Apparently yesterday, May 7th, was National Walk or Ride Your Bike to School day. We were appraised of this well ahead of time and decided to do a test run, mainly to see how long it takes to walk to school, after school on Tuesday. Amalia and I walked to school at a normal pace and found that it took about 25 minutes, about what I had expected. We then picked up our little buddy and started the trek back. Now, about halfway there, Mollie informed me that her legs hurt and she was getting tired, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to have to walk all the way back, the way back being nearly entirely uphill and all. So, after a slow start, we stopped in the shade of a few pine trees and enjoyed some protein-packed snacks to get our energy back up for the trek.
We made it home safe and sound, but they were completely worn out and basically vegged out on the couch until dinner. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous about starting our day out that way the next morning.
Then Mother Nature, apparently sensing my concern, threw a huge thunder and lightning storm our way and "ruined" our plans to walk to school on the designated day. Baylor was upset at first, but I think it worked out for the best.
Today, though, was perfect weather for a walk to school, so we slid on our sneakers, grabbed some water, and headed out a half an hour before school was supposed to start. About halfway into our walk, Baylor let me know that he was, in fact, hungry. I, uncharacteristically, did not bring any food, so I offered him some water and he was satisfied with it.
Along the way, I was reminded that my children have two speeds: mosey/saunter and run. Since running was not an option - I wanted Baylor to have energy for the rest of the day and Mollie to have enough energy to at least make it back home - we moseyed our way to school. I watch bunches of other families on bikes zooming by us, getting to school with plenty of time to spare, and I started getting more and more nervous that we would be late.
Imagine my surprise, then, when we got there early! Not super early, mind you, but early nonetheless. Baylor, not having gotten to school this early since fall, was hesitant to join the rest of the kids and we spent the last couple minutes before school chilling on the "secret" path.
After the bell rang and Baylor was cool with us walking him to the front of school, Mollie and I started walking home. We met this little guy as we were walking, and he stared us down as long as he could before scampering off, scaring the crap out of Mollie in the process.
Mollie was pretty tired the rest of the day, but Baylor took the cake for sheer exhaustion by the time dinner rolled around; because the day had been so nice, the teachers decided to sneak in a couple extra recesses - he had FOUR in total - and he went all out in his swim lesson after school. It was absolutely no wonder that he was irrational up through dinner and then relatively quiet after that.
I don't know how often we'll be walking to school, but it certainly was good exercise and I'm glad we gave it a try!
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