We are in the thick of 90 degree days, pushing 100 degrees, and we were ready for it! We are now the proud owners of 3 different types of outdoor pool-type water toys, we still hit up the local rec center pools, and we have fallen in love with our all-day summer camp, which has a HUGE slip ‘n slide. (Full disclosure: We weren’t 100 percent on board with the summer sun regulations regarding sun screen–meaning we misled Mom and Dad regarding whether we did or did not get sun screened-up–and both Tessa and Riley got some pretty bad sunburns, but we are chalking it up to a learning experience.) So, when the heat’s up, we can stay home or go out and either way we can stay cool.

The great thing about our all-day summer camp is that we can go as little or as often as we want. But as they have zorbs (outdoor human hamster balls), go-carts, movie making, bread making, music recording, games, outdoor sports, and fashion design (in addition to the slip ‘n slide), we ask to go ALL THE TIME. Little Man misses the cut off by a year, so he’s not taking part in all the activities, so we can’t go everyday (we’ll miss Asher) but we’ve already been there more than Mom and Dad were planning. After all, it’s not our only summer camp or our only summer activity…

We loved our ceramics summer camp, making bird houses, banks, and lots of pots. We’ve already hit up the Museum and the Botanic Gardens a few times. And we’ve been to the mountains a few times too (riding our first Alpine Slide and making our second trip to Fuzziwig’s Candy Factory). Dad’s been taking us hiking a lot too, although that’s fallen off a bit with the heat. And all the while, we’ve slowly moved from ukes to guitars. Tessa’s dropped voice (but not Emmett). And we’ve got a language arts tutor twice a week now (really to keep up our forward momentum without placing the entire burden on Mom’s shoulders). So we’re busy. Mom and Dad are working to try to not over schedule us–but Mom’s already said no to a ton of stuff we asked to do once she said our plate was full. SO…

Anyway, check out the pics. They show a good time being had by all.

“The party’s over!”
–Asher, using a dandelion to pull down a spider web on the side of the house

“They grow up so fast…”
–Tessa, when looking at the newly feathered chickens

“Ta-da!”
–Asher, after peeing in the potty

“It’s honey time!”
–Asher, holding up two (honey) graham crackers

“I’m bad, I’m bad, you know it, uh-huh…”
–Emmett, singing Michael Jackson while working in the yard

“Look, Mommy! I’m just like Bruce!”
–Riley, holding up a guitar, getting ready to play, looking like Bruce Springsteen

“My tummy hurts. I need a new one. We can get one at the store.”
–Asher

“Daddy, is Mommy sending you her coordinates?”
–Riley, when driving with Daddy to meet Mommy

“Riley, can you hear me?!”
“No!”
–Tessa and Riley, yelling at each other

“How ya like it now, Mushroom?”
–Asher, jumping on Riley, who put a beanbag chair on his head and pretended to be a mushroom

“See you on the creature trail!”
–Asher, after letting a grasshopper go, and repeating something he hears on the show Wild Kratts

Hi World!

Sorry it’s been a while. Our biggest news is that we moved. Again. Yes, for those of you keeping score at home, this is our fourth move in three years. We originally planned to be in the last house (not the one we are in now, but the one before) until this summer, at which point we were planning on buying our forever home, but the owners of the house decided to stage and sell the house. So out we moved. But, as much as each of our moves tried our parents’ patience, we’ve learned new stuff with every home. Including our newest house, even though we’ve only lived here for a week.

Observe: When we lived in Washington, we learned we don’t want to live in a small town. We like everything that comes with living in a metropolitan area, and living in Olympia felt slow and divorced from what was happening in the rest of the world. We moved back to CO and realized that no only do we want a good sized town, but we want to live close to the heart of that town, where forward thinkers live in diverse communities. Close to museums. And diversity. (Did we already say that?) And now after a week living in our newest house, we’ve realized we still want a small farm. So, you are probably asking, where in Denver-proper can you have chickens, goats, a pygmy donkey and possibly a pygmy pig, too? Well, friends, we are not yet sure.

But that brings us back to our new place. It’s only five minutes away from where we used to live in Denver, but it has almost 3/4 of an acre, so the first thing we did after unpacking and visiting the city’s permitting office, is buy baby chicks. Eight of them. And although we had chicks before, we were really little then. Now we are old enough to hold them and feed and water them, and check on them in the garage (because they are too little to be out in a coop). And we LOVE it! Love, love, love it! Riley especially. The first thing he does every morning is check on the chicks. The last thing he does every night is check on the chicks. Asher has taken to saying, “Oh, they are so cute and such good pets.” Even after a chick pooped on Tessa, she still wanted to hold and pet it. This is great.

And though this area might be where we end up buying our forever home, it’s further away from downtown and the museums than we want to be. We might be able to have a small farm deep in Denver, completely free of all neighborhood associations and subdivisions. We’d just need to buy more than one lot and make it what we want. But we aren’t sure those areas in Denver are zoned for the sort of livestock we want. We might want a pygmy donkey, but pygmy or not, it’s zoned livestock. Chickens are one thing. Livestock is another kind of animal (pun, of course, intended).

We are all ready for warm weather with some outside splashing and playing. We’ve planted a ton of seeds in our new place and we’re already anticipating how things will grow. What they’ll look like. And if we can feed them to the chickens. We’re staying up later now, and our new place shows great stargazing promise. So far here, pretty good. It’s not our forever home, and that’s an asteroid sized ding in the perfection of this place, but it’ll do. It’ll do.

We’re still taking uke lessons, skateboarding lessons, art classes, and social studies enrichment classes. Pretty soon, Emmett will stop uke and take voice lessons instead. Tessa will join him, but keep taking uke. This summer, Mom’s got tons of camps scheduled. Art camp, science camp, yoga camp, and an all around kids camp where everything cool is offered (coding, fashion designing, sports and game playing, music recording, art, and general outside water splashing. They even have go carts and huge inflatable water slides. Ah-mazing.

So, until the official start of summer, we’ll continue raising our baby chicks, playing in our big yard, taking classes and lessons, and winning life.

We’re good here.

Pigs out.

Hi All!

We’ve moved into another new year. We had a New Year’s party, welcoming 2017, complete with silly string, confetti poppers, and hats. We stayed up until 8:30pm, which doesn’t seem late, but Asher had already fallen asleep by the time we padded our tired, small bodies into our rooms. Daddy is officially moved back to CO, and he spent most of December at home, so that’s been great. He started a new job at a local non-profit last week. He’s getting into the groove and so are we…

Asher’s given up diapers during the day. So far, it’s been so-so. Sometimes he goes days without an accident. And sometimes he’ll have multiple accidents in one day. Check back in a bit about that one… He’s also moved fully into his Buzz Lightyear phase. We went to the stock show (he costumed as Buzz) and when asked if he wanted to buy a cowboy hat like his sister and brothers, he said emphatically, “No. I’m a space ranger.” He wears the costume to drop the big kids off at their enrichment classes. He wears it to the store. He wore it on the March. (This last one was also accompanied by a sign that read: Respect all Beings. I’m Buzz Lightyear. I’m always sure.) He reenacts scenes from Toy Story 2, and when he watches it he acts it out as Buzz. He’s deep in character. Like, all the way.

We had T-Bone’s birthday party last week. She turned six. (Six!) She choose to have friends come to our favorite local art studio and make ceramic owls. Then everyone ate owl cupcakes from their seats at an owl table clothed table. Sensing a theme? She asked that everyone support Heifer.org for her birthday nonprofit so that she could do her part for sustainable farming. Go Sweet-T!

Everyone’s pretty tired these days. Not sure if its the unpredictable weather? The business of having Daddy home and, therefore, the addition of almost-daily physical activities like biking and shooting our bow and arrows? But we’ve been hit more with tired-induced crankiness than before the holidays. And some sass and huffy attitudes have made semi-regular appearances. Mom and Dad are going to chalk it up to the change in routine and give it another week or two before putting us on complete lock down. Stay tuned…

For now, we look forward to Valentine’s Day, our private uke lessons (we switched from group classes), and hip-hop classes. Our weeks are full (or what feels full to us) and the thought of lazy summer days has already crept into our heads. (Though we’re scheduled for summer science and art camps, in addition to a local summer camp that we can attend when we want to go, so maybe not so lazy?) Cross your fingers for warm weather to hit in about a month (after what we hope is a lot of sledding snow) so we can resume our science night walks.

Chat soon,
The Pigs

Riley’s birthday ended up being spread out over three separate days: One party for the pigs, one for friends and extended family, and another one when Daddy was in town. The BIG party was a costume affair, complete with a haunted house cake, a scavenger hunt and playground time (across the street). The weather was blustery but warm. Cake was enjoyed by all. Presents were enjoyed (specifically but not only) by Riley. This was the year we decided to ask friends not to give us presents (because honestly we have enough already), and instead to donate to a charity of our choosing. Riley chose Heifer. He made a fundraising page and raised enough money to purchase an entire water buffalo. (Yay!) But he did receive gift from family and Pigs. Riley’s multi-day celebration set a precedent and what we now know is a slippery slope. (How many cakes does one Pig really need to fully celebrate a day-of-birth?)

Emmett’s party, too, spanned many days. One party, his Minecraft Party, was just for friends. There were Minecraft games (searching for gems), crafts (making a Minecraft face out of small, iron together circles), and finally some Minecraft time on the iPad. It included a Minecraft cake that was both colorful and tasty. Emmett chose the Red Cross for his birthday donations. He was happy to help people affected by flood and fire. Then Emmett has his Pig Party, where he opened gifts from Mom and Dad and had a small cake. And finally, Emmett had his extended family party, which also included cake and presents. Mostly both boy Pigs had these multi-day parties because their actual birthday fell on a day when Dad was out-of-town or was during the week, and, thus, not a good day to invite people over to party. In the future (after, of course, Tessa gets her turn at a three-day-party-binge), we will see what can be done to have a smaller or more condensed party schedule for each Pig.)

After E’s parties came Hanukkah and Christmas. Both were great, and intertwined, successes. Santa came and stuffed stockings. He left Riley and Emmett big-boy-bikes, complete with hand brakes and gear changers. There were many science kits and craft kits and kits of other kinds. The only fly in the ointment was the poorly timed Christmas Eve virus that kept Tessa in bed with a fever and a headache. She missed (missed!) Christmas at Pop-pop’s. But she is already mostly recovered, so it was good to let her sleep. Her enthusiasm and fun-seeking-ness hasn’t let this keep her down. She’s enjoying playing with everything and after a good, long cry yesterday when she woke and realized that she wasn’t going to get to go to Pop-pop’s, she got over it. (Why wallow, really?) Her favorite present was an 80’s throwback of the game Simon. She and Riley played with it for hours. But a close second was the Wizard’s Science, where the Pigs created glow-in-the-dark potions along with a crystal wand and color changing spells.

Asher’s been enjoying the party season, too. He got a Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and Zurg toys from Santa and those are easily the best, best toys he’s ever received. (He discovered the older Pig’s Buzz costume a few weeks ago and has been in character ever since.) Buzz has saved all the other toys in the house. He’s rounded up Woody to help defeat Zurg on many occasions. And its quite common to hear Asher yell “Not today, Zurg,” and then see Zurg hit the ground. Asher also loves the instruments Santa left him (of course, his favorite are the drums). Riley loves his harmonica too and asked if he can have harmonica lessons and take a break from ukulele for a bit. Asher also got a bunch of new Transformer jammies and socks and undies, which is fortuitous given that his Transformer jammies double (and sometimes triple) as everyday wear. (Many-days-in-a-row everyday wear.)

Our holiday season is still afoot, but we’ve rounded out what we’ve experienced so far with a trip to the Nutcracker Ballet for Emmett and Mommy, Paw Patrol Live for the entire crew, and a Zoo Lights visit with Santa where every Pig save Riley drew a blank when the Big Man asked what they wanted for Christmas. Emmett said honestly and quietly, “I dunno. I’m kind of freaking out right now.” Riley, on the other hand, detailed his ideal version of a race car track. Way to think on your feet, Riley. Our hip-hop class, a swim day at the rec center, and cardboard space shuttle building all fall in there somewhere too. Oh, and both boys each lost two teeth. So, the Tooth Fairy brought many books for all, as well. Busy!

Stay tuned, as we have New Year’s and then Tessa’s birthday coming up.

Have a light filled New Year!
The Pigs

“We might move to Moo Hamster?”
–Tessa, hearing that Daddy was offered a new job in New Hampshire

“Never!”
–Asher, when asked to come sit at the table for lunch

“Can I have a blaze donut, please?”
–Riley, thinking glaze donuts were called blaze donuts

“I’d like a grand canalie!”
–Emmett, when asked by his skateboard instructor if he’d wanted to see the “grand finale” (a skating trick)

“I’ll be back. Mwa-ha-ha-ha!”
–Asher, running away when it was time to leave the park and go home

“Mama, I love to dance. You know that?”
–Emmett, continuing a theme he first expressed more than four years ago

“Mama, what’s this?”
“Well, you’ve already eaten the frosting on top, so its what’s underneath. Its the cake part of your cupcake, Asher.”
“Bee-u-tiful.”
–Asher, right before stuffing the entire cake portion of his cupcake into his mouth

“Don’t worry, Mama. Its like the Bob Marley song… Everything’s gonna be alright.”
–Emmett, reminding Mom to always look on the bright side

“Who is this? The Police? I like them. Its a good song.”
–Emmett, confirming something Mom has known for decades

“Ah, this is the life. Laying in the sun with nothing to do.”
–Tessa, who apparently feels one-and-a-half days of school a week is too taxing

“In an octopus’ garden, in the shade.”
–Tessa, strumming her uke and belting out the song, with a wide smile splitting her face and her eyes closed

“I love you, Mama.”
–Emmett, while watching TV, kissing his fingertips and reaching across the couch to touch Mom’s face, never looking away from the television screen

“Why did the carrot cross the road?”
“Why, Tessa?”
“Because it needed a car! Get it? Car-rot?”
–Tessa, laughing a full belly laugh, clearly thinking her jokes are funny

Ahhh, Disney. What can we say? From start to finish, our week-long trip in the Magic Kingdom was, well, magical. We met all of our favorite characters, rode the rides we wanted to ride without waiting in long lines, trick-or-treated the Halloween Spooktackular as zombie pirates (Mom and Dad, too), and even spent a day in the hotel pool with a crazy cool waterslide. We got pulled up to sit in the front at stage shows, and were called on in audience Q-and-A’s. In Disney parlance, almost our entire trip was sprinkled with pixie dust. So much so, that when we went on a ride where Tessa raised her hand to ask a question when prompted and she wasn’t called upon, she found it odd.

“But, Mommy, they didn’t let me talk!”

Mom explained that out of a hundred people in the audience, she was one of many and there were other people who had their hands up too. Still, she was stumped.

“But, Mommy, they’ve always let me talk before.”

And who could argue with that? Out of five kids called on to ask questions in a Finding Nemo ride, the three big pigs all spoke to Crush the turtle. Riley was asked to stand up and lead the “lion” section at a live Lion King show with his best, meanest lion roar. (Best roar ever.) Most every where we went, Disney characters seemed genuinely interested in hearing what we had to say or just stopping to say hi and give us hugs. (Even Daddy felt the love when Chewbacca pulled him out of our group to give him a huge hug after we took pictures.)

Our hotel room was sprinkled with pixie dust too. Not only did it have enough bathrooms to accommodate our craziness during shower times, but we all actually slept in our bedroom and let Mom and Dad sleep in theirs. (There were one or two meltdowns that Mom and Dad hoped weren’t overheard in the hall or in the next room over. After a few days, though, they realized they never heard other children yelling in the other rooms. And since there had to be other kids throwing fits in the hotel, Mom and Dad started saying “Disney World, where no one can hear you scream.”) Something that kept us occupied, and less likely to pick at each other, was our easy access to animal viewing. Our room faced the savannah side, and we got to watch giraffes, ostriches, wildebeests, and a bunch of other African animals hanging out under our balcony. They had a huge space to hang out in, but–like the characters in the parks–they seemed to want to entertain just us and they mostly stayed right in front of our building. It was great.

Sweet T picked up her Halloween costume at Disney. So did E. Keep an eye out in the next few weeks to see those modeled… Little Man never wants to wear the clothes we got when we dressed up as zombie pirates. His was a t-shirt and shorts with a pirate Mickey on them. Maybe he’s just over piracy. Or, it could be that he was fast asleep when we all got our makeup done at the Pirate’s League in the park–his too, he slept through the entire thing–and woke to find his whole family with skeleton faces, including his own. He didn’t cry, but for a bit he was standoffish. Before the end of the night, he asked if we could take “the pirates off our faces.” When we got back to our hotel room, that proved easier said than done. That makeup just wouldn’t wash off. (Mom hoped this would convince Tessa that any makeup–not just costume makeup–was best left for when she’s much older.)

In addition to Disney fun, we started some new classes this past month. Our skateboarding is, like us, awesome. We are going to the Denver Skate Park once a week to take lessons with a sponsored pro. And we hit up the school across the street to practice. Emmett is definitely the most dedicated, and its paying off for him. Mom and Dad got boards too. Dad even took his back to work with him to practice while he’s away. But you know what they say: The family that skates together, stays together. (Right?) Anyway, we love that Mom and Dad are hanging tough with skating. It gives us courage to get up after each fall when we see them doing the same. And boy, did Dad take a huge digger! But he got right back up. Like Mom says, “We fall so we can learn to get back up.” He’s really quite good at that.

And today we started a one-day-a-week school. Its meant as an enrichment for homeschooled (or, in our case, unschooled) kids through the public school system. But the cool thing is we get to do everything from robotics to spanish to lego storytelling and instead of it becoming overwhelming and boring ’cause we’d spend every waking moment there, we only do it once a week. We were wiped when Mom picked us up today, but we all said we had a great day. Riley told his new class mates about his upcoming birthday party (end-of-the-month, so save the date!) and he’s looking forward to inviting new friends. Tessa said she loved “tunnel tag” the best. And E said his favorite part was science class. Yay, E!

Little Man gets to hang out with Mommy all day while the big pigs are at school. He didn’t love the idea at first, but there were some extra cookies and snuggles that swayed him. He’s talking so much more now, and using some pretty complicated words. He told Mom today that the idea of him eating lunch was “ridiculous.” Funny and smart. Cute too. What a fantastic little pig. Actually, not so little, he’s in the 75th percentile for height! Everyone at the park thinks he’s like 4- or 5-years-old. He’s gonna be tall, like his biggest brother…

So, to sum up: Great Disney trip. Great return to home. Best of both worlds.

Here’s to it getting even better…

Love,
The Pigs

Hi All!

Exciting times here, at Pig-Central. We moved (again) and are hoping that we will know for sure soon when Daddy will be done with his Army job and back with us full-time. But, for now, we are living in the city. Close to museums, parks, and new play opportunities. Right across the street is an elementary school, with 4 big playgrounds and a huge field to run around in. We are going to get a good kickball game going there later…

Riley lost another tooth and Tessa lost her first. The tooth fairy brought books and a little candy. But we preferred the books. The candy was Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans (we have finished the Percy Jackson series and are now reading Harry Potter) and Riley made the mistake of biting into a pepper-flavored one. But, honestly, that was luck because it made us all look at the back of the box so we could pick out and throw away the other flavors that we thought we’d best steer clear of (think: vomit-, soap-, and earwax-flavored).

We are enjoying our new house. Its got the same room set-up (Asher and Riley share, while T-bone and Emmett each have their own.) But now Riley and Asher have their own bathroom, which is nice for Mom and Dad so they aren’t woken up every two minutes with Pigs traipsing in and out to pee. There is a great basement with a finished crawl space under the stairs that we made into a pillow-crowded secret hideout. We also got welcome-to-your-new-home Lego sets and are in the middle of completing those. (Emmett finished his in one day!)

We also finished up our summer soccer league and swimming and now we are taking ukelele lessons. We’ll take a break from swim for a bit, but look for us to start skateboarding lessons soon…

Tomorrow, its back to school-time and reading aloud with Daddy over FaceTime. But we’ve enjoyed our brief time off for the move. Next up: Disneyworld at the end of the month! Yay!

Be well,
The Pigs

Thank you so much for expressing interest in our Pig-in-Training Program. We’ve been auditioning new Pigs for awhile now, and–as you can see-no one yet has had quite what it takes to make a go in this rough-and-tumble Pig World. In order to expedite further inquiries, we’ve compiled a questionnaire, hoping to narrow down the hordes showing up at the open casting calls. Please take a moment to answer the following:

As a Pig, your favorite animal food would be:
A) bird seed B) dog food C) hamster treats

If you answered B, you could be thismuchcloser to becoming a Pig. Tessa has expressed her love of Isaac’s dog food on many occasions. At one point, Mom had to shoo her away from the dog bowl to prevent her from consuming too much of Isaac’s meal.

Pigs generally prefer:
A) mermaid tails B) fairy wings C) four sizes too big flip flops

This was really a trick question because the answer is All of the Above. Emmett first fell in love with merman tails and he brought Riley and Tessa around fairly quickly. (However, Tessa’s vote faltered momentarily when, after wearing her tail in the tub, she slipped and fell while pretending to be a standing up mermaid, conking her chin and teeth on the tub ledge and biting clean through her lip. True story. But, as a true Pig, Tessa put her tail back on and kept on swimming.) Check out the Flickr pics. And though Asher has had his turn with a merman tail, he prefers any adult sized flip flips. As long as they cause him to walk wonky and threaten to trip him up with every step, they make the grade.

When chatting up swim instructors, what is something a Pig could have plausibly said?
A) “No, its Daddy that loved Legos growing up. Mommy didn’t like Legos when she was little because she’s Jewish.” B) “But did you know that anaklusmos is Greek for riptide?” C) “I always have the correct answers to your questions. And, I’ll usually answer before the boys.”

Again, a trick question. If you answered, All of the Above, you may just have what it takes to join our crew. Ready to double down? Who said all of the above quotes? If you answered Tessa, you would be not only correct, but you’d be naming the chattiest of our crew. Here are some of Tessa’s other memorable mouthy moments: “But I don’t want to stop talking. I like the sound of my voice;” “I know you asked me to be quiet, but I wasn’t ready to stop talking;” and “If you can’t get him to hear you, I can help. Its not hard for me to make my voice really, really loud.”

Ok, moving on… Let’s test your Pig Preferences Knowledge. This category usually knocks out at least half of the Pig Applicants.

Which Pig enjoys: A) chewing his/her own toe nails, B) reading the Percy Jackson book series, C) hiding in the pantry to poop, D) coming up with elaborate sink adventures for his/her Lego minifigures? If you said, (in this order) Tessa, Riley, Asher (I threw you a bone there, that was an easy one), and Emmett–you are starting to think like a Pig.

Let’s keep rolling… Which Pig enjoys: A) yelling “Dangerous!” when it thunders, B) hiding snack bars in his/her bed for mid-night snacks, C) sneaking downstairs at night when everyone else is asleep to play, D) spelling out words such as candy and ipad around Asher? If you said, (in this order) Asher, Tessa, Emmett and Riley, you could be a Pig-in-Practice.

Which Pig enjoys: A) a Personal Happy Dance demo at our Lights Out Dance Parties, B) regularly requesting “desert for dinner and dinner for desert”, C) imagining what to call monster mash-ups (as in, dinopotamus), D) chilling on the deck without anything more than underwear on as well as taking long drives similarly attired? Again, this was a trick. All of the Pigs love all of those things.

Last one: Which Pig enjoys: A) military history (with an emphasis on ancient civilizations), B) requesting super hero powers daily (as in, “Mommy, I want to fly like Green Lantern. When can I get that power?”), C) verifying the truth of what he/she reads in books (as in, “Daddy, are dryads and naiads real?”), D) obsessing over driving the car, to the point where he/she has put the keys in and turned on the ignition? If you said, (in this order) Riley, Emmett, Tessa, and Asher, you’d be right!

Please take the above completed questionnaire to your nearest post box, addressing it Pig Land, USA, and affix one silly sticker and one forever stamp. We read applications quarterly (the next deadline is Halloween) so stay tuned. And keep up the good work. Although not all of you will qualify, you will surely improve your quality of laugh (if not slightly decreasing the ease of your nightly bedtime routine).

We will be in touch.

The Pigs

The summer sun is starting to shine, albeit intermittently here in Colorado. The neighborhood pool opened over the holiday weekend, but when we stopped in for a dip it wasn’t warm enough to stay for very long. But the early sunrise and late sunset mean our days are long and we find ourselves searching for things to occupy our time. We read a lot, and we keep up with our school work. We play outside, and we take field trips to local museums and places of fun. (Lots of places of fun. Check out the pictures.) And though the season’s not yet arrived with full, hot weather, we feel antsy. Waiting for it.

Tessa’s learned to ride a two-wheeler. We got her a new bike to celebrate the occasion and we updated the rest of our bikes with some cool duct tape decorating. She’s still practicing starting on her own, but she’s pretty good at stopping–which is nice. Baby really, really wants to master the bike riding skill (whether he wants to put in the work, though, to get there is debatable) to be like the big kids. He doesn’t get that we started on big wheels, then rode small bikes with training wheels, before trying the two-wheeler. But his determination might just get him there from the get-go. Stay tuned.

We’ve been to the Children’s Museum and the Zoo recently. We took a behind the scenes tour of the Tropical Discovery Area at the zoo, getting to meet some of the aquarium denizens. We fed a Komodo dragon some dead mice. Learned about poison dart frogs and Asian forest turtles. The zookeeper was super nice, listening to us talk about Tessa’s new bike and how we were going to Pop-pop’s after our tour to blow bubbles and eat popsicles. Asher napped for most of the tour. Mom and Dad thought that was a good choice on his part, as his attempt to climb in the Komodo dragon’s enclosure was met with a big, fat ‘No.’

We start a summer soccer league (each and every one of us) next weekend. We can’t wait for our shinguards and new soccer shoes to come in the mail so we can try them on and see exactly how awesome we all look kitted up. (Obviously, we will look super awesome. Of course.) The sessions are at an area rec center we just discovered. It has a trampoline area, a kids obstacle course, and a pool with a big water slide and whirlpool (as in, get yourself stuck zooming around and around and need to have someone reach in and pull you out, whirlpool). Outside it has a sprinkler park we haven’t tried yet and a zipline and climbing wall we aren’t big enough to try. Overall, a good find.

We are deep into the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series. We like to talk about Greek gods and Greek heroes. It dovetails nicely with our Ninja and Zen studies. We talk about reaching our true-potential, knowing ourselves, and doing-no-harm. All good things. We aren’t sure why the Greek gods seems so mean, though. We got a ‘Brick Greek Myths’ book from the tooth fairy (Emmett lost another tooth!) which features Lego scenes depicting Greek Myths and some of those people just seemed to make one bad choice after another. Tessa said that if she were there, in the myth with those gods and heroes, she’d tell them all what’s up so that everyone can live a long, happy life. You go, Sweet T!

Our favorite babysitter from our old CO neighborhood is back home for the summer, fresh from her first year of college. She comes and plays with us, hanging out while we play in the backyard with bubbles, chalk, or squirt guns or zoom around the cul-de-sac on our bikes, and we really appreciate her help. Pop-pop is a regular here too, which lets Mom get out, which we also really appreciate. (At least Mom does.)

Weather forecast says 80s are coming, so we are hoping to spend some quality time at the pool. Emmett advanced in his swim level, and now both he and Riley are Stingrays, while Sweet T is still a Sea Turtle. Whether we hang out at the pool depends on how much they all apply their swim lesson skills while playing in the pool. Only Riley does that, at this point. And having three Pigs act like they can’t get in any water over their heads (thus necessitating either Mom or Dad to yell, “What are you doing? You know how to swim!”) can be too much for any adult.

Check back in and see how it all goes.

With love,
The Pigs