Christmas and New Year's

 This year, what with the COVID and the social distancing, the boys ended up having four (4) Christmases. They are quite spoiled. We began with Christmas on the 23rd at Mamy and Maurice's house. We came for lunch and opened presents and it was lovely. It was warm and the food was yummy and the boys and I had a great time. Maceo and Cassius were gifted Secret Coder books and read them all during lunch. More books are on their way, but the slowdown of the mail has messed with a number of different package deliveries. 

On Christmas Eve, we had thought to have breakfast with Grandpa and Grandma Sue, but the weather was terrible. So, we ended up opening presents on Christmas morning, and then we walked over the 13th PL to have Christmas breakfast with them. It was lovely, too! And the opening of presents was terrific, too. One of the best presents was a croquet set which the boys have already played in the yard at least two times. Also, Grandpa gave both boys framed art about the Mennonite ideals of how to be. I put one up, in Maceo's room, and he was super excited when he saw where I'd placed it. 

One of Maceo's presents from me was a cookbook of dumpling recipes and a set of molds to make dumplings. So, January 3rd, we decided to make gyoza, a chicken dumpling. We got out the pasta making machine, the dumpling making kit, and got to work.

Then we sat down on the couch and finished watching a Harry Potter movie. 

Tomorrow, the boys go back to school, but I have a week off still!!! To do chores, of course.

Merry Christmas and happy new year!

Off roading--How I Began my Career as a Kids' Chauffeur

 As I posted before, the boys are now interested in BMX bikes and doing jumps. A friend alerted me to a website with all the relatively local bike trails and places to do off road bike adventures. One is a bike park up in South Germantown, MD, about 45 minutes away. So, last weekend, off we went.

The park has one part called a pump course where a rider can keep their momentum going by pumping their arms down on the handlebars as they descend small declines. The other part of the park is three parallel trails with a series of bigger and bigger jumps. It took both boys a little while to warm up to the jumps part, but eventually, they tried both courses and loved both.

Here's the pump course:

Cassius was the first to brave the jumps, but eventually, Maceo did, too, and in fact, Maceo got pretty good at taking the jumps. I am sure we'll be back here relatively often and soon.

(After I stopped filming, Cassius hollered from the ground, "I'm ok!")

More BMXcapades!

While the boys were off at their mom's, I decided to build another ramp for them. This one has a little curve to it, so it gives a bit of lift when they ride off it. In the BMX lingo, it's called a "kicker." We (by we, I mean I) took it across the street to the Divinity School to set up a two jump trail.

Cassius did get a little frustrated with his jumps off the kicker, but he's into it, and his persistent personality means he'll keep trying. My next goal is to have them create a whole circuit around the school, and then I can just have them cross the street and spend hours at a time being little racer daredevils.

How It Started/How It's Going

 We now moved from scooters to skateboards to bikes. I don't know where their interests will end, but it's getting expensive. Both boys want to do BMX tracks now, although when I suggest actually going to one, they get nervous and say they don't actually want to go.

But they are willing to work on jumps in front of the house just like I used to do when I was their age!

Skater Dudes Around the City

 Maceo and Cassius have gone pretty far in on skateboarding thanks to gifts of skateboards from Mamy and Maurice. We've now visited five (5) different skateboard parks in the DC area, and we've ranked them, too.

1) Walker Mills out in District Heights, MD. A really big skatepark with "street" elements like curbs to jump off and hand railings to slide along. It also has swimming pool-type bowls à la the 70s California skateboard culture. The best of both worlds.

2) Shaw Skatepark. This is the biggest skatepark in DC and it's not far from our house. This is mostly street type stuff--lots of ramps and benches/platforms to jump on and off.

3) The Langdon Skate bowl--This is a pile of old tires sprayed with cement to form what looks like a big empty swimming pool. It's nearly always deserted, and the boys like it. I like it because it's DIY and because it's close to home.

4) Here's a new contender--the RFK skatepark down at RFK Stadium in Capitol Hill. We went there yesterday. Here you can see Cassius, surrounded by activity, work tirelessly on a trick. His personality is pretty well suited for skateboarding!

5) Melrose Skatepark in Hyattsville--This one is also quite close to our house, but it's rather small and sometimes rather crowded. When it's empty, though, it's great! This is the first one we ever went to, so it has some sentimental value, too.

City Boys and Summer Bucket Lists

 It's not technically summer anymore, as you can tell from the last post about back to school. But at the beginning of the summer, the boys and I made a list of things we wanted to do over the vacation. Maceo had an interesting one that only a city boy would think of--he wanted to ride one of the electric scooters that are all over all metropolitan areas nowadays. So, I made an account, and yesterday we found a scooter in Brookland to try where no one was around.

At first, Maceo had a little trouble with controlling the throttle, so I had him, and then Cassius, stand on the scooter with me while I rode it a little to give them a taste of how it worked. Then, they zipped around on the sidewalk for a little while, super pleased with themselves. 

This morning, one of the first things Maceo asked me was, "Can we do electric scooter again today?" I've created a monster.

Peas in a Pod

 The boys' school is fully distance learning until the middle of November. (Mine is fully distance until at least the end of September, and then hoo boy, I hope I don't have to go back). Luckily, a good friend in the neighborhood invited us to be a part of a pod of families so that the boys a) would be able to have interactions with other kids every day, b) would have some peer pressure to actually do their school work, and c) would be out of the house 4 days a week so I can get some work done teaching my classes without having to oversee them taking their classes. We're a few days in and it's been great! They started on Monday at the Kings' house:

Here's 2020's version of the first day of school. Notice Cassius is
wearing an Alternative School shirt from around 1977.

Kelly was kind enough to send out pictures of the children doing their work at her house. 

2nd graders in their Zoom meetings.

Mr Casual takes part in class.

On Tuesday, I hosted. I was a bit nervous, but it turned out ok. There was only one episode of violence and Cassius felt very badly about it afterwards, the kids were great, I've decided perhaps daughters are better, and we all survived! 

Lesson learned: separate the young scholars in the future.

Mid-morning playing/burning off steam.

The "studious" 4th grade boys.

They look studious, but I learned that they join their meetings 
and then immediately start reading Big Nate comics on their iPads.

I'm pretty sure that's Big Nate on the screen
and not school work.

The boys will be rotating from house to house. It's just the beginning, but with tweaking and adjusting, it seems like it could work pretty well, and perhaps we'll make it to Christmas Vacation intact!