This was a big one

The thing that hit me hardest about this birthday, was the reminder that she is learning she is a girl who will one day be a woman. She is exploring femininity and what a lost skill and art being feminine is. She swished her hips to make her dress make sound not because she wanted to pretend at being sexy. She did it because there’s nothing girly-er than swishing a new dress while you wear your mom’s pearls. There was a profound lesson here for me. To focus more on being feminine and less on being sexy. Sexy is great and fun but it requires someone else and, therefore, is essentially out of our control. I can be perfectly, beautifully feminine when I’m alone in a room and it’s a gift I can give myself. Its an acknowledgement of my inherent beauty as a woman that is there whether someone is looking at me or not. Hmmm. I need to stash these musings away and really dive in deep…sometime in the next 8 years before she really starts terrifying me.

My Naomi (aka: Naynay, Nays, Yeomi, Naybean, Naynay girl, Nay) turned 8 this year. This is a big deal for a few reasons…It meant she had the chance to choose to be baptized and become a member of our church. We are Mormons or Latter Day Saints (belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and eight is the age when a person is capable of making promises with the Lord and is capable of honoring those promises. She did great and it was so cool to experience this with her. It’s a first step in a life long journey.

Grateful for this stud who is an amazing father to my children. Can I say how much I love that he gets really choked up sharing spiritual moments with his kids? Seriously one of my favorite things about this man is that he cries.

Lots of support from family and friends made this day memorable for her, and totally made my mom heart happy. Also made me happy that her taste in baptism dresses was within my sewing skill level and that she was thrilled with the end result.

Next reason this was a big birthday…She got her ears pierced! I went back and forth but ultimately opted for a tattoo parlor with a professional pierce-er. We were both very pleased with the experience. She was a champ. So brave. She calmly sat with her nervousness and quietly dealt with it. She held my hand and then bounced out of there like it was nothing. Also, luckily, she takes the daily upkeep and maintenance very seriously and has attended to that with much more attention than other areas of personal hygiene ([cough]brushingteeth[cough]).

The trend lately is for the kids to design and decorate their own cakes. This more than anything makes me want to wail, “My babies are growing up!” It wasn’t the ear piercing or leaving cub scouts that made me choke up…no. It was the passing of the cake making baton. I’m just not ready for that!!!

It was a friend birthday party year and after suggestions of a slumber party, fancy dinner at a restaurant, epic barbie play date, star wars…she settled on picking up friends and going to McDonald’s. Then we went to a park for cake, ice cream and presents. It’s like my monkeys sense when I need things to be easy and they magically run with that. They must love me or something. It actually was really cool in it’s simplicity and all involved said it was the best night ever. There’s another lesson here, I just know it.

My mom was in town for the baptism so we took some family pictures to really round out our summer season. Can’t wait to update our gallery wall and my children can relax their sore-from-smiling cheeks until Christmas. Next blog post is an huge (and long over due) farm update, with a very exciting announcement.

Lego Head Pinata

Enough said really. Ok, No. Not enough said. If you are like me you may have sniggered at the cheap “Dora” piñatas or the goofy tissue papered, cone-bedeckled monstrosities that can be found in any grocery store. Never again will I look down my nose at these products or the artisans who painstakingly craft them. Piñatas are difficult little beasties to make and I have a new found respect for them.

I’ve said before that I don’t know how people did anything new before the internet…and I’m not even on Pinterest! There was some brilliant soul who looked at a propane tank one summer day and said, “You know what? That looks like a huge Lego head!” Then they made a piñata and posted pictures on the internet for me to find.

  

I kind of just made this up because I thought paper mache is the easiest thing ever…flour, water, newspaper. Well turns out it is easy if you allow plenty of time to dry between layers. Tuesday night is when I remembered that I was even making this thing so yeah…that only left time for a few layers and not even very good layers. And I never have white flour on hand so whole wheat it was! Oh and another thing. Packing tape. Loves to stick to itself…not slightly damp newspaper and flour. So I had to bust out my glue gun to get it back together after cutting it off of the propane tank. I have a burn mark on my forearm to commemorate.

  

I did get it together only to realize that the namby pamby poster paints I bought wouldn’t cut it. However, I had a can of exterior grade latex paint from the aquaponics system that just happened to be the right obnoxious shade of yellow! I drew a face, cut it out, glued it on and we were in business. I was the only adult at the party so this is the best I could do picture wise after the stupid thing tore off of its string before the kids even dented it. Sigh.

  

In addition to the piñata and just playing Legos, we decorated Lego head cupcakes and then ate them…

  

Opened presents and played Princesses (well, Little girl did anyways…)

  

And all the kids got these nifty t-shirts as party favors. Garyn has worn his for three days straight now.

The little girls were babysat so that legos could happen free from interruption, which was a very good call. It was a small gathering, but really nice and laid back. I didn’t mind a small party so much, since he also got: a family dinner, a homeschool dance party, an almost week long trip to hang out with Grandpa in California, starting Cub Scouts tomorrow, and this coming weekend is his baptism…(more on all that later). I’d say it was a good way to turn eight.