Happy Birthday Sweet Ava Claire and Other Bits and Pieces

Believe it or not, our sweet Ava Claire turned One Year Old yesterday! And what a day we had. Andrea planned a party for her and asked me if we could have it at our house as she didn't think their back yard would be big enough.

I said no.

Of course I said she could! So at promptly 3:00 many little guests, along with their parents started showing up and we had so much fun. Her theme was, can you guess, Tinkerbelle!

I ended up making her Tinkerbelle cake for her - Andrea bought her the darling costume that will double as her halloween costume this year. The cake was super easy to do although it looks like it wouldn't be. I like those kind of projects. Ava Claire loves the Tinkerbelle doll that was in the middle of the cake and ever since we took it out of the cake she has taken it everywhere with her - even to church this morning! Poor Andrea wanted to make it, but she ended up with the flu and ran a fever all day so the poor thing missed most of Ava's birthday.


We had a couple of Peter Pan's show up!


We played "Fairy Freeze Tag" and "Pin the Wings on the Fairy" and then served mini cupcakes and mint ice cream to all our guests.

Ava Claire got lots of sweet presents but I think the guest who was the most excited of all for her to open his present was Poppa! He could hardly wait until Miss Ava donned these:


Have you ever seen anything cuter? Poppa was very pleased. He and Miss Ava Claire have a ritual. Whenever she comes over the first thing she does is look outside the patio window to see the horses. As soon as she spots them, she starts pointing and leaning and making baby sounds that clearly indicate "Let's go see the horses". So Poppa always obliges and they go out and feed the horses some hay. It's what they do together. Every single time she comes over. So he is getting his little cowgirl ready for the day when she will no longer be content to just feed the horse, she will want to ride the horse. It will be a happy day for Poppa!

In other news, this week we went to our annual Ministry Team Retreat. I ended up spending most of my time in bed - sick. But I decided that even a sick day at The Ashley Inn is better than a healthy day at work!

BSU won against Bowling Green yesterday and we just heard that BSU has advanced to 5th place in both the AP and the USA Today poll! Happy Days! I think this is going to be a very good year!

I have gotten a little more knitting done - I'm STILL working on that monkey for Tyler's Christmas present. My Word. I had no idea how involved and difficult this would be. But I don't have too much left and I think I'm going to be done soon. I sure hope so because then I have to knit a gift for Ava, make my girls their ornaments, make two baby quilts, and four gifts.....all before Christmas!

I'm trying to decide how to decorate this year. We are celebrating Christmas at Thanksgiving this year with our kids because Brad, Michelle and Tyler will be here. And so will Tara. So it just makes sense to do it that way. But now I can't decide if I should take the time to decorate for Autumn (which is my most favorite decorating season) , or just wait and decorate for Christmas a little early this year. Decisions, decisions! I'm not sure what to do.

My reading has significantly decreased lately. I don't think I have ever gone so long without reading a book. Life just is so full these days, and trying to find the time is nearly impossible. But if you have noticed my new blinking icon on the right , you might have guessed that I'm going to have to start reading sometime soon - as I'm now "Blogging for Books". Click on the blinkie and see how you can join me. It's a pretty awesome program from Waterbrook Multnomah Press - I read and review books they send me for free - and they even have sent me some to send to you. So stay tuned, some great book reviews and free giveaways are coming soon!

This week looks to be a pretty quiet one. But then don't they all start out that way? I hope this stays quiet so I can catch up. I don't think I walked at all last week, and I actually missed it. I want to get started back on the path I forged this summer. And I want to get back into my sewing room again - now that the gardening is pretty much done, maybe that is a possibility.

This week we are going to have highs in the 60's which is about 30 degrees cooler than it has been. Hello winter. I am calling the furnace repairman tomorrow. Our furnace broke at the end of spring and we decided to leave it until fall. The air conditioner was working great and that was all we cared about at the time! Funny how your perspective changes.

I am going to leave one last sweet picture of my very favorite granddaughter in the whole wide world. To say that she has me wrapped around her sweet little finger would be the biggest understatement ever!