Monday, September 12, 2011

New Bikes and Pinnacle Mountain Picnic

One of the biggest additions to our family lately (besides the baby news, of course, if you missed my last post) are new bikes for the kids. We bought them (used) a couple of weekends ago, and they've been a hit around here. Because we don't have a great place to ride bikes, our kids' cycling skills weren't up to par. Sissy couldn't even ride a tricycle. She never learned, and now she was too big for one. Feeling shame on our parts, we loaded the kids up one day and headed off to buy bikes and helmets.

I love Sissy's Schwinn because it reminds me of a bike I might have had when I was little. She's really great at riding now. They love for Ryan to go with them on long rides in our neighborhood as often as possible.

Dash is still using training wheels. I don't think it will be too much longer before he can take them off. He can steer down an incline without them on; he just can't pedal without them yet.

Dash

And we also got Tornado a bike, but we haven't found the right training wheel match-up yet. It's hard to find a bike with training wheels that is big enough for his long legs. We're also looking into getting him one of those low rider bikes for older kids/adults. And we're trying to encourage him because it's just not something he's as interested in. When something is physically challenging, he wants no part in it, and we're working on making it an attainable activity for him.

Friday night, Ryan suggested we meet him in Little Rock for supper. We picked up food from Whole Foods, then met him at Pinnacle Mountain State Park. It had been awhile since the kids had been to that side of the mountain, and it felt all new and exciting for them.

The kids played on the playground for quite awhile after we ate, while Ryan and I had a rare moment of sitting alone to talk and watch them. We also walked through one of the trails along the creek. Fun night, and it wore the kids out. I think they all fell asleep (or close to it) on the way home.

Just a heads up since I haven't been posting as much lately; I have several posts going up this week so check back!


2 comments:

Annette W. said...

Meghan and I looked at this together...and then she asked if we could go to Arkansas.

MaDonna Maurer said...

Jenny, we are looking at trying to get some kind of bike for Matthea as well. They have these large wheeled tricycle bikes here...like an adult tricycle I guess with a basket on the back for elderly people. We were thinking about that. I have been wanting to get her this: http://www.brucehigley.com/Kids_Special_Needs_Bike.php
But haven't b/c we haven't been back to the US and I'm scared of shipping it here and then not liking it, etc.
But, when looking for the above site I came across this: http://www.fatwheels.com/

If you do try something like that out, let me know how it works...the adult tricycle thing is still too large for her, but an option for her in about 5 years! I don't want to wait that long. LOL