The Big 7

Last week my little miss Haana turned 7. The Big 7!
We like to travel around the time of her birthday, so this year it was decided that Disney trip that we'd always thought to do the next year- this might be the year to do it. I've never been the one to be enamored by theme parks; nature and history and art places has always been my thing when traveling. But towards the very end of summer this year, we'd made a trip to Universal Studios at CA. It was a great visit! I was so in love with their Harry Potter world, that after coming back from there little Miss Haana and I watched the Potter movies all over again. It was spectacular, most of the rides and the Studios.

We headed to Disney the weekend before the little girl's birthday. The place she most wanted to visit- Pandora (we have recently seen Avatar). It so happens many people's most wanted to visit place was also Pandora. It's 2 rides were the most sought after rides in all of Disney. Having booked our excursion at the last minute(quite literally), we were looking at long lines at Pandora. After beaucoup waiting we were ready to try the Right of Passage ride on the Banshee. While miss Haana was jumping up and down with excitement, i had been fretting over the ride all along. I'm not big into very adventurous roller coasters, and this one had flyers to expect being high above the ground with directives of not riding if fearful of heights. I thought about my fear of heights. In the end, i decided to brave it and do the ride after all. And oh boy was it worth it. The 3d effects were spectacular and beautiful! Miss Haana and I screamed to our heart's content with thrill and wondrous excitement. It was an amazing ride, and the hours of standing in the lines were well worth it.

We did other rides at Disney, but that experience of the Right of Passage ride and the 3D effects of Pandora was the most amazing one in that trip.

We also did the World Showcase at Epcot, where miss Haana undertook an adventure- the world showcase depicted several countries around the world alongside a huge lake; each country represented by its unique architecture style, distinctive landmarks, shops, ethnic wear, language and gardens. Kidscot adventure, should you choose to accept it, was to find in 11 different countries, a special kids' table, collect postcard from each of the 11 countries to get a surprise! We did not anticipate the amount of walking this would entail. But even so, the day became an adventure, going to each country, looking through each shop, each decor to find the special table hidden away, to get our prized postcard. Little miss Haana was on a mission! We completed our mission late in the evening, tired but proud!

We came back from Disney in time for the day of the birthday. I had wanted to have some mother- daughter time on her birthday, so I had taken the day off. It was a beautiful fall day, with plenty of sunshine and a slight nip in the air! I couldn't have asked for anything better! How blessed!

I had no exact agenda for the day. Except of course a home baked birthday cake must start the morning at home. It was a chocolate swirl cake with icing (i tried a minnie mouse face!) with 7 candles. Ideally, the cake should be what little miss Haana wakes up to (like last year). But this year she woke up by herself when the cake was still in the oven.

Once done and iced, we sang happy birthday and the cake was cut. All 3 of us ate multiple slices, and then it was time for treasure hunt! We had had treasure hunt on dad's last 2 (or 3?) birthdays and little miss Haana had requested for one on her birthday too a while back. There were 4 treasures to be hunted- 2 of them dad had gotten, 2 from me. Soon little miss Haana found all the treasures, was wearing one of the treasures and getting ready to play with another!!

After getting ready, the next action item was for miss Haana and i to head out for some breakfast. We went to our favorite sit down breakfast place, meanwhile little Miss Haana attended phone calls all morning from grandparents, softy mausi, aunts and uncles.

After breakfast and after having sung our favorite songs in the car as loud as we possibly could, I decided to head to a nearby rose garden. I had never been there before either. It was a cute rose garden with rows of flowers, small gazebo and arches, benches looking into the flowers, and oh so many butterflies fluttering about! Miss Haana tried to play with her newly acquired drone in the garden, but the wind made it hard to control it. After it fell close to the canal once and dived into the bushes next, we decided it's best for the drone to wait in the car. We spotted a swing bench next to the flower bushes and jumped right on it. Miss Haana decided she was Captain Jane Sparrow and I was a ship mate. We played pirate for a while and came up with our pirate language. Our ship Black Pearl could go back and forth in time and distance.

Once we had had our fill of the rose garden we headed to the playground on the other side of the road to soak in some more sun and fun. Miss Haana monkeyed on the monkey bars, and went down the slides. I hung around and climbed up and down the slide. Next to the playground was a park with inviting green grass. I got my blanket from the car and we decided to lay down. We lay in the sun then moved to the shade, finally settling for a partly shady spot to lay for sometime. Even though it sounds very peaceful, miss haana and I managed to fight and then giggle, then complain to each other about each other,  and finally make up. And all in all, got not a moment of peaceful moment in!

We ate a late lunch and headed back home to meet up with papa, only to get ice cream. Later that evening we played arcade games, miss Haana did get first rock climbing (thrice, and all the way to the top all 3 times)! Favorite dinner place and we headed back home after a day well spent!

Happy birthday sweet baby!