Violet's 5th Birthday

Oh my, can I be cliche - where does the time go? My first baby is turning into a little girl. Along with that comes little girl desires, and an American Girl was at the top of her list (damn you catalogs). So I took her to have dinner with the dolls and Tu-Tu generously bought one for her to take home. Just to digress a minute, this is one beautiful doll! As a once doll loving girl myself, I would have loved to have one of these. Everyone enjoyed themselves and Violet was delighted to have dinner with family, and the dolls of course.

We came home after to a birthday cake made by dad, who missed the fun to stay home with the babies.

Violet still seems like the child she was at 2; independent, strong willed and happy. What is so delightful now, the back and forth conversations we can enjoy with her. You know "real conversation". She is just a little charmer. She also likes having very involved discussions with all of her dolls. She often stays up late after Jack has fallen asleep, we are downstairs, I love hearing her up there chattering away to them.

She loves being a big sister and is increasing playing more meaningfully with Georgia, Ben and Dashiell. Of course, she and Jack get along like gangbusters - until they are not! It is my fondest wish that these guys grow up with an unbreakable bond - more than blood - but a shared childhood of wonderful memories (and I am sure some hard ones too, but hopefully not too many).

Who needs apples?!

Off we went, on the coldest day of the fall, in quest for an apple picking experience extraordinaire. Well we got the extraordinaire part but alas no apples. Too late in the season, over picked, whatever the reason, we missed out; not on the carnival like atmosphere though. There was a petting zoo, bouncy things, cow tractor pull and even a corn maze. The kids had a blast, the rest of us were chilly. Ben, Dash, and Georgia mostly stayed in the stroller, but during lunch got to experience a sand pit made with corn kernels instead of sand. Dad and Uncle Jim were on operation "keep corn out of babies mouths" while Aunt Sharon and myself were on put apple donuts in ours duty -oh the sacrifices!