On their way to my house. Kate has left her training wheels behind and is a really good rider - but just not good enough for the adult trail yet.
She has been so concerned about seeing the little park near us littered and messy with rocks in the path and even a bench broken. I know kids go there and vandalize it, and it's sad, but she is so disgusted with trash on the ground. "WHY do people throw things on the ground. They're littering." Sure enough, after a few tears when they rode away, she was chattering away and helping me pick a big bag for us.
She's looking for every little bit of trash and is so serious about it.
Once we got that area cleaned up, we walked toward the school to see if we could find anything else and ran right into a PARTY. She could hear music and see kids walking down the sidewalk and best of all, not one but two bouncy houses. Please, Mimi! I called it a stroke of luck to find something fun for her to do, not knowing that there was a full-fledged block party going on. I had read about it, but I thought it was in Snoqualmie town, not the Ridge, so that was nice.
Before we got there, her little bicycle tire had a blow-out. We heard it, and when we looked, there was a hole in the back tire.
I told her she could get a new one, meaning tire, but she almost started crying because, "I love my little bike SO SO much!" Once she found out I didn't mean a whole new bike, she was okay but refused to push it, so I had to juggle it in one hand and my bag of trash and her jacket in the other until I found a trash can.
But she did enjoy the bouncy houses. It makes me so happy to see how happy it makes her. She ran into a neighbor friend, and they went back and forth between them until I finally suggested we go look and see what else they had.
As soon as we crossed the street, she was thrilled to run into her best friend Makena and her dad. Lots of hugging and giggling. It was a stroke of luck for me too, since I told him about the bike and having to drag it around. He said if I would just lay it against a wall, he would take it to his truck and drop it off at their house when they got through. I didn't argue a bit. Katherine and I were headed back to the apartment to get some cash to get her a balloon and maybe something to eat, and I didn't have to carry it with me.
It turned out all the cute little animal head balloons were gone by the time we got back, and she didn't argue when I talked her out of a $10 fragile-looking unicorn. In fact, she was just the happiest and sweetest girl all morning. Just a few pictures up and down the sidewalk.
A cute little girl had spread out a blanket on the sidewalk and was selling her "jewels." I told Katherine she could pick out some things for her and Graysen, and she was fascinated - but shy. It took her a pretty long time, but she chose a free ring and two 65-cent necklaces for them. So happy with that. It's amazing how easy it is to please a 4-year-old!
Her dance company had several groups of girls performing, so she settled in to watch some of those. She loved every minutes of that and clapped for them when they finished.
This was not good. This little girl started crying as soon as she got out there and continued to wail loudly the whole dance. I wanted to go rescue her!
I think she was more worried about the dog than the dinosaur, but she kept her distance from them both. I'm surprised she didn't go up and make sure they had a doggie bag.
It was such a perfect day that we just lucked into. Emily made us another good salad and the girls hot dogs, and I left to walk home and enjoy the rest of the weekend.
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