Here Comes A New Shelmet

Yesterday Zoe came downstairs to find her new bike waiting for her. She squealed with delight and was very complementary about Cheryl and I being good parents. Of course we took it out that day, but we also went out this morning to ride around in Lorimer Park. She wanted to start off riding down the trail, which she did for a bit, before moving back to the circle. She was doing really great riding around, but I suggested that we take a short break and then head over to Rydal East so that she could practice her turns on the paved playground area. That seemed to interest her, especially when I said she would have to swerve through buckets, so we packed up our supplies and made our way to the school. The pictures weren't doing her performance justice, so I took some videos and stitched them together. It was so windy out that I dropped out the howling breeze for some simple music. Check out some of those turns! Later in the evening Zoe wanted to go out for another r

On Sunday Zoe asked if we could go to the park so she could try to ride her bike. The catch was, she wanted to take off her training wheels and ride all by herself. We packed up her bike, her helmet, and a wrench and drove down the street to the park. I took off her training wheels, she put on her helmet, and we were off. Here are some pictures of the first outing. And here's a little montage of the video that was taken for the first day. Overall she did really well that first day. On Monday she was excited to get back and try some more, so Zoe and I went back to the park. Since it was only the two of us, there weren't as many pictures taken, but she did pose on her bike for me, in full pads. And before we left, she wanted desperately to try and ride all by herself. When she did that, I was able to take some video. Today, after we ate dinner, we went back to the park to try riding some more. We walked down to the spot where we were riding the other days

Zoe hasn't been to derby practice for a number of weeks, so when Cheryl asked if she wanted to go skating at The Palace, Zoe was super excited for the opportunity. Since my body is not made to be put on wheels, I brought along the camera to take a few pictures. It started off slow, but after a couple laps around the rink they were doing patty cake on skates! Next they transitioned to moves like squats and skating like Egyptians, shout out to The Bangles. After that there was a brief practicing of jumps. You can tell Cheryl wasn't entirely sure she was up to it based on these faces she made while landing. From there they transitioned over to the one leg skating. It appeared that both of them were pretty confident in rolling on one foot. When that was done they moved on to the pure joy section of the skating. That's not to say that they didn't enjoy every moment of this, but this really seemed to be the part where the smiles kicked into high gear.

While shopping at Target one day, Cheryl and Zoe spied a pack of markers that were specifically for drawing on skin. we brought them home and sort of forgot about them until the other day when we decided that we would all get some temporary tattoos. For some reason I drew the short straw and went first. Be warned, if you're about to eat a meal or have a weak constitution, look away. Zoe was told that she could draw whatever she wanted, so she drew a drink with a lime on the rim of the glass. It looked really good! Next up was Cheryl, who was getting some extra ink under the permanent tattoos she already has. Zoe decided on a unicorn. Notice how when she concentrates really hard on her work, her tongue pops out. She gets that from her mother. When Cheryl and I were done, it was Zoe's turn. Zoe got flowers on one leg and a cartoon cactus on the other one. After a few days, Cheryl's tattoo was still going strong. The marker didn't wash off as easily