Grandma's Visit & Elia's First B-day Party!

Friday, September 16th

GRANDMA'S HERE!!!!

I just love typing that!!!  Want to type it more, Grandma... hint hint.  :)

Elia fell asleep on the way, but look how happy the kids are to have grandma in the van... Noah's expression is not as big on his face, but I can see the pride in his eyes!  :)

Tradition is to hit Cracker Barrel for dinner after picking her up!  FUN...

over the top, FUN!

Donnie did not disown me!  :)  All I will say, is I had no idea I had the perfect witch laugh in me until this moment... I had all eyes on me!  So fun!

Sweet little lovebug, Liliana got in on it too...

The next morning... Fresh flowers for Grandma!

Scott's Orchard that afternoon...

 Noah is holding his shirt here, you know that fabric rubbing thing he does...

 An after-the-farm nap... kind-of.  :)

 That evening...

Sunday, September 18th

The day Mommy has had on her mind for weeks and weeks - Elia's First Birthday Party!

We did a bigger party for our 3rd and last child, our "cherry-on-top"... SO FUN!!!

I was obsessed with huge balloons!  These were punch balloons, served as awesome decorations and fun-favors!

 LOVE!

 We had PIZZA, one of Elia's favorite foods...

 How pretty is shes!?!?!?

and instead of cake, we had her other favorite food, ice-cream... a sundae table... with CHERRIES ON TOP... since she is our cherry-on-top!  :)

 The two big kids and I worked on these earlier in the week... the "thank-you's" each person took home...

The next morning's breakfast was still in theme... pancake sundaes!!!  haha!

 Daddy' even put gummy worms into a heart shape for Grandma's!  :)

 We keep Liliana out of school to hang out with Grandma and us.  Donnie took Liliana and Grandma out to get thier nails done, a very sweet bonding time for them!  Then we were all off to lunch and then to WICKHAM!

 Dog Pile Daddy!!! 

Just hangin' in there for the photo!  ha!  ...it got her to smile!  :) Noah, was done!  :)

Tuesday, September 20th, we went shopping and took it easy.  Liliana and Grandma made "islands" in the sandbox when she got home from school.

after dinner I taught Liliana how to braid using Grandma's beautiful hair...

 Hairbrushing is a family FAVORITE!!!  :)

 Liliana's second bottom baby tooth has been loose for about 2 weeks now... well, Liliana called me upstairs about 10 minutes after she went to bed and showed me that she wiggled her tooth to where it was ready to come out and since we could not find her first missing tooth and think she probably swallowed it, we knew something needed to be done... Perfect timing with Grandma, the nurse in the house!  I said to Liliana, let's go show Grandma, she will know what to do.  Grandma said it needs to be pulled out... Donnie and I said "not me!"... and without hesitation, Grandma asked Liliana if she could do it and she just reached in there and plucked it right out!  Liliana did not flinch and was very proud that Grandma pulled her tooth and that it was found to leave for the toothfairy that night!  :)  The toothfairy had a helper who beefed up the prize to a $10 bill!!!  wow!  :)

Wednesday, September 21st we brought Liliana to school.  Grandma started to cry when saying "goodbye" to Liliana, but I told her to "stop it"... :)  awe!  :)

 Grandma wrote Liliana a sweet letter...

snuggled these two for about 20 minutes, then we were off to the airport to send her back south...

 Liliana knew Grandma was going to leave her a letter, so she ran home from the bus stop looking for the letter and quickly wrote her one in return... (I need to mail it still, shhhh)  :)

What a WONDERFUL time we had!!!  Till next visit... WE LOVE AND MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!