Take them off, take them off NOW!

It's the second time in the past few days when Bryce has come through the garage yelling for Holly or me to take his wheels off. The days of training wheels are officially behind us after some envy of his buddy Evan and his lack of training wheels.

So tonight Holly took them off Bryce's little bike. Of course, it's the hottest and most humid it's been all summer so we were REALLY looking forward to running up and down the street with him to make sure he didn't fall over.

Well, little did we know he'd get it with the very first try!



After Holly scooted down the street next to him, she quickly realized he got the hang of this much faster than anticipated.





So, we're officially finished with training wheels. Next up: pull ups!

Indiana State Fair

We had a great time at the Indiana State Fair yesterday.  I think Kari and Bryce had been in a previous year with Gran and Beep Beep, but this was a first for Kevin and me, and first time together as a family.  We hit the Dairy Bar for grilled cheeses and milkshakes and then the Midway:

Here we are on The Crazy Mouse roller coaster.  This was a perfect gateway coaster in preparation for heading to one of the major roller coaster parks next summer.  We rode this twice- it was that good- and not your typical county fair midway ride!  We also found my all-time favorite ride, the Tilt-a-Whirl, bringing me back to my childhood Kiddie Kingdom days.  I taught not only the kids, but Kevin too, the strategy in leaning to maximize the spin on this ride.  I think the ride operator purposely sped up the ride at the very end after observing our leaning strategy.  I was actually a bit nauseous after getting off the ride, and that's never happened before!

This NASCAR inspired ride, at first glance, looked pretty tame.  Upon closer observation, the real thrill is in the corners; where the cars whip the riders around at a pretty good pace.  Notice Kari's hair in the video!

Bryce was, of course, super interested in riding the tractor-train.  It's fair-style public transportation that circles around the perimeter of the grounds and you jump on/jump off as needed.  This allowed us to peruse the vast number of exhibits, where we disembarked at Pioneer Village and the farm equipment displays.  Bryce seems to be gravitating towards the big red Case IH brand of tractors; sorry John Deere fans!

 This was the biggest tractor we had ever seen- complete with those army tank style track wheels.  Nicely priced at 500k, too!

Bryce is already talking about when we can go back to the fair!

A Great Night

For roasting marshmallows in the fire pit.

2014 First Day of Second Grade

We kicked off second grade today and Kari couldn't have been more excited to go.  She was particularly excited for her teacher, wildly popular Mrs. Schwecke, and to see her friends, many of whom she had seen only briefly over the summer.

We'll take a picture of Kari against the garage door on the last day of school for a point of reference.  

 The gang's all here!  Bryce can't wait to finally be in the picture next year.

After school.  Kari took great pride and responsibility in making sure Kindergartner Aeva safely made it on the bus, got to her classroom and got off the bus.

Aviator Birthday Party and Ice Cream Social

Bryce's birthday celebration continued all the way into last week, culminating with the family birthday party.  This year's theme: airplanes, but not to be overshadowed by the food menu!  We went in a totally different direction and it was a smash hit.  We offered a make your own grilled cheese bar.

Runway, complete with airplanes and "05" runway marker.

The grilled cheese bar featured a variety of breads, cheese, meats and veggies.  We should give credit to the Food Network magazine for this idea.  They featured an open-faced grilled cheese sandwich with lump crab meat and asparagus.  From there, the idea took off.

Our master griddler creating all the custom sandwiches.

We also had 7 layer salad, deviled eggs, watermelon and corn on the cob.  Perfect summertime food!

It was cool enough to comfortably eat outside.

Bryce and his love for chocolate is clearly represented here.  He requested a chocolate cake with chocolate icing.  I couldn't be more proud.

We continued the sugar fest with our annual back to school ice cream social.  We provide the ice cream and neighbors bring the toppings.  It was sugary good fun for everyone and a great way to visit with the neighbors before getting back into the school routine.

8th grade all the way down to two new kindergartners are represented.  Next year, Bryce will finally be able to officially join the crew at the bus stop.

Silly faces!

Birthday #5

We just wrapped up an incredibly hectic week, so it was nice to sleep in a little (7:37 little feet padded into our room) and spend some time together.  It was short lived as there were two birthday parties on the docket and neither of them were for Bryce!  We spent the early afternoon at Columbian Park for a neighbor birthday party and then Kari and I left to head across town for an afternoon bowling party.

We reconvened as a family just in time for dinner.  Bryce had the choice of choosing his favorite meal for Daddy to prepare or eat out.  Not surprisingly, he chose to eat out; surprisingly, he chose MCL Cafeteria.  We definitely brought down the mean age, but the food was good and everyone cleaned their plates.

We started off the morning with personalized blueberry pancakes and finished the evening at Dairy Queen.

Family birthday party with grandparents happens next weekend.  Bryce is excited to see everyone!!