alana's birthday weekend.

we all had a most wonderful time on alana's birthday weekend. what made it even more special was that my uncle (my dad's late sister's husband) from wichita was able to make it as well. bless his heart - he has been trying to make it to one of the girls' birthdays for nearly 2 years now and he finally made it. my folks and uncle arrived on thursday night and i took friday off to spend time with them. uncle kent had never been to indianapolis before, so i was anxious to take him around the city. i think i was able to show him a good time!

here we are walking along the canal.


isn't this bridge just awesome?

after stopping for a drink at a local pizzeria, we made our way to monument circle where the 500 festival was getting into full swing.


perhaps the highlight of the day was touring the indiana world war memorial and museum. it was absolutely amazing! i had no idea it even existed...and it's free! what made it even more fun was that we ran into the director of the museum who took us on our own personal tour of part of the building. he told us 'behind the scene' stories of some of the artifacts presented and was just a really interesting guy to talk to.

somehow, we crammed all of that into one morning! here we are heading back to our car. we were all beat, but had a great time. even the weather was custom ordered. it was overcast, cool, with a slight breeze. it rained for about 5 minutes and that was it! perfect!


when company is here, i like for them to dine on local cuisine. there is a very quaint, yet popular, restaurant near the university that is famous for their pie, so i knew it would be a hit with my family. before we even ordered our food, we made sure that our pie order was placed. everything was delicious and i think we all 4 rolled ourselves back to the car.

a nice nap at home was the next item on the agenda. we snoozed for an hour or so and then picked the girls up from school. my neices arrived later that night, and we all had a great time playing and, of course, eating.

on saturday afternoon, we celebrated alana's birthday. she asked everyone for shoes and jewelry and that girl walked away with a jackpot! i bet she wracked up 8 pairs of shoes and more jewelry than i have in my own collection. she is a diva through and through. we grilled out and ate cake and played a few games later that evening. it was such a wonderful, relaxing day! i couldn't have asked for a better celebration!

here is alana with oodles and oodles of gifts! can you say 'spoiled?' :)

opening gifts...

i think leah has her eye on alana's jewels!
giving thank-you lovins to nana:
her very own american girl doll courtesy of grandma:

once again, alana asked for a high school muscial cake. i'm telling you, this girl is in LOVE with those movies. here was her cake for this year...i'm hoping she picks something different for next year because i'm beginning to run out of ideas!

one of alana's favorite gifts was something that jason and i purchased for her. she loves to dig in the rocks in front of our house. literally, she'll spend an hour outside, digging up worms and playing in the dirt. i thought she would love her very own set of garden tools and i was right! who knew her favorite gift would be a $5 big lots find?


some of the most special people in my life - dad, mom, linda (my mother-in-law), jas, and uncle kent:
and last, but certainly not least, the baby birds. next spring, i will have to devote an entire post to these little creatures. for the past two years, we've hosted at least one family of feathered friends in our ferns. this year, we welcomed two families as house guests - robins and song birds. every day, all spring long, we've peeked in on these creatures to watch their development from egg to fully developed, feather clad birds. the girls and i especially enjoy our friends and so did my family from out of town. my uncle would gaze out the window to watch them even as we simply sat and visited in the living room. the birds were always on his radar!
as i said before, we had a most wonderful weekend. i love birthday weekends because i love filling my home with the sights, sounds, and smells of the people who love me and my little family of 4 most in this world. we all came together to show our love, support, and dedication to our baby angel. she made our lives most complete 4 years ago. she has blessed us with more laughs and sweetness than we ever thought we could gather from one tiny soul. what a lucky, lucky gal i am.