Dana's Birthday Party, the sequel

Here are a few photos from Dana's birthday party, the one where her cousins came over. I am certain that the quantity of birthday and half birthday parties we manage to celebrate is losing its luster for most of you, and I had no intention of posting even more birthday party photos. But remember that dress I made for Nora? Me and it have a date with the seam ripper right now, and I am stalling because I don't want to go. The wedding I made it for is in two weeks, and in case I mess it up again, I need to get to work on it. So here I am posting party photos instead. Enjoy!

Here we have Nora, Josie (in the stripes), Dana, Keenan (yellow shirt), and Brooke (blondie in the brown dress). They are enjoying the Very Hungry Caterpillar cake I made the day before. Not pictured are Ayla, Adrea, Taylor and a collection of grown ups.

Dana shows off some new jewels. See those stars in her ears? She got her ears pierced on June 1 after Nora begged for close to a year. When we went to get Nora's done, Dana started to cry and said, "But what about me?" And so, after a long discussion about what it would entail, she got her ears pierced. And here she is, 10 months later, showing off after changing her earrings for the very first time. They were a gift from Taylor, Uncle Sam and Aunt Lizzie. (Taylor is Sam and Lizzie's niece.) The necklace was also a birthday gift. She is so decked out now, and so proud of it. Nora even gave her an "extra" jewelry box to store all of her new things in.

When my mom asked Dana what she wanted for her birthday, she asked for a gold ring to wear on her pinkie, which is about 3mm in diameter. My mom searched high and low and found nothing. I assured her Dana would forget. And, as usual, I was wrong. For an entire month before her birthday, when anyone asked what she wanted, she would tell them, "Grandma Inese is getting me a gold ring!" I mentioned this at Sunday dinner a couple weeks ago, and both Lizzie and Jenni (my cousin Jeremy's wife and also my neighbor and friend) found itsy bitsy rings for her! She was thrilled-and she still is. Here you can see Lizzie helping her put one of them on.

Keenan (and Zak, Auntie Alex and Uncle Kevin) got Dana a really cute stuffed Yorkshire terrier that uses batteries to do fun things like bark, whine and snore. It really is cute though. It came in a teeny tiny puppy purse. Even better, Ayla and her mama Tara got her the exact same puppy in a different purse! I tell ya-she is so excited to have TWO puppies! She named them Princess and Sparkles. She loves them both so much. Here you can see her giving Keenan a dramatic hug.

Zak attack! Long ago, we nicknamed Zak "The Baby Whisperer." He truly has a way with little ones. Here, we see Taylor (floral shirt with green shrug), Keenan, Adrea (pink dress), Dana and Brooke piling onto him for a little wrestling. I can't imagine there are many 17 year-old boys who would encourage this. I just have to say that if my girls grow up to be half as kind, caring, generous, intelligent and responsible as Zak, I will feel like I did a good job raising them.

And now I am going to get that seam ripper... Wish me luck and patience!