The Search for Miss Direction: Sandwiched Together

The other night when Grant wrote up the post about Noah on two wheels was really the first night that Noah had gone more than 10 feet on the bike without a wipe out. While we did get some pictures of him cruising 20 feet or so down the driveway and we were both ridiculously proud of him, I wouldn't seriously have called it bike riding.

Kid proved me wrong tonight.

After dinner last night I had some errands to run and Grant had the kids out playing on the driveway while he changed the blades on the lawn mower. (Which is a whole other story let me tell you...) While out there Noah was apparently practicing his biking skills. I got home, Grant started mowing the lawn and then offered to get the kids ready and in bed (usually a Daddy job around here) so he could finish mowing. Noah was devastated. According to him he could not be tucked in by anyone other than Grant. I consoled him as best as I could, told him Grant would come in and hug and kiss him later and asked him if maybe there was something he'd like to do on Friday night with Daddy to celebrate the weekend. This cheered him up considerably and he asked that we take him to Drake Sports Park so he could practice his riding.

Done.

So cut to tonight when we get to Drake which has a really big Safety Town kind of area perfect for him to practice. I figured Grant and/or I would have to help get him started and get the feel for riding again. Kiddo hops on the bike, pushes off and is gone! No more of this 20 or so feet and stopping, actual bike riding. As in, I'm strongly considering taking him on a ride with Grant and I tomorrow night around the neighborhood because I have no doubt that he could do it. I have to admit I'm pretty impressed. Grant says he thinks he was 7 before he was riding a 2 wheeler. And Lord knows I still have days now that I'm not too competent on my own bike. And the best part is how proud of himself Noah obviously is. This was a big deal and he can't wait to show off his moves. Grandma - he's already talking about you coming on Thursday to lay the tile and that you're going to have to take at least a few minutes to watch him ride. I told him I thought that could be arranged.

Even more fun around here today came in the form of National Ice Cream Sandwich Day. I, who of course can't do anything the normal or easy way by say, going out and buying a box of ice cream sandwiches, tried my hand at making my own from scratch. And of course, I had to make it even more complicated because I wanted them to look pretty. I ended up making probably way more work out of it than necessary but everyone here loved them so it was worth it. I ended up using the leftover cookie dough that I had frozen from the last chocolate chip cookie dough recipe Noah and I had made for the 'bread' part of the sandwich. I spread it out in a very thin layer on my springform pan, baked it, cooled it, froze it for awhile and then cut it into rounds using my biscuit cutter. I let these set up awhile longer, but I had purposely underbaked them a bit so you'd get that soft cookie texture on the sandwich. Then I melted some vanilla ice cream and spread it in a fairly then layer in an 8x8 pan, then refroze it so I could cut it in perfect circles with my biscuit cutter as well. I built my sandwiches, rolled them in sprinkles, stuck them back in the freezer and voila! Ice Cream Sandwich perfection! Grant said he'd never had a peanut butter chocolate chip ice cream sandwich rolled in sprinkles before so I'm calling it a success ;-)

Big day of fun around here tomorrow. The monthly Home Depot build is in the morning which the kiddos are super excited about since we missed the last one since we were in Maryland. Then Noah and Grant are off to a birthday party and I scheduled an appointment for Mikayla and I to go and have manicures :) My pretty princess is about beside herself excited. We'll also see watermelon, mustard and we'll 'grab some nuts' (yeah, I'm not sure yet on that one either, gotta get on it when I finish this post, lol) so check back with us tomorrow. Until then...