Training Wheels 101

Today I took the kids to Donelly Park. I actually told them I would take them to Toys R Us to look for a bike for Mason, but they both got busy playing and forgot about wanting to go. So, I asked myself, how badly do I want to take two kids to Toys R Us if they aren't even excited to go? Even though I had been practicing my Mom voice all morning: "No dear, we can't buy that today. Maybe for Christmas.." I decided to bag the Toys R Us plan and go to Plan B: Donelly Park. Once I mentioned the park, both kids were ready to go within minutes. Warmer clothes were put on (its only 60 degrees here right now), teeth were brushed and shoes applied to feet. We went to Donelly Park and had a good time. Mason would only go down the slides if I went with him. The only problem with that was one of the slides dumps you out on a big patch of dirt really REALLY fast. I didn't know this in advance. So Mason, Ella and I went flying out of the slide and skidded into the dirt for a few seconds before stopping. Good thing these are thrift store jeans. And that only one person saw the spectacle we made of ourselves as we tried to get up.





Then we went to Landstuhl to get mail and drop off stuff at the Thrift Store. So of course we went IN the Thrift Store and looked around. I found a Halloween costume for me (a witch, appropriate, huh?) and a cat costume for Ella. Then Mason cried the whole time because he didn't think HE had a costume too. I told him that his costume was at home. We found a bike for Ella. She graciously gave her old bike away before leaving Hawaii and has been using Colton's old one for a while. But the training wheels aren't put on very well and she hasn't been able to ride it. Plus its old and falling apart. So, we found a bike at the Thrift store. Being the savvy shopper that I am, they knocked $5 off the price and we had a deal. Here's Ella with her new bike in the parking lot:

Then the problems started when we got home. Ella kept leaning over all the way to one side on the bike and making the training wheel on that side slide out. So, I kicked it. I thought it was like a car. You could kick the tires with no problem. Well, guess what? Training wheels are really flimsy. I broke the plastic part. Then it wouldn't work at all. So, being the mechanical genius that I am, it took 20 minutes to try to figure out how to take that training wheel off and replace it with the training wheel from Colton's old bike. The whole time I'm looking across the street at my old German neighbor who is trimming his bushes, thinking, I'm sure HE knows how to do this better than me. How do you say "Please help me fix this bike for my daughter before I get so frustrated that I kick the whole thing to pieces?" in German? Speaking of German, I LOVE when I ask a German if they "sprechen English?" and get the reply "a little" and then they proceed to sprechen English better than me! It happened this morning when I called to order oil for our oil tanks. All you with central heat, be grateful!!! The lady at the oil company was SO nice and said she only spoke a little, but did awesome. I hope one day to sprechen Deutch 'a little' just like that.
Oh, and here's Mason in his Halloween costume. I know, it's only September 2nd, but look how gosh darn cute he is in the cape I ordered on line for him. It's Batman on one side and Incredibles on the other: