Today started as most normal Thursdays do. Mostly.

Alex missed the bus, so I drove her in. It happens that the bus was more than 10 minutes early and Alex was, well, occupied at the moment. She mentioned later on that she liked arriving at school so early. Sounds like a plea to get driven to school more often.

Phoebe has gotten a cold or something. Complete with the gunky cough, but she’s able, at 4.5, to cough it up and spit it out without gagging. That is something the other one took much MUCH longer to be able to do. But anyway, we let her sleep in this morning. After all, if she is sick, more rest is better.

Phoebe got up at some point, we snuggled on the couch for a while then she ate breakfast. More snuggling and reading and such and then we had lunch. After lunch, Phoebe played while I  did some core work (ouch!). Afterwards, we played outside before going to the store before picking up Alex from her science club practice. We went home for about an hour before returning Alex to the school campus for volleyball practice.

Phoebe and I returned home and played outside. Shot some hoops, walked around, and stomped on some mole tunnels. Phoebe got her bike out and rode up and down the driveway for a while.

Finally, it was time to pick Alex up from volleyball practice. So we did. We came home and made dinner at which point Ray got home.

Then we went for the first family bike ride of the year! Not nearly as far as Alex would have liked to go, but about as far as Phoebe could go. She’s outgrown her little bike and needs a new one. Soon. Fortunately, when Alex was picking out her new birthday present bike, Phoebe was trying them out as well. Armed with manufacturer, model, color, and size information we are watching for the sales. Ideally, we would like to wait until her birthday. I’m not sure it’s going to be as feasible as that, but we’ll see.

The sun was getting lower in the sky. The traffic on the road had greatly reduced in numbers and frequency (rural road with barely a shoulder, never mind a sidewalk!). It was nearly a perfect evening for the first family ride. We only went about a mile (round trip) on this outing. Phoebe was getting tired, though would not admit it. The only negative about the ride was that I was getting pelted by bugs on my face. It hurt! And, it is disgusting to think about. Other than that, it was a lovely, mild, evening.

When we returned to the homestead, Ray loaded up our “mole masher” to lend to someone for the weekend while I shot some baskets and Phoebe tossed her ball around. Alex retrieved her camera and, as it turns out, took videos of much of what the rest of us were doing. Yikes.

Then it was a return to the usual evening activities: bathing, homework, and bedtime. Speaking of the latter, Good Night!