Biking like big girls

When Sofia & Ava first got their bikes as birthday gifts in August 2007, they looked like this:

We called them their "big girl bikes" but they still preferred their super-fast tricycles. So a year later, they were still riding on training wheels when we went to City Park:

Now . . . they are cruising without training wheels in our neighborhood (and at City Park in the first picture --- I took a big digger trying to get good pictures of them from the front, so you've got to settle for the one from the back. Ever try to turn around while riding on a bike to take a picture behind you? I don't recommend it...On the plus side, the girls were super-impressed with how I skidded into the woods & threw down my bike as I propelled myself into the air to avoid getting my leg crushed by the pedal...Sure, sure, I could have ridden way ahead, stopped my bike & then waited for them to come around a corner, but where's the fun in that?).

Yes we've had the bikes for over a year and a half, but they picked up 2 wheels so fast that I was just floored. Neither one of them fell down. I could not believe it. They're only 5 years old!
It is all happening so fast . . . But now they're asking for Batman & Transformer bikes b/c Barbie doesn't cut it for them..."Barbie's grosssss..." (BUT if it's a choice between riding the Barbie bike or not riding at all, they choose Barbie every single time!) Those are my girls!