19 August 2011

It's Dream Cruise weekend and the streets are starting to fill up with old cars. On Tuesday night we rode our bikes downtown and attended the 'Kids' Cruise'. It was a pretty casual festival with some people singing kids' songs to new rhythms, bouncy houses, city equipment to be climbed on (fire trucks, cherry pickers, a mail truck) and a row of old cars that it's okay for kids to touch. We had a good time. Rose Pink & Nut Brown both climbed the climbing wall from the Parks & Rec and did great. Rose Pink made it all the way to the top of easy, and Nut Brown made it 2/3 of the way up the medium wall.

The weather was beautiful, and the festival was fun, but the best part by far was riding there and back together. Rose Pink just got a new bike (and pink and black plaid affair that she has named 'Skull') and Nut Brown rides on a hitchhiker bike behind Mr. Brown. We ride gently through the neighborhoods under the trees and my heart just wants to burst with love because my family is so wonderful.

18 June 2011

Last night, I suggested to Rose Pink that if she would ride her bike without training wheels to the ice cream shop, I would buy her an ice cream cone. She has been anxious about riding without training wheels, but with the prospect of an ice cream reward she set off, albeit reluctantly. We successfully negotiated the 3/4 mile ride through our residential neighborhood, and enjoyed the ice cream. Mr. Brown and Nut Brown came along, with Nut Brown in the bike trailer. On the way home, Rose Pink told me how much fun it was to ride a bicycle.

This morning, I had to carry some cookies over to a neighbor a few blocks away, and Rose Pink suggested that she and I ride our bikes over. So all of us rode over to the neighbor's house, and then rode to a park about a mile away and played there for awhile. On the way home we stopped at the corner store for cold drinks.

Every time that we mentioned going anywhere, Rose Pink suggested riding our bikes. She said it was lots of fun, and that bikes are even faster than cars! In the late afternoon, she finally won us over again, and we rode our bikes almost two miles to a park that's on my way home from work, and from there a couple blocks over to the Telway, a little bitty diner, and had hamburgers for dinner. It was so much fun to be out and about and to have increased our range so much. Nut Brown was very patient (and slightly bored) in the bike trailer, but it will be fun this summer to ride places together (library! farmer's market! other ice cream store!). Hooray!

25 October 2010

A few weeks ago, Rose Pink got on her two-wheeler bike and rode off down the driveway. She had been practicing coasting on it with no training wheels, and hadn't wanted to try riding it. But I told her that someday, she was just going to get on her bike and go flying off into the sunset so fast that we wouldn't even see her go... and it was worth finding out if today was the day. Well, it turned out that it was.

She is so fast on two wheels. Why does it make such a difference to take off the training wheels? Go, little girl, go.

bicycle

I rode my bicycle home from work six miles IN THE RAIN yesterday. Truly I am a champion.

25 June 2010

I rode my bike to work today!! Six miles each way. It took me forty minutes. I am SO PLEASED with myself. Our red Honda is broken right now, and I'm glad for it forcing me to actually try it after talking about it for six weeks.