Bikes

Saturday was the first day Ben could get back on his bike after getting his cast off.  John took him for a bike ride after breakfast Saturday morning.  John said Ben went so slowly that John had to put his feet down on the ground to keep his balance.  He couldn't go that slow.  Ben was VERY nervous about wrecking.

 Mollie's feet finally reach the pedals on her tricycle.  She has to learn to pedal before she can get a big girl bike for Christmas.

Mollie got tired of pedaling.  Ben and Sam took over the tricycles and had a race.

They had to wreck of course.  Sam's wreck was much more dramatic than Ben's.

Mollie to the rescue.

Since Ben obviously needed a lot more time on his bicycle, we went out before breakfast this morning and rode bikes.  Ben was much more confident and even talked about taking his training wheels off soon.

 Mollie is VERY slow pedaling so Ben got off his bike and pushed her for a while.

 Ben let Mollie try riding his bike.  Her legs aren't quite long enough yet.

 They wanted to have a picnic breakfast. While I went inside to get breakfast, they went to the backyard to get the picnic table ready.  I thought that meant cleaning off the picnic table but instead they pulled it all the way around to the driveway.  They wanted to eat out front so that they "could enjoy the view of the street." (Ben is holding Mollie's arm down because she kept sticking her finger in her nose while I tried to take a picture.)

 "Enjoying the view" while eating breakfast.

A Week

 We've had a busy week of learning, playing with neighborhood friends, going to the dentist and to get my weekly shot, and going to story time at the library.

 Ben is learning about the concept of measuring length and width using ABC blocks.

 Mollie preferred to build with the blocks.

 Some cave painting as we learn about the early history of man.

 Mollie likes to mix colors.

 Ready to go to the dentist.  Mollie's been carrying her purse stuffed full everywhere we go lately.

 Getting her cavity filled.  Notice that Cow Baby is laying on Mollie's stomach.  Mollie was very brave and did not fuss at all even though she said afterwards that it kind of hurt.

 Ben asked me to take a picture of him so that he could use it for making an ad.

This is his ad for a lemonade stand.  He's the Lemonade King.  He asked for some of my lemonade to taste before he drew the picture.  He said he needed to make sure that it was good enough to call Lemonade King before he drew his ad.  He and Sam played lemonade stand in the playhouse Friday afternoon.  They served lemonade to Mollie and me and then we served lemonade to them after they had run several races and gotten hot.

For MV

Mary Varner asked for some side shots nearly a week ago.  Sorry it's taken me so long to post them, MV.  Glad that you are feeling better.  Hope that your first day of school tomorrow is great!

 Our house isn't suddenly shifting downhill.  Ben took these pictures for me.

As my doctor said at my appointment Tuesday, I've really "popped out" lately.  Last Sunday three different people at church said, "I didn't know you were expecting."

Archeology

We began our study of history this week with The Story of the World.  To start out with something fun, I set up a pretend archaeological dig in the sand pile in the back yard.  Ben and Mollie enjoyed finding some modern artifacts like a screwdriver, scissors, bracelet, and coins.

Goodbye Cast

Warning: Some of these pictures are kind of gross but none of them involve blood.

 Dr. Kosko suggested that I give Ben and dose of Tylenol with codeine when we got to the office.  By 3:30 p.m. he was feeling no pain.  Unfortunately, the doctor's office was running VERY late and it was 4:30 (an hour and half after our appointment time) before the doctor saw Ben.

 Still a little loopy posing with the skeleton in the "cast room."

 The nurse cutting off his cast.  It was a very sturdy cast and it took a while.  The nurse asked if the noise was bothering him, but he said, "No, he had heard a race car before."

 Finally starting to see arm.

 

His knuckles were so nasty.  There was some gauzy stuff stuck to other parts of his arm, but his knuckles were the dirtiest part.

 The pins have been hidden under Ben's cast.  This is the first time we had seen them.  Ben said, "I expected them to look like sewing pins."

 Really they look more like Allen wrenches.  As Dr. Kosko removed the pins, he told Ben, "You're going to feel a little tickle."  Ben responded, "That didn't feel like a tickle."  Ben was very calm, even though I know it had to hurt.  Thankfully I was on the other side of him and couldn't see the doctor working, but I could see a lot of blood on the paper table liner.

 Showing Nana and Grandaddy his arm without a cast.  They came and stayed with Mollie while I took Ben to the doctor.

Race Car

FedEx Ground opened a new terminal a few miles from our house and had the FedEx Racing showcar on display today.  You can imagine how excited Ben was to go see it.

 Looking at the inside of the car.

 The man who hauls around the showcar gave both Ben and Mollie small FedEx race cars.

 Looking at the engine.

 Holding their ears as the car is cranked up.

Mollie is still holding her ears, but Ben is super excited about how loud the car sounds (and it was VERY loud).

Stapleton Family

Love these pics of MawMaw Elaine and PawPaw G.C. that Yolanda posted on Facebook.

Frog

This morning we planned to learn about frogs.  This weekend I briefly thought, "I wonder if I could catch a frog for us to look at?"  Guess what?  While I was fixing breakfast, Ben said, "I think there's a frog on our front door."  I went and looked and there was a tiny frog inside our house sticking to the front door.  We caught it and put it in Ben's critter cage so that we could watch it this morning. Then we took it outside and examined it more closely before setting it free.

Danica?

Mollie had to try on Ben's new racing suit, of course.  When she looked at herself in the mirror, she said, "Hmmm, pretty princess or Danica Patrick?"  I think she was contemplating her Halloween costume.  Since they don't make a Danica Patrick toddler costume it will be an easy decision.

Another Week

We've had a quiet week.  It's been HOT and we've stayed inside.

 We ordered Ben this Kyle Busch racing suit costume for Halloween.  I know it's early to be thinking about Halloween but Ben was trying to make his own racing suit the other day so we looked at these online and they were such a good price that we went ahead and ordered it.  It will probably be worn a lot before Halloween.

I could no longer stand the huge piles of stuffed animals that had taken over Ben and Mollie's beds.  I searched online and ordered a couple of stuffed animal hammocks.  It's so much easier to make their beds without having to herd a pile of stuffed animals back into their places every time.

 Mollie's stuffed animals are hanging in her closet where she can reach them.

 As we all know, Ben doesn't like change. He thought he might need one of his stuffed animals (other than Cat) in the night and they needed to be where he could still reach them. We compromised and hung it right over his bed.

Ben and Mollie like taking silly pictures.  Ben wanted me to take a picture of them making silly faces in the mirror while they were getting ready for bed.

 Mollie thought it was funny to take pictures of her hair going wild while riding Strawberry.  This is just one of several pictures.  Although Mollie is wearing the same Minnie Mouse gown in all these pics, they were taken on different days.  Mollie loves nightgowns and would wear the same one all day every day non-stop.