In 2015 Paul taught both Ian and Nadia how to ride their bikes without training wheels. Nadia got rid of her training wheels about one week before she turned seven-years-old. Ian mastered the skill when he was 5 1/2 years old. We attempted to teach Oliver this skill last summer, but just as he wasn't ready to read at that point, he also wasn't ready to ditch the training wheels. I started working with him again last Sunday afternoon. We had originally planned to go to the Children's Museum today as I had signed Nadia and Ian up to do a fetal pig dissection, but I didn't feel like driving to Bloomsburg again today. After I had been grading for awhile, Oliver asked me if I would teach him to ride without training wheels. At first we were using Ian's old (blue) bike that didn't have any training wheels. After he began pedaling around independently, I took the training wheels off his Spiderman bike. The Spiderman bike is the same size as the blue bike, but it's newer (and in better shape). One neighbor had three grandkids visiting her today. They were riding bikes as well as two other kids from our neighborhood. Nadia had been using Ian's new green bike, but he's really too big to use the blue one any more (even Oliver can ride the green one), and this meant Nadia had to ride her new bike, which is getting closer to fitting her but is still on the big side. There needs to be a size bike in between those two sizes!!! This means we can donate the blue bike, which means one less bike in our garage (I'm always in favor of less clutter). It was a great feeling to see Oliver riding his bike without training wheels. We've been working on teaching him to tie his shoes. He hasn't mastered it yet, but when he does that will mean I can cross off TWO more goals from the January 1st post as riding without training wheels and learning to tie his shoes were two goals I had set for Oliver for 2019.
The weather was beautiful today, which was a huge blessing. I didn't sleep very well and had some nightmares which upset me. The gorgeous weather plus Oliver learning to ride his bike really helped boost my spirits. I took the kids to an egg hunt at 1:00. It's not their favorite egg hunt because they are picking up hard boiled eggs. They prefer CANDY. They picked up a little over 3 dozen eggs. I'm thinking we'll be having creamed eggs on toast in the near future. Ian was the only one who got a prize egg. His prize was a cookies and cream (white chocolate) bunny. Later in the afternoon we went to the church where the kids play basketball for their "Good Friday" program. They did a FABULOUS job. It took about an hour to go through the entire thing. The first room had a young girl (Nadia's age) who was talking as if she was the girl Jesus had raised from the dead. Each classroom was decorated to depict a different scene and had a different person giving a monologue - Mary (Jesus's mother), the mother of the criminal whom Jesus said "today you will be with me in Paradise," a Roman guard, Simon Peter, and John (the disciple). Then in the sanctuary they had people who were talking about different things they felt guilty about (ex. a boy who cheated on a test, a Dad who was a workaholic, a woman who left her husband, etc.) and then the pastor came out portraying Jesus saying that He had died for all their sins. It was powerful. The two women (who portrayed Tabitha and Mary) both brought me to tears during their monologues.
Paul took the van to Walmart on Tuesday for the 10,000 mile oil change and 5,000 mile tire rotation. He's also been working on the taxes. Those used to be two things I did for most of our marriage (taking both vehicles for their appointments and doing the taxes). I am thankful for his help, especially as the taxes are more complicated now that Paul owns the company. He also added weights to the kids' Grand Prix cars on Wednesday. Oliver's car is still too light, but the other two are close to five ounces each. Now we just need the kids to paint their cars sometime over the next few days as they must be turned in this coming Wednesday night. Ian's is an ice cream sandwich, Oliver's is a phone, and Nadia's is going to look like a package of pretzel rods with cheese dip. All three kids just need to say one more section on Wednesday night to finish their AWANA books. Earlier Nadia had been leaning toward switching to the middle school youth group on Wednesday nights in the fall, but now she's thinking of doing one last year of AWANA. Either choice is fine with me!
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