Kicked to the curb

This is a quintessential summer morning, Becker-style. Before the sun gets too hot, the kids drag their bikes out to ride around the circle and up and down the sidewalk, while I sit in my chair with my coffee. It really, truly, does not get any better than this. I've spent the first hour of many summer mornings in this exact spot for more than ten years now. I'd say I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of that $5 white plastic chair.
David is not quite up to Cat-1 bike racing yet, so he's just chillin' in his ride with the windows down, eating some animal cookies.
Our bicycle collection has not fared as well as our white plastic chair collection has over the years. In a big family, bikes (among many other items) get handed down as they are outgrown by the older children. Our littlest 12-inch kiddie bike was finally beaten up beyond repair, leaving poor little Renee without a ride this summer. Lucky for her we stumbled upon a just-right for her bike at a garage sale this weekend for ten bucks. She's back on the road and ready to go!

Lots of firsts for Baby D

Now that David is a year old, he's really starting to experience life. Here we see him at his first trip to the zoo. The big kids were so excited to take him around to see all the animals!
On the first hot day, we ran out and bought a few new kiddie pools (and a new slip-n-slide for the big kids) We created a virtual inflatable water park right in the front yard.
We tossed D into the little pool with a pile of toys, where he played happily for an hour and then went in for a good nap. Besides the bathtub, this was his first time swimming. Once he got over the weirdness of taking a bath outside, he loved it. My poor pale-skinned blond baby has to go swimming in a shirt, hat, and under a big umbrella.
We also took him to the "big" outdoor pool a few times. This was also a hit. I don't have pictures, but we also took him to the indoor pool for the first time recently (no pics because it is, as you can imagine, rather difficult to manage six young children through the locker rooms and supervise their swimming without also trying to photograph the experience.) David kept trying to swat my hands off so I'd let him go, not realizing that since he can neither swim nor walk, he wouldn't fare too well without me.
Here's D kickin it next to his first camp fire. The kids cooked him hot dogs and campfire pies.
He doesn't like grass touching his legs, so he sat happily in his booster seat and ate up his hot dogs.

Happy Birthday Baby D!

He sure looks happy, doesn't he?
David was less than thrilled to wake up from his nap on a seemingly ordinary Sunday afternoon, only to find his house full of strange people singing a loudly off-key rendition of "Happy Birthday" while staring at him. I'd probably cry, too.
After calming down a little, he was grudgingly willing to taste a little piece of cake.
Hey now, this isn't too bad.
Not bad at all.
Me likey cakey. When's my next birthday?
David demonstrated a similarly aloof demeanor when it came time to open his presents. Overall, he was unimpressed with the whole party experience. It's all right kid, past a certain age, nobody like birthdays anyhow.

Davy Donuts

We have decided that if we ever decide to become a Mafia family, this will be D's mob hit man name. I think it sounds pretty tough.
After watching David stuff donuts into his mouth two at a time, I have no further doubt that this is, indeed, my child.
He did pretty well with spaghetti, too. We are working with him on a better way to let us know when he is finished eating or otherwise unhappy with his food, as he still insists on throwing the offending items across the kitchen. The dog has been happy to clean up most of what he throws, and has even begun napping under D's high chair during meal times so as not to miss out on any choice offerings. She has taken a few high-velocity sippy cups to the head (hard enough to make her yelp), but has decided it's a risk worth taking for the chance at grabbing a flying hot dog.

Playing catch up

Once again, we here at Becker Bunch HQ have been busy busy busy. I'll try to catch you all up over the next few postings!

Does this look like a familiar sight? We recently had our year's supply of fire wood dumped off in our driveway. On first inspection, this year's load looked a little smaller than last year's. Trust me, it wasn't.
The Becker Bunch Heavy Lifting Crew did a bang-up job of getting all the wood sorted and stacked. The gang all worked together to get the job done in record time. As the wood pile dwindled and it looked like they were going to be able to finish the whole job before Daddy got home from work, they really kicked it into action.
They raced against the clock and the rain clouds, and finished sweeping off the driveway just before Matt got home from work. The kids had set aside one last large piece of wood that they ceremoniously lifted together to carry across the yard and stack on the pile together, their own sort of "golden spike".
They were rewarded with a trip to Friendly's for ice cream after dinner, and a sound night of sleep.