More from the Backyard

Ezra has come up with some great ideas to keep the kids busy this summer. We call Tuesdays our "Creative Projects" day. On these days, Ezra sets up supplies and instructions with a few starter ideas. Then we turn them loose in the backyard.

Our first project back in June was pinatas. They had balloons, newspaper strips, and paper-mache paste. They needed some help to get doing, but seemed to enjoy the gooey mess. They finished the paper-mache part over three or four days, but they don't seem motivated to decorate the pinatas or break them (even though we already bought some candy to fill them). I think they just don't want to destroy their hard work.

The next project was "Fort Richards". They got old sheets, clothespins, blank t-shirts, markers, and anything they could scrounge out of our recycling bins. We thought that once they had their fort set up, they would happily play in it. It turns out that for them, all of the fun was in the building and they weren't quite sure what to do with it once it was built.

Presenting . . . "Fort Richards":
Soldiers guarding their fort:
Check out their t-shirts. You can tell from Brendan's upside-down name that they were colored while the soldiers were wearing them.

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What's happening in our backyard . . .

Our backyard is having a busy summer. It will take a few posts to get it all in. Let's start with our great up-close "nature experience".

In May, a robin started building a nest in the rafters on our covered deck. It was abandoned shortly after and the beginnings of the nest fell down. Then a couple of weeks later, the robin (or possibly another robin--they all look alike, you know!) returned, and she was serious this time. The nest was built in just a couple of days. Then two robins started hanging around. When they were gone, we checked the nest a few times to see if there were any eggs. We never saw any eggs in the nest. Now we know that we weren't looking deep enough into the nest. Then about two weeks later, the robin started flying back and forth with worms. We watched carefully and realized there were little tiny beaks pointing skyward to receive the worms. The eggs had been laid, kept warm, and hatched ten feet from our kitchen table and we were clueless!
After only a couple of days, the baby birds had grown enough to reach their necks up and be seen. We counted four. The kids really got into watching the nest. Even Amanda, sitting in her high chair would give a little yell when she saw the mother bird arriving at the nest.
It was amazing to watch the mother robin go back and forth and back and forth with worms ALL DAY LONG. I tried to think of a fitting analogy between bird mothers and human mothers. Here's what I came up with: robin mothers and human mothers stay really busy trying to feed their families. Observant, deep, and profound, I know. I should become a writer, don't you think? Ha!

Once we saw the mother come back with a frog (maybe an inch and a half long). The baby birds fought over it. We're still not sure how the winner choked it down.

Here they are, approximately two weeks after hatching. They left the nest within the next 48 hours.
We read on Wikipedia that only 25% of baby robins survive the first year. The day our robins left the nest, we found one of them dead near our fence. We hope that the three remaining robins fare a little better and maybe next spring one will come back to build their own nest in the same spot.

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Shoezy Suzy (aka Amanda)

Watch out Imelda Marcos--Amanda has a shoe infatuation! When she isn't wearing her own little pair of summer sandals, she's trying someone else's shoes on for size.

Daddy's shoes are a little hard to balance in:


Mommy's flip flops are way too big:

Natalie's sandals are smaller than Mom's, but are still tricky to stand up and walk in:


Brendan's fit a little better, she can actually walk around the house:


Amanda keeps us smiling!

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Competition in the Marriage

So we picked up a new game a few weeks ago and it has become quite a competition between the two of us. I won the first 3 games and Lisa thought about nothing except playing again. Now she has absolutely demoralized me twice in a row. Did anyone out there have a clue that Lisa has such a competitive steak? She doesn’t just win... she takes your shirt off and throws it out the door!

Lisa, I challenge you to a rematch to tie the score (3-3)!

BTW, our favorite game with the kids right now is Pictionary Junior. Who knew Brendan could draw like a little Picasso! He definitely has his mother’s competitive streak.

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Bookworms? Ya think??

It's a picture perfect summer evening, and this is how our kids are making the most of the gorgeous weather:

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At the Races

Ezra wasn't the only one to race last Saturday. The kids and I (Lisa) signed up for a 1K Hike 'n Bike. The idea was that we could cover the short course together with me pushing Amanda in the stroller. Yes, I am eight months pregnant, but one kilometer is practically NOTHING!
Here we are just after checking in. We still have fifteen minutes before our race starts.
Natalie and Brendan were bored, so they started running up and down the steps. Good warm up for their race muscles. Plus, it was chilly outside.


Here we are lined up at the starting line. When the kids heard "GO," they took off (Natalie running and Brendan on his bike) faster than I have ever seen either of them move. So much for staying together. Running is not option for someone in my condition. I didn't see the kids again until the finish line, where they had already finished their snacks and drink and had gotten tired of waiting for me.
And by the way, that race was at least two kilometers, probably more like 2.5. Even in my current state, I can walk a mile in twenty minutes. I was walking my very fastest and it took me thirty-five minutes to finish. That's a mean trick for Parks & Rec to play on a pregnant lady. All in all, a great first "race" experience for the kids. As for me, I should have just waited for them at the finish line and saved my energy.

After our race, we went to go meet Ezra at the half marathon.

My champion runners:

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Running!!!

On Saturday I, Ezra, ran the Helvetia Half Marathon for one of my New Years resolutions. You probably remember the post on my training log.

Let me just say that I had a blast and I’m already looking for another. Lisa thinks I’m crazy but I’d like to find a marathon sometime in September or October. Unfortunately, almost everything lands on a Sunday, unless I want to go race above the oxygen zone in Utah. If you know of a good one, let me know.

So how did I do?

I finished in 1:52:46. A 8.5 minute per mile pace throughout the 13.1 miles. I had done a very long training run (11 miles) the week before and then did a 4 mile sprint a few days later so unfortunately I was a bit sore during most of the run. Oh well. The race felt great and it was an awesome environment to be in. Even better, the race was very well organized and was actually quite peaceful—even with the scores of racers puffing up the hills.

Now if you really like math…stick around…

A short time after the race, I noticed that the times of all finishers and all kids of other data was posted to the website. So of course, the math geek in me was curious to know how well I really did. So I tabulated the frequency and created a distribution showing the finishing times of all runners.



What does this mean?

It shows the number of people that finished at any given time. My overall finishing place was 503rd out of 2607 runners. Or rather, my time fell in the column identified with the red arrow. The good news was that I was slightly better than average for the runners (assuming most of the finishers after 2:50:00 were walkers).

But wait!

Then I was looking at the data, I noticed a 66 year old guy and over 160 women beat me (no joke!). So as I was feeling washed up I noticed that the age groups were listed as well!



A few short clicks and I came up with the distribution above showing how well I did against the males in my age group. I still finished better than half of all runners in my age group who ran the race, but not by much. Again, the tail trailing to the right was most likely made up of walkers. Shaving just 15 seconds off each mile would easily take me into top 25% of runners.

What have I learned?

Buy new shoes and training makes all the difference. Also, next time I run a race I plan to have a goal to shoot for—not just a plan to finish the race.

If anyone is out there and wants to go for a run…just give me a call!

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John Deere

I had to go to Davenport, Iowa for work this week. I didn't quite know what to expect, but I ended up having a great time...especially because of John Deere. John Deere headquarters and a huge museum are nearby, so of course I had to go check out a piece of American history!







Now if I could only convince them to let me take them for a spin...

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Lisa's Side on the Wii

Ezra really wants to get a Wii--EVERYONE has one, you know. Think of all we're missing!

I do not want to get a Wii. Here are my reasons:

Eleven months ago we made a drastic change in our home—no tv for the kids. No PBS Kids, no Disney Channel, no Nickelodeon. No videos from the library, no Wiggles! Only two or three times a month for family movie night do they get to sit like rotten vegetables, staring and drooling at our television.

It took two agonizing months for the “can I watch TV?” requests to go from at least twenty per day to now only once or twice a week. The new “default” activity has changed from watching TV to picking up a book or crayons. Natalie has become a voracious reader. And even though he can’t technically “read” yet, Brendan can spend hours engrossed in books. And when they are not reading books, sometimes they actually play creatively. They use their dress-up clothes, food and dishes, dolls, trucks and lots of empty boxes to head off on some sort of adventure together. Often the adventures are a re-enactment of Little House on the Prairie, a series that Natalie has been reading (they have never seen the show). Playing creatively like that was rare when TV was an option.

Now why would we want to take these two “unplugged” kids and plug them back into electronic entertainment? They aren’t even asking for it. They do not know what a Wii is. Someday (probably soon), they will play it at a friend’s house, love it, and ask for it. We can think about it then. But as for now, we have a "no video games" plan for our family. And that plan is working just fine.

Ezra and I are having a fun debate over this and figured that if we each posted our point of view, we'd be sure to get comments and advice from everyone. So . . . what do YOU think?

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Ezra's Side on the Wii

So I’m torn.

Lisa doesn’t want a video game system in the house but I’m a little more willing to try the Wii (although I have no interest in the other game systems).

I think the differences lie in how we view the system. Lisa looks at it like another mind numbing activity you play for hours on end. I view the Wii not as a video game system, but more of an activity; similar to a trampoline, pool table, or even a TV.

Her biggest concern is manageable, I think. We (including me) don’t want to become the zombies who think about beating Zelda during Sacrament meeting. The risk is manageable (again, I think) because we manage the TV very well and only turn it on for two monthly Netflix movies, Lisa’s The Office fix, and Lost.

The Advantages: The Wii looks like something I can compete with my kids on and get some activity (or wear out the kids) even when the weather outside is less than appealing. To play, the kids have to move and I won’t bet bored playing Chutes and Ladders for the thousandth time.

Things we will have to deal with:

• Brendan begging, “Can I play the Wii?” Very similar to what he does now with the computer.
• Shutting it off after the kids go to bed. I can just see myself playing until the late night hours-Just like I played Zaxxon in high school with my Dad.
• Setting limits on how much we play. We already have a limit on computer time, bed time, shower time, etc…how many more timers do we need to have? At some point these kids are going to wake up starting their stopwatch.

I guess I’m hoping for the ultimate entertainment device that Lisa can plug the kids into as she cooks dinner. The kids get all the wiggles out and sit down to a calm, peaceful dinner. Strangely, their reflexes are so much faster from the exercise that they manage to catch everything before it spills or falls on the floor. Once dinner is over, the kids exhausted from playing the Wii, complain that they are tired and want to go to bed early. We all calmly sleep the night away while the kids do math problems in their heads.

Doesn’t that sound idyllic? I don’t have any idea where the math part comes in, but if it helps me convince Lisa, I might try to justify it.

Anyone else have thoughts on the video game system vs. no video game system?

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Brendan Sleeping

Brendan insisted on sleeping with all of his stuffed animals (or at least those he could find). When we went in to check on him, he had made space for each of the animals and had no room left to sleep. He squeezed into the corner and zonked out. I think his leg is actually falling between the bed and wall.

I wonder what he'll look like at 2AM. I'll bet he climbs into the other bed....Can't disturb Dalmatian, Quacky, and the others.

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Camping During Spring Break

Because we were confined to the house during Spring Break, we decided we had to do something interesting to keep the kids entertained and make up for the loss of the missed trip to California.

So what did we do? We went camping inside. Yes, we set up the tent, made smores in the fireplace, and ate tinfoil dinners by flashlight. The tent was a tight squeeze, but it fit! We'll have to test it out during the summer!


As usual, Natalie has tied to a book and could hardly finish dinner.

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Brendan's 5th Birthday

When we are celebrating three birthdays in eleven days early in the year, Brendan feels like it is NEVER going to be his birthday. But sure enough, it came! We had a Transformer-themed party (just the five of us).

He couldn't wait to open the birthday package from Grandma and Grandpa. He thought this was a very cool birthday card.
Mater pajamas that are his favorite color! What a score!
Blow out the candles! Happy birthday, Brendan!

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Bike Riding

Brendan got a bike for his birthday. We had planned to go bike riding right after his birthday dinner (pizza and broccoli--his choice). First, he needed a little help from Dad. In this photo, Natalie is riding behind Bren and Ezra on the path.

He was very happy. The joys of a bike ride!
After about two minutes with dad, he was ready to go on his own. He even turned his head and smiled for this photo as he raced around the track.
He caught on pretty quickly.
Hey! Wait for us!
Amanda explored the t-ball field while everyone else was riding around.

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April Fool's Day Pranks

We are always up for a few pranks...

Ezra started the day finding green milk and all the cereal bags switched around to different cereal boxes. He gave up and finally opened a new box of his favorite Wheat Chex. When Natalie woke up she said, "Why is the milk colored when it isn't even April Fool's Day?" It took her a while to wake up, I guess. Brendan was delighted when Cinnamon Life poured out of the Cheerios box and refused to "fix" the cereals when it was time to clean up. "I want April Fool's tomorrow, too," he said.

Then as Natalie scrambled for the bus, she found all the coats (we have a lot!) separately packed in grocery bags and thrown in a pile on the floor. She screeched and worried show would be late for the bus. After a few minutes of calming down, she dug through the pile and ran out the door.

Then for dinner, we all sat down to eat with unusual utensils and plates. Brendan struggled to keep things separate in his salad bowl, but he ate everything without complaint so maybe we'll try that again tonight. Natalie ate with salad tongs off a muffin tin. Ezra did well with his spatula and Lisa really liked eating off the cookie sheet because it was hard to spill--Everyone agrees that Natalie should use the cookie sheet every night. Amanda did just fine with her fingers, as she does every night.

Happy April 1!!!

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