More Fun Run...

Avery ran the entire course (about 400 m) chanting "Popsicle...popsicle...popsicle.

Aiden and his friend Brady discuss strategy....














The race is on!

Aiden demonstrates the classic "Volkmann running form."

Fun Run!

So Anne blogs about running and how she's training for a marathon or something...but tell me this: do you get a popsicle when you finish? I thought not...

Karate Boy Demonstrates Proper Usage of a Family Independent/Co-Dependent Play Device

Fig. 1: "the zip line"

Fig. 2: "the slide:

Fig. 3: "the swing"

Zip...Zip...thud...Zip!

Felix rigged the zip line with a handle-bar made out of c-pvc pipe and two elbow joints...Aiden spent the rest of the afternoon launching himself from the top of the slide and down the line. There was only one small mishap, and it scared Felix and I more than it did Aiden. As Aiden launched himself, his hands slipped and he landed on hands and knees on the ground a few feet below. He was fine, but my heart skipped a beat!

Avery cooks too! And in Anne's apron to boot!

Karate Boy

I was originally going to post only pictures of the zip line on the swing set, but I found these pictures as well. Family day was on Thursday and Aiden chose Avery as his guest. She did pretty well, but Aiden had a hard time. He wanted her to do everything perfectly...Avery just wanted to punch stuff!

Celebrity Sighting

Hey look! Felix made the front page! Check him out at this link: http://www.pressrepublican.com/0808_health/local_story_156224527.html

Bad Parents/Cool Parents?

So we installed a zip-line on the swing set today...

Felix made a birdhouse with Aiden earlier this spring, and now a bluebird family has moved in!

I spent the afternoon getting my gardens in SOME sort of order - the irises bloomed and there's a line of purple across the back. The gladioli are coming up and I added some alpine daisies and dianthus to the garden. Aiden and I planted purple impatiens across the front and sunflowers by the door. Then I planted a purple clematis in a pot and arranged a line of trellises so it can grow sideways instead of up. Will it work? We'll see...

Weekend Warriors

So the lawnmower has been offline for three weeks now and when the grass reached knee-high, I lost it (in my usual passive/agressive style) and demanded (asked nicely) when Felix intended on mowing. Well, he did (Thank God!) and I mulched the entire garden with the refuse from the front lawn. I haven't even touched the backyard yet! While mower-man tackled the jungle, the kids and I caught frogs, chased butterflies, went on a bike ride, raked, threw grass on each other and dug for worms. The we put the frogs and worms in a big bucket and forgot about them. Misha had a nice lunch, though...

The real fun started after OUR lunch when we started to put the swing-set together.

Ahh...the swing set. Two weeks ago, we all traveled to Saranac Lake to pick up a swing set that belonged to a colleague. The thing is, this colleague is 25, single and w/out children...so a swing set...not needed so much. Unfortunately, after arriving at my colleagues house, we found that I had VASTLY underestimated the size of the swing set vs. the size of our truck bed. So, long story short, all we took was an A-frame, a big beam, a slide and all the swing-y attachments.

Today we put them all together. So now, the kids have a swing set that will hopefully keep them occupied. In fact, Aiden spoke music: "Mom, can we play outside until supper is ready?"

How sweet it is!