Beach and Back to School

Last weekend we took the kids to the beach to celebrate the boys birthdays. it was a lot of fun. Although the chlorine in the pool was a bit strong for my taste. The cousins and Gail came down and I think almost everyone had a great time. Poor Chloe got hit with a stomach bug while we were there. Rob took beautiful photos and he may inset a link in a bit, but I'm feeling too lazy to do it.

Beth had a stressful week this week. She was stressed about taking a standardized test at school. On top of that the science fair is coming up in the next week and a half and she has been working on the project. She wants to do it on hurricanes and flooding. She built a city out of paper and then put it completely underwater. While her effort was great, the accuracy and information wasn't quite right, so we will be working on a another model this week. However she can spout random facts about how much each category of hurricane will typically flood, and things about storm surge. She has been doing the research on the project.

Caleb turned six this week. He's doing well in school, and is overall happy. He came down with a little bug on Tuesday and missed school on Wednesday. It was just a little bug, but he slept a lot on Wednesday. His big gift for his birthday was a Flying Turtle. This video convinced him that the Flying Turtle was the right choice for him. There are some awesome videos of teenagers flying down hills in California that Rob showed to me too. We warned Caleb he might get hurt, and Rob said one of the biggest drawbacks was that he might get bloody knuckles. Caleb would randomly talk about it during the week, and be very excited about his opportunity to get bloody knuckles.

Well yesterday we took the kids out to the park to play on their toys--Jacob got something similar which I will describe in a minute-- and Caleb was riding on his Flying Turtle. To be honest Rob was just as keen to sit on the Flying Turtle, and he went down this hill on the walk to one park, and laughed the whole time. He got going pretty fast on it. There is a ramp that Rob wanted to ride down on the way back. The ramp leads up to a bridget that goes over the interstate and cuts back and forth several times with really sharp turns and huge drop offs over the side, with a fence that the Flying Turtle would just slide under. To be honest I wasn't too crazy about Rob riding it down that ramp because I just saw an emergency room trip with broken limbs, and trying to figure out how to get Rob to the car all busted up and broken. So when we got back to the ramp Rob decided not to ride it, and the next thing I know Caleb is going down it. He almost made it but flipped the Flying Turtle on the last turn and scraped up one arm pretty badly. But that's all he did thank goodness. Helmets are mandatory.

So Jacob got his present this week too. He got a plasma car. This is a video of the thing. Rob has been wanting to get one of these for the kids for years. Instead of the typical wheels featured on the fairly tame video--Rob upgraded to skateboard wheels. I took Jacob to the bus stop and let him ride it and I couldn't keep up with him running as fast as I could. There is a slight (very slight) hill and it took off super fast. If you ask Jacob how old he is he will hold up his fingers and say four and then he will count his fingers for you. I think it is quite cute. He also refers to himself in third person, but as Jacob Caldwell, not just Jacob. So he may come to me and say Mom, Jacob Caldwell wants some ice cream or Mom Jacob Caldwell is sleepy. Also if you ask him his name he will tell you Jacob Caldwell Joshua. Very fun.

Rob is having fun, and loved riding the Flying Turtle. I think he would have ridden the plasma car, but the thing won't hold his weight right now.

Take care!