Cute kiddos

Fresh fruit is in season! We have been picking up strawberries, cherries, blueberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew, along with our standard fruit fare of apples, bananas, and pears. This led to a breakfast brainstorm of fruit pancakes - namely blueberry, strawberry, and banana. Caroline was so excited she just couldn't wait for the pancakes to be done, so she asked if she could taste the batter. Ethan queried, "Why don't you want to taste the gooder?"

We were trading out jokes and Caroline came up with one of her own:
Q: What has wheels and a screen and shows parts of a movie?
A: A trailer!

Ethan picked up on the phrase "pitch black" and has transferred the adjective "pitch" to mean "very," rather than it's coinage of pitch being black. He uses it at his own discretion, which always makes me grin when things are "pitch wet," pitch hot," or "pitch orange."

Ethan has a small yellow bike that fit him pretty perfectly, and had training wheels. He has been using this bike since he was about 2, and Eli used the bike before him, and between the two of them the bike is well-loved! Of course by well-loved I mean well-worn, particularly the back tire because the kids think it's hilarious to get the bike high-centered on the training wheels and let the large rubber tire free-spin while grazing the ground. The grazing wore the tire right to the inner structure of the treads, and one day while riding Ethan wore it THROUGH that inner stuff and popped the whole tire! Not just the inner tube, but blew out the exterior tire too! It made a lovely loud bang.
Although he still needed training wheels, this was a good chance to move Ethan up to Patrick's old red racing bike, which Ethan has been eyeing the past year. He is a great size to reach the pedals, but not the ground, so we simply relocated the training wheels and he was off like a shot! As long as training wheels were being removed, we made Caroline's bike an official two-wheeler - not at the request of Caroline, but of Ethan! He wanted to try out a two-wheeler on a bike the same size as his yellow one, but without the popped tire. It was one of those moments where he was clearly ready long before I was because he had that thing mastered within the day - apparently I had been holding him back by not removing his training wheels long ago!
He happily rode circles around our new driveway, completely upsetting his sister - how could HE ride HER bike before SHE could ride her bike?!  With a little practice mixed with a little pouting, she got the hang of it! We were all so proud. Long story short: WE ARE OUT OF TRAINING WHEELS! Everyone is riding two-wheelers! It is an exciting day, and has opened up new horizons. The bad news is, I can't keep up by running like I could before, and now my bum hurts because it's been ages since I rode a bike.