Birthday weekend and saying goodbye.

 What a weekend! It was such a whirlwind of activity and fun, that it's hard to get back to the regular schedule of Monday.  Garrison really enjoyed being the "birthday boy".  He was thoroughly spoiled with gifts and love.  I made a train cake and he actually recognized what it was:).

 
  I probably would have just made a square cake and put candles on it, but thought I'd at least try to something a bit more unique.  The kids liked it and ate it, so I'm happy with that.  The first gift from Uncle Kirk was clown noses.  They were a big hit!
 

    Before he arrived we were playing in tents.  The kids wanted to have their snacks in there and Kiersten ended up falling asleep.  Soooo cute.
 

    Kirk came up with the idea to have the kids put on their own pizza toppings.  The kids had a lot of fun with this, although Caleb was eating a lot of the cheese and meat beforehand.  Not a big surprise there:).

  There was lots of reading...

  Lot's of staged fights...

  Lots of cuteness...

It looks like Woody died, but I'm really not sure what they were doing at this point!

A treat after church

Part of that cone ended up on my skirt!

Kiersten's not sure what to think of all the activity.

 So, now for the saying goodbye part.  The first one was to Kirk and the other was to my wedding dress.  Some might be saying, "Huh, what happened to your dress?"  Well, it's not too long of a story.  A couple weeks back I was reading a friend's blog and she was talking about a friend of hers that makes dresses for girls in other countries.  She uses old wedding dresses, prom dresses, etc, and sends them over to be a blessing to those who can't afford it.  What got her started was hearing about a little girl that was told she could have a new dress if she got married.  She was only a little bit older than Elyssia and the man was my dad's age!  It made me think about the big box with my wedding dress sitting in the closet, taking up space.  Some may feel that it should be saved for the girls, but how many girls really end up using their mother's dress these days.  I have the veil and it would be nice if one of the girls wanted to use it, but I won't be hurt if they decide that they want to find their own.  By the time they get married the dress would probably be yellowed and what are the chances that they'll be the same size anyway? So, after talking it over with Scott we decided that it would be a good thing.  To have a chance to make a small difference in other little girl's lives.  We have wedding pics and the lady is going to save enough material to make two doll dresses for our girls.  That way they will have a little piece of our story.  I pray that they will treasure that more than having the whole dress sitting there aging. So, it sounds funny to tell a dress goodbye, but we pulled it out, showed it to the kids and repackaged it before sending it with Kirk to Calgary.  It will be picked up by a friend and hopefully we'll get to see the finished product sometime in the not too distant future!  All in all, it's been a wonderful weekend.  Tonight is Ladies Bible Study and Wednesday night the grandparents arrive.  This weekend Scott and I are looking forward to a rare opportunity.  We get to go on a date, compliments of the grandparents babysitting.  We are really looking forward to our 3rd date of the year:)  I think we appreciate them more because they're so few and far between.  Now, it's off to feed some little munchkins and see what we can do about a naptime.