Skating and Booting and Sledding on the Lake

Titus got ice skates for his birthday.  He loves them!  And he loves to go skating!  We have been twice now, since his birthday (nice that to go skating, we drive 5 minutes over to my parents, put our skates on and walk about 10 feet onto the lake and then skate out the shoveled path to the rink that my dad smooths regularly with the flame thrower).  Anyway - Titus got his skates on Saturday evening.  We went skating on Sunday afternoon and then again today (Monday) afternoon.  Today my mother got an old chair out for him to push.  He pushed Isabele around on the chair for a bit, then she got tired of going slow and got off.  He continued with the chair, much faster without Isabele's weight.  It is amazing to me how comfortable he is on his single bladed skates.  I'm going to chalk it up to the fact that we put him on a glider bike as soon as he could fit on it - he was two.  I'm guessing that the way our bodies balance on a bicycle somehow relates to how we balance when standing on 1/8 inch wide blades of steel strapped to our feet. 
And as for "booting", well, that is what Isabele does.  She wears boots and walks on the ice, so we call it booting.  It keeps her happy.  She'll have skates next year.  She also spends most of the time on the ice "sledding" on an old runner sled.  She sits or lays on the sled that has a rope extension on it.  The sled is pulled by an adult on ice skates.  She loves to go fast and every once in a while we will push her so she can go really fast. 
Though I really like to skate and love that the kids are pretty independent with this for their ages, I'm ready for the heat of July and swimming.  I'm so glad that there are 4 seasons, with 4 different sets of activities, here in Indiana.

Titus Turned 4 Today!

Titus is officially a 4 year old.  Wow!  Time flies.  We had pizza (easy as I worked at Bowen all day) and cake (orange, per request - just food coloring - don't get too excited) and icecream.  My mother and Brian's mother and Micah, Kimber and Izzy came over.  Titus got to go get the pizza with Brian, something he loves to get to go do.  Isabele and I blew up some balloons and taped some streamers to the door while he was gone.  Everything went quite well and he had fun.  While taking his bath he told me his "bests" were Hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry hippo and Ice skates.  He was a trooper.  He got a little basketball hoop that stands all by itself, ice skates, Hungry hippos, some airplanes, another "Joe" toy, a catapult to built, hand knit sock and mittens, mini chicklets and pop rocks, and some stickers.  Here are a few pictures.

 Pop rocks!

 "Joe"

 Socks!

 Orange Mittens.

 Airplanes.

 Hungry, Hungry

 Hippos.

 Ice Skates

 Basketball Hoop - will get pictures in the next day or two of him playing with it.  He didn't understand what it was in the box, but once set up, he really likes it!

 Cake - Orange with mini M&M's!

 Maybe a bigger breath will work.

 Just needed to be closer (I turned it around for him).

 They are out!  Happy, proud little boy!

Okay, so that was a lot of pictures.  Sorry, but I didn't want to leave any of them out.

Portraits when Mom and Dad were at work last week.

Portraits by the budding photographer, Titus, assisted by Uncle Micah.

The babydoll.

A bit odd, but a good Isabele smile.

The Peanutbutter and Jelly Song

Uncle Micah and the Peanutbutter and Jelly Song. I think that sums it up!

The Latest Rocket Launch

On Friday, we went out to the field with 3 new rockets to launch.  The first (the purple one) had 2 motors, and the launcher didn't have enough "juice" to make it go.  The other 2 were launched and retrieved, the yellow one (I think) in need of a fin repair, which has been completed, the white one - a test of a new chute design, survived quite well and only needs a slight revision to the parachute (or so I'm told). 

Baby Sling(s)

Hannah sent me a link to a babydoll sling a couple weeks ago.  I finally got one made - two actually.  I didn't have a pattern, just a couple pictures from someone's etsy account.  I made the first one for Isabele.  It was a hit.  So, that night, I made one for Titus.  I like the way I made Titus' better, and need to make a couple more.  Great gift idea for girls and even boys.  Titus carries airplanes and action figures in his, though in the picture, I did stuff Brian's old doll (in much need of some repairs), Herbie, in just to see if design number 2 would work better for larger dolls.  (It does). 

The kids were not very excited about posing for pictures on this occasion.  But you get the idea at least.
When I make the next one, hopefully this afternoon, I'll pay attention to how I did it so I can stick it in my ideas/instructions book.  if anyone is interested in one, or the instructions, let me know.

Clipity Clop

I just got a 3 minute dissertation from Titus about how to sing "Clipity Clop"  Clipity Clop.  Hear the sound of the donkey walk.  Apparently this is a song that the "big lady" at my Friday Bible study has taught the kids.  Titus included a volume demonstration as to how loud I was to tell my class to sing it.  He did say he would tell my class how to sing it, so maybe I'll just leave that to him.