Jasper's Got a New Bike

It's a banner day here at the Davidson home. 

Jasper got a new bike! 

And he couldn't be happier.  The funny thing is that it doesn't even have pedals!

The Adam's Runner Bike is now residing at our house.  After much research it was the shortest run bike that I could find, and still it barely fits him.

Our previous bike shopping attempts have been negative experiences. 

Jasper has tried out bikes at REI, Costco, Wal-Mart and even Goodwill.  All trials have ended with me saying,  "I am so sorry Jasper.  Your legs are too short to reach the pedals."

Then I hoist Jasper up over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes.  He kicks, screams and wails as we gracefully exit the store.

We even tried his friend Rook's Skuut bike, but the seat just didn't go low enough for Little J.


This morning we ventured out to Boulder City Bike Shop, the only store in a 100 mile radius that sold the bike we wanted. 

Luckily they are a short drive from our home and I felt even more lucky that they had one bike left in stock.  I really wanted to try it out and make sure it would fit Jasper.

When I saw that tiny bike in the window I gasped because it is so little.  I knew it would be just right.

To top it all off they were having a sale on all new bikes.  Yippee!

Once Jasper climbed on we could all see that it was a match made in Heaven. 

When I told him it was time to go he rode over to the clothing section and hid behind some shirts.  I think he equated leaving with leaving yet another bike behind.

Neil, the owner, held the door open and practically forced him out the door. 

He left only after we each repeated 20 times, "It is your bike Jasper."  He finally said, "My bike," and he was off.

He went up and down the street in front of the bike store and then proceeded to load the bike in the van himself.  He was so excited!

Fear not -- he wears a helmet.  I just didn't bring it to the bike shop.

Happy Birthday Leesha!

This morning Maridyn Weatherly and I hosted a birthday breakfast for Leesha Jones.  A lot of times moms spend a lot of time planning birthday parties for their kids and sometimes their birthday's are not quite as celebrated.  I'm out to change that!

We invited her friends and their kids.  Quite a few kids are on track break right now, so with 10 moms we had 24 kids running around.  Luckily the sun was shining so we held the party in our backyard.  We are always happy to have everyone over to our home.

Maridyn sweetly whipped up what seemed like 100 mini-chocolate chip pancakes and we all dug in.  Rachelle brought pounds and pounds of freshly picked citrus from Arizona.  A lot of people brought a lot of fresh fruit toppings for the pancakes and the birthday girl herself even made some of her famous whole wheat brown sugar muffins.  Delicious!

Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate.

Saddest Face in America

Little J took a tumble when one of his parents led him down a steep trail at Calico Basin in Red Rock Canyon.  Broke my heart into a million pieces.  Can't wait to answer all the questions from curious strangers about why my two year old's face looks like he fell off a Harley Davidson going 80 mph.

Bounce Bounce Bounce 'til you Drop

I am willing to bet that all of the kids who went to the Black Mountain Rec. Center today for the Bounce House fun took as good of a nap as Jasper did.  


Today Evan and Colt came with us and Jasper was thrilled to be hanging out with the big boys -- they'll both be in kindergarten this Fall.

Last month Jasper had a few obstacles that he need help getting over, but today he tackled them all on his own.  It took him several tries to figure out one of the climbing walls, but he was tenacious.

When he got to the top he said, "Mommy, I did it!"  He was so proud of himself. It is a true joy to see the happiness that comes from seeing your child work hard at a challenge and succeed.

It's tough to stand back and letting them struggle and do it for themselves.




Almost every photo I took is blurry because the kids were always in motion.

We did have a little glitch in the plan and they didn't open it up until 11:30 AM. so we hopped over to O'Callaghan park with the Ellsworth's for a few minutes until we could jump.

We had so much fun last month that we decided that $3 was well worth it and that we'd go once a month. The Rec. Center said it will start at 11:00 AM on March 12th, April 9th and May 14th.

Hope you can make it next time!

Blur

The last week I feel like Jasper is growing up really fast and that things are passing me by.

I get a knot deep in my stomach when I think of what I have not written down that I want to remember and hold on to forever.

Hence my blogging resurgence.  I want to remember these days.  I want to laugh and cry about them in years to come.

I watch the older kids and see how they mostly want to play with their friends...not their mom's.

Right now I have many times when I feel like saying -- Can you just leave me alone for one minute?  Isn't there ANYONE else you can play with right now?

But then I remember that soon I will not be Jasper's first choice for a play mate, so I better enjoy these days while they are here.

If you feel like saying -- Could Angela possibly blog about any more of the minutia in her life?  Just know I am trying to hold on tight to these days before they are just a blur.

Story Time with Seth...Birthday at the Park for the Twins

This gripping look of concern on Jasper's face is due to the fact that he can't have 3 cupcakes...yes, he already had 2.  More to come on that in a minute.

First stop this morning after picking up Evan and Abigail was the Gibson Library for our 2nd story time session with Seth .  It went splendidly.  

Jasper's love language is glue sticks and markers.  He walked in and grabbed a craft tray and sat down.  Of course the craft comes at the end, so I had to convince him to put it back for 15 minutes.

Our theme today was pigs.  Jasper has been saying, "oink oink" all afternoon.  We read If You Give a Pig a Pancake and Olivia. The kids loved the pop up book The Long Nosed Pig --  Lots of ooohhhs and aaaahhhhhs when the long noses popped out.  

The craft today was a cute little pig on a stick.  Jasper loved every minute of glue and marker time.

My favorite line from the Olivia book is when her mother tucks her in at night and says, "You know, you really wear me out. But I love you anyway," Olivia precociously pronounces, "I love you anyway too."

Everyone loved O'Callaghan park today. The weather is 65 and to die for.  Today was the 2nd birthday for Paige and Elyse so Kandice brought cupcakes and the kids were all in heaven.  

We sung Happy Birthday to the girls and they smiled and said "hooray".  

They were eating their cupcakes as if they were participants in the county fair pie eating contest.  They did not want to get their hands messy -- which of course just increased the amount of frosting on their faces.  Cute, cute little girls.

Our group at the park today included the Abbott's, Schroeder's, Wakumoto's, Sowell's and Christiansen's.  It was so fun to spend time with our friends.  For me and Jasper.

See you next week!

Sr. Nursey....Here We Come!

Mike has been serving as the Jr. Nursery leader at church since October 2008.  Jasper's been blessed to have Mike with him since March 1st of last year.

Jasper was supposed to move up to the Sr. Nursery in January of this year, but he stayed behind so he could be with Mike.

Two weeks ago Mike and Jasper got moved up the Sr. Nursery.  I am excited because I was hoping Jasper could learn more with the older kids and stay with his friends.  

Of course I am most excited because Mike and Jasper were able to stay together.  Mike loves spending the extra two hours each week with Jasper and his buddies.
 

I helped out in Sr. Nursery during play time for a few minutes and snapped these photos of Jasper playing on my phone.   He was in love with the Dinoco helicopter.  Thank you to whoever donated that to the nursery.  It seems like everyone's favorite.

It's hard to believe that next January he'll be a Sunbeam!

President's Day 2010 -- Redstone

Our good friends the Schroeder's planned a super fun outing to one of our favorite local spots, Redstone, in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.  

Mike said they all had a great time and that Jasper was hiking and scrambling up large rocks like a pro.  That night Jasper kept saying that he went up "high".  That's one of his favorite words these days.

I was so sad to miss the fun, but I had a sewing class that I had signed up for a long time ago and I felt like I needed to go since it was on garment sewing and I need to improve my skills.

After Jasper's nap we picked up his best friend Peyton Cropper and headed to Mission Hills Park.  Jasper's favorite slide has been broken for months and I keep hoping it will get fixed soon.  I have no idea how it was broken.  Mike thinks it looks like someone took an axe to the slide.  Scary!

Mike joined the boys for a couple of runs down the tube slides.  I asked him if he thought he might get stuck and he said, "yes".  Luckily we didn't have to pull him out like Winnie the Pooh when he got stuck in the 

Just to top off Jasper's best day ever we hit McDonald's for more playing and sliding.  The McDonald's on Horizon and Greenway has the same PlayLand as the one we went to in Lehi, the one that has steps that are too far apart.  Jasper found a nice little 8 year old girl that would pull him up the steps.  But when she left Jasper was stranded.

Mike came to the rescue and gave Jasper a boost or two.  He's such a great daddy!

With Love -- From Me -- To You

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a great Valentine's weekend here at the Davidson home.

Yesterday Mike & I went on a date to the Las Vegas Temple. 

I ended up having a breakdown at the Temple over my miscarriage and couldn't stop crying, so I don't know how romantic that was. :> 


We grabbed Pei Wei to go on the way home and had a nice little feast with Jasper.  He was munchin' down on the spring rolls and fortune cookies.  Of course the funniest thing was watching Jasper use chopsticks.

Today Mike made Jasper and I some super yummy waffles before church.  Jasper was so excited when Mike announced that he was making us waffles that Jasper ran downstairs and attempted to get the waffle iron out.  He went into the pantry, handed me Mrs. Butterworth and said, "pour".  He was ready for his waffles.

We loved all of the Valentine's and fun treats that we've received.  Reagan Schroeder came a knockin' tonight with a plate of cookies that were almost as cute as she is.  Little J greeted her in his glow-in-the dark superman shirt,  ready for some more cookies.  He already had a cheek full of cookie when he ran to the door.  He is a little cookie monster!

Jasper and I picked out a cute card for him to give to Mike with a happy octopus on the front.  Mike continued our tradition of making each other cards for Valentine's Day, birthdays and our anniversary.  He's even been known to whip out a glue stick and scissors in years past. I flaked out and went with Hallmark.  Thanks sweetie -- I know crafting is not your forte'!

Love Bugs

This morning I got my "Jon and Kate Plus 8" groove on and took Jasper and 4 of his friends to Story Time at Gibson Library.

 

We made "Love Bugs" for our craft.  Jasper was pleased as punch to wield his own glue stick and marker, as evidenced by his "Love Bug".

We met up with some other moms and kids at O'Callaghan Park  to soak up some sun and play.  It felt so good to be outside in the sunshine.

We loved seeing the Abbott's, Schroeder's, Quandel's, Wakumoto's and Sowell's.  Thank you for coming to play with us.  Every mom packed snacks to share and the kids had a fruit snack / fruit roll-up / Cheez-It festival.

 

We'll be going to Story Time from 10:00 - 10:30 AM for the next 6 weeks and then to a park from 10:.45 - 12 Noon.  

We might try different parks each week, so let me know if you want to come and I'll email you which park we're going to.  

Hope to see you next Thursday! 

P.S.    I have never watched "Jon and Kate Plus 8".  I was only "Angela Plus 5" but my adventures would have made for very entertaining TV this morning.  

Like when Jasper lost his shoe and I didn't even know it was missing because I was so worried one of us would be hit by a car in the crazy parking lot at the Gibson Library.  Jasper announced (quite loudly) that his shoe was missing once we finally sat down in Story Time (which we interrupted by coming in late).  It was later retrieved outside on the stairs.

Let's see...I could not get all of the car seat belts fastened properly, and after a frustrating 10 minutes I told the kids that I was going to have to say a prayer and ask for help or we would never be able to leave my driveway.  I was 100% serious.

 
We (all 6 of us) looked like a side-winding caterpillar holding hands everywhere we went.  I had to use my  "nice mom" public reprimand voice when Jasper took off, i.e. broke the 6-man human chain, and I tried to coax him to rejoin the chain.

Let's just say that we were quite a sight!  Can't wait to do it again next week!

Breakfast of Champions

Yesterday Jasper and I made strawberry cupcakes for his preschool Valentine's party for the kids to frost and decorate.

He had so much fun adding the ingredients, running the mixer, and setting out the cupcake liners.  And of course helping to rinse out the dishes in the sink

Because anything that involves running the kitchen sink sprayer is a delight. It's gotten so bad that after I rinse a dish or pot or pan Jasper pipes up with, "My turn".  Meaning -- now I get a turn to "play" in the sink.

I know, I know -- be grateful your kid wants to do dishes.  But he's a splish-splasher and it seems to always involve an outfit change. 

This morning I told him that today was his big Valentine party and he would get to share the cupcakes we made with his friends at preschool. 

Not my best idea, because then Jasper would not stop saying
PINK CUPCAKE -- MINE. 

So for breakfast he ate a pink cupcake.  And he loved every last crumbly crumb.  The new breakfast of champions -- strawberry cupcakes.