Rogue Riders

The next generation of rogue riders is being formed before our very eyes! Riding, hiking, climbing...these boys love the Wissihickon.

Breakfast of champions!



Tyler learned how to play checkers the other day and his stress level while playing is a 10+!

Moving right along

One update from the last post that I forgot to write about. When Grover died and Zac was very sad about it, Tyler gave Zac his fish. No prompting, just went in his room grabbed his fish and said "here Zac you can have mine, his name is Flame." They might fight, but they love each other and Tyler watches out for Zac and protects him.

When I was looking at these pictures to post something that came to me is 1. - my kids are getting way too big and 2. - things are getting easier. Let me explain easier though. Easier means I can take the boys alone places and we have fun. I'm not worried about them running away from me, we hang out together, travel and do things together and we move right along and enjoy a lot more now together. We can all do the same things. Dave was gone this week and when he got home last night I wasn't feeling as though I've been run over by a truck. Sure, the house isn't as clean, toys might be laying around, fingerprints are on the windows and doors, but in the grand scheme of things does that matter? Absolutely not. We went a lot of places and did a lot of things while Dave was away and although most of them are normal everyday things they are things that a year ago might make me cringe and skip until Dave got home knowing it would be a challenge.

I really try to focus on the present. Way too many things happen around me that make me well aware that life is short so make the most of it. Is that theme on here? It very well may be. My Mom and Dad are fun. And I'm sure my Dad is still fun in heaven. When I think to my childhood I think of obstacle courses in the yard, my mom giving us eggs to smash on each other as part of our double dare game that we set up, my Mom doing cartwheels, and my Dad dancing funny, hiking, shooting bow and arrows in the woods and building forts, swimming, playing with my million cousins, pulling cushions off the couch to do gymnastics in the living room and were were given the freedom to run around and be free. When my kids are 34 I want them to have the same memories. Life is what you make of it. So go start making! Preach on Beth, I know, really, you're like enough already. But this blog which turns in to a book is for my kids and I will swirl in circles with flowers in my hair in the fields until I'm grey and old and can't swirl anymore, then they'll swirl my wheelchair or my bed in the fields just don't forget the flowers in my hair. Got that boys?

Getting the flowers beds summer ready has commenced. That also equates to who's going to get poison ivy first and where will it be? It's becoming a game. I got it on my neck this time although I avoided the bed completely that I got it from last year. Who knows where this tricky little plant lurks?? I went with a bit of a different plan this year and put a few perennials in the beds so we'll see what happens. It's so much fun to pick what I want to put in the beds every year, but there's a lot of space to plant and I need some fillers to rely on every year. I also planted 3 tomato plants this year in pots. We'll see what happens to those. We could eat tomato sandwiches every day in the summer so hopefully they produce for us.

We made our first trip to Knoebels for the year and even though I've been going there for 30 some years the place never gets old. The one picture below of Tyler and I is his scared face before The Whip started moving. They love the Whip but for some reason he thought he'd be scared. As soon as it started moving he remembered how fun it is.

They also had their Spring Show last week. Zac's class acted out the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Very cute and they all did well. Tyler's class played the part of what they want to be when they grow up. Tyler was an entomologist. They introduced themselves then the teachers acted like reporters and interviewed each kid about their job. The video of Tyler below is during his interview you can't hear him but it's cute anyway so I had to post it.

This summer we finally are able to join the pool! We've been holding off since you have to be potty trained to go in the big pool and we never knew how that would play out with Tyler being able to go and Zac not being able to. We're there. It's pool time and I'm hopeful that by the end of summer Tyler will be fully swimming on his own. He can stay above water pretty well and isn't afraid to take off his life vest and practice swimming. From our limited trips so far, Zac is mostly interested in the snack bar and has mastered going up alone and buying 25 cent ice pops. He's a work in progress ;)

Life Lately

I will not let this blog updating get away from me! It's getting really hard to update a lot but I am determined to at least update twice a month. That's going to have to do for now.

Where do I begin? I last left off where we were outside enjoying and I guess we're still doing exactly that. Tball is winding down, the pool is opening this weekend and summer is almost here.

For Mother's Day this year we did something that made my heart super happy. We went to the batting cages! I honestly could sit there for an hour and hit balls. It was so much fun and Tyler got in there an took a few swings too. He was hesitant at first so we told him he didn't need to go in. The slowest cage is 40 mph so they come in pretty fast for a 5 year old. After I went once he decided he'd give it a try as long as I stood in there with him. Three swings later and he was asking how many more tokens we had because he wanted to go again and come back every weekend. And he actually hit a few balls. So proud of him! Zac desperately wanted to go in and brought his big orange bat with him but we told him next time he could try knowing that people might think we're crazy if we put our 3 year old in there. But he wants to do it so we'll let him try next time :)

We finished Mother's Day with a bike ride to go fishing for a bit, then came home to steak on the grill for dinner. Awesome day spent with my awesome boys ♥

Dave and I went away to a mountain bike festival last weekend and Gram watched the kids. We are super thankful for these Gram's and Pops who will let us get some time away. It was so great to get on a bike and ride and I demoed an $8500 bike yikes it rode really well though :)

We came home on Sunday and found a deer tick on Tyler's face and when we plucked it a piece of the tick was left in there. I spent 4 hours in the ER with him to get it removed and he was such a trooper. Tick removed and now we watch for a rash and call the doc if one appears...ugh :( Dave's phone broke because it got wet and Zac's fish died both minor things but Zac cried for days and we finally flushed Grover on Wednesday night. Dave jetted off to Montana for work at 5am Monday morning and it was a heck of a week.

We're all happy for this long weekend!

Go Play

Every winter, I panic about the amount of tv/movies/ipad the kids watch. It's more Tyler than Zac at this point, but I just don't like it. It's probably not even as much as some other kids watch but when I was little we played. Sure, I played video games and watched tv but most of my memories involve playing outside. As much as we try to get outside in the winter and find activities to keep us busy it's hard to avoid tv watching when it's freezing outside.

Then Spring comes. I look out at our yard, everything is starting to bloom, the sun hits the yard perfectly every morning, bird chirp from 4 am on and even though, at times, I wish the birds could wait a bit longer to start chirping (since I don't like to wake up at 4 am) I can't help but love this time of year. There's something about how fresh it feels after a long winter that makes you appreciate seasons so much.

And just like that it warms up for good. We have kids running all over the neighborhood, friends yelling loudly down the street for each other, screams heard, games of tag, ghost in the graveyard, sprinklers out, swing set playing, and running around any chance they get. They come inside for the night covered in dirt and you know it's a good day. This morning, Tyler ate breakfast on the patio and yelled for his buddy next door until he heard him and they played before we left for school. It's that time of year. The time when one minute you're sitting around and the next minute you find 15 people at your house having an impromptu cookout where neighbors pull whatever we have on hand together to enjoy drinks and dinner while kids play.

Almost 5 years ago Dave and I moved in to this house. We bought it blindly without knowing much about where we just spent a ton of money. I always wanted to give my kids the opportunity to grow up in a neighborhood like I did. We were free to roam, ran to each others houses, everyone gathered, talked at the curbs, waved to each other and welcomed kids running through backyards. Unknowingly, we found it. We found the place where we all play happily and it's glorious I tell ya and I wouldn't have it any other way. This village rocks!

Some spring news....Zac has been a maniac on his bike, riding steps, hills or whatever else gets in his way. He's obviously been watching Tyler and waiting for his moment to shine. I have vidoes I'll post when I get them from Dave's phone. The Tizer's returned from London as a family of four. We are so excited they're back and we have a lot of catching up since we missed two summers together :)

Can't wait to see what this summer holds and here's to making this summer the best one yet!