7 Days of Blogging: Day 4 (Amaya Turns Five)

'Five already. Hard to believe.' Each year the same phrase rings true. Next year I shall just omit five and replace it with six. It's the same with all parents. I have yet to hear a parent say, 'My kid just turned 5. Feels like they should be 10.' So, this is how we commemorated the five-year anniversary of our little sweetheart's birth.
When we asked Amaya what she wanted to do for her birthday this year, she emphatically replied that she wanted to go to build-a-bear. She has never gotten to "build" a bear yet and has "always wanted to." In addition to that, she has been asking to get her ears pierced for months. We have been telling her for months that we could do that for her fifth birthday, so that was always part of the birthday plan. She added that she wanted to go scorpion hunting, too. Yes, SCORPION hunting. Crazy kid. She also wanted a "beautiful barbie", a Tangled musical jewelry box, a Flynn Ryder doll, and a Prince Eric doll Whoa! We told her that's alot to ask for. It was decided that she could choose to have a "day of Amaya" or have a big birthday party. Since she got to bring cupcakes to pre-K to celebrate and her babysitter had a little party for her, she opted for the day of Amaya. Which turned out to be one of my favorite days ever, probably because I just love days where we spend the whole day hanging out, having fun as a family. This was like an extra-special family fun day.
Of course the day started out with mommy and daddy doing our best rendition of the happy birthday song. Then it was off to IHOP for a big-smiley faced chocolate pancake. (Meals on "day-of-Amaya" were her choice, too). After breakfast, we took Amaya to have her 5-year pictures taken (not entirely her choice, but since it was only 9am and Build-A-Bear wasn't open yet she was cool with it). Next stop, B.O.B. Which was sooooo fun. I see why this place is so popular. Amaya selected a beautiful light brown bear, gave her fairy wand noises and a heartbeat, made wonderful wishes for her, bathed her squeeky clean, dressed her in a beautiful pink ensemble, and named her Lovie. After B.O.B. it was lunch time. Amaya selected Applebee's. After that it was off to Toys'r'us to get her "beautiful barbie." They didn't have her. So it was off to Target because that is where she saw her. She was referring to a "Dancing with the Stars" barbie. When we got to Target, she decided on a different toy anyway. I can't remember the name of it...it was a playset for those pop-able creature things. After that we drove to Buckeye to celebrate with Papa Jerry and Grandma Cindy. We opened presents, went to the Grazie' for dinner, and then did the whole birthday cake thing. On the drive to Buckeye, Amaya took a little snooze and Scott and I reminisced about her original birthday and the time that has transpired since. So fun. It was a wonderful day. Note: We did not go SCORPION hunting. We did that once and that was enough for me. Here are some pictures from the special day.

7 Days of Blogging: Day 3 (Amaya's "Hole-In-One")

Scott and I were hanging out on the patio at Seville while watching Amaya at golf lessons. I had just grabbed the videocamera and was recording. She took a swing, the ball went flying, and appeared to go right in the hole (bucket). Her coach was standing behind her at the time and saw it too, and from his reaction we knew the ball did go in the "hole." He threw his arms up in the air and we could hear him cheering. He ran out to the bucket, grabbed the ball and ran it back to Amaya. He handed it to her and what does she do? She puts it down and hits it again. Silly girl. Would have been fun to keep the ball even though it wasn't a true hole-in-one. I love that we got it on video! Couldn't get it to upload to the blog though. Grandparents, we shall show you the footage next time you are over/visit. ;) Here's some photos I snapped that day after I was done videotaping.

7 Days of Blogging: Day 2

Ostrich Festival Fun

7 Days of Blogging: Day 1

One of the many perks of AZ living is that so many people we know love visiting here, especially in the winter. Bonus! Here is a picture of Amaya getting to see her midwestern friends Katy and Elly, twin daughters of my friend Dawn. It's becoming an annual tradition. :) The same week we also got to see my friend Tina and her boyfriend Aaron, though I neglected to take any pictures. :(
Dawn and I and our about to be 5-year-olds. They had so much fun together too bad we don't live closer!

Amaya taking Kanani horseback riding.

I thought this was so cute.

Kung Fu Amaya

The love birds at Karate.

The animal of the week. Amaya's only constant at bedtime is her lovie. Her companion of choice changes week-to-week, sometimes day-to-day. This week her companion took up more of her bed than she did. Thought this was funny. Had to share. Don't worry, we made sure she could breath under the weight of Mr. Bear.

Amaya has been asking to take guitar lessons for a long time. So we signed her up and she loves it! She can tell us all the parts of the guitar and even play us a little melody. She's also learning to read music. She loves her instructor, Spencer, and so do we. But she doesn't always get to have him. :( Which is too bad cuz he is the best! She cracked him up on her first day, cuz he aked her if she wanted to play guitar because of Taylor Swift and she said no, because of Green Day. It caught him off guard and he busted out laughing. She did add that she does like Taylor Swift, too, though.

Amaya also decided that she wanted to give golf a try, which thrilled Scott. She seems to love it and has quite the natural swing from the get-go. Gee, I wonder why. Could be from watching golf on tv with dad virtually every weekend of her life. :)

A couple shots of my other golfer. ;)

That's all I have time for for now. Thus the blog title 7 days of blogging. I usually do a big blog post once a month. But for my March blogging, I decided to break it up over a week instead due to time constraints. Come back tomorrow for day 2 of 7. ;)