Jumping Into a New Era!

Well, I did it. I sent my babies off to school. I was a puddle most of last night and half of this morning.










































My verse, which I recited all day and asked my family to pray for me:
Philippians 4:4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again: Rejoice! (yes I did clap-clap)
Let your gentleness be evident to all; the Lord is near. To not be anxious about anything, but in everything through prayer and petition, and with thankfulness, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

I rearranged Eric's room while he was gone. A new room for the new era. His bed is lofted now. It's pretty cool. I found some precious things to weep over while cleaning out under his bed. It was an appropriately cathartic project to tackle. He loves his new room! He loves his new class! God is Good! All the time!!

How old is he??

You might think this post is going to be about Eric and the milestone he is soon to cross.

But it's not.

It's about the fact that Cj and I just went for a 23 mile bike ride with our back-yard neighbor, who is 70 years old and has several vertebrae of his spine fused.

I am drenched with sweat after struggling to keep up with the men for two hours. INSANE!!

It was a gorgeous day for biking or just being outside in general. Everyone and their neighbor (in our case, literally!!) was out. But I spent most of my time gritting my teeth and looking at my front tire as I dug deep to pedal faster. woo! That man is a machine.

The kids were absolutely hilarious in the back of the burley; I truly didn't mind being way way WAY behind the guys because I think it was more enjoyable to listen in on the shenanigans than try to engage in boy talk.

The leaves are changing color already. This is the best weather I've seen all summer. And the best, best, BEST part? Cj is picking up Outback To Go. Dinner is on its way!!

Who needs a gym?

When I was at the cabin I needed a workout but didn't want to go on a long run. I used some tricks I had learned from my personal trainer, Mary. It turned out to be a really fun workout and I did it again with CJ and the kids when they arrived. CJ added one special component to the workout... only a man would think of something so wonderfully absurd.

He documented the whole thing so I'll be lazy and send you there to see it.

The best part about exercising with CJ was the positive energy we got from each other and our nutty children. The kids were running to and fro, trying to lift various things and racing and cheering. It was really great. Sometimes I think I should be sad about my kids getting "too old to cuddle", but there are so many new and fun things to experience as a family. They are charming and interesting, and we have a lot to look forward to. And we'll be healthy together! :)

Summer time, time time...child...and the livin is easy...

We had a restful and refreshing time at the cabin. My parents generously allowed me to host a Sorensen Girl Retreat last week. We mostly relaxed, with a bit of hiking, boating, shopping, and eating thrown in. Okay, lots of eating. We did mendi henna tattoos and played singstar and board games. Mostly we sat and watched the baby and the little girl...they are so adorable!

We had a blast doing this photo shoot.

2009July20CabinTrip

Children are endlessly amusing!

Here's a video that CJ took last night and put on his blog. Sorry to make you blog-hop but I don't think you'll mind.

The funny thing is that Nana had given Papa a Bop-It for Father's Day and Eric HATED it! H-A-T-E-D it. He tried so hard not to cry but he was clearly WAY anxious, chewing his shirt and looking at it nervously. When Papa "lost" and it went AAAWWWOAH! then Eric lost his cool and wanted nothing to do with it, couldn't even be in the room when others were playing it...we had a long gentle session of showing him that it was not a malicious toy. So yesterday when he came up to me making the "sss, stch, stch...puh puh" percussion sounds of the bop it game, I was a bit puzzled. But then he did a perfect "Bop It! AAAAWWWOAH!" and I laughed out loud. Let's go to the video, shall we?

Stillwater is VERY FAR AWAY.

...at least it seems far when we're riding bikes there.

On Monday night we packed the kiddoes and a snack in the Burley and took off for a long-distance bike trek to Stillwater's Teddy Bear Park. Most of the journey was on the Gateway Trail, which is lovely. Some of it was on a bike path along a county road, which was Super Steep Hills. Ugh. CJ towed the burley most of the way...70 pounds of cuteness gets mighty heavy after a while.
The Teddy Bear Park is a darling place to bring kids, and it was the perfect night for it. The weather was mild and the park wasn't too crowded.

OOPS Bee uploaded pictures to CJ's profile

Listening to the kids converse in the Burley was educational and entertaining. I'm glad I got to tow them for half the homeward bound trip. Just the right amount, and CJ tackled most of the hills!

When we got home I mapped it on Mapmyrun.com and found that we had biked 27.8 miles. wowzers. That counts as a workout.

We're going BUGGY around here!

Our Super Cool School Theme this month is BUGS.
Since we had a rainy day, we dug up some worms and watched them wriggle.

We colored and used lots of bug stamps to make Big Bug Pictures. We also did lacing cards with pictures of bugs, which Nana had found at a garage sale and are absolutely GORGEOUS.

Our work time activities were matching patterns on a butterfly, sequencing shapes to make a long long worm, and matching the name with a picture of different kinds of bugs.

For lunch we ate "caterpillars" (macaroni noodles) and "ladybugs" (carrot bodies and pepperoni wings).

We sang some buggy songs (beehive song, itsy bitsy spider) and made bug houses. As much fun as the bug activities were, I'm Very Ready for Summer Weather to Stay. We want to play outside!!!