School Days in Michigan

 Yesterday I caught a few shots on my phone from a lovely school day, another 80 degree plus day in March. Seems like just about everything is budding now. We bought new bikes for Dax, Addy and Mia last weekend, so we could enjoy the 1-2 mile ride to/from school each day. We're learning that Michiganders aren't the most bike friendly folks in the world, but that it's okay (and seems to be encouraged) to ride the nice, wide sidewalks, so it's actually a pretty nice commute. It's much, much nicer than the hour long car routine in the morning, first taking Taylor and Addy to the middle school, then waiting across the street in the elementary school parking lot for 20 minutes until the magic time for Dax and Mia to hop out and start their day, then waiting another 20 minutes a mile down the road at Kenna's school until it's okay for her to walk through the school doors. Biking keeps us moving and I'm pretty sure gets us all a little happier about the coming day.

Kenna is on Mia's old bike, which, yes, is a tad too large, but she does okay. She'd do better if she'd let me help her on and off, but that little stinker is so determined. In fact, on the way home she wanted to be ahead of all of us so bad, that she took off with her bike running down the sidewalk as fast as she could, thinking she'd get ahead of the rest of us enough to do her own tricks to get on that bike on her own, then still be ahead of us enough to lead the pack. Sadly, Dax and Mia caught up to her just about by the time she started her maneuvering to get on the seat. I could feel the pent up frustration blow down the sidewalk in a fury, which exploded in that little girl throwing her bike down in discouragement. I'm sure the train of parents in cars rolling out of the school drive thought that I'm torturing that girl making her ride that mile home, and of all things, not being able to suppress a giggle at her tantrum. I know I'm weird here, so it doesn't bother me too much what others might think. As for Kenna, she'll be leading our bike brigade soon enough, she just needs another inch.

After we welcomed Clint home from a 3 day business trip and gobbled down dinner last night, we were off to the elementary science fair. I so wish I had caught Dax and Mia with some photos in scientific action, but trying to grab some poses in front of their results was the best that I could do (Mia, obviously wasn't too thrilled). These kiddos worked so diligently on their projects, truly inspired to be truly scientific. I was a little worried knowing that we're in a much larger "pond" now, and didn't know what to expect in the way of how much parents should be involved, but these guys had it down, had it organized and had their projects complete at least 2 weeks before they were due.

Mia studied how 3 different brands of dish soap compare in how long their suds last. I was so impressed with how she took her time in conducting her trials, working on her project a little bit each day, meticulously timing and recording her results, then whipped out some impressive charts in Excel, something I have no clue how to do.

 Then there was Mr. Dax. Always the mechanical/engineer guy, he chose to research paper airplane design. He researched folding methods, created 3 models, then methodically flew them over a few week period, making notes and charting results. His sisters of course gave lots of input, but I think he actually had this process down. Dad helped a little with getting his data organized into Excel, but again we were impressed with his skills--his teacher is obviously inspiring enough that Dax is not only listening, but learning! We couldn't be more grateful...I can't forget the best part of Dax's project, he named each of his plane's after 3 of his best friends from Sandpoint. I think it was "William" that flew the farthest.