The Underground Bike Railroad

My older sister and I talk daily. Either by email or by phone. I love it when I go to call her and she's on the line when I hit the "TALK" button on the cordless. But today I had to call her because we're working out logistics for the kiddie birthday this weekend and I needed to know a few things.

While we were on the phone she was asking me if I could make another run to Target to pick up another bike should her friend want one like my niece for her daughter. Now, I think I might have mentioned it, but we scored a sweet little two wheeler for the older one for a whopping $36! Which in the grand scheme of things is a heck of a lot cheaper than the $100 they go for over here, especially when you factor in that with growth projections currently at the rate they are, this kid is going to outgrow this bike in about two years.

Then, while she was thinking about it, she realized someone else on the street may be interested in a new bike that's similar and would I make a second trip over to get that one. The conversation took a hilarious turn as I asked her if I was the bike pusher, or dealer for the neighbourhood bike trade. She added something else that I was laughing so hard at that I couldn't hear and it ended with "Just call it the Underground Bike Railroad".

Needless to say our conversation went off track quite rapidly as we then began to discuss ways of getting the younger one to be motivated to ride a two wheeler. Apparently she is in no hurry to relinquish the training wheels and when pressed to try to ride the two wheeler with my sister's hand firmly grasping her back she freaked out, jumped off the bike and screamed "I CAN'T DO IT!" Horrible aunt that I am I suggested pinning a treat to a string and a stick on her helmet so that she is motivated to ride the two wheeler. Now what a picture that would make.

We quickly got back to what we were originally going to discuss, which was the logistics for the "who was going to pick up what and how were we going to go about it" plan. How kids birthday parties get this way is beyond me. It culminated in my desperate phone call from Toys R Us demanding to know if the Polly Pocket Pet Spa set would suffice for a cake topper since I couldn't find the Polly Pocket Beach set. Polly Freaking Pocket. Sigh... We have now planned to spend all night (if necessary) icing a cake and making food for the party on Saturday. I think my favourite part of the whole thing is the scheduled "Princess Dress Up Relay". To think we all had such boring "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" parties as children....

Only for my sister would I do these things. And only because I know that she'd be right there doing it for me if I needed her to.