Abigail's 9th birthday

I can not believe that my baby girl has turned nine.  Where did the years go?!

Abigail got quite the birthday celebration this year...first she got to celebrate early in Florida, then when we got home, her grandparents McKee came to help us celebrate.

On Friday evening, her friends arrived for her first sleepover birthday party!  She forewarned us that there would be lots of squealing...and there was. :)  All of the girls got along great and we had a really fun time.

We had a purple horse theme for the party.

 

 Celebrating!

 I made her a sleeping bag for her American Girl doll (the tutorial I used is here) and we gave it to her early so that her doll could use it for the sleepover.  Abigail was totally surprised and quite speechless!

Birthday breakfast

After her grandparents and friends left on her birthday afternoon, she opened presents from us.  Here she is with her sundress and matching doll dress (a birthday tradition).

A study in unbridled glee: below is Abigail jumping up and down when she realized that with her American Girl gift cards from us and her great-grandparents, along with birthday money from aunts and uncles and the money she has been saving over the last year, she had enough money to buy her long-awaited new doll!

We headed off to the AG store to get her new friend.  Meet Angela Rachel -- complete with hearing aids and earrings, just like Abigail!

We came home in time for birthday dinner.  This year Abigail requested steak and shrimp (apparently we have moved on from the macaroni and cheese stage...nothing like moving from the basement to the penthouse in one leap!), collard greens, broccoli, and strawberries.

Then it was on to her birthday cake.  She soooo wanted to blow out all candles in one blow.

She did it!

Our family

(My head is oddly warped in this one because my camera does that to anyone who is too close to the edges of the lens.  It's very frustrating when a picture is otherwise a great one.)

We are so very thankful for our sweet, sunny, bright, sparkly, never-give-up girlie-girl!

We love you, Abigail Rose!

Happy 9th birthday!

A Tea Party Fit for a Princess

Today Abigail and I went to a birthday party for friends at a local tea room.  The girls dressed up as princesses and we thoroughly enjoyed our tea party!

 A girl never really outgrows the excitement of dressing up like a princess for a tea party! :)

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! 

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!