Dollies, friends, fake birthdays and real ones

Hello, 

Well, I guess now any birthday celebration not celebrated on the actual birthday is fondly called "a fake birthday" in our home.

One of our "adventure" friends has a birthday a few days before Abbie's.  Both Abbie and Jessie have the same friends, and had each of us held a party, the same girls would have been at both, so Margo (her mom) and I decided to have a combined birthday party.  All the little girls enjoy playing with American Girl dolls so we thought it would be fun to have a doll-tea party kind of party.

Her oldest daughter decorated the party area so festively.

I think cupcakes are the perfect little cake for birthdays, and especially tea party birthdays.  We brought the unfrosted cupcakes and the frosting along to frost them at her home, thinking they would travel better that way.  About a third of the way though, it turned out that the Ziploc bag we brought (brand new) had several small holes in it so the frosting was squeezing out the sides and making a complete mess of things. We transferred the frosting into another bag, but not long after that, the tip blew right out it. At that point, we gave up, and just frosted the rest with a knife!  Every party needs a little excitement, right?!

Tea sandwiches (cucumber and chicken salad) scones (gingerbread with lemon curd and lemon drizzled with icing) grapes and strawberries.  YUM.

The birthday girls...Abbie -8 ~ and Jessie ~ 9

Friends (Courtney and Abbie)

Jessie and Ellie

Matthew and Mary Anne

They played a couple games.

Dan kept himself busy with a super challenging logic puzzle.

Louisa, Abbie, Jessie, Ellie, Alexa, Mary Anne, Courney with their dollies.   Mary doesn't have one so I suggested she bring a different baby doll.  She wanted to bring her turtle instead. 😄

The girls were so happy to play together that we moms got to chat a bit too.

So...this was a 2nd fake birthday for Abbie!

. . .

Today is her actual birthday.

I remember her birth day so well.  I came home from a midwife appointment, ate a light lunch, took a nap, and woke up to a contraction.   It was like what you read about!  I had never had one of those kind of labors before.
I labored at home (I wouldn't really say labor so much as tried to see if the contractions were in a pattern of any kind.)  When we decided it was for real, we headed to the midwife.  About three hours later... this little girl arrived.  6 lbs. 15 oz.  She had a head full of dark auburn hair that was a little curly.   Seriously, a perfect labor and delivery.

Currently her favorite animal is a horse, her favorite color is yellow, she likes to draw, and is a girly-girl.
I am grateful for the opportunities to teach her - to read, to be kind, to love others above herself, and Christ most of all.  I am so thankful for this girl.

Happy Birthday, Abigail!

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Linking with Little Things Thursday