Bikes and Fall Weather

The weather is finally cooling off here in Shanghai. This past week we have had blue skies and moderate temperatures. The best part about the weather is that it coincided with a big holiday week and Alex was off of work for nearly a week. Last Thursday was China's 'National Day'... 60 years of 'Modern China' since the communist party took power. There was a huge parade and lots of fireworks! Just a few days later was the traditional 'Mid-Autumn Festival'. We received a few boxes of Mooncakes from friends and neighbors and were actually able to spend this family-oriented holiday with Alex's parents as they were passing through Shanghai!

Last Wednesday night, the eve of the beginning of this long holiday week, Alex took Wendy out for a surprise trip to a sporting good store nearby and bought her a new bike. She has been riding around on her tricycle for the past two years and we decided it was time to move up. She, of course, picked out the pink-est bike in the store with a babydoll seat on the back! She loves it and we have been going out for bike rides everyday since! Vera also received a new bike...a good friend gave us one that was too small for her son and it also ended up being a bit too short for Wendy, so Vera has a 'big girl' bike too!

The day after getting the new bike it was raining (the only rainy day, thankfully) so the girls unfortunately were limited to riding around our hallway by the elevators of our apartment building. They found it to be satisfactory and even fun. Here are a few photos from the rainy day...playing with bikes in the hall!

The girls got up on my bike...without permission...thankfully it was propped against the rail there. I did decide to take a photo before getting them down. They looked too cute! They had gone out to 'clean their bikes' and I came out to check on them after hearing uncontrollable laughter.

Here is Wendy and her new bike! She is very proud of it...she keeps it cleaned up and loves to check the air in the tires! She bundled up her dolly (to keep her dry from the rain supposedly) and has the doll strapped into the seat on the back.

Below are two 'action shots' of Vera riding through the hall (it does seem like every photo of Vera is an 'action shot')! Alex's mom helped to control the chaos out there. Thankfully we have very kind neighbors who didn't mind our girls being loud in the hall on that rainy day!