Happy Birthday Li'l Artist!

She's FOUR today! Amazing. It is always amazing.

Her grandma and papa came yesterday for cake and ice cream.

It was a lovely creation; she desired "apples in the cake". I made an oatmeal cake with shredded granny smith apples "in it," then topped it with cream cheese frosting. Very delicious!

From her grandma and papa, she got a darling little cotton dress, some Color Wonder glitter-paint things, a tablet of drawing paper, and sixty-four crayola crayons. Oh my. That's a lot of crayons for her to keep picked up *guffaws* mama to pick up. *sigh* But what a blessing!

Mama and Daddy got her eight crayons. But they were 'big' ones. Also some colored pencils and a set of watercolors and 1100 feet of freezer paper. Then I found some dollar colorbooks at Family Dollar (weird store, that). Thankfully, among them were 'un-licensed characters.' That is, not Barbie or Nemo or High School Musical or Bratz or other annoying and/or disgusting themes. Bible and Jumbo are great generic color books that don't add to an appetite for fads.

Big Sister is helping her "enjoy" her gifts.

Today I'm taking them to a picnic at the fish hatchery where we can look thru glass at trout and some giant sturgeon. I think it's finally spring.