Jonas Rides a Bike

Ladies and gentleman, today was a big day. The fun started at school. It was kindergarten awards day. The boys were recognized for their outstanding achievements: homework hero, being respectful, and other wonderful qualities that make them such cool dudes. They were very proud of themselves, as they should be. After the ceremony, Julian wanted to take us all to his classroom. He said, "Mom, you're going to love it. It's beautiful!" Then he showed me his table and all the nifty stations around the classroom.

Jules modeling his "brag tags."

 Jonas and his "brag tags."

After school, we grabbed some lunch and headed home. It was such a nice day outside, so we took advantage and hung around the yard. Jonas took the time to practice riding his bike without training wheels. We've been working on it for the past week or so, and today was the day, folks! He did it! He was incredibly cute in doing so, too. He was pedaling along and saying to himself, "I know I can do it! I know I can do it!" And sure enough, he can!

He's already on me about getting a new bike (I promised we'd get them new bikes when they learned to ride without training wheels).

So proud!

Treats from Spain

This month's Universal Yums included treats from Spain.

Barbacoa snack mix, BBQ potato snack, Ham flavored potato chips,
Caramel white chocolate candies, olive oil cookies, lemon cookie,
chocolate-covered oranges, pistachio toffee, and chocolate with pine nuts.

Everyone's favorite was the barbacoa snack mix!
Made Doug nostalgic for his childhood, and
he rushed to the store to buy corn nuts.

Jonas was not a fan of the chocolate-covered oranges.
Spain does not do a good chocolate orange. This was no Terry's!

Thumbs up to pistachio toffee!

Cool wrapper, but yucky cookie.

Another favorite of the kids! Think caramel
white chocolate M&Ms.

Olive oil cookie sounded weird. Tasted weird.

Ham-flavored potato chips. Mmm. Can't go wrong with ham.

That's a wrap on Spain!

Beetle Meets a Bear

When we were in Dwarf last weekend, Mommaw told me a story about her run-in with a bear.

It was December, and as she always does, Mommaw had decked the halls for Christmas! This included lights on the outside of the house. This year she had purchased herself one of those neat laser light projectors, and had received several compliments on the display.

After realizing she hadn't even checked out the lights herself, Beetle, who was home alone at the time, headed out the door at 10 pm to do just that.

[Sometimes, after supper, scraps are dumped out into the ditch. Foxes have been known to come get a snack from time to time.]

Well, Mommaw was checking out her lights, and as she was walking inside, she saw a creature in the ditch eating. She thought it was a big dog, so she hollered at it. The dog looked up. But, it wasn't a dog, it was a bear!

Just about that time, Bob came driving up the driveway, and the bear took off up the hill.

"Well, after that, I went inside and looked up on my iPad what you're supposed to do when you come face to face with a bear. You're supposed to be really still and not make any sudden movements. And you gotta make yourself look as big as you can."--Mommaw 

[Mommaw is about 4' 11''.]

"Is that what you did?" --Curt

"What do you think? I about tore my toenails off trying to get back in the house!"--Mommaw

[Scraps are no longer being dumped in the ditch.]

Going Under the Knife

Well, folks, this weekend in Dwarf, Kate's best buddy Tiger went under the knife. Luckily, his surgeon was the greatest seamstress to ever live, Mommaw Alice.

As you can tell from the photo below, poor ole Tiger was a little thin in the neck area. His neck could not support the weight of his head.

Mommaw Alice to the rescue! Just a little slit in the back and add some fluff.

Kate helped stuff him!

Now he's even more squeezable!