Family Life – Page 30 – a hippie with a minivan

Beautiful day…

The last few days have been cold here… my hands were even freezing when I went on my bike last night… but today the weather turned and it was hot! I mean yesterday it was about 12-13 and today it was 30!

I did some things around the house this morning and by the afternoon I was hot and the boys were driving me a bit crazy… I am realizing that I have been so less patient these last few days and I am not liking it…

So, I went outside and dragged out the kiddie pool for the boys… they were so excited and I was able to get a few pics…

Colin never stops jumping…

and is a bit crazy… (ok… a lot)

but he is a cutie…

Xavier is looking so much older lately and is outgrowing everything… the pool is so small for him and he can o longer fit in the little car that the boys have…

Khéna had a blast! he was so excited when he saw the pool and played in it the longest….

(I have to admit I love the motion in the above pic… I wanted to get him pouring the water out, but it is cool to see the water still coming from the bottom holes… )

Anyway… we stayed and played until the boys wanted to come back inside… and after that the house was a bit calmer and my patience came back a bit…

I looking forward to having the big pool ready for swimming so that I can jump in too!

New Bike…

I have been wanting a new bike and I have been looking at the Electra bikes for while now…

My biking needs are about comfort and ease. There are no hills here and until all the kids are riding by themselves or nealy we won’t be doing much rough terrain and honestly we would have to go out of our way to find that…

I love to bike and I haven’t been biking in a long time… the bike I bought before Xavier was born wasn’t a Zellers bike but wasn’t the best quality either and by the end of a ride I would always be sore… my back from bending over, my neck from looking up and well… my bottom doesn’t like the seat…

I also look the look of the Electra bikes… they are just gorgeous…

the prices though… not as much…

So I have been looking more and more for what bike I would like and looking once in a while on Kijiji for the chance that I might find one there… yesterday I got lucky… Someone was listing a nearly new Electra Cruiser… only used a few times…

I just knew that I had to have it…

My mom and Simon picked it up on the way back from Montreal today and I am in love!!!

It is such an amazing ride… Xavier and went for a ride after supper… I would really love to make it something that we do on a regular basis…

The Electra Blanc et Noir….

I love the detail…

and the pretty seat…

It is such a classic looking bike… now all I need is a basket…

No more training wheels!

Xavier decided yesterday that he wanted to take the training wheels off his bike but Simon was not able to get to it at that moment… So today when he asked again we all went outside and got the wheels off and watched him try riding for the first time…

Simon held him a bit but was able to let go for a second or two the first time that they tried…

but after about 5 min there was no need to help anymore and in the rest of the time that we were out there he knew how to push off and how to turn…

He is so proud of himself!!

and it really goes for show…
when kids are ready to do something they will do it, and they will do it quickly!!

Electrium…

Yesterday , the boys and I headed to the Electrium...

The Electrium is in Ste-Julie on the south shore of Montreal and is a place run by Hydro-Quebec to learn all about electricity…

The tour starts out with a few minute long films that were fun and held all of the kids attentions…

then they learned about safety,

then electricity/magnetism in Nature with electric eels and other fish, the human body, static electricity, power and circuitry…

It was really quite informative and most of all it was a lot of fun…

The boys loved it especially because everything can be touched and tried…

Xavier learning about how a circuit works….

This of course was a big hit…

But I think that this was Colin’s favourite part… the guy who was showing the tour let him go up even though he was a bit small… he told Colin not to take his hand of the ball and Colin listened so well that it was hard for him to hear when it was safe to do so… he just stayed so still and didn’t move…

If you are near or in Montreal the Electrium is on the south shore not too far away from the Island. It is free and though it is not a big place it is a lot of fun and even for little kids…

Drawing…

Colin has been spending hours upon hours drawing… he will grab a stack of paper and then sit at the table and just go… he can literally spend his day drawing…

I guess for some this isn’t a big deal… but Xavier doesn’t sit down to draw more than once every few weeks…. so this is new to me…

In the last weeks his scale has changed, what was once one or two Star Wars Characters on a piece of paper has become full stories with all different characters, monsters, spiders, animals etc…. The details have changed greatly also… I love to sit and watch him draw and I love seeing where his imagination takes him….

I thought I would share this too… this is our kitchen wall next to where the table is and is often the first thing people notice when they come over… I love displaying things this way!