Ayden's B-Day

My boo-boo turned 5 on July 12. This was the first year she was excited to celebrate her birthday. She also talked about it months before hand and was very active in planning her birthday party. She let us know where she wanted it and who she wanted to invite. A few months before her birthday she said to me, "Mommy, when I turned 4 it was so fast but I have been waiting a really long time to turn 5. Why is it taking so long this year?"

We had Ayden's birthday at the Great Rivers Water Park. It was a great deal of fun. We had over 30 kids attend and 20 adults. Surprisingly it was not overwhelming to have so many kids. Thanks to all of our friends and family who attended and helped out with the party and the food. Most of the delicious food was prepared by an Aunt or Uncle. We are truly blessed to have so many people around us who care and support us.

Ayden with her Friends and family. The majority of people are in the kitchen or still jumping on the trampoline. Of course we only had one person jumping at a time ; )

Sweet Ayden turns 5. Is that a peace sign or is she giving bunny ears to the ball?

Ayden and friends

Can't forget the big sister. Taylor also had friends attend.

This is really funny. The first video we took in the morning. Ayden couldn't be more excited about celebrating her birthday.


This is a clip of the birthday song. There is something about that song that makes the birthday person really embarrassed. I'm sure you all know what I mean because you've felt it too : )

Lastly, I wanted to share this picture of my parents with all of their grandchildren. We took the kids to an indoor play area in Woodbury a few weeks ago. We had a great time. It's nice that most of the kids are big enough to enjoy a setting like this. Great times!

Diving

Swimming has been coming along so well for the girls and I. Unlike her big sister Ayden has always been more reserved in the water. The swimming lessons have been so wonderful for her. She has learned to dunk her head into the water, swim under water, play with confidence and she's even jumped off the diving board with a life jacket. This is huge for Ayden considering she would cry if water was splashed in her face just a few weeks prior.

Taylor is doing great also. We started working on diving yesterday. Like the fish that Taylor is she had no problems with diving head first into the water. As for me, I was extremely hesitant. Just a week ago I learned how to jump into the deep end of the pool so the transition was much harder. By the end of the evening Taylor was diving head first off of the diving board and I was diving off the diving board from a kneel. After I over came my fear it was actually fun diving. We both suffered minor injuries (Taylor a bloody nose and a scraped foot for me) but we greatly enjoyed our lesson yesterday.

Here are some pictures my sister took while she was home two weeks ago. She asked Ayden for a fierce look and this was the result. The second photo is of Taylor and her cousin Ethan.

Whew! Got it off

After visiting Cheng and Stacy I gained eight pounds. Cheng is a great cook so needless to say I ate too much. Hard to believe that even when food is healthy you can still gain weight if you eat too much. Go figure!

Anyway I can't blame it all on Cheng and Stacy. The few days leading up to our visit I had been eating more and less healthy. With Kong in CA for a week I was not able to cook so we either ate out or ate something I could make quickly at home. Last Thursday I ate three hot dogs with three servings of real Lays potato chips. It tasted good going down but I felt unusual after consuming all that food.

Routine is very important in our household. It keeps us on track for eating right and exercising. It was hard to keep things going without Kong. I forget how important his role is in allowing me to be the kind of mom I want to be. I couldn't do all of the things I currently do if it wasn't for him.

Upon our return from LaCrosse I attended Kuk Sool work out class which helped me shed four pounds and with last nights Kuk Sool (regular class) and then swimming afterwards I was able to get rid of the rest of the weight. It wasn't just the exercising, I also had to watch what I ate too. Thank goodness I'm back down to my "normal" weight. We'll see what happens after this weekend with Mom and Dad's celebration and having family up for the Holiday.

By the way, Kong was not pleased when he saw the Father's Day entry. He felt that with the title, "Father's Day Weekend" I should have had a picture of him and not Kuk Sa Nim posted. In honor of my loving and supportive husband I'm posting this special photo collage for him : )

Lastly, here is a recent photo of Ayden. She was thrilled we found a lady bug rain coat to match her lady bug umbrella.

And a small clip of Taylor in her Spring Concert.