Easy Riders

For the last two summers, just as I did with swimming by herself, I declared that this would be the year Maggie would learn to ride a bike with no training wheels. Up until this summer, however, we didn't meet this goal. Our short driveway is gravel, which isn't very bike-fall-friendly, and it was entirely unfeasible to load up all the bikes by myself and then attempt to teach her to ride, while keeping Finn and Carolina safe and busy. This summer, however, Grant and I made it a priority to take the whole family bike riding so that Maggie would have a chance to learn. After two sessions she basically had it figured out. Starting and stopping were a little tricky but after about five sessions she had that down, too. I have so many fond memories of family biking as a child and I have always had a dream of being a biking family - you know, the ones who ride bikes out to dinner, take long bike rides on trails, and basically live on bikes in nice weather.

As a side note, for locals, did you know that Vanderbilt Children's Hospital has a safety store, selling safety devices (baby-proofing devices, portable cribs, car seats, bike helmets, etc.) at cost? And even better, they have trained employees who will fit the helmet to your child's head? We got these great helmets for $8 and they fit perfectly. I read somewhere that the majority of children's bike helmets aren't put on/fitted correctly.
The last four or five Sundays we've loaded up the bikes and gone to either a park or our church's parking lot (empty, and great for bike riding, and with a playground in case Carolina gets antsy), taken a picnic, and closed out our weekend with a couple of hours of family bike time. It has been so fabulous. Last night Uncle Blake met us at the church. 

 Another advantage of riding at the church is that Carolina can use the church's riding toys. We don't have a bike or scooter for her because she's really just barely too young (in my opinion). My plan is to pass Finn's balance bike down to her soon, when we think he's ready to try a big kid bike - no training wheels! We think the balance bike is the bee's knees around here.

 Here's Finn whizzing around on his balance bike. He can coast for a pretty good distance now.

 The newest addition to our bike inventory is a new bike seat we just bought (for about 75% off!). I've heard that this is safer than the ones that mount to the back, and the bike trailer is just so huge and bulky. We tried it out for the first time last night. Here's an action shot for you:

And in the ultimate gesture of selflessness, I'm posting a terribly, terribly unflattering photo of myself, because Carolina looks so darn adorable here.

If you're done laughing or gasping in horror, let me tell you what I was thinking. I thought "I don't think I'm in this photo. I don't want to be smiling for a photo I'm not in; I'll look like an idiot." Note to self: always smile, even if you're not sure you're in the photo.

Besides biking, we had an action-packed weekend, including a visit to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens (we LOVE our membership there, thanks to Blake & Jenny), my nephew Jack's fifth birthday at Chuck E. Cheese, and the Hispanic Festival. They had free bounce houses and pony rides, and all three kids had fun on the ponies.

Maggie went to a birthday party last weekend which had two ponies for the kids to ride (it probably isn't crazy expensive but for some reason it seems so decadent to hire ponies for a kid's birthday!). All of the other kids enjoyed their one or two rides on the ponies, but Maggie had so much fun she took 14 rides on the ponies at the party. Apparently she got to know the horse handler pretty well and we were surprised to see the same guy at the Hispanic Festival. After her ride at the festival I asked Maggie if she said hello to the horse guy and if she told him she remembered him from the birthday party. She replied, "Actually, he spoke of it first. He remembered that I liked riding Honey better than Justice." Two things: first, that's really sweet that he remembered her. Secondly, I love that she said, "he spoke of it first." That seems like a pretty grown-up way for a six-year-old to talk.

Finn and Carolina enjoyed the pony rides after seeing Maggie ride one last week at the party.

Grant had to walk around the whole time with Carolina to make sure she didn't fall off.

 Our weekends have been so fun lately and I'm finding myself dreading Monday morning in the same way I used to dread it when I had a job! These are happy days; I'm so grateful.