Friday, April 17, 2009

Sasha's Birthday Morning

I've been so caught up in our posts about the veritable blizzard of the past two days that I forgot to post pictures of Sasha's birthday morning! Our tradition is to pile the gifts on the birthday boy or girl's bed while they're sleeping so that they wake up surrounded by the joy of wrapped packages (those without Gifts as a primary love language will never know the sheer glee of this ritual and I feel bad for y'all). Clearly Sasha enjoys the tradition.

The "most unique and freaky princess gift" award clearly goes to Cousins Abby and Xave for the Disney Princess Box Kite on the right-hand side of this picture. Yes, I will take copious photos of the first time Daddy launches this kite into the air.

I think that this photo can only be captioned, "Oh no, more clothes!" For a child who loves to pull every article of clothing out of her drawers multiple times per day, she sure made some funny faces when unwrapping clothing.

Sasha enjoyed the entire unwrapping experience. She was so well-trained by her brothers that she stopped needing their assistance with the unwrapping halfway through her stack of gifts, much to their chagrin.

And we are happy to say that the most entrancing gift was the nevalashka that we brought home for Sasha from Kazakhstan! "Nevalashka" is Russian for "never falls down" and it's a freaky little doll toy that has a weight and a chime in the bottom so that when a kid bats at it, it wobbles around (Weeble style) and chimes away. We fell in love with these crazy dolls in Kaz and purchased one for basically every baby we know (they also come in Sailor Duck, Alligator, Demonic Bunny, Cute Puppy, and Fox varieties. We stayed away from Demonic Bunny for obvious reasons). Actually, we ran into some problems in airport security because apparently they're not used to seeing six nevalashkas lined up in a row in a suitcase and the effect is rather bomb-like.

Anyway, the first of Sasha's Kazakhstan birthday presents was a rousing success and hopefully she enjoys the next 16 just as much (we got a gift from Kaz for each of Sasha's childhood birthdays). Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

9 comments:

The Fox Den said...

That girl has Morningstar cuteness written all over her!!!

marymary said...

1) I'm cracking up over you at security with your nevalashka bombs. 2) Ellen is very much at the pull-out-all-her-clothes stage too. 3) I think buying presents from Kaz to last through all those birthdays was a brilliant idea. But then, I've come to expect brilliant ideas from you Morningstars.

Susan said...

I love that lil Kaz toy...i am sad because I am the shopping diva, and I never saw those there!!! I will have to have my friends who are traveling get Leeza one.

Where did you get them? I had my husband with me in Almaty and he does not share my love of shopping so much....

They are COOL.

Jstar said...

We love the nevalashka, too! We actually got them in Karaganda at the toy store in the top floor of the mall. I'm sure they sell them in Almaty, too

Brian said...

Love that birthday tradition! Very cool...and what's wrong with breaking into your kid's college dorm/house and leaving presents then? :)

Susan said...

hi there..where did you get your nevalashka doll? I have a friend in Semey now adopting her adorable princess and she is making 2 trips and has a day in Almaty-and I wanted her to see if she could find one for her daughter and mine...
Princess@tampabay.rr.com is my email address. thanks!
I only had an hour for shopping in Almaty and had my husband and son with me at the Tsum so i was ready to keep looking but they were bored.
:) Never saw that cool doll but now i MUST HAVE ONE. :)

sandyamstar said...

Wow! I've never won an award for giving a gift before!! Thank you, thank you for taking pictures of Steve attached to (I mean, flying) a princess kite! I'll pay $ for them! :)

sandyamstar said...

Oh, and is that pulling the clothes out of drawers a girl thing only??? (fingers crossed) We had to put drawer locks on Abby's dresser so her neatly folded clothes stay that way!!

PS....does this count as commenting TWICE even though it's responding to the same message?

Jstar said...

Not sure if 2 comments count for double... I'll consider it.

And congratulations on your gift award - it was well deserved

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