Emlenton Summer Festival

Part I: Emlenton's Got Talent

Part of the Emlenton Summer Festival this year was a non-competitive talent show called Emlenton's Got Talent. This show took place on the stage in the Crawford Center, which used to be the local school where our family's previous generation of Pennsylvanians went to elementary and high school.

Of course, Suzuki violin students always welcome the opportunity to perform, so Benny and Sadie played their polished pieces.

Sadie playing Andantino:



Benny playing the Veracini Gigue:



The kids made lots of friends and had a great time -- the whole show was very charming, the organizers were very supportive and loving with the kids, and it ended up being a very cute evening.







Part II: Emlenton Festival Duathlon

Dan came up from Virginia for the weekend, and competed in the Emlenton Duathlon. The running half of his team was a high school student from Ohio. They won! Here's Dan's race report, at his cycling team's web site.

Our neighbors also competed. They own and run a maple syrup company, homeschool their four children, and they do biking and jogging in their spare time! That's Alethea on the left with her husband Joseph, and then one of her sisters and one of her brothers, who made up another racing team. Dan's in the middle, completing Team Geiring Road:



Alethea and Joseph won their respective categories -- they both did the running and the biking.



The winning duo, with their trophies:



More of my pictures are here.

Part III: Kids' Bike Races

These bike races were fast, dangerous, and pretty much a disaster for the Netzer contingency. However, I did get some cute pictures:





A wild time in Emlenton.

First Bike Race of the Season

The temperature was hovering around 40. It was raining, windy, miserable. I can't believe he survived 28 laps in those conditions. Nobody fell over. Nobody froze. I was the official team photographer for Dan's team, Celerity Cycling. Here's my favorite picture:



No, he didn't win. But he wasn't last. And it was good to be back at a bike race, screaming my face off. Here's another picture of Dan:



I was shocked to see how many teams were out in full force already, here in the middle of February, with the weather so dreary. And it was a fast race, too! Nobody got fat over the winter, and they're all rip-roaring and ready to go. Well, great for them. Dan needs more miles.

Here's a link to all the pictures I took of the race, including all five guys on Dan's team, Celerity Cycling. After this dreadful ordeal in the freezing rain, those hot July days in the blazing sun are going to be welcome.

Bike Night at the Botanical Gardens

Tiny girl rode her bike at the Botanical Gardens last night on their bike night. I took my trailer along too, just in case, but ended up walking my bike to the children's garden and back to the van, since she was determined to ride on her own, including up and down hills, very sternly pumping up the hills and very carefully braking her way down. She is AMAZING, this child. So steely, under all that pink fluff. She has definitely got a strong spirit inside. I hope she never decides to use her powers for evil.



Here they are at the children's garden playing in the fountains in their swimming suits. After this we crept back to the van at Sadie's pace, then put her bike in the back, she hopped in the trailer, and we took a ride at Benny pace. A good night. It's a pain in the bottom hauling bikes around but it's worth it -- the children love it and I do too.

Today we're off to Pennsylvania, leaving Dan here to dutifully continue his gainful employment and take care of the rabbit. I'll be blogging during the trip on my phone blog.

I finished the web site for a new project that Shez and I are launching on July 1. If you have time to help us out by checking it out, proofing it, scoping it for clarity issues, etc. it's right here: Book Arts Bash. It'll go live soon. I'm also in the process of soliciting judges, so if you tangentially (or intimately) know anyone like Eoin Colfer or Jan Brett can you let me know? Judging will be *extremely* easy and involve pulling several entries out of an envelope, picking the best one, and shoving it all back into another envelope with postage already on it, and cramming it back in the mail. I'm trying to solicit very awesome judges that will make the kids feel really proud and excited to enter.

Anyway, I'm packing up the old laptop now and washing some grapes and heading off to the farm. It is my hope that I'll have internet there. We'll see!

Colonial Place Community Bike Ride

Benny was so excited to do this, and he loved it more than I can describe. If Sheila Janes would organize a community bike ride once a month for crime prevention or any other reason, I'll bring the water! A whole gang of people on bikes set off from beside the dog park on Deleware and Llewellyn, and meandered all through Colonial Place and Riverview. Benny (and his Dad) rode along for over four miles of it, then when the ride passed the dog park again, Benny and Dad peeled off, Benny to come and drink water and go home to bed, and Dad to go off on his regular 30 mile ride.

Can I just say that I cannot believe I allowed my child, even under the watchful eye of his very efficient father, to go out on the STREET and ride his bike WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS for four miles?!!? I'm not only learning to let go, I'm starting to go insane. Okay, he wasn't the only kid on the ride, but... I wouldn't have thought myself capable. I didn't even run after the pack screaming, "DON'T KILL MY BABY!" I barely even thought about doing it.



Nothing bad happened. Benny came back triumphant, having crowed the whole way about riding his two-wheeler and how great it was to be riding "in traffic" (help me) and doing the Tour de Colonial Place with Dad. Benny sure loves his bike. I hope a lot of people registered their bikes with the police last night and that raising awareness of bike theft will keep other kids from losing their favorite toys.