Ill-advised bike lessons, Scary creatures, Changing seasons

Ziggy has learned to ride a bike! He took to it like a duck to water! And…has immediately gotten his bike privileges taken away about 8 of the 10 times he's gone out riding, for various offenses ranging from riding on the street (when warned not to) to riding far away to a park (when told not to) to not asking us before leaving (when told to). Ha! He's always been an explorer and a wanderer at heart, so now I'm wondering if it was a good idea for us to effectively increase his exploring and wandering range by about 1000%. Well. I suppose there's nothing we can do about that now!

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About three years ago, Sam did some character design and visual development work for a movie some studio was making about the Super Mario Brothers game. I remember watching Sam drawing the characters for it and wondering if the movie would ever actually even be made! He's worked on others that never made it to the screen. But finally this year Sam told us the movie was coming out! So we took a few of the kids to go see it. He hadn't seen any of the final story and didn't even know how many of his designs they'd use. But they used almost everything he did, including the design work for Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and that other guy, the bad guy, whatever his name was. We even got to see Sam's name in the credits, which was fun.

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In our old house, whenever he was babysitting, Sebastian used to come upstairs into the little kids' room wearing a coat over his head and with a balloon in his hood. He called this scary guy "Mascot" and he had quite an effective reign of terror for a little while, making the kids get in bed so "Mascot wouldn't get them." Seb would always reappear a few minutes after Mascot disappeared, having no clue what had just happened and telling the kids they shouldn't let their imaginations run away with them.

Anyway, Mascot resurfaced here a little while ago, and suddenly he has a slew of copycats! Scary!

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Seb went to Prom with the lovely Charly. They had such a fun time! When he came home late that night he was just sparkling and bubbling out with happiness at how much fun they'd had. I don't see him like that too often!

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I know I showed pictures of our flowers last time I posted, but they got even bigger and prettier and more numerous!

I think it definitely qualifies as a "Hyacinth Garden." Just like I've always wanted!

Blue squill and daffodils looking good too.

And a bunch more new daffodils we planted last Fall—these are white with orangey-pink or yellow centers. Nice for variety, though I always like plain yellow best.

I wish I could somehow get a picture of the whole yard at once, but all the flowers look so tiny from far away, you don't get the whole effect. But there are daffodils by the front of the house on both sides, and in a row down by the fence, and then more tiny tiny daffodils in front of the fence. And then hyacinths along the side, and tulips (which I don't think will come back forever [tulips don't, apparently], and I've resigned myself to it, but I'm happy they've been good this year) and the blue flowers among the grass. It looks quite glorious!

And with the blossoms out across the street, it is even better!

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We're studying the Civil War for school right now, it having been (to my great surprise!) ten years since we last learned about it. It's been so interesting. One day we went over to the park and built pontoon bridges across the little stream. Here are Junie and Goldie proudly showing one of their designs.

Simple, but effective!

Here is Gussie after the inevitable happened (falling into the stream)

Far-off Gus

Gus explains earnestly how his stubbed toe "isn't even bweeding anymore"

Another bridge

And another

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We had a Family History Fair in our stake, and we signed up to do a table for Denmark. The girls dressed up as little Danish girls for it.

Here's our table, with æbleskiver and lemon curd and whipped cream for tasting. We made about 200 æbleskiver! And they all got eaten.

Here is the beautiful and serene Goldie Lisa

Here we are dressed in the get-ups they made us wear.

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Clementine has piggy tails! They're getting more real and hair-like all the time. She's not sure if she likes having them.

She was acting very strangely here. Wearing Goldie's boots. Putting hair elastics on her legs. Puffing out her cheeks. She does that last one a lot, to the point that we're always worriedly swiping our fingers through her mouth to make sure she's not eating something she shouldn't. (At that point she bites us, and then we're sorry.)

A little kiss for Baby

Tippy toes

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Malachi running the mile at Region. Lovely day for it!

And here's Seb running in his mile heat. They both ran the 3200 at this meet too, and they both did well (Seb getting First overall, Malachi getting Second in his heat). And just like that, Track is over and Seb has run his last race. It makes me feel a little queasy to say that for some reason. Why does time go so fast?

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Ziggy is in fine form these days, as always. He's the ringleader of all the things that get him and Gus in trouble. Here they are being missionaries. (Seems harmless, doesn't it? Well, it is—so far…)

Here's a picture Zig drew of Robert E Lee riding up to Ulysses S. Grant on his "hrrsy" and holding out a flag that reads "I surrender." (Not exactly sure why their flags are switched…is this an alternate history?) A policeman and police car are also in attendance. (Why is "Police" in mirror writing on the car? I don't know.)

Zig has really liked learning about the Civil War. He's been really interested in the books about John Wilkes Booth and Abraham Lincoln's assassination, to the point that he didn't want to go to bed the other night because he claimed "John Wilkes Booth might come."

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