy to build.  As Will said though, part of the fun is building it...and it was.

Heading out to find the perfect spot to launch our rockets

Willy's rocket set came with 2 rockets so he let Molly have the big one. 

I love this face..."Oh, come on!"

Carefully setting up his rocket.

Molly is giving Willy some big siserly advice.  Their body language is so funny. 

Looks like Willy has inherited Daddy's concentration tongue.  

Willy had just launched the first rocket.  I love Will's lip in this photo.  He told me later that he thought Willy was going to count down or something so when he just pushed the button it caught him a little off guard. 

My crazy Molly

Christmas Cards 2012

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Manual Kite Flying

Rather than overwhelming myself with trying to post four months of photos and activities, I will just start posting anew with our activities today.

We have had a fun and very productive day today.  First, we tackled Molly's room.  After an hour or so of hard work (and a few reading breaks for the kids) we could walk around in it again!  Molly is like me and gets supercharged when we finish a task that is noticeable.  So, she finished organizing her little tubs while I moved on to the play room.  I noticed that we hadn't hung out in there for a while but didn't really think about why....until I took down the pop-tent that had been hogging the middle of the floor for over a month.  Poof, we had a play room again!!  I felt like I was on a roll!  So, I headed downstairs to try and find something else that would make a noticeable difference in our house.  Ok, this part is a little embarrassing but here goes: the Christmas tree!  It was so dry it practically disintegrated when you got near it.  It was just one of those things that go forgotten about over there in the corner.  We got so used to looking at it that I stopped nagging Will to take it out altogether.  Little did I know that super dead Christmas trees are REALLY lightweight!  So, I put on some gloves and took it out myself.  I even heaved it over the dumpster all on my own.  I was practically bursting with pride (and a little emberrassment for not trying that sooner!).

 The kids had buckets of energey and the day was so beautiful that we all ended up playing outside.  The morning had started off a bit windy and I had mentioned flying kites.  At the time we couldn't find all the pieces so we set them aside.  Now that we were outside though, the kids were asking me to fix the kites again.  So, being charged with Do-In-Myself energy, I rather craftily substituted sticks for the missing plastic pieces on their kites.  It worked!  Unfortunately, by that time the wind had totally died down.  That didn't stop the kids though!  I call it manual kite flying....who really needs the wind anyway when you have loads of energy to burn off?!

Pumpkin Patch!

Today Molly's preschool class met at the Vossler Farms Pumpkin Patch for a hay ride, some pumpkin education, and of coarse, the perfect pumpkin!  Siblings were welcome as well as Mommys and MiMis.  Here is how our day went:

Welcome to the Pumpkin Patch!

"Awww, isn't that one cute?"

"This one is so weird, and it's light too!"

"Oh wow, I want to see!"

Cutest mini haystack maze.

Molly was looking for a perfectly round pumpkin the whole time.  She is explaining to me why this one is the right one.

Hugging her perfect pumpkin.  Wow, isn't she beautiful?

"Hey Willy, Smile!"  This is what I get.  Just like his daddy!

After the hayride we snagged a wagon to collect our pumpkins.  Molly assured me she could pull Willy the whole way...and she did!

I think Willy felt a little like a king.

"Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!"  We will have to work on the Gobble-Gobble.

Molly had my camera on the hayride and took this great photo.  She is so talented!