Biker Boys

I feel like a neglectful parent.  None of my children- even 8 year old Ethan knows how to ride a bike.  This has been on my mind for, oh at least 2 years.  But in truth, I don't own a bike to take any of them on bike rides and our home/yard/street situation doesn't lend itself to letting kids ride bikes alone.  Plus we travel every Christmas when I feel like I could give all 3 boys the same big gift so I just haven't gotten around to getting them bikes.  Until this year.  So when Taylor was going to be home for Labor Day weekend I decided that that would be the perfect time to go buy bikes and learn to ride them.

An early morning trip to Walmart was fun and then we drove to our church parking lot.  I got out the 3 bikes and was helping Isaac and Miles unwrap and put on their also-new tennis shoes (since we're still living in sandals around here) which are required for riding bikes and going to school for that matter.  And while I was putting on shoes and getting everyone out of the car and finally got my camera ready, I turned around to see this...

Seriously?  I wasn't even turned around for more than 2 minutes and when I'm finally ready to capture that cute image of Taylor holding the back of Ethan's bike and him learning to balance, it was over.  Apparently if you wait until a kid is fully 8, it takes less than 2 minutes to learn.

And he's off... and never looking back.  And Isla's chasing after him.

Isaac's bike came with training wheels and in truth he's my bit-of-a-chicken boy when it comes to trying new things.  So he was content to just learn how to peddle for today which you might not think was much but there's a good size hill in the parking lot so he got practice peddling flat, uphill, downhill, turning, and braking.  A good start for a 5 year old.

Isla was very interested in the bikes and followed the boys around all morning.  Anytime they stopped she'd try to take over and get on them.  Milo and his feet weren't having it.

I may have missed the lesson on how to balance, but I did catch the "how to climb on and start riding" lesson.

That took him about 2 minutes too.

Ok, just had to include this shot extra big since I forgot to zoom in.  Isaac made me laugh the whole time because when he's concentrating, he bites on his tongue.  So cute!  Still smiling- and biting his tongue.

Isla got bored after a while and started climbing up and down the parking lot steps.

Miles loved being one of the big boys even though he's a little young for a bike.  He got training wheels as well but kept tipping over if he got himself on a hill at all.  He learned to peddle pretty well and was happy to get more of dad's attention since Ethan didn't need it.

Isla tried convincing the boys they should join her as a spectator.

And then she just gave up.

These boys would have stayed there all day.

Miles even tried out riding on Ethan's wheel bars- just a little nerve racking for the mom.

It was a great way to spend Labor Day and now, even though they don't ride them often, they have bikes and I'm looking forward to next summer when we can take longer family bike rides.