Family Mellmann

Yesterday was award day for Patrick. At school he had his annual academic competition with Websterville Baptist.  The competition includes fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, and each student elects two subject areas to be tested in.  Within each subject area, all students (4th-6th graders) take the same test.  The objective is to get the most correct in your subject area for your age group. Patrick competed against the other sixth graders in Science and English. In Science he took Second Place, and in English he took First Place. The certificate under the two academic awards was given to him (Joerg got one too) for participating in Tae Kwon Do Winter Camp.

Katherine is forever trying to hide from the camera. When is she going to figure that she can't hide from the shutterbug?!

We stopped in Hancock Vermont for a little lunch. Bikers were everywhere, but most of the riders were either single riders or double adults. Katherine was, without a doubt, the youngest rider we saw all day. After lunch, before we hit the road, Joerg spent a few minutes reviewing the map to chart our route back to the world of cell phone service...I mean the route back home.

Our first rest stop at a scenic overlook. We kept trying to get Katherine to hold still for a picture, but this is the best we could do.

It's the first weekend day that we have had both good weather (warm and sunny) and little to no wind. That means we are going for a day-long ride through the Green Mountains!  Everybody is now officially equipped with properly fitting gear; helmets, coats of armor, gloves, and boots.  We have rain gear, too, but it won't be needed today.

Well, it used to be called "tinkering".  Apparently, like so many other things these days, it's been given a new cooler name; "wrenching".  That sounds a little too close to "retching" for my taste, and you definitely wouldn't want to get them confused.  You see, "wrenching" is simply tinkering when it involves a motorcycle. Retching, on the other hand, involves revisiting what you had for lunch...ick. Now that we have a complete set; a BMW R1150R (that's mine) and a BMW R1150GS (that's his) the motorcycle tinkering can begin.  Oh, wait, sorry.  Let the "wrenching" begin.  But first we have to order a bunch of stuff; filters, spark plugs, battery, oils, and tools.  We mustn't forget the tools.  Tinkering is a waste of time if you don't have tools. Joerg spent a couple of hours this weekend in the garage getting things neat and tidy.  Then he installed suspended shop lights over the area where he parks his car...

...between two points...no longer matters. The bikes are out, the gear is ready, and the riders are psyched. That means that a twelve minute trip to Panera for lunch now takes upwards of twenty-five minutes, and may cover MANY (arguably unnecessary) miles. *grin

Today is our last official day of Spring Break (no, I don't count the weekends).  Our final Boredom Buster is tie-dying. For me, this is journey into the unknown; I've been curious about it, but have never tried it. Patrick has tie-dyed as part of some summer camp or other so he just jumped right in and started squirting. Katherine, who just enjoys squirting stuff and making messes, also jumped right in. It will be interesting to see how their works of art turn out. Katherine did a swirl pattern like the one I found on Pinterest , but the rest of their dyeing is random and should prove to be quite colorful. We may still do another activity today, but my organized program is officially finished. Next week they can go back to school and I can feel good about the fact that I did some real "intentional parenting" this week (and had some fun with them, too).