New bike, Water, Hockey party and More Water

Wow, I have so much to share. I really need to be more faithful. Anyway, onto the good stuff:

Ethan did it! He can officially ride without training wheels. Several more practice sessions was all he needed. Andrew and Ethan headed down to the Bike Surplus store and found Ethan a Green bike with a water bottle (very important!) He still needs to work on his confidence, but we are well on our way!








Ames has experienced some major flooding, with water levels rising very quickly with very little warning. This spring has been really wet, but Friday night we had a major rain storm with rain totals around 4-5 inches. By noon on Friday, the water had rose enough to close most of the north /south routes in Town. Even, target's parking lot was under water! Later that evening Interstate 35 and US 69 were also closed.

We survived the water with very little damage. We had a little seepage in our basement, but nothing to be concerned about. This is only the 2nd time in 4 years that we have had water come up through the floors. We are pretty lucky.

Ben had his 3rd birthday party on Friday evening. (Yes, He is spoiled! Party 1 - Just the 5 of us; Party 2 - Shared party with Grandpa, Nadia and Mother's day; Party 3 - his long awaited hockey party) We invited his hockey team to the rink. Almost everyone was able to attend, we had a great time! We were worried some people might not be able to make it due to the flooding, We had about 20 kids + parent and siblings. Everyone skated for an hour and then we had cake and ice cream. It was a little chaotic, but all in all a good time.











This morning we biked to Brookside park to survey the flood. Wow! It's a unbelievable to see the destruction left by the rushing water. We saw a dumpster in the swings, and several picnic tables in the trees. We spent a few minutes walking through the park and splashing in the water. The picture shows how high the water was last night. Wow! Most of the streets have been reopened and life will return to normal with lots of cleanup ahead.