How she got there

So I finally managed to borrow Caleb's phone in order to shoot another video of Havi riding her pedal bike. But before I share it, I thought I would include a few photos I snapped of Havi last fall after she just received her balance bike.  I never got around to posting them because I was so busy sharing about our trip to Connecticut.  But I thought now would be a good time to sneak them in...also because (maybe) I haven't picked up my camera lately.  Shame on me.  But thankfully, that's changing soon because we have some special visitors coming next week to help us celebrate another little dumpling's birthday.

Anyway, she had been riding her balance bike about a month when we had this impromtu shoot in the cul-de-sac.  Isn't she just the cutest?

So I looked back on my computer to pull a video or two of her when she first got her balance bike (and thankfully found some.)  It's the Scoot by Ridgeback, and I'm so glad we got it for her.  It's built like a real bike in every way, except it's missing the pedals.  These videos were shot when she first hopped on it.

After riding her balance bike for five months, she was more than ready to move on to a pedal bike.  If I were to take a photo of the bikes side-by-side, you would see why she so easily transitioned to her pedal bike, which is the 12" Hotrock by Specialized.  They both have 12" wheels, highly adjustable seat heights, and wide handle bars with comfortable grips.  Unlike most big box store bikes, the Hotrock's pedals are further in front, allowing a child to easily push on the pedal to gain speed.  Not only that, the frame of the bike is wider and lower to the ground, offering the rider more control.

I have had several people tell me how amazed they are that Havi can ride a pedal bike at the age of 3.  Sure, she's a bright little girl and a fast learner.  But really, the right tools and some practice was all it took.

Still 'lil Hav, we're really proud of you, girl!

Go get 'em!

She pedals!

So last week Havi decided she was going to get all "grown up" on us and start riding a pedal bike.  Yep, you read that right.  It all started when I accidentally tried running over her balance bike because a certain little someone left it right in the middle of the garage, and I couldn't see it when I opened it up and tried pulling in.  The sound of crunching metal made me stop, of course.  So I got out and surveyed the damage: twisted handle bars and back tire/brake.  I managed to fix the tire and brake while Patrick repaired the handle bars all before we left for camping.  Thank you Jesus.  

But it got me thinking...if I couldn't fix the bike, I surely wasn't going to replace it with another balance bike.  I determined that she would just have to learn how to ride Madeline's old pedal bike.  Well, while we were camping, there were a handful of little pedal bikes with training wheels on them because of all the munchkins on our camping trip. And so I decided to put Havi on one of them to see how she liked pedaling.  Well, it was clear she enjoyed it. So when we got home from our trip, I decided to take Madeline's little pedal bike to the shop to get air put in the tires and let Havi have a go at it.  Needless to say, she took off!  Little girl knew exactly what to do.  In actuality, she probably could've started riding it sooner. She has shown so much control on her balance bike.  But maybe I was secretly hoping to get some longevity out of the bike since it wasn't the cheapest on the market.  Who knows?!   lol

Anyway, the other night I snapped a few photos of the kids playing tennis in the driveway as I was getting ready to take some photos of Havi riding her bike.  But then I ended up talking to a neighbor and didn't take any more photos before the sun set.  Oh well.

And here's a video Caleb took of Havi right after she learned how to ride her pedal bike last week.  I really need to have him get a few more videos because now she cruises up and down the street with some serious speed.

We are just so proud of her.  

And now she can keep up with all the bigger kids on the street.  She may be the youngest and smallest, but she won't be left out!

Winter recital

This year the dance studio Madeline attends decided to include the Children's Program in with their larger Winter recital.  Instead of wearing decorated t-shirts over their leotards and performing at the studio, they wore costumes and joined some of the older girls at a local school.  To say that she was excited would be an understatement.  

 Her class performed a ballet number to "Let It Snow".  She also performed in an opening scene with a few of the older girls and then helped out with their props.

Caleb was gracious enough to use my phone to capture a video of the performance.  (Madeline is second from the left. Also, please ignore my camera clicking away in the background. lol)



Of course she loved receiving flowers after her performance, and the fancy dinner on the water that followed wasn't bad either.  

We love you Madeline!  You are a joy to watch. :)

Recital time!

A rainy afternoon following a dance recital is one sure way to get some photo editing done quickly. lol  So I'm getting these photos up quickly, for a change.  Anyway, as has been the case for the last three years, it has rained on dress rehearsal day, which was Thursday.  Oh, that's so fun to get my daughter in costume and attempt to stay dry while toting around my camera bag and other children.  Anyway, I snapped a quick photo of my beautiful dancer with her new smile before heading inside.

This year's Children's Program was titled "In a World of Make Believe".  Madeline's class was Sophia the First, while the other classes were Minnie Mouse, Ariel, fairies etc.  I adored their costumes this year (which were so soft!) and the choreography for their two routines. The girls did such a fantastic job.  It's so heart warming to see their progress each year.  I thought I would share videos of her performances from the dress rehearsal.  So that is why you see a big orange bucket (due to the roof leak).  I sat up in the balcony this year, thanks to my new 80-200mm f/2.8 lens and couldn't have been happier.  And thank you to Caleb who used my phone to videotape his sister's performances.  (Madeline is second from the right in front for the first video and second from the left in front for the second video.)

As you can see from the videos and my photos, I took the liberty of adjusting the magenta colored lights shining down on the girls to achieve more natural looking skintones on them.  Sorry lighting guy.

As you can see from the last photo of Caleb with cousin Josh, my sister's family was able to make it over for the recital.  Oh, that made Madeline's day!  We only had time to grab some ice cream together before they had to head back to their neck of the woods, but we cherished their time with us, though brief.  I think my sister was tickled to be off camera duty this year, all thanks to my new lens.  Hopefully, we'll all get to see each other again next weekend, as Caleb will be playing in a tennis tournament right near their house.  Speaking of tennis, I will play catch up there soon.  After my last blog post, my wrist actually started feeling better again.  So I'm back to normal. Yay!

Summer fun

Well this summer fun has kept us extremely busy since coming back home with Havi.  Oy!  It's like we haven't skipped a beat.  These photos I'm sharing are old, like 3 weeks old...but I'm sharing them because they happen to be the start of all this hot, outdoor fun.

I had determined that, since I had no jet lag upon returning from China, we would be spending time outdoors.  So we headed to our favorite park.

Caleb is such a great big brother, pushing Havi on the swing.

That bruise on her cheek was from when she fell at the pediatrician's office many moons ago.

We ended up seeing Stefan and his little sister Belle playing tennis, and that's when Caleb was approached again about lessons.   Well, you know what happened next.

 Madeline initially did some lessons with Caleb, but her time on the court was brief.

I spend my time either courtside with the girls or playing with them on the playground.  The court is adjacent to the playground.  So I can still see Caleb practice.  Love that.  I actually managed to videotape part of a rally that Caleb had going with his coach at his second lesson.  This was only half of the rally.

He really has learned so quickly.  So now Caleb no longer practices on the small court.  He's stricktly on the full court.  He'll be practicing every day this week because his coach will soon go away to college.  I'm so proud of his work ethic and attitude.  It's really quite remarkable considering just how hot it is to play tennis in Florida in August.  Lessons are right in the middle of the morning. So our school day today went a bit longer than I would have liked.  We might have to change to afternoon lessons next week.  

Anyway, we actually just returned from a weekend of "glamping", that's a fancy word for glamorous camping.  Friends of ours have an RV.  They also have a travel trailer so friends can tag along.  We were fortunate enough to be those friends this past weekend.  I took a bunch of photos that I will share soon.  The dumplings are already telling us how much they miss camping.  Some big time fun might be on the horizon for this bunch.