Raja's 4th birthday and Mommy's "staycation"

I finally downloaded Raja's birthday pics off the camera. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/desimom2/RohanS4thBirthday

July was a very hectic and fun month. I combo'd Raja's bday party with a mini-"staycation" for me. I took 4 days off from work Thurs - Tues. My parents came to visit for 10 days and my brother and his family and my sister flew in for the party.

The party was at Goin Bananas and was a blast. Everyone had a lot of fun. Rohan got his first "official wheels," a Go Diego bike with training wheels from us. He's starting to get the hang of riding it which is great. Bulldozer kept up with the big boys pretty darn well. He even went on the large slide. I'm impressed.

My "staycation" was a lot of fun, but expensive. Just because you don't go anywhere doesn't mean it's cheap. I realized when I have time off - my favorite thing to do is shop. And when I shop, I shop until I drop. Not good to take too many days off : - ).

I did get a lot of cool stuff and a lot done. In addition to party prep - Here are some of the highlights:

1) Nordstrom's anniversary sale - can never go wrong with a good sale here!

2) Ikea - I think it's been almost a year since I went into Ikea last since it's way up north. Thank goodness I had my lil sis to help navigate me through that store. I still think it's crazy hard to find stuff - even after 3hrs in that place.

I did get some great stuff, though. I got great storage bins to organize the boys' games and toys in the upstairs gameroom and I got some picture frames for the kids' artwork as well. I also got the mammut table and chairs. It will be the kids table when we have dinner parties at my new dining table and a place to color upstairs in the game room.

3) A day with the girls at Milk & Honey spa. I got a great massage and facial before heading back to work. If you go here, you must get Sarah to do your massage. I told her how sore I was from the bootcamp and she did a great job working out knots. She even did some stretches with me and gave me some handouts of stretches I can do at home. I would definitely recommend it!

I think I'm going to try and do a staycation at least twice a year and make it a 4 or 5-day weekend. It's a great way to catch up on all the crazy stuff that piles up as a working mom and a great way to get some r & r without paying extra for babysitters!