Simply the Best

This year little miss Haana has been really into drawing and painting. She's had this fascination for drawing human figures, faces, eyes. Over time she's gotten amazingly good at it too! 

This year when the creative entries' competition Reflections came around, little miss Haana came up with a unfair and original concept,  and then worked on her entry over several days. It came out wonderful!

Later, there came around another contest; a holiday card contest for students to come up with an art concept for school districts' holiday cards. Little miss Haana came up with her own original concept and drew a little girl in a Santa cap, leaning on a stack of books. I loved her painting!

Later we found our, both miss Haana's art entries won recognition. The Reflections entry will move to compete at district level. The holiday art theme will be used for district's holiday cards this year! 

Meanwhile this year little miss Haana has also been in an Orff orchestra at school where she's been playing a xylophone. She's been enjoying being part of an ensemble a lot! Today they performed for the retired teacher's luncheon for the district, and it was a flawless performance, a big success! 

Little miss Haana is simply the best!! 😌

Here's miss Haana's entry for the holiday card:

White Sands

Last week we visited the newest national park in the US - White Sands National Park in New Mexico. I had heard about this place, and now it was time to pay visits. 

It was a mostly uneventful short plane ride, Bobby boy was mostly content. On the drive over, he was nodding off to sleep. Then, suddenly in a distance, in addition to the mountains on the horizon, now we could see some white! How odd it looked. We were excited to get there. I'd made sandwiches for us all, so we were more than happy to skip lunch just to get there faster. 

Soon we were there. Soft velvetty white sand everywhere. It looked hardly real. We had bought sleds from the visitor center. At the first chance we got, we were climbing the dunes with a sled in hand. Little Bobby boy was a bit hesitant about walking on the sand. 'How odd this thing is', he thought. 'It's cushy like the bed but even more so. I'm not sure I trust it. Don't leave me, Papa! Hold me Papa! Hold me more! No, leave me now! I want to go, leave me already, Papa! I want to try it again. It's still odd, but look muma is slinking in it too! Hmm.. A little bit funny now! Look at me sliding on my butt now!! Haha! ' - thought Bobby. 

Little miss Haana was already ahead of us, trying to slide down a dune, then deciding this one was no good. Then heading to another. Soon she found a good dune and slid down it in giggles. I couldn't wait!

I slid down after little miss Haana, and we were both giggles. Couldn't wait to get Bobba on it too. I held his hand as we somehow hobbled to the top of the dune. Made Bobba sit on the sled with me, but it wouldn't go! Soon Bobby boy wasn't having it anymore. He didn't want this sled business at all. He got off and went about exploring the dunes on his own little legs!

After some time more exploring, sledding, sliding and, in case of little miss Haana, rolling around in the sand, we set off to the Alkali trail in the park. This was the long trail in the park with sand dunes as far as eye can see, and mountains on the horizon. After some more sledding and rolling in the sand in the sand dunes next to the parking lot, we set off walking in the dunes. First little miss Haana, and then I, took off our shoes and walked bare foot in the soft velvetty white sand. Little Bobby boy walked with his favorite person, Papa. Little girl and I strolled through the dunes until we found a huge dune, with a steep drop down. We decided we should slide down here. Little Haana went first and slid half way and rolled around the rest of the way. I decided I'm not sliding down after all.. i was thinking ahead, the climb up was going to be gut-busting! As I sat down on top of the dune, little Bobby boy came and starting butt-sliding down the steep dune! We laughed. But then I thought how is Bobba going to get back up! Soon I was butt-sliding down the dune too.. Papa slid down on a sled. 

Once all of us were down, Bobby boy continued on his mission of self guided exploration. Little miss Haana and I held races to see who can climb up and then slide down the fastest. Somewhere in this competitive spirit I yelled to her "I'm going to bite your butt!".. I may have been behind at that time, racing to get ahead. Turns out the judge/umpire was biased and declared Haana won! I think I totally beat her going up. :-D

Soon it was time for the park to close and we started walking back. But as soon as the sun set, something amazing happened. The sky turned from cool blue to pink. The mountains on the horizon moved to a shade to purple and the white sands that was glistening like someone dumped shiny silver glitter into it, now seemed even more magical white with fairy dust in it!! 

White sands were beautiful! And both Bobby boy and Haana girl explored it in their own special way. 

The Big 1.0.

I'm not ready for the 2 digit birthdays to be honest. Little miss Haana is growing up, as little sweet babies tend to do, and I'm trying hard to push aside thoughts that one day she will leave this home to live by herself, live her life. And my life would never be the same. And even though those times are some time away, I can almost already miss her. 

This October, I tried to convince her that growing up is over rated and she must turn 9 this birthday, again. Little miss Haana did not buy it. 

Leading up to her birthday little miss Haana made it abundantly clear what she wanted. She wanted a treasure hunt. We'd been doing treasure hunts on Papa's birthdays initially, and then on the little girl's birthdays for some time now. The expectation had been building up!

I had gotten her new clothes for her birthday (since she had been getting bigger lately), socks and winter jacket. These will be the treasures I will hide. She needed new shoes too. To make sure she gets the right size, I made Papa and Gugu go and get her new pair of shoes the weekend before her birthday.

As I do every year, I had planned to take the day of her birthday off from work. Little miss Haana's school was off as well. The day before, after the kids were asleep, I sat on the couch with a notebook and a pen. I listed on a scrap paper all the things I had gotten her, and then started coming up with little poems with hints for her to solve. This will be the treasure hunt. It shouldn't be too simple that she uncovers the treasure too soon. It shouldn't be too hard that she doesn't find it at all. It needed to be just right. And it needed to take her upstairs and downstairs, in the garage and back to the backyard. Out and about, and all the way around! 

On the BIG day, Papa and I made sure the cake was already in the oven before the little girl woke up. After her morning dudu (milk), it was time for the treasure hunt. It went just I had hoped it would! She loved every minute of it, and went round and round around the whole house uncovering her treasures.

After her treasures were discovered, we cut the cake! It was cake for breakfast. Little miss Haana and I got dressed and headed out after that. It was a beautiful fall day and we took our convertible top down and headed to my favourite place - rose garden. We strolled and then ran around. It is monarch butterfly migration season in October, and the garden was full of fluttering monarchs everywhere! We talked to a couple folks who seemed to be catching monarchs in the garden. They were part of a nation wide research group that tags butterflies to track details about the monarch migration. Little miss Haana caught and held a monarch butterfly in her hand while the lady tagged the he-butterfly with a tiny sticker too. We talked to them about all kinds of things, little miss Haana dazzled everyone with how much butterfly trivia she knew. 

Soon it was time for lunch. Papa, Haana and I were going to head to her favorite place for lunch - benihana. It was a great lunch experience at benihana as always. 

Later that afternoon, we knocked off another item little miss Haana had on her list of things she wanted to do, a bubble bath. We filled the bathtub with bubbles and played in there. Soon little Bobby boy wanted to join in the fun too and later we let him. 

For dinner, we made aloo paratha (potato stuffed tortillas cooked with oil). This was another item little miss Haana had wanted for sometime. Just like that the wonderful birthday was coming to a close. Lots of friends and family called. It was a wonderful day. And soon it was time for bed. I love you sweet girl! Happy birthday!!