new wheels

When Evie turned five last September, we got her a bike helmet and told her we would take her soon to get a new bike.

Does nine months count for soon?

Well, after her long exercise in patience--and a good deal of shopping, both online and on-site--Evie has her new bike: a Schwinn Stardust. She is such hot stuff.

We'd planned to get her a 16" bike, but she would have outgrown a 16", probably by next month at the rate she seems to be growing lately, so the owner of the bike shop showed us how to make a 20" work just fine. Better yet, he had a 20" used Stardust in the back, upon which he put new training wheels, handle grips with streamers, and a big basket, and we made out at about a third of the cost of the new 16".

My mom didn't want Eloise to feel left out with Evie getting a new bike and all, so she brought over one of her latest garage sale finds: a Flexible Flyer tricycle, just enough smaller than Evie's old Radio Flyer trike that Eloise can easily reach the pedals.

(Because, you know, we needed another child's riding/pedalling toy around here...seven just wasn't enough!)

Eloise is equally as proud of her trike as Evie is of her bike.

I was starting to worry about keeping up with them on our walks, when I stumbled across a great garage sale deal on a jogging stroller. (Because, you know, we needed another stroller, too: an umbrella, single, double, and triple is simply not enough for one family!) Now even Audrey and I have some new wheels!

a fantastically fun family day

My friend, Amy, and I were on the phone today, talking about possibly taking our kids to a little amusement park. I asked her if it was even open for the season yet, and when she told me that it was, I told her that for some reason, I thought it was only open June, July, and August. After pausing for a minute, she said something like, "Uh, it is June, right?".

Duh.

Not only is it June, but it's more than halfway through June.

Can you say "mommy brain"?!?

Seeing as it is halfway through June, I figured it's high time I updated my blog. And since I'm all messed up anyway, I might as well post about something that actually happened even more than a month ago, right? Right.

We took the girls to Sesame Street Live! We had gone last year and had a blast, so we made sure to get tickets again this time. We sat in the first row of the balcony where the view was great. The characters (pronounced char-AC-ters if you're Evie, by the way...not sure why!) were getting ready to put on a pageant about what they wanted to be when they grew up. Elmo wanted to be everything everyone else wanted to be, and Big Bird couldn't pick anything to be. In his big, yellow, whiny way, Big Bird became very sad when the pageant was about to begin and he still hadn't determined a career path for himself. Fortunately, Prairie Dawn gave him a very peppy pep talk, he felt better, and they all lived happily ever after (or something like that).

The girls were mesmerized by the singing, dancing, acting, and lights. It appeared that a good time was being had by all...which is why I was stunned when, as we walked out of the theater and asked Eloise if she liked the show, she burst into tears, crying, "I just feel really sad that Big Bird was really sad!". When we reminded her that he wasn't sad anymore at the end, she calmed down and admitted that she really did like the show. Poor thing...she's so sensitive!

All tears were definitely long forgotten when we had lunch afterward at Sweet Tomatoes. We all ate way too much, and then polished it all off with ice cream cones. Yum.

It was a fantastically fun family day.

And what did Audrey think of her first show? I'll let her tell you herself: