Birthday Bikes!

Candace, Deborah, and Emma are each the proud new owner of a beautiful bicycle.  Candace and Emma got their bicycles for their birthdays last month, so we decided to go ahead and get Deborah one too (for her birthday this coming September). 

Candace turned 11 on April 15th.  She is getting pretty tall, so her bike is the next size up from the other two girls.  Her favorite color is blue.  At the shop where we found the bikes we wanted, they didn't have blue, so she was going to have to take orange.  Actually, it was a really pretty bike, and she was fine with it.  But in order to make sure we were getting a fair price, we told the lady we would walk around a bit and look.  We found two things.  First, we found that the price she was asking was indeed fair.  Second we found the exact same bike in blue for $1 cheaper!  So...we only bought two from the first lady:)

Deborah will turn 10 on September 22nd.  She is not much shorter than Candace, but the next size down from Candace seemed to fit her well.  Her favorite color is red, and lo and behold...they had red!

Emma turned 8 on April 26th.  It was on her actual birthday that we went bike shopping.  Emma's favorite color is purple, but they didn't have purple in the model that we liked best.  They had this beautiful pink though, and Emma fell in love with it right off the bat!  I asked her if she needed training wheels, and she adamantly said "NO!"  But there is more to this story...

Here's Candace riding her bike on the first day.  Except for Sunday, I think the girls have ridden their bikes every day since we bought them last week.  From the time they get up in the morning, their day is geared towards getting chores, school, and piano practice all done so they can ride bikes.

Deborah drives fast and (a little) crazy!  She likes to pass the other girls on the turns.  I know...that doesn't sound like Deborah, but...well...um...I guess we all have our hidden talents!  As proof of my allegations, she no longer has a basket on her bike...it could only withstand so many collisions.  Seriously, I think I can reattach it pretty easily.  All of the bikes also come with an attached lock on the back wheel, with a set of keys.  These girls are pretty pumped to have their own keys to their own wheels!  I guess they're just getting ready for the teenage years!  Yikes!

If you look closely at this picture, you can see that Emma's kickstand is down.  The kickstands here are cool.  They lift up the back end of the bike a couple of inches off the ground.  You can sit on a bike and pedal all day and go nowhere if the kickstand is down.  When we got Emma's bike, we thought we had the size right.  But once we got home and she hopped up on her bike for the first time, it was just a tad too tall.  She couldn't ride it, and that made her...well...how shall we say it...very sad.  The next day after work I took her bike back to the shop hoping to trade for a smaller bike.  But at the bike shop we came up with a better plan.  There was a smaller seat on another bike which the lady was willing to trade with me.  It looked as if it would make Emma sit about an inch lower.  We switched the seats AND as an additional measure, I bought training wheels and had them installed at the shop.  When I got home, the new seat made a bit hit, but the training wheels went over like a pregnant pole-vaulter.  She said, "Daddy, I don't want training wheels."  I said, "Emma, just leave them on for a couple of days.  You don't even know how to ride the bike yet.  Give yourself some time."  She answered, "I don't want the training wheels.  Can you take them off now?"  So I took them off.  Five minutes later, she was buzzing all over the driveway!

I just had to finish with this hilarious picture of Stephen sitting there all bummed out.  He has had this tricycle for quite awhile.  He can drive it at approximately 48 MPH (even on turns), but his knees are getting ominously close to the handlebars.  I think seeing the girls on their new bikes made him kind of feel like Woody when Buzz Lightyear moved into Andy's room.  And to add insult to injury, with the bigger rigs that are on the road, he has now been relegated to one small area of the driveway so he doesn't get run over by some crazy woman driver.  I'm sure at some point by the end of this year we'll be posting a story and pictures about Stephen's new bike.