Licking the icing off the beaters on the eve of her birthday.  She cried when we tried to take it back to wash it!

In the spot where we first laid her out almost exactly a year before to examine all her wonderful, sweet, precious, newness.

Galen’s gift to her was Peter and the Wolf performed as a puppet show.

I’ve been planning birthday dresses for her since the day she was born, even before actually.  In my mind this year’s was to be a smocked bishop dress in colors to coordinate with her birthday sweater.  Does it go without saying that the birthday sweater was planned ages ago?  While I was still pregnant I had one pattern picked out for a boy baby and one for a girl baby.

Only I’m trying really hard not to spend money whenever possible and a bishop dress requires three yards of high quality fabric, which doesn’t come cheap.  I challenged myself to make her something from supplies I already had.  Which was actually really frustrating for me.  I tend to get caught up with a certain vision of what a project should be and it’s hard to shift gears.  I tried all sorts fabric and pattern combination and nothing seemed right.  Finally I struck on this pairing of an antique lace collar with a spring green cotton-silk blend.

With a violet for her hair.  My darling little harbinger of spring.  What to say of the joy that is a baby girl due on the equinox?  Our Sweet Wild Violet.  Dear Seraphina Violet Juliette.

We were planning a little party but everyone had been sick the week before and we were still kind of worn out.  Steve and I decided that we really just wanted to spend a quiet day playing with our baby and her siblings, not running around cooking and cleaning and worrying about whether she will be sleeping when people arrive or not?

Swing Tutorial

A glass sippy cup.  The only gift we purchased.  It’s very well loved.  You need these lids to convert it from a bottle to a sippy.  My sister bought her the lids thinking it was the whole cup at Christmas time and we finally got the glass bottle part to pair them with.  I like it much better than the metal ones we used with the older kids.

After cake and presents she spent hours of the afternoon just swinging away, taking sips of tea and cuddling her baby.

This delightful illustration was a gift from our friend and neighbor.  Earlier this year she made the children a story book featuring her charming little elves and fairies roving about our neighborhood!

In lieu of an official party we had a few people over for ice cream the following week.  Elijah makes the most amazing dairy free ice cream.  The guest of honor had plain coconut cream with banana slices.

The bunch of daffodils were hands down her favorite gift.  I pressed one for her baby book.

Last year’s blessing egg, hung with this years.

While we dyed pysanky eggs she painted eggs and whatever else was handy with vegetable juices.

We are so blessed.