Rainbows and Puddles

We had a nice, fairly mellow, fun weekend at home.  On Saturday, Austin enjoyed some down time while Sarah took her morning nap.  He brought his dinosaur friends downstairs from the playroom and lined them up on the couch to watch TV with him.  He called it his "movie theater" and wanted to share with his dinosaurs.  He got upset when I asked if I could sit beside him.

Austin has grown quite a bit since last summer when he got his first bike.  He needed a bigger one, but since he outgrows them so fast, we figured we might try to get a used one for his next bike.  I found a bike just listed on Craigslist and checked it out on Thursday after picking up Austin from preschool.  There were 4 bikes to choose from because a grandpa was selling his grandchildren's bikes that they had outgrown.  We picked the best one and Austin was VERY excited about his "brand new bike."  It needed some training wheels and the hand brake needed some fixing, but I only paid $35 for it!  On Saturday, we got some training wheels and a new helmet (with a matching handlebar bell) at Wal-Mart and I was able to install the training wheels and fix the brakes myself while Austin and Sarah took their afternoon naps.  When Austin woke up from his nap, his new bike was all ready to go.  He was thrilled and had a blast riding around ringing the bell.

On Saturday evening, our church had a celebration of its 30th birthday.  We went to Mass at 5pm, then to the party afterward "under the big tent."  The kids enjoyed eating supper, then Austin got a balloon hat and had a chance to go through the bouncy house obstacle course.  The bouncy house was absolutely mobbed (with older kids at times too) and there was nobody regulating when kids could go in or making them wait until kids had made it all the way through before others could go in.  The result was an overloaded and frankly dangerous bouncy house.  Austin was looking forward to it all day, but he was so patient and waited until it had cleared a little bit before we said he could go in.  He made it through once or twice, but it was just too dangerous, so we convinced him it was time to be done and head home.  Here he is showing off his balloon hat.

Sunday was rainy!  Very rainy!  There were some pretty strong storms at times, but the skies cleared intermittently.  Despite Austin's excitement about his new bike, he was only able to get out and ride it for a few minutes before the rain started again.  We decided to try out a restaurant close to home that we hadn't been to before, and as we left for dinner, we saw a beautiful double rainbow down the street.

The restaurant we planned on going to was actually closed on Sundays, so we ate elsewhere and then headed home.  When we got home, our next door neighbors were just arriving home and popped over to say hi.  Barry helped us by installing our new bathroom fan last night and it works SO much better than the last one.  I had no idea that installing a fan involved a haz mat suit for climbing through the insulation in the attic.  Anyway, we told him that it was, indeed, working beautifully!  We had a few minutes before the kids had to go in for bath time, so we let them play outside for a few minutes while we chatted.  The rain didn't hold off for long, but the kids decided to explore the rain shower...and then the puddles after the rain stopped.  Austin has been obsessed with the umbrella today, so he had a blast running around the driveway with the umbrella.  Unfortunately, he's not very good at keeping the points on the umbrella ends from hitting Sarah in the face. Fortunately, she didn't get poked in the eyes.

And last, but not least...a video of the kids playing in the rain and then jumping in the puddles.  My favorite spot is shortly after the 3 minute mark when Austin is jumping in the puddles, splashing Sarah, and Sarah is giggling with delight.