Here's How it Went Down

Sage's birthday was Monday. 4 years old! I can't believe it but I'm not going to get into that here, that is for his birthday book (a journal we write in for each of the boys birthdays or "around" there birthday or sometime in the year that they were that age).

We have known since last year that we wanted to get him a bike. He was ready last year but we were living in MN with Drew's parents and had only our tiny Saturn to get all of us and all our things back and forth from CT for the summer. So, we decided that 4 was the age. The age he would get a bike for his birthday.

You might expect my husband, the planner, to have a spreadsheet of which bike would be the best and most cost effective for Sage's birthday. However, no, he didn't. One night, we looked online, found this beauty and thought we were set. It seemed a good price point, a good brand so we can pass it down and we thought we would just pop right in to Target and pick that bad boy up. We did do a little research and took him to a bike store and made sure we knew which size to buy.

So, on Sunday, the day before his birthday at roughly 7pm, I popped over to Target. Um, that 16 inch Schwinn bike? Yeah, not there. I called Drew who checked on line and saw this sentence "Usually ships within 3 to 5 days
This item is available online, but is not available in stores." I was pretty frustrated with ourselves for being so darylic about the whole birthday bike thing. I didn't want to just give him a picture and say look for it to be delivered sometime in the next year!

And then we found out that shipping was $35 roughly half the cost of the bike. Done deal. Not gonna do it.

So, the next day, (the day of his birthday)Kolby and I drop him off at Vacation Bible School and I have 2.5 hours to find a 16 inch bike. I type in "bicycle" to my GPS, Gregory and he comes up with a list. I call first because Gregory has been known to be wrong. But, some of the stores haven't opened yet and some are fax numbers that Gregory gives me.

Kolby and I go to the first store. They have bikes! Nice ones! Like this! Did you see the price tag of $180? At the store, it was $189. Um no. Kolby enjoyed playing on the 12 inch, $179 bike while I tried not to be shmoozed by the man because the bike is so nice, it is made very well, you will have it for many years, all your kids will ride it, it will only fit him about a year. Aaaand not sold.

Kolby and I go to the second store. Closed until 11 am for the Tour de France.

Kolby and I go to the third store. Doesn't exist, thanks Gregory!

Kolby and I go to the fourth store. Did I mention we ran out of wrapping paper the night before and he had requested a balloon that I hadn't gotten yet? I call. They sell bikes! 16 inch bikes! For more than we wanted but about the same after shipping. Kolby tried it out. We threw in a helmet, safety first.

And here is what happened that night:

Did you notice Kolby? He was carrying the helmet for Sage because Sage didn't want to carry it himself. Kolby starts to put it on and is thinking, yay! my bike that mom and I picked out! I wondered what she did with it. And then Sage gets on and Kolby starts screaming "Mine, mine!" And do you notice our awesome parenting skills? Drew picks him up and says, "Do you wanna wear the helmet?"

We win for parenting award of the year in all categories!

Notice the Boston Celtics, Kevin Garnett jersey? I think we did make parent of the year for that present! He has been requesting one since about January!

And yes, we did spoil him. And yes, we are ashamed at how much he received.