Dylan took a break from practicing biking to chase some balloon rockets across the school field.
I jogged along the basketball courts pushing Cameron along on her trike while Tom gave Dylan little shove-offs to get him rolling.
And here’s our little guy in motion. Love the joyful smile!
So not that long ago, Dylan started really mastering his balance bike and suddenly, a week after he turns five, he decides he’s ready for a 2-wheeler. We were surprised, but thought, well, sure, why not start trying to train him on a 2-wheeler and see how it goes.
So, we took him to the bike shop where Dylan picked out the exact bike he wanted to bring home. He’d never even ridden/pedaled a tricycle, so I was a bit concerned when he said he didn’t want the training wheels.
We had him try the bike with the training wheels and he wasn’t making too much progress across the ground there, but still, he insisted we have the bike techs remove the training wheels before we left the store!
After Finley’s party, we had a chance to test it out. Cameron was napping, so Dylan and I went across the street to practice.
Well, wouldn’t you know?? He did amazing. He seriously got the hang of it in mere minutes!
He was so super-motivated to learn, he brushed off a scraped elbow to keep at it.
I am still in awe on how quickly he got the hang of it. When this kid puts his mind to something, he just gets it!
By Day Two, he was weaving his way through narrow passages between picnic tables (while Tom and I held our breath!) and navigating tight turns around the trees (more breath-holding) in the picnic area near the kindergarten classrooms!
On his third day out, he was going down the big ol’ hill at the back of the playground (while I held my breath every time he bounced and wobbled over the big bump at the bottom!). Planning on taking his bike to the campground this weekend…and I’m really looking forward to when we have enough confidence in his ability to navigate narrow sidewalks that he can bike while I run beside him!
Ellie couldn’t make it to Dylan’s party, so they came over the following weekend instead. Ellie was pretty shy and quiet, but she opened up a little more when she and Dylan went out back to harvest some strawberries. I snapped a photo from below and, as you can see, Dylan’s feet are getting longer and so are his legs!
It seemed like he outgrew his pants instantly — one day they fit and the next day, a whole batch of them “shrunk!” Guess he’ll start the new school year with some new duds…!
Dylan’s bday celebration was the day after Keala’s. This year, we had a face painter and a petting zoo come to our house. We set up the bounce house in the backyard, Auntie Christina hauled over a giant jug of delicious watermelon agua fresca, we had an ice cream topping bar, and an ice-cream cone shaped pinata, and good friends and family joined us for the celebration.
After Cameron awoke from her nap, she was pretty mommy-clingy, so we spent a lot of time together with the animals (she LOVED them and giggled her little booty off!). But I did manage to take a few photos. Luckily, Christina took lots of fantastic pictures of everything that was going on around us.
This is one of my favorite pictures. I don’t know what Finley and Dylan are talking about, but it looks like a serious debate!
Collaborating?? What are these two up to??
Twist balloon swords and hats were all the rage!
Dylan and Keala being silly.
Cake time!
Bounce house scene.
I have yet to ask him what his favorite part of the day was, but I’m still pretty sure he and his buddies had a great time!
Getting to things as I can, so this is a little out of order…but here’s a short vid clip of Dylan on his new 2-wheeler. This was his second day trying it out!
The end of May is busy, busy, busy with celebrations since Dylan, Finley and Keala have birthdays that are so close to one another! We celebrated Keala’s bday first.
She had the Sugar Plum Fairy come to face painting and a magic show. She suggested to Dylan that he get a knight. The Sugar Plum Fairy did an incredible job!
Dylan thought the Sugar Plum Fairy was a hoot. He liked her so much, he wanted her to come to HIS bday party (I had to tell him that she would probably love to come, but she had already made commitments to go to some other kid’s bday…maybe next year!).
I took a half day off so Dylan and I could have a birthday “date” day. We had talked about having a special brunch or lunch, but when I offered to take him out, he told me that he just wanted to stay home and play together…so that is just what we did.
Much to Tom’s chagrin, we gave him some crazy mega marble mania thing (“over 330 pieces!!!” the box proclaimed, as if that were a good thing!) but he loves his Quadrilla set and this thing was a woot.com deal AND has a motorized elevator!!!
Dylan immediately became obsessed and I immediately realized this thing was complicated!! I was not building it fast enough–he was so eager to play! While I was struggling to assemble the elevator, he pulled out his Quadrilla set and decided that we just absolutely had to hook the two sets up together. Oh, my gawd, I thought. I nearly gave up on the elevator and suggested we head out to Kaleidoscope to get am (unspoken) “better” marble set, a Quadrilla expansion. But, Dylan was not to be deterred. He encouraged me to make it work…and it finally did!
The integration points were all suggested by Dylan. He impressed me with his creativity and his ability to analyze what might work and what wouldn’t.
We spent hours on this thing…Then, once Taliana was out of school, she, Heather and P. came over to play and wish him happy birthday. We set up the bounce house out in the backyard, but the kids quickly lost interest in it in favor of playing marble mania indoors.
For his birthday dinner, Dylan chose sushi. We get nori sheets and sushi rice and let the kids roll their own.
This was Cameron’s first time at a sushi restaurant (though she can eat nori and rice like there’s no tomorrow!). She enjoyed as well.
After dinner, the kids spied a ladybug in the plants.
The ladybug was a topic of intense conversation.
Even though it was already late, we served the kids celebratory happy birthday ice cream.
Overall, the day was incredibly uneventful with dinner being the most “eventful” activity! But, I am so glad I spent this special one-on-one time with him. He is so patient with Cameron and so undemanding when she’s requiring so much of our attention. At first, I felt a little bad about not having done anything “special” with him during the day, but he told me had a great day and I realized that playing together with no other distractions is exactly what he wanted to do.
This year, Dylan requested an ice cream cone (to go along with his ice cream themed bday party) for his birthday banner. Cathy kindly obliged…!
The minute we walked into the room, Nate and Tanner came over to give Dylan a happy birthday greeting. As soon as the other kids heard this, they all started chiming in with their own happy bday wishes–and then the hugging began! It was so sweet! He was getting so many hugs, he practically fell to the ground!! But, clearly, he enjoyed the attention.
This is the first year that I didn’t stay for the actual birthday circle (partly because I had requested time off from work so I could spend time with him on his actual bday), but the gals offered to take pictures so I left my camera behind.
I was told he picked out a couple of songs and stories (as is the tradition there) and he got a new birthday “rope” with 5 knots and “room to grow.” After that, he blew out his candles and then (I’m sure) it was snack time!
Dylan and I spent Wednesday evening making the cupcakes. Quite coincidentally (given the ice cream theme he chose for his bday party), he chose to make banana split cupcakes. They turned out pretty yummy!
Poor Dylan developed another fever a couple of Mondays ago, but that didn’t deter him from showing off his I <3 Lola shirt. He's wearing Tyler's old one!
And lookit who’s wearing Dylan’s old one!
They were both so excited to wear these shirts to their Lola’s! When they arrived at her house, Dylan told her, “I’m wearing a shirt you’ll really, really like!!!”
May 14th was Durbin Day in Santa Cruz to welcome home our American Idol, James Durbin. He happens to be the fiancee of one of Dylan’s former preschool teachers–a sweet, sweet, gal–so we have been especially psyched for all of them that he made it as far as he did on AI!
Plans for Durbin Day were nearly scrapped when he didn’t make it into the top 3, but through some exception, AI let James Durbin come home!
I wanted to be part of the numbers to show our support for Heidi’s family, but it was also an excellent excuse to take the kids to the Boardwalk.
Yes, some people came to see James Durbin, but others (look at that sweet face in the picture!) came for the Cave Train!
We managed to squeeze a hair cut in for Dylan prior to the Boardwalk festivities. He’s modeling the new ‘do here.
We hooked up with HAT to make it extra fun for the kids. Things are always more fun when you have company your size around…right?
When it came time to see James Durbin — the concert actually started much later than expected — the kids grew somewhat restless. But, as you can see, Cameron got a better view of the stage than I did!
Well, she had a better view until we put her back in the stroller. After that, it was back to staring at backsides and legs…or, alternatively, looking up at the sky ride.
And what was up there? I think these folks actually had the best seats in the “house!” Dylan decided he wanted to ride this thing, too. Lucky for me, Tom volunteered to take him.
As per usual, we took our cue to leave from the kids. When Cameron was set to go, we headed out. End of fun day!
