Tandem Biking

Biking has become a Delp family favorite over the last few weeks.  First, we got Maya a helmet so she can ride her "bike" (read tractor) with Sammy out front.  She absolutely loves it and walks around the house in it looking adorable.

Secondly, the Delps spent an afternoon riding on the West End Beltline Trail.   Katie braved riding my mountain bike and we hooked the kids up in my bike trailer.  They absolutely loved spending the afternoon in the trailer and Katie and I enjoyed riding bikes together.  It was a fun family outing.  Can't wait until the entire Beltline is done!

Finally, Sam has started offering rides on his bigger tricycle.  Here is a photo and video of him giving Maya a lift.  He was also willing to let Abby go for a ride as well.  It is really sweet to watch Sam be such a great big brother to Maya.  He absolutely loves her and she loves him!

Of course, this reminds me of another Delp duo on bikes ... Katie may have peddles here but she helped about just as much as Maya did:

Spring Planting

Sam and I embarked on some spring planting this afternoon.  After some success with our first science experiment, we decided that we wanted more.

Sam diligently counted out each seed (carrots, lettuce, onions, peppers, and brocoli ) and put them in each cup.  He didn't want the "dirty" job of filling the cups with dirt, so that was left to me.

After we filled the cups with dirt and seed,  we decided to try to create a greenhouse.  We looked around the house for the best possible fit and we found one of mommy's storage containers which I am sure I complained about buying.  Well, now it finally has a good use as a greenhouse!  

Of course, as the follow video attests to, Sam still has a little confusion in regards to what a greenhouse actually is.

Maya's First Girl Scout Cookie

I am pretty sure that Maya enjoyed her first Girl Scout Cookie. Did anyone have any doubt?

The funny thing is how she will eat cookies and candy.  She takes the smallest possible bites of them so that she can enjoy it over a long period of time.  Sam will be done with his treat about 5 minutes before Maya.  Of course, the longer she holds it, the more time she has to get it all over her face and hands!

Maya's Quotes

Not to be out done by her brother, Maya has a quote for this week too:

"My poo-poo is a rock"

Of course, this comes after:'

"I see my poo-poo?"

John and Hilary should be proud of Maya's affection for her own poo.

Meet Ya-Ya and Wam-Wam

Sam and Maya have given themselves nicknames.  Maya is known as Ya-Ya and Sam is Wham-Wham.  Here are Ya-Ya and Wham-Wham eating an ice cream cone on the front porch together have a conversation.  You really can't get much cuter than this!

Sam and Maya Riding Bikes (Tractors)

Sam has loved riding his bike for the past year. It has only been in the past few weeks though that he has mustard up the courage to ride his bike down our driveway.  I am really proud of how "brave" he has become with the riding.  He has taken a few spills, but he gets right back up and keeps going.  He has even taught our neighbors to ride down the hill.  His friend Zachary was not too keen on it though.   Maya is just biding her time until her legs are long enough to get on Sam's tricycle!  For the time being, she is content on the tractor.

Grape to Raisin Experiment

Sam asked the other day- "How do you make raisins?" Well, this is why I love the internet. We watched another family's experiment in making raisins from grapes and embarked on our very own. Sam was very patient only only ate one raisin early. Otherwise, he was great at checking on the raisins daily and commenting on their changing status.  The final analysis is that it takes 5 days to make raisins from grapes.  Here are the highlights:

Maya did not have much enjoyment in the experiment, but she did love a good hat after it was over:

Another Sam Quote

Sam has been full of quotable moments lately.  Here is another one that we'll chalk up to his fine Sunday School teachers (who are now our neighbors):

"Mommy, sometimes kids are mean because they forget that God loves them."

Gotta love it!   I hope that he remembers that God loves him!

New Fence/New Neighbors

For 3 years, we have felt pretty lonely on our block.  At our lowest point, there were only 3 houses out of 9 that were occupied.  We then had great neighbors move in next to us only to have them lose their house about a year later.  You can only imagine how thrilled we were when our goods friends the "monks" moved into the house next to us.  They go to our church and have been involved in South Atlanta for almost as long as Katie and I have been.  We are excited to have them as neighbors!

Some things we are doing intentional with them, including our back yard.  They have a dog and we have two kids.  So we decided that fencing in the yard would be a good idea.  We have had it for a week and we love it!  It is so nice to let the kids be outside without worrying about them.  In fact, Sam is in quiet time at this very moment outside!  These are some pictures of our new fence:

In order for the fence to go in, we needed to take a tree down that was rotting from the bottom up.  In the second picture below you can see the hole that was in the middle of the stump.  Taking the tree down was kind of bitter sweet.  It was a great old tree that provided wonderful shade, but we were nervous since the tree hung over Sam and Maya's room.  We are glad that it is down and we no longer need to worry about it falling.  We do have a bit of a mess to clean up though!

Finally, we now have a great place to put a clothes line up in our back yard!  I have been wanting to do this for a while to cut down on energy expenses.  Today is the first day that we have been able to use it.  Sam and Maya were a bit confused about it at first, then they though it was silly, then they enjoyed helping Daddy hang the clothes on the line.  

Lately

We have been enjoying some wonderful times as a family lately.  The weather has finally warmed up (yes I said finally when it is still February.  There is a reason I moved to Georgia and that is because I fully expect it to be warm this time of year).  Here are some pictures of our time outside:

Sam has really enjoyed riding bikes with his "neighbors."  He refuses to call Essa and Reshawn by their names, he just refers to them as "neighbors."  Unfortunately on this day, there were some bike issues and Essa was doing his best to fix his bike and Sam was an eager learner.

Our good friends Brent and Claire told us a story a few weeks ago that Abby, pictured below, declared her intentions to one day marry Sam.  Perhaps this is the beginning of a budding relationship.  They are definitely two peas in a pod and love to boss each other around!  Sound familiar to anyone?

Maya and Sam have loved playing in the backyard.  Maya has rediscovered the sand box and can play in there for hours.  She absolutely loves pouring anything into anything.  She can sit and pour sand into a bucket as long as we would let her.

Sam loves to jump off just about anything.  Here he is jumping off of the deck.  For those that know Sam, you know that he is not the most adventurist child.  However, he has been working on being "brave" lately and has been doing good at it.  In a future blog post you will see him riding bike down the our front hill.  He is also trying to conquer his fear of dogs.  Having a dog move in next door is helping him do that.

These are the "JJs" that Sam purchased for Maya's birthday with his own money.  Maya loves them and Sam is really proud of picking them out for her.  One morning, while Sam was doing his chore, Maya insisted on going outside with him, with no jacket on.  

Sam's first chore has been to take out the compost.  He mostly enjoys it and does it when we ask him to. He did tell me at one point: "I only take out compost on Sundays."  He has since moved on from the statement and we enjoy seeing him have some responsibility around the house.  I can't wait until he can mow grass!

Maya's Birthday Pictures

First, let me just say that Maya has the best Mommy in the world!  Katie did such a wonderful job planning and putting together a cookie monster themed party for Maya!  While Maya is only 2, I hope that she grows up to really appreciate how wonderful a mommy she has and I can't wait to see what birthday number 3 brings!

Here are the highlights from the party.  Thanks to our friend Andra for taking the wonderful pics!

Funny Sam Quotes

This past week, Sam had two pretty funny quotes that have made us laugh pretty good. His personality continues to grow and we are enjoying seeing him blossom into a little kid! Here are the quotes:

On Sunday at the Superbowl Party, there was a Pinata. After Sam got his first piece of candy, I told him he could go back for more. He says:

"No Daddy, I got one already, I don't need any more."

I guess he is used to us telling him he can only have one piece of candy!

The second came on Monday. We got a steal of a deal on hockey tickets. We purchased hockey tickets and got tickets to the Aquarium and the Zoo for free! I told Sam that we would be going to a hockey game on Sunday and he says:

"No Daddy, I want to go to church on Sunday."

Who can argue with that?

Maya Birthday

Maya turned 2 last week! We are so grateful for our daughter and her community of friends. Enjoy the video. There will be more pics posted later today.