A Birthday at "Da-Goon"

Naiya turned 4 today. Being the terribly overwhelmed mother that I am right now, I did not throw her a party. This is the first time I have not done at least one birthday party for one of my girls (and I'm feeling more than a little guilty). To make up for it, we took her to Lagoon- lovingly referred to by Naiya as "Da-Goon." (Apparently the "la" in Lagoon is way to french for my child.)
We had a great time. We have never taken the girls to "Da-goon" before, but we will certainly be back lots as they get bigger. The funnest part for me was watching them giggle like crazy on EVERY ride (the faster the better). They were loving it!! Although both girls have a ways to go before they can ride the major roller coasters, they both were tall enough (Eva just barely) to go on rides like Musik Express, the Tidal Wave, and the Tilt-a-Whirl. We even made it to Lagoon-a-Beach for the last hour of the day.
What a fun day... and to end the day we were treated to dinner at Neema and Pa's house where, of course, Neema had prepared a delicious meal, accompanied by a beautiful and even more delicious cake, and topped off with loads of presents. (Between the two sets of grandparents plus aunts and uncles, my kids make out like bandits at any gift-giving holiday.) The child has school clothes and shoes, a new booster seat, new snuggle cow for her bed and more money than she knows what to do with. I think her favorite part of the night, however, was the cake. Neema had baked a white cake with chocolate shavings in it covered in chocolate and decorated with strawberries. YUM!! I'm not sure that Naiya even tasted the cake though, she was too busy picking of each strawberry (save one for Eva) off of the cake. (I guess it's a good thing that she prefers strawberries to cake.... leaves more for me! :)

Today I had my first day of school meetings and was feeling even more guilty that I had to ship Naiya off to get babysat on her birthday. Thankfully I know she is in great hands at my friend Betsy's house and at Neema-and Pa's. (I'm so lucky to have good friends and family to help when needed!) Of course Naiya was spoiled some more with another cake at Betsy's house and she got to spend the day helping take care of Betsy's new dog. (Honestly that was probably more fun for her than anything I could have come up with!)
After I picked them up cute Eva had a little gift for her sister. She thought long and hard about what her sister would really like for her birthday and decided that a new CD was just the thing. It truly was because when Naiya saw the "5 Little Monkeys" CD cover she fell into a giggle fit for a good 5 minutes.
Although I don't think she would have noticed if we didn't' get her anything, of course we got her a little something..... A new set of wheels! Now that Eva's short little legs can reach the peddles on the tricycle, Naiya got to upgrade her tricycle for a two-wheeler with training wheels.

All in all, despite the lack of an actual party, I think it was her best birthday yet. I hope they continue to get better and better each year!! :)

*I did take pictures of the day... but seriously, at this point, I am just happy to have typed something. I will download the pictures... someday......

Feeding the Wolves

My dad e-mailed me this story and I really liked it, so I thought I would share....

Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee grandfather told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside all people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

"The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf wins?"
The wise old grandfather replied, "The one you feed."

Hidden Peak

The girls hiked to their first peak last weekend. We met up with Pa and Neema and a couple of friends from Czech (Petra and Zdenek) We made it to the top of Hidden Peak at Snowbird on Sunday!!

I have to admit that we did cheat a bit (okay, a lot). Pa bought us a ride on the lift thinking it would take us 1/2 way up and then we would finish the rest of the hike with the group. Apparently it had been some time since any of us had been to Snowbird because, since they have that new tunnel near the top of Hidden Peak, they extended the lift to all the way to the tunnel entrance.
We ended up walking through the tunnel and back and then we hiked down for about 20 minutes and met the group. (No picture of the tunnel as Pa had my camera so he could take the picture of us on the lift.) We hiked back up to the tunnel (which took WAY more than 20 minutes) and then split up. Naiya wanted to go back through the tunnel and Eva not so much. Pa, Daddy and Eva hike up the regular way while Petra, Zdenek, Neema, Naiya and I went back through the tunnel and then up to the peak from the backside. The girls really were troopers and pretty much hiked from the tunnel to the peak by themselves. At the top, we had a picnic and then rode the tram down. Here are some of the pics from the day:

Pa and Eva checking out the wild flowers...

Naiya throwing snowballs....

Pa RUNNING UP HILL with BOTH girls. Of course Pa treated the girls to a bounce in the bounce house on the tram deck.

You would think that this would be enough for one day, but hey this is us we're talking about here. We went back down the canyon to Neema and Pa's house and took the girls for a swim. I didn't get any pictures of this but the girls had a BLAST playing with Petra and Zdenek. I was amazed at Naiya. She was wearing her floaties, but would swim with her face under water across the pool (the short way). She really is getting brave. I'm wishing I had signed her up for swim lessons this year. Next year I will have to get them both in for sure.

Some Rules Were Made to be Broken

So we may not win any "Parent of the Year" awards, but at least our girls are having fun!!

We Be Jammin'

A typical summer morning at our house....

(Notice the "audience" of puppets Naiya has on the floor by her feet.;)

A Portrait

Naiya drew a portrait of me. The resemblance is uncanny. ;)

A Home Visit From My Stylist

The other day I tried out a new stylist.... Actually it's a team of two stylists that work together to create visual masterpieces.

Here are the results of at least an hour (seriously) of their hard work:

(This is the one and ONLY time you will see me with my curls brushed out, so take it all in folks!)