Free wheelin'

This is Elena. She is four and three-fourths years old. She just learned how to ride a two-wheel bike with no training wheels.
This is Renee. She is two and three-fourths years old. She just learned how to pedal a tricycle. This is, by the way, the very same tricycle she fell off exactly one year ago and broke her arm.
Elena is the youngest kid we've ever had to learn to ride a bike. She is, actually, the youngest kid I've ever known to learn ow to ride a bike. She's got a lot to live up to. It's tough being on the tail end of a big family- no one wants to be told that they're "too little" to do all the cool stuff the other kids do, and I'm quite sure that played a part in her motivation to learn how to ride. She got tired of watching the other kids hop on to their bikes and leave her eating dust and crying "Hey, guys, wait for me! Wait up! C'mon! MOM, they kids won't WAIT for meeeeee!!!!"
One day a few weeks ago, the kids had some friends over, and they all wanted to ride bikes. We had a few extra bikes, but needed to take the training wheels off Elena's bike for another kid to ride. I never got around to putting the training wheels back on, despite Elena asking me to do it about 389 times over the course of two days. One evening, she had her training-wheel-less bike out in the circle, and was just kind of scooting around on it as the other kids rode circles around her. Now, I had tried to teach her to ride her bike a few times before this summer without great success, and was not feeling up to another round of running in circles stooped over trying to help a small child balance and not crash in to parked cars. I told her I'd pay her five bucks if she could teach herself to ride her bike all by herself. Inside of an hour, that kid was zipping around the circle with the rest of the kids! Lazy parenting pays off sometimes.
Our small garage now contains 9 two-wheel bikes, 7 scooters, and 2 tricycles. We also have squeezed in there a two-seat bike trailer, a jogging stroller, a big red wagon, a red cozy coup kid-size car, 5 sleds, three dozen soccer balls, and equipment for every sport known to man, besides all the regular garage stuff like lawn mowers and wheelbarrows and junk we don't know where else to put. A few times a year, we clean it out and organize everything. We line up all the bikes in size order and toss out all the dead soccer balls. This lasts for exactly one day, then it's back to stacking bikes on top of each other.

Wrapping up summer

Summer is winding down already, for all that we got of it. There was maybe one good two-week run of real summer weather, with a few random warm days tossed in
I think this was the one and only time we dragged out the slip-n-slide. If you believe the warnings printed on the box, using a slip-n-slide is about as dangerous as carrying a bag of pit vipers up the side of Mount Everest while smoking an unfiltered cigarette.
There are stern admonitions to carefully check the area for rocks and debris before setting out the slide. There are various height, weight, and age restrictions for using the slide. There are the usual precautions about parental supervision and death or serious injury if the device is used in any way other than exactly as specified. All of the consumer-safety type groups and pediatric-society type groups frown on these things big time.
Because it's fun. Good, cheap fun. I'm sure those groups are working on getting all slip-n-slides banned or recalled, or at least a law passed that you have to wear a helmet and full body padding to use one. Just pretend you don't see that big rock holding down the top corner of the slide.
All the children survived unharmed, despite all of the slipping and sliding and unheeded warnings.

Hey Mom, watch me! Watch me!!!!

Here it is, mid-August, and it's only just in the last week been warm enough to go to the pool. I guarantee, if we had cancelled our pool membership back in May it would have been the hottest summer on record. I have that kind of power over the weather, ya know. Did you know I can make it rain simply by hanging a few loads of clothes out on the line? I can also clear up cloudy skies by deciding to put the clothes in the dryer. It's good to be me.
We got lots of "awwww, how cute those little girls are!!!" with these matching swim suits. Due to the hand-me-down factor, I don't usually buy new clothes for anyone other than the oldest child, but swim suits don't seem to last for much more than one season.
My kids are little fish. All afternoon I heard, "Hey Mom, MOM! Look! Watch me!" as they demonstrated their latest water acrobatics. They love to swim. Love it. I love sunning myself on the pool deck and watching them swim. Matt doesn't like the hot sun too much, but he does like it when the rest of us are happy, so it worked out well for us all.
We came home and put a bunch of sunburned, red-eyed, exhausted children to bed. We'll only have a few more short weeks of summer left to enjoy the pool, and even at that, we'll probably only get a handful of hot days. Today is on track to be a regular scorcher, maybe our first 90 degree day of the year.

There was a lot of contention last week about which swim goggles belong to who. Joe is upstairs doing his math wearing his goggles, as much in anticipation of going to the pool later as to protect his goggles from the other kids. One pair broke, and Renee took scissors to another pair. Paul ended up not liking the new goggles he picked out, and was trying to negotiate a pretty one-sided deal with one of the other kids for a pair he liked better. Later, we'll enter into negotiations as to towel assignments and diving-toy distribution. I've already rested my voice to be ready for a whole morning of "If you kids don't shape up and stop giving me lip and start doing your work I'm not taking any of you ANYWHERE later!!!!" Good times, really!