Lake Park's 4th of July tradition is to have a bike parade, for which the kids all decorate their bikes, wagons, scooters, etc. (and try to win prizes). It's mostly a test of endurance, though, because in the community's great wisdom, they always schedule the parade to start at High Noon... the perfect time for a parade in steamy North Carolina, right? Afterwards there is a big picnic in the park with 50-cent hamburgers and hot dogs, and other traditional treats.
So we were excited to participate again this year and the kids got very into decorating their bikes. Even Colsen enjoyed all the bright decorations, and his ride in the wagon (he definitely got the easiest trek of us all).
Here they are, all ready to go:
Here are a couple shots of the actual parade. It was kind of fun walking around the block -- they piped in loud patriotic music that made us all step a little more lightly:
And the picnic afterwards...
When they announced the parade awards, we were disappointed that neither Strider nor Rayna won (what???!!!) :) -- but a few of our friends did, so that was fun, too.
All in all, a very hot (and fun) way to spend a mid-day on the 4th of July!
To wrap up our festivities, we had the Cole's and Mr. Lee over that night for dinner and S'MORES! And our neighbors put on a fireworks show that, in Pete's opinion, was "better than shows at most county fairs!" It went on for quite a long time... pretty amazing. A very nice evening.
Lately for our SILO (Self-Imposed Learning Organization – where we pick a topic to study for a few weeks or months), many of our evenings have consisted of watching lectures from the “Luther: Gospel, Law and Reformation” series that Graham’s mom bought him for his birthday this year. The Teaching Company produces all kinds of different classes that you can buy on DVD. This one has 24 half hour lessons, and they are excellent!
Professor Cary has been walking us through the history and background of Luther as well as the development over time of his theology… in his younger years, he had some really strange thinking! He has also described a lot of the history that is relevant to his thinking by describing the politics, economics and church dynamics in Europe in the 1500’s and 1600’s. So fascinating – my favorite tidbit was the fact that at one point there were actually 3 popes and they were all excommunicating kings and their entire countries trying to say that a whole county had to go to hell unless the king repented. What a difference in valuing the church’s and the pope’s opinion!
Anyways – great series – I’d highly recommend it so far and when we’re done, we’re happy to lend it out. I think Dad has first dibs on it. We’ll probably be blogging more about it as we continue to watch.
Check out this jawbone! (photo courtesy of www.covenanter.org/Luther/martinluther.htm)
Last night, we decided to have a more low-key date down the road. We tried a great new restaurant - Hawthorne’s New York Pizza & Bar, which we highly recommend if you’re ever in the neighborhood. Graham and I were playing so many games (like 20 questions and an array of made-up ones) that our waiter started laughing and came back with the kid menus with games on them and some crayons for us to use. Needless to say it kept us occupied until our pizza came out. The best part was that he also gave us the oreo cookies they give kids at the end of the meal, too!
Then we went across the street to a beautiful park and played a little Frisbee golf (of course, we had to determine our own course by picking objects to hit) and then layed out on a towel in the grass and read to each other. It was so nice and relaxing.
When the bugs finally go to us, we came back home and watched a lecture in the Martin Luther series we’re doing for our latest SILO, which proved to be quite interesting! (more on this in another post to come)
Last weekend was yet another lively weekend back home at the Forge and attendance at another wedding for us. Despite the distance, we’ve been able to see Graham’s family quite a bit this Spring, which has been such a blessing. We’re glad they’re close enough for a weekend trip to be so feasible.
One highlight of this weekend was that Graham’s best friend of all time, Theron, and his wife, Tesia, were also home in Clifton Forge so we had a great breakfast at the picnic table made by Judy and Erin and a great time of catching up.
After Graham had a great meeting with his college advisor from UVA, we went to another AVP wedding of one of his buddies, Chris. It was at a beautiful vineyard in Virginia and made for a lot of fun and catching up with a number of his old friends. I’m so impressed by how bonded these guys are and how much they enjoy singing together at the various weddings – a treat for the rest of us!
For several months now Colsen has been obsessed with the concept of talking on the phone. He mostly wants to talk on our real phones, but since that doesn't usually get a "yes" from his parents, he has resorted to making his own phones. For awhile he was happy to make any smallish object a phone that he would hold up to his ear and say, "Hello!?" But lately he's gotten more picky. Uncle Al heard about his obsession and kindly donated an old real cell phone to his cause. Colsen thought it was cool for about 5 minutes, but then decided that he couldn't like it because it was just a straight phone -- not a flip phone.
So that afternoon he absconded with some cards from one of Rayna's games and made himself several flip phones. (He folded them in half, so he can open and close them) Strider tried to point out that these card phones are not as effective as the real one because, as he says, "They don't have numbers to push, Colsen! Now you can't text anyone! And you'll have to wait until someone calls you, because you can't call anyone!" But Colsen was nonplussed by this argument, and thinks his flip phone is the mac-daddy. (Do people still use that term?) Plus, it can fit in his pocket, which he thinks is soooo cool.
And now those phones have become as important to him as his pacifier! Whenever he is transitioning from one thing to another now (going to bed, waking up, going outside, whatever), we hear, "Need paci! Phone!!" And he is rarely without either. A happy clam he is, when he has a paci in one hand and his phone in the other. As you can see from these pictures, it doesn't matter what he's doing, it's always a good time to have a phone chat with someone (usually, "Gee-Gee" or "Deuce" according to him). He's actually kind of rude at times about it. We need to teach him some phone etiquette. Yesterday we were outside talking to Miss Mary, but he stayed on the phone the whole time, even while having a conversation with her!
So, that's what's going on in Colsen's world. If you want him to give you a call, text him your number. It might be a short conversation, though. Here's how they usually go...
Gotta love summer!
Here are some of our highlights of this past week:
1. Summer Celebration
This is our church's version of Vacation Bible School, and the kids had a blast at it. This was our fourth year to participate, and I loved seeing how the very same teenagers in our church have been involved as helpers all along. Four years ago they were shy, scrawny middle-schoolers, but now they've transformed into strong, compassionate leaders. It was very cool to see how they taught the younger kids, played with them, prayed with them, etc. Our kids are blessed with good role models.
2. Cousins Camp
Rayna went on the inaugural session of Cousins Camp with Ava this week, and had a great time with my parents. She came home with this great photo book they made showing all their adventures, and she's been singing her new Cousins Camp Song for the last couple days. Looks like it was a big hit -- and Strider can't wait for his turn next month.
3. Game Night
And because summer is not just about the kids having fun, Pete and I arranged for some good ol' play time with some of our friends as well! We had some folks over for dinner and a rousing game of Balderdash.... entertaining and informative! :)
June has been a great month!
I (Pete) have only written twice on this site. And I just recently learned that my sarcasm does not translate well in this medium. My first attempt at blogging was this: "A FREE gift from the government" and this past week I've heard that some readers (even my very own family members) actually believed that I purchased the 50-inch flat panel tv I wrote about. Apparently my attempt at humor was lost on some, but note that my stimulus check was neither free nor frittered away unwisely on a TV.
While Rayna is at Nonna and Poppa's house with Ava today, the boys and I went to have our own adventure... at Aunt Katie's house! It was a perfect day for going to the pool, so we all went for a nice, relaxing dip. Yeah right -- relaxing it was NOT. Strider wanted to play Marco Polo constantly, and Colsen was a full-time job for both Katie AND me, as he insisted on trying to swim on his own constantly (he would yell if we tried to touch or hold him). His favorite activity was to jump up and down the steps for a few minutes and then run up out of the pool, run along the edge and then jump full-speed back into the water wherever he wanted. Needless to say, this about gave me a heart attack as I raced to chase after him and fish him out of the deep water. So the morning was filled with the sounds of
"Marco! Marco! Marco!" (both boys saying this over and over and over)
"Set....Go!" (Colsen saying this everytime he was about to jump down a step or off the wall)
and me screaming, "No Colsen! No!" over and over.
Poor Katie was very patient.
Finally we convinced Colsen to let us hold him in the water a little bit.... but he got tired of this quickly and wanted to move on to our next activity.... the "Gym." Even though he had never heard this word before Strider talked about it today, and had certainly never been to one, he had that innate male radar working that told him this Gym concept was something he would really, really like. So he kept saying it over and over, until we finally headed over...
And it was just the paradise both boys thought it would be.
So, all in all, it was a fun adventure for them.... I thought they would have been really worn out and ready for a nap when we got home, but it turns out I was the only one who needed to sleep!
I (Pete) don’t post very often on this blog, but we traveled to Minneapolis this past weekend for a visit with my sister Sue and her family and we had an awesome time -- it's worthy of my entering blog-land to talk about it. Here are some of the many highlights:
· Tubing and skiing on two of the 10,000 plus lakes · Jumping on the trampoline · Playing the Wii (guitar hero, golf, marble mania) · A Twins game (versus the Diamondbacks in inter-league play) · Pool/water park · Cousin David’s baseball game · Visiting my friend Soup · Rides at the Mall of America · An outdoor Church service
· Some quotes from the weekend:
Strider to Amy: Today I went tubing and got some serious air
Rayna arriving home just off the plane, in a sad tone: I just miss Aunt Sue, Uncle Al, Maggie [the dog], David and Krista.
Strider: Did you know that with your plane ticket on the way there and the way back you get a free cup of juice? A free cup of juice if you have a ticket!
Me: Maybe we should spend the whole summer in Minnesota some year.
Check out Strider's expression in this picture! (His cousin Krista's is pretty good, too :) ) He says the ride was REALLY fun, but also REALLY scary.
The Minnesota trip was a total blast by all reports, and we'll share more later about that, but I just had to post this picture because I love it!
p.s. Thanks, Sue, for getting this picture for us!
