Birthday Weekend the First

It is possible that a luckier child/family does not exist. We've just had a really lovely birthday weekend. Everybody pitched in to get things ready yesterday and we had a delicious taco dinner which I highly recommend for a party because you can prepare everything ahead of time.

I thought Harper would go out of her mind waiting for the party yesterday, as it did not officially begin until four. AND we had to eat dinner before opening presents. Torture! Fortunately Auntie Shannon was around to help pass the time with a Can You See What I See? book.

This year Harper decided she wanted brownies instead of a cake (and the angels sang!). She did want some decoration on the brownies though - a multicolored frosting peace sign. I made a batch of plain brownies as well, for those among us who prefer not to have a side of sugar with our sugar. Incidentally I didn't need nearly the entire recipe's worth of frosting to decorate the 8x8 pan of brownies. (It's possible I had one or two spoonfuls of frosting with my coffee Saturday morning.)

Harper was thrilled with her brownies - even if they looked a little wonky - they tasted great. And the addition of seven crazy candles made them even more festive.

Harper received tons of great presents. And she cheered over every one of them. Well maybe not about the blanket that we got her for her bed, but she's cold every night so I know she'll appreciate it. There were games, clothes, books (lots of books, hopefully enough to keep her busy until Christmas), crafts, a princess Barbie, and a few items for her beloved Kit.

Below you can see Kit sporting her winter look - very stylish.

We enjoyed church and breakfast together this morning and then said our goodbyes. 

Matt, Harper, Michael, and I were able to continue celebrating tonight. Ann made a wonderful dinner for my birthday and I also received lots of great gifts. (I am seriously spoiled.) One of my gifts was a new camera! The digital camera I had been using is older than Harper and something of a dinosaur as far as cameras go, I am so happy for a new toy to play with!

I hope your weekends were half as happy as ours. For tonight I'm going to enjoy the rest of the evening and not worry about the details of Harper's "friend" party (next weekend) until tomorrow!