A surprise birthday

Debbie, a dear friend of ours had a birthday coming up, so Celinda decided to throw her a surprise birthday party and asked me to be in on the planning and decorating part.
And you know me, party planning is right up my alley. So we worked ever so busily for a few weeks, keeping it all under wraps and praying it would all turn out well.

And it did. Everything came together beautifully and perfectly. It was a wonderful evening full of friends and good food, some good laughs and a few tears. My pictures don't do it all justice, but I hope you can at least catch the spirit of it.

All dressed up and waiting.

Celinda's husband, Creg, hung twinkle lights
and Chinese lanterns all round the yard,
giving it the most romantic and sweet atmosphere.

Sadie~Rose was never at a loss for someone to hold her during the evening.

The fire outside was roaring,

and was complete with a tray of s'mores fixings.

Surprise! Happy Birthday!

Can you tell that she was surprised? :)
Baby Gabe did not like everyone's shouts at all!

We had a lovely table set out on the porch with
amazing good food.

Celinda made the cutest polka dot cake!

Blow Debbie, blow!

Happy Birthday Debbie, we love you very much.

Farewell October

October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.

~George Cooper

I hope you all enjoy this last day of October. This month has seemed to be on wings and positively flew by. Tomorrow is November and the countdown to Thanksgiving and Christmas really begin. Love to you all...


Pictures taken by B Bowden of Rochester, NY.

home again

home again... jiggity jig
We're home! Did you miss me? :)
We had a good time in FL visiting family. It was a little crazy and a little chaotic, but there were 12 of us in one house and that just happens to be my family.
We love each other anyways. :)
It was so good to see family members that we haven't gotten to see in a long time, really good.
I hope you enjoy the pictures (and commentary.)

The welcome
I enjoyed all the amazing flowers around the house. These are "Bird of Paradise" (I think)Angelia's banana tree with baby bananas on it!
A bromeliad
One day we went to visit the town of Mt. Dora and we had lots of fun browsing through shops and enjoying the most delicious weather.

The best frozen coffees ever! I'm so not kidding. I would go back to visit, just to have another one. :)

Really neat iron (and copper?) gate. I loved the roses.

Amazing looking Shepard's pie through the bakery window.

Sunlight through the trees

Rosie and Mike, so happy

looking down the hill to the lake at the foot of the town

not sure what these are, but really pretty

another "not sure" but such a pretty vine-ing flower

Lovely bougainvillea, it was everywhere

Gorgeous flowers but check out the thorns on the stem! Just a friendly reminder to look and not touch!


When we came home in the evening we enjoyed glasses of wine and books by the pool.

Sadie~Rose watching the pool action from the sidelines.
Some enjoyed evening swims

and Olivia playing in Hershey's bed.

Another day Mike, our girls and I went to Wekiwa Springs State Park which was amazing.
We found bear tracks by the walkway. It was so strange to be in central sunny FL, and be all bundled up in coats (it was 60 degrees at noon), walking through sand, out in the country, seeing cactus, and bear tracks. So strange, but fun. :)
We went back to Mt. Dora in the afternoon to visit the great knitting store and cupcake store. I had a chocolate cappuccino cupcake. Yum.


Olivia and Mike devoured theirs before I could hand off the baby and take pictures.


I had a productive trip home. Knitting and books on iPod.


We had to stop and give Rose a little snack of sweet 'taters
and guess what welcomed us?


Home sweet South Carolina!

Thank you, Leland and Angi for having us and putting up with the commotion!
Olivia's already talking about next time and I'm pretty sure Rose is missing Hershey.
Love you guys and we'll have to do it again!

ready to go

the kids are still sleeping
and dad wishes he was too,
but we are up and getting ready
to take a short vacation to sunny FL.

the bags are packed
and the music ready to play
the gps is charged and ready to go.

i will be home no later than wed.
i'll miss you ladies,
and be ready to catch up on thursday.
have a wonderful weekend!

dying...

Play silks that is!

I was inspired by creative Ms. Kristen and we followed these instructions.

Rose got a hold of a package, but we saved it. (Or her, how ever you look at it)

Waiting for them to soak.

Mixing up the pink.

Mixing up the purple. (This color stinks like grape cough syrup!)

And the red (also stinky!)
Our finished results. After washing and drying, the read is more tangerine/peach than bright red. We are going to try that color again. But Olivia and Sadie~Rose love them.
I bought a set of 6 big scarves (30 in) and a set of 12 handkerchiefs. Big ones for Olivia and small ones for Rose. (We have them bundle up and hiding for her birthday.) We are going to do green, blue, yellow, and orange next time.
These make great Christmas and birthday gifts and are so much fun for older kids to help with. We will be certain to do these again.