A Sense of Accomplishment

My girls were commenting the other day about their desire to someday ride their bikes to school. We live 4.8 km which isn't so far but the challenge is that 1.5 km of the path is uphill. So later that day the girls and I went on a bike ride around our house as we often do, but this time I challenged them to prove to themselves that they could conquer this bike ride to school. So we set off towards their school, Tahlia on her 8 speed bike that she hadn't yet learned how to use and Mikaela on her "cruiser" without gears. My girls "ROCK". They both made it up the hill without stopping and continued to the school and then back up our own neighbor hill to our house like champs. Upon our return they both knew proper hand signals for turning, Tahlia was better equipped in using her gears, Mikaela's legs were stronger than all of ours put together, and they both were beaming with joy from their success. By Slovenian standards they won't be allowed to go alone on the city streets until they pass a bike riding test in 5th grade to get their license. However, I see a few earlier rises in the near future, for the three of us girls to ride to school together.

I couldn't help but reminisce of the days when I was Tahlia's age and my mom would bike with my brother and myself six miles across town to school. Unfortunately for my girls, they don't get to stop at their best friends house on the way home to jump in their pool to cool off like we did.