The hill

Here's a good story. Michael, Natalie and I (Jeanne) went for a walk this morning. Natalie was riding her bike, Michael was riding his Strider (2 wheel bike with no pedals), and I was walking. We have quite a bit of construction going on past our house and it makes for a fun little walk/bike ride. Both kids take their bikes through the dirt piles and go over the big bumps and sometimes we stop to throw rocks in the pond. Michael is getting very good on his Strider, however, he does get side tracked very easily by rocks, dirt and weeds. I haven't quite figured out what makes one dirt pile different from the others. During one portion of this walk, Natalie was far ahead of me and Michael was far behind me. I turned back to look at Michael and unfortunately, he was just making the decision to ride his Strider down the steep hill (take a look at the picture). I yelled "no, Michael" and there he went....no brakes, no flat surfaces, just a small construction fence between him and the pond. Luckily Michael bailed off the Strider about 2 feet before the fence and rolled into the fence. The fence stopped him from rolling into the water. Whew! That was a close call! Michael was very upset, but not hurt. I told Michael that was a bad decision. A few tears later he was back on his bike. What was he thinking? I asked Josh this same question and Josh seems to be more in touch with Michael's decision tree...his exact words were, "why wouldn't you go down the hill?" In a future blog, I will post a picture of Micheal and his Strider. I might take a picture next to THE HILL.

Natalie and Michael helped Josh build another new garden. One more to go....
During dinner one night, we caught Michael trying to feed his frog shredded cheese.
When Grammi Barb came to visit, the kiddos had lots of fun playing. In this picture, they have ponytails all over their heads and they are sliding down the steps.
Gosh, it feels good to be outside again! I hope you are also enjoying the nice weather. Hugs and kisses!