Ice Cream

In addition to his love of chocolate chip cookies, Clark really loves ice cream. He was concerned when we first moved out of America's Dairyland (aka Wisconsin) that he would have to endure life without great ice cream. But then we discovered Blue Bell. I doubt our life will ever be the same again.

We indulge ourselves in Blue Bell ice cream regularly around here. It helps that when it goes on sale and I find a coupon for it we can get premium ice cream which sells for around $7 for about $2. I'm not sure what recently led Clark to check out their website, maybe to see if they were selling his favorite flavor this month, but he discovered that there was a factory about an hour away from us. And they did tours. Of course we had to go.

As Clark said, as far as tours go it wasn't that informative but enough for our kids to handle. It probably helped they gave us a nice sized bowl of ice cream afterward. Nothing like having ice cream at 10 AM. We should have skipped breakfast.

This little lady loves ice cream. She even got her own bowl!

Friendship in a Jar

As I lay wide awake at 5:00 am this morning, running through my mind were all the things I needed to get done before we move. It's happening in only a matter of weeks but strangely enough I strayed to contemplating taking my kids to the zoo today or even driving 45 minutes to go to Target. I'm in avoidance and denial mode big time. Hours later, I settled on calling a dear friend of mine and inviting her and her kids over to play for the day. It's a great combo because I love talking to her and our kids adore each other. Do we have a future "in-law" relationship? I'm just kidding!!

So my sweet friend, who quickly agreed to coming over, suggests she would be happy to help me with anything I needed to get done. I laughed at the idea and joked there was a 14 lb box of raspberries in my freezer torturing me. It was suppose to be made into jam but that was before I knew we were moving. Before either of us knew what we were doing, we were up to our arms in raspberries. Neither of us had made raspberry jam. What better time to learn on a lazy, fall Tuesday morning with 5 kids to entertain. Thankfully they do a good job of that themselves.

What struck me about today was the wonderful gift of friendship. Sadly, it isn't something that can put in jar and preserve it there. If it was, I would be bottling up all my friends so I can take them with me. I've always been blessed with good, wonderful friends in my life. They have inspired me, taught me, helped me, laughed with me, cried with me, prayed for me and even, at times, put up with me. In a nutshell: there for me.

Today my darling friend was helping me clean out my freezer. A year ago, as I prepared to add another child to my family, she and other friends were helping me to fill up my freezer!

I love my friends. I am so, so, so grateful to them and for them. They add such wonderful dimension to my life. I treasure them far more than maybe I have ever adequately expressed to any of them. It makes leaving all the more difficult.

Better Late . . .

Yes, we did have a 1st birthday here last month. Yes, we did celebrate it. And yes, I've been a bit, um, distracted. Then I discovered all these darling pictures and I couldn't resist.

So here goes:
What a lucky little lady Afton was. Her birthday was on a Saturday so we had the whole day to do whatever her heart desires. What am I saying, she is just 1-year-old! We did the planning. After a stop at the photo studio we headed over to the zoo. I think she enjoyed the people more than the animals.

Sadly, we lost her really cute hat at the zoo.

Afton loves her bling. She loves, loves necklaces. Her siblings promptly broke about 3 of them. As well as one of her other birthday presents. Good thing she doesn't complain.

A cake fit to be destroyed!

Finally a 1-year-old who does more than daintily pick at her cake. It probably helped that we served it about 4 in the afternoon. She loved the frosting. And she loved showing me how much she loved the frosting with a big pat on my face. Thanks Afton.

I just love 1-year-olds. Their curiosity, sense of adventure, their mess making, and their abilities to get into amusing positions.

Mmmm, we get to eat Afton for dinner.

A rare Afton moment . . . angry. I was trying to get a picture of her monster feet to show Grandma. Cute huh? We love this little girl!!!