Our girl hit double digits!

On May 10, 2010, Anna-Kate turned 10. It was her "golden" birthday, as our Anderson friends like to call it. She asked if she could have a slumber party and invite 10 of her friends. That seemed feasible to me and so the plans were made. We invited a few more than 10, but in the end, only 10 came and 8 were able to stay the night. We began her celebration with a hot dog dinner. Her (boy) cousins joined us for dinner, cake and the opening of gifts, but around 6:30 pm, the guys headed over to the Colemans and the girls got in their jammies and prepared to watch an "Anne of Green Gables" marathon. With sleeping bags spread all over the living room floor and the movie started, the finger nail polish came out and the hair braiding began. Giggling, twirling and girly time made for some very sweet memories. Here is what it looked like:

Kisses from mom.



Back row: Cara Beth, Elizabeth, Sarah Bess, Fiona, Annie Rose & Bella Front row: Emma A., Emma G., Anna-Katie and Natasha








Make a wish!




Pretty girls!



Daddy's girl



Kisses from dad




Another daddy's girl

It wouldn't be the same without a shot of Oompah and Savta (pronounced "Softa"--Hebrew for grandmother)

Back row: Annie Rose, Sarah Bess, Cara Beth, Anna-Kate, Emma G., Fiona, Addie & Bella
Front row: Elizabeth, Natasha & Emma A.


French braids for (almost) everyone!





The braids from the back.



These two were still at it at 3:45 in the morning. This is what they looked like at 7:00 am. I really did try to get them to go to sleep around 11:00, then again at midnight. At 3:45, I just felt sorry for their parents and what they had to deal with later on in the day.









the birthday girl











The next morning, the girls who were left decided to release some balloons. A few still had "effective" helium. Only three made it over the trees.



Happy birthday Anna-Katie! I love you and I'm so proud of the young lady you are becoming. I'm glad your birthday was a "10"!

My Baby Turned 5! How Did That Happen So Fast?

Asa just celebrated his fifth birthday and this year he asked if he could have a "friend" birthday party, which meant that he just wanted to invite his friends over to celebrate with him. So we invited several families to the local splash pad, ordered a bunch of pizza (although Asa's pizza had to be made at home so as to minimize his fat intake), and ate angel food cake for dessert. He thought it was the perfect day. It looked a little something like this:




The cake had fat-free icing too, which turned out to be tastier than I thought it would be.

















"I'm 5!"
















Asa running through the sprinklers with his buddies, Joshua and Jack. That's Creed with his back to us.







Addison








One of my favorite's. . .Creed braves the water too.








And because Asa's birthday is the day after those 10 days in April that are so difficult for so many and because Knox was Asa's buddy, we released balloons in Knox's honor. We miss you, Knox.

Just a few more. . .Asa with mom and dad. . .










. . .and Oompah and Savta.









From Savta and Oompah's point of view. . .





I'll try and get the rest up on Facebook in the next couple of days for those of you who are interested. Just thought I'd give a glimpse of Asa's day. He enjoyed it so. We all did.

Spring Pictures 2010

I love my sister. She gives so selflessly of herself, her time and of her camera. Many who know her have benefitted from her generosity. After going through countless photos that she took this Spring, I've chosen the following ones to represent our children's school pictures for the 2009/2010 school year:

Austin (13 years old)




















Addison (11 years old)





















Anna-Kate (9 years old)

















Ayden (7 years old)











Asa (4 years old)




















Thank you Marian. Thank you for capturing my children in the way that you do. You are such a blessing to me and to so many others. I love you.