Birthday parties

Mandy is a blessed little girl and the family gathered to celebrate her life. Sunday was the first party, outside on the deck with plenty of cake, toys in the yard, and fun gifts for Mandy.

Check out Emma's expression in the next photo. I have no idea what she is doing, but I laughed out loud when I saw this photo upload onto the computer.

Want a pink cupcake?

Life is much different for Mandy on her first birthday than it was for Emma. While Emma opened her gifts by herself, Mandy has lots of help from her older more experienced sister and cousins.

Left in peace, Mandy found a gift she could enjoy.

Aunt Janice gave the kids glow in the dark stars to remember her by, explaining that they could look at the stars and know that she was looking at the same ones. That opened a debate about whether or not we really do see the same stars as she does in Africa. We decided that probably we weren't looking at the same stars, but I really like the sentiment and Emma is enjoying her glow in the dark star from Aunt Janice.

Birthday party number 2 was on the big day, Mandy's birthday with my family including grandparents. Mandy is quite the social animal and loves being the center of attention.

Mandy received some cool shoes, books, sweatshirt (that I want to wear), some other clothes, a toy dog, puzzle, pj's, and a rolling horse.

It is fun having family around and the girls monopolize the time with Bama and Papa -- someday Emma may learn to call them Grandma and Grandpa. But probably not.

This is a really busy week. In between parties, I canned pears with Odessa. We did 27 jars in 6 hours. The kids did great and I decided I really do enjoy canning; the demanding children being my #1 reason for avoiding the task. There is something very rewarding about preserving food, especially food from my own trees. I plan on canning apple sauce and some jam in the next few weeks.

I have 2 different senior photo shoots this week.  I am looking forward to them a great deal. I love taking pictures of people who don't run off, eat the props, throw tantrums, or need snacks to get through the 1 hour session. I'll post pictures when I get them done. :)