Tom came home w/ this idea from a friend at work the other day. They called it Bike Town USA! I think it might have actually been Schwinn Town, but I'm pretty sure I can't call it that. ;) Basically the idea is that it's different stores etc that you can ride your bike to. You set up the shops and then draw the chalk lines and ride your bike in town.
Jason and Lily were ALL OVER this idea. They thought it was great. We asked them what they wanted to make and some of their ideas were coffee shop (duh), ice cream shop, pizza place, bike shop, school and grocery store.
Think we have enough bikes? Who do you think has more my son or me?
This weekend Tom and Jason hit the hardware store for some particle board and Pat and Tom constructed some basic store fronts for a Pizza place and an Ice Cream shop. Then we pulled out the pluthera of half full paint cans we have in our garage (bc this awesome town has no real good solution for disposing of it) and we helped them paint their shops. They did a great job.. only got a little paint in their hair and on their clothes, but most of it got on the shops.
Then they drew chalk roads on our driveway and made us pizza and ice cream.
If we can't LIVE it we'll just create it until we can be in a place where this can be our lifestyle. We another board. I'm not sure what store the kids are going to chose next, but we had an absolute blast making these little store fronts, watching the kids paint them and helping them add designs and decorations. They played with it all the rest of the day and that was the first thing they did the next day. We had to put the houses from the rain, but you can bet we will be riding in bike town again soon.
What do you think of this idea? Do you live in an area where this can be your REAL life instead of an imaginary one in your driveway?
Even though we live in the burbs, we do live close enough to walk or bike to a grocery store, pizza store, video store, coffee shop, AWESOME toy store, and the gym. We do this in the summer but not so much in the winter.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! My kids would love that too - maybe this winter we can set something up in the garage. (when we can have Pat back to help us!) :-)
Yea.. ours will be set up in the garage too. Gotta get the rest of our bikes hung and out of the way first. :D It was really simple ... just plywood.
ReplyDeleteWe live close enough to stores, library, schools that we can ride or walk to all of them. This was a neat project though and my kids would love it.
ReplyDeleteImpressive! This is a fantastic idea. I hope someday you get back to a place where you can ride your bikes for real around town to destinations of all kinds...that's important to me, too. Awesome, awesome activity for kids, in the mean time, though! I bet they had a blast!
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw your girl painting the house with a bicycle helmet on I nearly spit out my coffee. That is funny (and cute).
ReplyDeleteKevin
http://halftriing.blogspot.com/