Trip to North Carolina, Part 2

The kids all love playing out on their street, riding their bikes. It is a fairly quiet street and right across from their house is a small court. They all love riding their bikes up and around that court and then zooming down to the street. We could sit right inside their attached garage in the shade and still have a good view of the kids. They were really good about responding quickly when one of us would call out "Car!" and pull over to the side to wait for it to pass. The weather was very hot and sticky and I think the adults would have preferred to be inside in the AC but it didn't seem to bother the kids--they loved being outside. This is Alex zooming up on his bike.

One of the Trautman family favorite games is Risk and Carl has taught his boys to play. On Friday night after the boys were ready for bed they pulled out the game and played one round (which probably took 45 minutes). More NiNi's speed was Go Fish and Matching which she played with both Nathan and Esther. I found out that 4 year old minds work much better than 57 year old ones--she could see a card in Matching and remember where it was every time!

I can't believe how much these kids like to color. Kimberly and Carl gave Nathan several big coloring books for his birthday and the kids all spent much of their indoor time coloring pictures of dinosaurs. Of course, Esther's dinosaurs usually were purple with pink nails. When my boys were little coloring was not their favorite past-time. In fact, when Shawn was in first grade (at home) it seemed every workbook page had a picture to color and I remember him looking at me and saying, "Mom, do I have to color another picture?" They all liked drawing pictures but coloring was not fun for them. Here Alex and William are at the table coloring and visiting with Dad Dad. But they also would spread out on the floor to color.

Okay, just had to include a picture of Nathan with his cool Spiderman balloon and his lemon bundt cake. Sadly, the outer balloon had popped before we left, leaving only Spiderman. Actually, I think they were anxious to get Spiderman out to play with him.

Here we are in Chili's on Saturday night. Dad Dad and Ni Ni love to have a chance to snuggle with little Samuel.