The Himstedt Homestead: Birthdays and race days

Since I seem to be having such a problem keeping posts halfway current, I've decided to try to break them down a little smaller picture-wise and see if I can get caught up. For now, pretend it's the beginning of October.

This might be a picture you're getting tired of seeing.

I believe this is toothless gap #7. Or maybe #8. It's getting hard to keep track. Even the Tooth Fairy can't do it, as she has more than once been er, delayed en route to our house by thick clouds...of forgetfulness. She's good about leaving a nice note with an explanation the next day, however.

And here we go again! Number three for this one.

October 4th Shannon turned six. The actual event was quiet, just a usual boring Monday at home. There were a few gifts.

That night he chose The Sunflower restaurant for dinner. When we got there we remembered The Sunflower isn't open on Mondays. So he re-chose El Campesino.

It was more fun anyway, thanks to a big sombrero and waiters who like to help the birthday person have a good time.

He couldn't get the sombrero or the whipped cream off fast enough, but the rest of us enjoyed his angst anyway! We "officially" celebrated Shannon and Avery's birthdays later in the month with the Thursday night gang.

For school our insect study prompted us to capture one to observe. I figured it would take Amelia awhile to locate one and then I'd need to help her get it in the box.

Nope, she did it all by herself. We kept a cave cricket for nearly three weeks.

We didn't even kill her, we let her go first. (Yes, it's a "she.") Amelia knew that right away because she has an ovipositor. Duh. It was fun observing her and keeping a pseudo pet. A friend has a local petting zoo and traveling educational program about animals. She has all kinds, and has offered to bring us a hissing cockroach. We'll see...

James had a first in October. He competed in his first triathalon! It was a sprint distance, which is the shortest of them, but still a great deal more than I could handle in one fell swoop. He and my brother entered it together.

Not only did he finish, but he placed first the Clydesdale division (folks 200 pounds or more, all ages), and 4th in his age division. He came in 14th overall, out of nearly 250 competitors. I'm really proud of him! .

Jonathan placed in the top 50 over all as well. Awesome!

The kids are forever coming up with ways to have fun. For some reason they've been into racing lately. Wonder why?

The course.

Number 1 and number 5. They race barefooted like those guys from Africa.

Amelia made a sign to make sure spectators knew where to go. I swear we really are working on spelling!

So maybe they don't have the best sponsors to provide them with official race gear, but they are creative.

Somebody got left in the starting blocks.

You can still catch him, Avery! Go, go, go!!

Not to be left out, of course.

It's easier to win a race when you're the only one running it.

Amelia has become quite a terrific reader. She reads with good inflection, and makes stories fun to listen to. Elizabeth likes to bring her books.

One morning she offered to read to Elizabeth.

She started to learn what I feel like when I'm trying to teach something to her and Shannon and their attention is anywhere but on me.

Friday October 15th we were finally able to get enough friends in town to celebrate the boys' birthdays. The two of them tossed around several birthday cake ideas and finally settled on a race car theme.

If it were to scale the race cars could only get up to 10 mph. Oh well!

Perhaps they were concerned that one of the boys might spit on the cake while blowing out the candles? It's a legitimate worry.

Avery was a little confused about the two birthday cakes in one month thing. He kept telling everyone that he was now five.

Elizabeth's posse. The big girls always do a good job of keeping up with her when we get together.

Good thing his secret "admire" told us who she was. We might still be wondering! She made Shannon a necklace. He's forever stringing beads together and making her necklaces and bracelets too. He says it's because he loves her. What's a nearly three year age difference? My mom is 2 1/2 years older than my dad...

And the mother of all gifts- LEGO's! Good call, Hicks family. Shannon is officially a Legomaniac, and is forever amazing me with what he comes up with.

Good friends, good family, what more could you ask out of a birthday celebration?

There's a lot more to come, as soon as I get my act together. Tight now I'm going to get out of order and post a few pictures from this past weekend.

Sunday James took Amelia to run in her first 5K race. There was one locally that supported a good cause in White County, so they participated, along with Maggie and Curtis D. It's 3.1 miles, in case you're as rusty on your metric conversions as I am, which is a dang long way to run (especially if you're me!). James says she ran almost all of it with only a little walking.