last summer day

And our last summer day finally came.  It is Labor Day in the US and in Minnesota we don't start school until the day after Labor Day.  So tomorrow Kade and Ani are starting their school.  Anika is so excited, you can really tell now that she's almost a year older from a lot of kids going to kindergarten.  Not because of her height or being so good at things, just her maturity and not being scared of new things like she was just a year ago.  It makes me think about how Kade was so little going to Kindergarten and was the youngest one there.  I kept asking all the teachers at the time if I should hold him back or anything but academically he was ahead of the class so being held back would make him get bored and now that he's going to 4th grade, you really can't tell the difference between him and kids that are a year older in his class.  Kade is still our homesick guy though when it comes to going back to school and every September we go through a stage when he doesn't want to go to school, he misses me and so on.  But I think this year he's a lot braver about it.  He is nervous but that's ok.  He's after his mom that way. :)  Kason starts preschool on Wednesday and I hope it goes well because now he decided he doesn't want to go to preschool.  I think since he can't go to kindergarten he doesn't want to go to school at all.  So I've been telling him he needs to graduate from preschool first and only 5 year olds go to kindergarten.  But I think he'll love it once he realizes how much fun it is and how many kids his age there are.

Anyway, as part of the last day of summer and a day off from work today we took the kids to Grand Forks to do our favorite bike loop around the river there.  It is about 10 miles which is a nice little bike ride for us but it is a big thing for Kason on his little bike.  Ehren and I were both really impressed by him because Kade had done that bike ride on the same red bike when he was about 5-6 years old and there was a lot of crying going on and his legs being tired.  Our Kason was a little trooper though and was having a lot of fun finally riding his bike on a nicely paved road.  That is, until about 3/4s of the way when he got really tired and was getting frustrated that he couldn't keep up with us.  Plus, it was pretty warm by then and his little face was bright red by the time we got done.  But I was so proud of him, he is a really hard worker and wants to do everything Kade does.  He can get really upset sometimes when he can't do something as well as Kade and it doesn't matter when we try to explain that Kade is 5 years older than him. :)

So, it was a great time for all of us and I think it is a huge milestone in our family because it was the first time ever that all of us biked together without using the bike trailer! :)  I was the most excited of all because I didn't have to pull that heavy weight behind me.  Otherwise I would have been worn out by the end.  I'm thinking I'll take Kade there sometimes, just the 2 of us because then we can go faster.  Anika is very close to be able to bike without the training wheels too, she's been biking a little bit with no help at all but she is a bit more scared than the boys but I'm sure by next Spring she'll do it.  She also loves the tandem bike and I don't think she wants to give that up.

Happy first week of school to you!  I am excited for our kids to start and all of us getting into a routine again.

a little rest with a nice view