She Knits Shizknits

Happy 4th!

More photos of our annual block party here

Memorial Day

This year's Memorial Day block party was supposed to be 'low key'.  We didn't pull out the waterslide, we didn't rent a jumphouse, we didn't put out a pool....we just sat around:

BBQd (lots of delicious tri-tip!):

...and let the kids just play. There was a lot of scooter and bike riding:

Then the squirt guns came out!



And of course we had to have water balloons. Why is it that water balloons take FOREVER to blow up, and the kids go thru them in seconds? I spent at least an hour blowing up about 200 water balloons. It took less than 2 minutes for them to all be used up!




The weather was just perfect: not too hot and not too cold. We started around 11am, and ended up staying outside all day long.  Around 6pm we finally decided to order pizzas for everyone who was still hanging out, clean up the street, and head inside to watch the Lakers game.

We finally got home around 7:30pm...just in time for a quick dunk in the tub for the small men.  They had their bath and then crashed HARD...I think they were both fast asleep before 8!  I don't blame them- I was pretty exhausted myself.  Even if all I did all day was sit around, chatting with the other mommas!

i have one already, but it would be fun to have another...

Yes, I know we already have a cool cargo bike....but how fun would it be to have two?!? Then the Dearest and I could go grocery shopping together!!!

Madsen is giving away one of their bikes in July...all you have to do is click think link and I get entered into the drawing. Copy and paste it to your blog, and let me know...I'll visit and click thru for you, too!

How to make it home with two bikes

This is what u resort to when the six yr old is too tired to ride anymore

oopsie

Monkey Boy has had a tough couple of weeks when it comes to getting banged up. I have a theory that kids tend to get clumsy right before and after a growth spurt, as it takes some time for them to coordinate themselves again. Well MB must be growing because in the past few days he's knocked his noggin several times, as well as cutting up a knee and acquiring a few other minor injuries.

Yesterday was gawd-awful hot (where is Fall????) and we didn't venture outside to play till nearly 5pm, when the temp had gone down to only 90F. I was sitting in the shade, chatting with a friend while the kids rode around on their bikes. I glanced over just as MB, pedaling full steam ahead, turned his handlebars too sharply and went down, HARD.

Now, I'm probably one of the more blase mommas out there when my kids get hurt. I tend to be very calm- blood doesn't freak me out, and I know kids are pretty durable so I generally assume they are ok unless they start screaming too much. And MB is much tougher than most kids- he's taken nasty spills before and jumped up immediately saying "I ok! I ok!".

But when I saw his FACE hit the blacktop- I was up and out of my chair so fast I don't think my feet even touched the ground. The two other moms who were chatting with me ran over at the same time. MB was completely wrapped up in this bike- I had a heck of a time pulling him free- and was screaming pretty hard. He had his hand over his mouth and I could see a good amount of blood between his fingers.

Since he was screaming, I got a glimpse of his teeth- thank goodness they were still in his mouth! I scooped him up and carried him inside to put an ice pack on his face before the swelling got too bad. He seemed more upset that he'd only gotten to play for 10 minutes than anything else.

 Here he is today...

The complete injury list?
-1 very fat lip
-missing skin from his upper lip
-a road rash on his chin
-scrapes to both knees
-scrapes to one arm and elbow
-a small bump on the forehead
-a bloody nose
-bruised gums

I'm a little concerned about his upper front teeth. It looks like he hit the ground with his mouth wide open because there is grit embedded in his teeth! Luckily they are not loose at all, but there is quite a bit of bruising at the base of one tooth. I was able to brush his teeth gently this morning and his gums bled a bit but I think they'll be ok.

I asked him to smile for this one:

The friend I was chatting with when this happened said, "I knew it was bad when you looked at his mouth and said, 'Oh, that's not good'!"  Which made us both laugh.

I'm just glad MB was wearing his bike helmet (in our house it's a rule to wear a helmet if you're riding anything with wheels). I have a feeling if he hadn't been wearing his helmet, he would've gotten a good knock on the noggin and probably a concussion. Thank goodness he's just scratched up instead!  He did eventually  go back outside with the Dearest last night, after watching a couple of cartoons and using the ice pack for a bit.  And he jumped right back on his bike like nothing had happened, riding it full steam ahead once again.

more X-mods

We are having such a good time with our Xtracycle- between the rides and the mods- it's definitely family fun! The Dearest and I finally fixed up with snapdeck with more comfortable seats for the small men.

As I posted before, we had cut out a new snapdeck from 1" pine. The new snapdeck is wider and longer than the stock deck, which gave us enough room for two seats to be securely attached. Last Saturday, while the Dearest was out playing hockey, I spent some quality time with a drill, screwdrivers and assorted hardware. Four 3/4" wood screws were used for each seat, going through the nylon/plastic/foam of each seat and directly into the snapdeck.



I used washers around the screws to lessen the chances of the screws pulling through the seat bottom. Four screws per seat held the seats on the snapdeck just right. The two seats fit nicely on the bigger deck- now the second kid has more room for their legs, and the second seat isn't hanging off the back.

Since I had extra straps, I also made seatbelts for each seat. I threaded the straps under the snapdeck and screwed them into place with a small steel plate (to spread the force) and three little wood screws. The only difficult part was making sure the straps could fit through the Freeloader where it connects to the V-rack.

The seatbelts are nice- they prevent passengers from sliding forward if I stop abruptly. The whole setup has been working great. When no one is using the seats, it's simple to fold them down and snap the seatbelts over the top to keep the straps out of the way.

Our final mod was a set of DIY footrests for the front passenger. Xtracycle sells cute Footsies, but they install too low to be usable for the small men. So we found some cheap bar ends and slid them onto the v-racks.

They fit perfectly and make a good platform for Little Man's feet.

He's much happier now that his feet aren't dangling!

BTW I got some emails asking about the seats...I got them at Sport Chalet. They were called "kids' campseats", and are very similar to these Kelty seats being sold on the website. They were $12 each IIRC.  

ETA- I found the seats HERE, if you want to purchase them and can't find them locally. More info on the seats: they are padded with foam on the bottom and back and have rigid stays running all along the edges.  When I was drilling, I tried to drill through one of the stays but it kept slipping sideways (I think it's made of plastic).  So I ended up just drilling through the padding instead. Not too worried about it ripping through at the screw points as the weight of the kids pretty much hold the seats in place- the screws are just to keep the seats from shifting too much.

The bar ends were from Performance Bike- about $10.

The new snapdeck is made from 1"x12" pine that we cut with a jigsaw.  I coated it with a few coats of polyurethane for protection from the elements, and we used new snapdeck clips to hold it onto the bike.

We've gotten lots of ideas from the online community for modifications, but it's been hard to find good photos and details. Hopefully this helps other X-users who are trying to mod their bikes.

modding the green minivan (aka Xtracycle)

I love my Xtracycle (as you all know by now!), and I think it's the best thing ever for turning a recreational vehicle- a bike- into a usable grocery getter/people mover. The small men LOVE riding on the snapdeck- they ask for a ride almost every day. I have been trying to figure out a way to make their riding more comfortable and a bit safer; recently I bought a couple of folding stadium seats and strapped them to the top of the snapdeck. This worked tolerably...the exisiting snapdeck is a *tad* too thin in the back for the second seat to fit well so I was only using one seat.

Last weekend, the Dearest and I took the kids to the local Big Box Home Improvement Store and wandered the aisles, brainstorming about what we should do to make the passengers' ride better. After some time spent in the lumber and hardware aisles, as well as a few hours playing with the jigsaw and sander at home, we made this:

It's a new, wider snapdeck.

See how much wider the new snapdeck (on the bottom) is compared to the original?

The new deck supports the seats much better. The sides of the seats no longer flop over the edges of the deck. We also cut the new deck a bit longer in the back so there's more room for both seats. In the photo above, the seats are just sitting on the deck. The next move is to attach the seats permanently to the new snapdeck. The seats have metal pieces running along each outer edge, so we are going to drill through the fabric and metal and directly into the wood of the snapdeck. That should hold everything in place nicely.  We're still up in the air about what kind of support/handhold we should put in the front of the seats (if any)....

grocery shopping on the X

Monkey Boy and I had our first grocery trip on the Xtracycle today. We rode down to the local health food store, throwing in a stop at the Home Depot for assorted screws and bits and bobs the Dearest said we needed for the new snapdeck mod.

I think we went about 3 miles roundtrip, which doesn't sound like much- but the entire return trip is uphill. I don't think I could have made it without the help of the e-assist! Monkey Boy weighs about 30lbs, and I guesstimate the groceries were 20lbs, give or take. Here's what was in the bags...
1  3lb cantaloupe
1lb of carne asade
2lbs of ground beef
two cans of black beans
vitamins for the boys
1 container of cream cheese
3 avocados
2 boxes of yogurt tubes
taco shells
1 box of Annies Graham crackers
cold cuts + cheese
sunflower and pumpkin seeds
a box of candy for the small men (chosen by Monkey Boy)

I really wish I had taken a photo of the groceries and Monkey Boy on the bike, but I was running late to pick up Little Man from school

So we rode about 1.5 miles back home to get LM.  At first I couldn't find him him in the pickup line, then I saw his teacher and she told me that LM had been complaining off and on about an upset tummy after lunch. She sent him to the front office, but he returned feeling fine. Five minutes before last bell, LM ended up being sick in class, poor thing.

I had to go into the front office to get LM. He was feeling 'all better' at that point- he was more upset about having to sit in his 'icky' clothes than anything else. We all loaded onto the Xtracycle and I started up the Big Hill. Little Man weighs about 50Lbs...added to the approx 50lbs I was already carrying....and it was quite a bit of work to keep moving. I had the e-assist fully engaged and was pedaling like crazy in my lowest gear!

I finally had to stop about 100ft before the crest of the hill because my legs were just killing me, probably because I'm woefully out of shape. Monkey Boy and Little Man started cheering me on, "C'mon mommy, you can do it! Only a little way more to go!" Needless to say, with that kind of encouragement I couldn't get off and walk...we somehow made it to the top of the hill and I turned into our lovely, FLAT, subdivision.

And that was the end of our first grocery adventure on the Xtracycle. Oh, and Little Man is feeling quite a bit better tonight. No fever or anything so it must have just been something he ate that didn't agree with him. Hopefully he is fine in the morning.

1 week of X-adventures

This week we've been to the library together on the X, gone for numerous neighborhood rides, and had a lot of fresh-air fun. Here are the stats:

Number of times I dropped off Little Man at school on my Xtracycle: 5
Number of times I picked up Little Man from school: 2
Number of other trips where I used the X instead of the Funbus: 2
Number of people who have stopped me and asked me about the bike: 4 (another 3 asked the Dearest when he took the X shopping)

Amount of fun we've had: +1000

who says you can't ride a bike in a skirt?