A Memorable Birthday...

 One of our favorite times of the year is to celebrate Lady Hiva on her birthday. This year, in an effort to make her birthday special, Lucky Dragon and I worked really hard to plan. Lady Hiva is always complaining that we never go anywhere for her "winter birthday" but we are always traveling for my birthday (my birthday is 5 days after our anniversary so she is right about that). I decided that this year we would go somewhere for her birthday.

I planned it out, I could not decide where to go. She has always wanted to go to the Redwood Forest in CA and that was an option. We always love Disney, so that, too was an option. Lady does not like surprises and will bug, cajole and ask questions until she finds out. When I am vague and avoid her questions her over-active imagination comes up with ALL kinds of crazy reasons why I am avoiding her questions. Little does she know it is REALLY hard to plan a trip when you have shared bank accounts etc. hahaha.

I finally told her after he non-stop questioning. She told me she would rather go to Disney than be stuck in a forest for a week with me! HAHAHAHA. At least I knew what she wanted! (she did not actually say it like that, but it made a more dramatic setting in the blog...so I went with it). So I booked the trip. I found a 5 star hotel near Disneyland for CHEAP and purchased the tickets to the theme parks. I bought us all t-shirts to wear and we were 4 days out from departure.

Then Coronavirus arrived.

Work was crazy, schools are going crazy, life has been upended. Lady Hiva started to question whether we should go. I did not want to waste the money I had spent. I also was looking forward to just spending time with the four of us without anyone else.  I knew because I got such a good price on Hotwire.com for the hotel I would at least lose that money. But I called and asked just in case. The only time I could make it through was at mid-night when nobody else was calling. They were amazing. I had to pay a fee, and the rest was stored as "Hot bucks" that I could use in the future. What a miracle. To be honest I was really annoyed at disappointed. I was looking forward to having a trip with Lady Hiva. All the rest of the things I had bought either cancelled or we can use them in the future.

However, the next day Disneyland shut down along with the rest of the world. So we had cancelled just in time. I then started to look for tickets to Hawaii (they were REALLY cheap). But that was not an option either with the earthquake in Utah and the airport closed. We decided to take Lady Hiva out to eat, but the day before her birthday they shut down ALL the restuarants! Someone is really ctrying to not let us celebrate.

But we had fun during the day just being the four of us. I let the two Muggles decide on everything. Lucky Dragon and I stood in store lines and tried out several office chairs. He said that Lady Hiva needed a work chair for her desk. He found a "perfect chair" finally--bright green "mom's favorite color!" I thought that other chairs were more comfortable, but he was sure this was the perfect chair!

 These two worked so hard to please their mum. They even helped build the chair.

 He wrapped all of the gifts himself. They chose all the gifts and decorations. It is no wonder we ended up with rainbow color theme (Lucky Dragon) and sparkles (Koala Bear) throughout the decor.

 For whatever reason Lady Hiva started a tradition accidentally a few years ago and we have pinatas for birthdays. These two would not have a birthday for their mum without a pinata. They chose one they thought she would like and Koala Bear filled it with chocolate all by herself while Lucky Dragon wrapped the gifts.

 I was assigned to blow up balloons.

 They both wrote their own cards and Koala Bear set the table all be herself. I was so amazed at the excitement and dedication at the project considering it was in the middle of the night.

 Lady Hiva requested that I make my homemade Tres Leches cake. I have not made it in years, but it turned out wonderfully.

 These two were SO excited to show their mom their work. They wanted her to see everything they had done.

 We took Lady Hiva to breakfast at Hruska's! They were open. But only 1 one of us could go in and order. Then we went to eat them at the park.

 Lady Hiva had some deliveries by some neighbors and her brother and his family.

 The last part of the day Lady Hiva went shopping for some clothes. It is not a trip. But she seemed happy about it. I was even able to coax her into letting me take a few photos as she tried on the clothes. She made me promise that I would not post the photos on Facebook. I am keeping that promise (she did not say I could not post it on the blog! HAHAHA)

 Of course Lucky Dragon would NEVER let his mum celebrate any holiday without Sees Chocolate. She has trained him well!

We ended the night with Saffron Circle (in Riverton). It was take out, of course, because we cannot eat in a restaurant at all! But it was still SO amazing.