For Sophia's 4th birthday last month, we surprised her with a brand new purple two wheeler. A few weeks prior, we'd taken a trip to the local bike shop and had her try a few for size. She fell in love with the purple one, but we said we were "just looking." Later that day I went back to buy it, brought it home, and snuck it into the basement. We stored it in the back corner under the unused drafting table draped in a drop cloth until her special day. She was so surprised to see that beautiful bike (with streamers! and a basket! and kitties!) in the middle of the living room after coming in from a sneaky parent-planned playtime outside. - Amy McKenna