A day in the life of royalty

The day after her sixth birthday, Belle donned her new dress, had her lunch packed in her new picnic basket, and called up her bodyguard for an al fresco lunch.  After traipsing around the kingdom until Belle was ready to cause bodily harm to her bodyguard, he settled on a good spot and they enjoyed a relatively peaceful lunch on this lovely spring day.

The most beautiful six-year-old in the whole world!

Abigail's sixth birthday...part two

Abigail's special request for her birthday dinner? Velveeta shells-n-cheese, raw cauliflower to dip in ranch dressing, and bread. (For any of us you who don't know Abigail personally, let me tell you that she has very precise ideas about almost everything.  Did I mention VERY precise?!)

 Speaking of opinions :), Abigail wasn't really into the whole cake thing this year...she didn't want one for her party (she wanted pink and purple butterfly-shaped sugar cookies and ice cream instead), and when I insisted on one for our family, she said she wanted a princess cake.  By the time we got back from our impromptu walk yesterday afternoon, I didn't have much time for an amazing creation, but it was more important to her that I spend time with her on her birthday...so I did!  This one went together in about twenty minutes (well, twenty-five if you count the repairs from when I put the lid over it and inadvertently squished the princess down until only her head was sticking out of her skirt!!!).  Everyone was happy.

After dinner and cake, it was gift time!

A real vacuum from Grandpa & Grandma O'Gorman, just her size!

(and just in time, because Abigail recently got very offended when she realized that her toy vacuum doesn't really suck up anything!!!)

Her first real rings from Grandpa & Grandma McKee

 Birthday money from Uncle Chuck, Aunt Connie, Amanda, & Alicia

She also thoroughly enjoyed all of the birthday cards she got in the mail, too -- thanks everyone! (She got her gift from G & G Minota early, see here.)

By then, we were all tuckered out and ready for bed...after all, being six is hard work.  There was just enough time for one last snuggle with Daddy before bed, and a picture with the bouquet of flowers that he brought to his princess on her birthday.

Abigail's sixth birthday

Abigail was absolutely delighted to be turning six! All day long she told me that she was bigger, that she felt older, that she could do more things all by herself...all because she was six now! :)  It was so cute.

Abigail got to open two presents in the morning before Bruce left for work.  One was her requested 'birthday dress' with an extra little surprise...a matching doll dress.  (I had to do some serious eleventh-hour sewing to get these done in time...why do I procrastinate?!!!!!!!)

The other 'present' she opened was an envelope from her brother which contained a colored picture of a puppy and a note that said "I love you so much!"  It was SO precious.

After school and lunch, a few friends arrived for a birthday tea party.  The invitations requested that the girls 'wear their favorite dress and bring their best-behaved doll'...and they all did.  What a bunch of princesses!

(I forgot to take a picture of the dolls at their very own tea table...)

They even had their own waiter!  David wanted to be included but recognized that it was going to be all girls, so he offered to be the waiter, complete with suit and tie.  He did a superb job pouring their 'tea' (hot chocolate) and serving them cream, marshmallows, and sweet treats.  The girls took it all very seriously and it was so sweet to hear the murmur of ladylike conversation and the clink of my good china (which came out for this very special occasion).

After tea, they enjoyed some rousing rounds of "pin the lid on the teapot" and then they all ran upstairs to play with their dolls.

 After the party, Abigail requested a walk through the neighborhood, so we set off to enjoy the lovely afternoon.  Abigail showed me that she knew how to skip now that she was six (and it really was the first time I'd seen her do it!  Who knew six was such a magic number?!).

We walked, talked, played, and enjoyed the lovely spring scenery.

...to be continued in the next post! 

Six years ago...

Six years ago right now, we met our beautiful Abigail Rose!

Happy sixth birthday to our precious daughter!

Baby shower!

Last week I hosted a baby shower for my friend Karen.  The theme was farm/barnyard, which lent itself to a lot of fun in decorating!  I forgot to take pictures of most of the decorations :(, but here are a couple (you can see some in the background of the last two pictures, too)...

A clothesline of farmer-boy clothes...

 ...and some cowboy and farmer boots, too!

There were also stainless-steel buckets with candy, bandannas, picket fences, and John Deere stuff.  We really had fun with it!

Here's the cake:

 Excuse me for a lot of pictures here, but another friend coordinated all of the food, and she came up with the most creative stuff to fit in with the theme -- look at these (read the labels if you can)!

 Thirty weeks and counting...baby Noah will be here before too long...

 ...and we -- all of us! -- can hardly wait!

A safe trip

On the way home from Florida, I was reminded of just how thankful I should be for every trip made safely, for every arrival at my destination without mishap or trouble.

We passed a raging inferno that was a car carrier, engulfed in flames from the tractor all the way back to the last cars on the trailer.  It was so hot that we could feel the heat on our skin inside our van as we hurried past.  This isn't the greatest picture; I just aimed the camera ahead of time and took the picture without looking because I was too focused on getting past safely.  There weren't even emergency vehicles on the scene yet when we went past.

On the one hand, it was amazing; David said he could see the metal melting and twisting.  (The driver was out of harm's way.)  On the other hand, it was sickening -- the destruction, the raw power, and the loss.  It was a good reminder, though, that our safety is a gift, not a guarantee.

Holes!

While David was anxiously awaiting the issuing of my parents' pool permit so that the pool contractor could start excavating, he got a little antsy.  In response to that antsy-ness, my dad suggested to David that he help out by starting to dig out the pool area so that the work could go faster once the permit came through...little did he know what he was about to unleash!!!  David promptly set to work and spent hours -- literally -- digging in the staked-out pool area.

The next morning he woke up and started in on his job again right away.  After I took this picture, I interrupted his work to make him change out of his pajamas!

Thankfully, the permit came through just in time and we were able to watch it excavated before we headed home.  Here are Abigail and her great-grandpa watching the work.

 The finished hole was very impressive...now we're anxious for it to be completed so we can go back and swim! (To see the ongoing progress, check out my mom's blog.)

How the kids kept busy in Florida...

The kids stayed very busy while we were in Florida.  They played in the sandbox that Grandpa filled with clean sand left over from their stucco project...

  David drove the lawn tractor that Grandpa keeps just for him.

Grandpa took the kids to Home Depot to make rain gauges at the kids' workshop,

and then when they got home, Abigail got an early birthday present -- her first fishing pole!

They went off to try their hands at a local fishing hole.

 I love this picture!

They built a fort from a big toilet box (complete with a swing for Abigail's dolls).

 They played cards with Grandma.

 ...and that was just a few highlights.  They also played in their bamboo fort, took hikes, went on tractor rides (on the big John Deere), played all sorts of imagination games, visited the neighbor's goat farm, ate ice cream with Grandma O'Gorman (whose picture isn't in this post :(, but she's in the St. Augustine post!).  They got very dirty every day and ended every day with a bath to scrub them clean and a bed into which they willingly collapsed.

They had a wonderful time!

Field trip in Florida

The Grandmas took the kids and me on a field trip to Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed the history-rich fort and we especially enjoyed watching them enjoy it!  For more pictures, see my mom's blog post here.)