6 Years of Violet Joy!

September 30, 2009: the day this beautiful baby girl was born.

Fast forward six years and we now have an even more beautiful little girl!

Today at school, we celebrated with her friends.  She had her Happy Birthday hat and was ready to par-tay!

 She passed out her cupcakes and then proceeded to lick all of the frosting off of hers.  I asked Violet what color frosting she wanted, and she quickly replied, "Blue." Which is no surprise since her answer to nearly everything is blue.  Miss Jean, her speech therapist, recently asked me if Violet might be color-blind since she can't identify her colors and instead calls everything blue.  I assured her that Violet has no problem seeing colors, but that she can be quite stubborn when she doesn't care for an activity.  So Blue Cupcakes for everyone!

 There was a bit of a classroom change-up recently in the kindergarten pod at Wellsville.  The class size ended up being much larger than originally predicted and the classes each had 23 students in them.  Which any kindergarten teacher will tell you is TOO MANY.  So they added another section and Violet was moved to Miss Stein's class from Mrs. Unruh's.  During milk break while the kids were enjoying their cupcakes, her former classmates were so sweet to present her with a special Happy Birthday Card!

 All of her friends from Mrs. Unruh's class signed their names -- it was so sweet!

Then it was time for ALL of the kindergartners to sing to Violet and her birthday buddy, Eston.  Can't you just see the pride in Violet's face?!?  She can tell she is big stuff, getting to stand on the table (with Miss Stein's support, of course) while EVERYONE sings to her!

She was definitely in her happy place!

She came home and did what she has done every day since her party on Sunday: laid down on the floor next to her new radio and listened to her new CDs.  Yes, Grandma Jo, she loves it!

Violet has touched SO many lives over her first 6 years of life.  Her sweet smile and infectious laugh can brighten anyone's day.  She teaches me so much every day about patience, determination, trust, and faith.  When Violet was born and in the NICU, we had no idea what the future would hold.  I was greatly comforted by Pastor Randy's sermon that first Sunday after her birth (I didn't leave Violet to go to church, but thankfully Pastor prints his sermons and Russ was thoughtful enough to bring me a copy).  He preached on Mark 10:13-16, which reads, "People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them.  But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, 'Let the little children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.  Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.'  And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them."  I remember reading those last words as "He took Violet up in his arms, laid his hands on her, and blessed her."  These words sustained me, knowing that she was in the everlasting arms of our almighty God and he would care for her always.

This scripture was again used in a recent sermon, and now that Violet is a little girl, I see it from a different perspective.  Violet lives a very simple, yet complicated, life.  We complicate it; she would keep it simple if left to her own devices.  If I could trust my Heavenly Father as wholeheartedly as Violet trusts Russ and me with a simple faith, my life would be much calmer and more peace-filled.  Violet is my little piece of heaven.  She teaches me how I should live in the light of eternity and receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child.  I look into her face and I see the face of Jesus.

Happiest of birthdays to my Violet Joy!!  I can't wait to see what God will do through you in the coming year!!

A Perfect Pony Birthday

Evelyn turned 3 a week ago and Violet turned 6 this week, so that must mean it's time for a Girls' Party in the Dwyer house!  Evelyn had been telling us for quite some time that she wanted a "Pony birthday" and Violet really didn't have any opinion on the matter, so a Perfect Pony Birthday it is!

The cake table decorated with as much My Little Pony as we could muster.

Check out that awesome cake!

Thanks, Grandma Cheryl!

Once again, we were blessed with absolutely perfect weather.  We made the girls' favorites for dinner, including meatballs, macaroni and cheese, Asian cole slaw (this really is Violet's favorite; she would eat the whole bowl!), potatoes and Hawaiian sweet rolls.

The crazy kids ate outside, but sweet Baby Grayson ate his dinner indoors.

After dinner the adults visited while the boys played some football outside.

Then it was time to check out all of those presents on the fireplace!  Evelyn and Violet had complete opposite approaches to gift-unwrapping.  Evelyn would tear her present open as fast as possible and immediately ask for the next one.  She was definitely going to win in a present-opening race.  Violet, on the other hand, would take her gift, pull a little paper off of it, then walk and show someone how much she had unwrapped so far, then tear a little more off and walk to the next person so they could see also.  Once the gift was fully open (which took considerable time), she would get the biggest smile on her face and squeal with excitement and show every single person in the room what she had received.  Evelyn's method may have been more efficient, but oh was Violet's more fun!  That girl can really make a person's day with her smile and enthusiasm.

(Notice the Pony theme certainly carried over to the gifts and the girls were thrilled!)

Grayson was perhaps the only child not interested in seeing the gifts.  He was much more concerned with keeping his balloon baby safe in its stroller.

Have you noticed that Violet is never sitting in any of the pictures?  Like I said, she made the rounds to keep EVERYONE involved in the party.

Evelyn got some fun new things for her new room, including this beautiful rug and a new lamp from Grandma Jo!

Violet is most definitely still into all-things music and was so excited to get a new CD player.

Time for hugs and "thank yous" for all of their wonderful gifts. . .

No party is complete without cake and punch.  The girls did a great job supervising as I prepared the punch.

Let's sing some Happy Birthday!  I think Violet was singing the loudest of all and clapping and dancing, too.  This girl knows how to party!

Uncle John gave her a new hat. . .

. . . and both of the birthday girls got plenty of lovin' from Grandmas Shirley and Virginia.

I had such a great day celebrating my 2 best girls!

And I say it all of the time, but I'm just so thankful that God chose me to be their mommy.  They are precious, precious gifts and I love them SOOO much!!

Wellsville Days 2015

We had such a fun weekend at Wellsville Days!  Growing up, I LOVED Wellsville Days, and now I love that my kids love it, too! We started the day by riding in the parade in Grandpa Denny's restored Chevy.  Lined up in the school parking lot, ready to go! 

Before it was go-time, we checked out some of the other floats.  There's Jackson with the football players and cheerleaders!

And there's Grandma Shirley & Grandpa Evan's church float!  The theme was "Around the World" and there were lots of fun takes on that theme.

Grandma Shirley made a pretty cute Mexican bullfighter!

Violet just kept saying, "Let's Go" and finally we did.

Evelyn watching the floats ahead of us as we turned to go down Main Street.  The boys decided that next year, they'd like to throw candy (and keep some for themselves).  We'll have to remember to do that!

As seen from the parade route.  My girls were quite professional at waving and Violet even blew a few kisses!

 

Once the parade was over, we got some lunch and Grandpa Kermit took Evelyn to see the sights.

There were all sorts of vendors, but of course Evelyn spent the majority of her time at the petting zoo.

Violet loved the animals, too, which was no surprise after the fun she had at the Tractor Show a couple weeks ago.

I just love the hustle and bustle of Main Street during Wellsville Days!

The boys are at the age where I can let them roam with their friends, knowing that we will catch up with them eventually. (Another benefit of small-town living: everyone knows you and your kids and will tell you if your kids aren't behaving.)  When I found them,  they were looking ultra-cool with their pink and red hair.

And of course, when she saw the pink hair, she just HAD to have some, too.

Plenty of fun was had at the Kid Zone, as always.

And Calvin once again played in the 3-on-3 basketball tournament.  Although he didn't repeat as champion, his team was runner-up and played great!

I worked the "Turbulence" ride in the afternoon.  When I signed up to volunteer in the Kid Zone, I was planning on standing outside one of the inflatables and making sure the kids inside stayed alive.  But no, I was a real, true-to-life "Carny" and got to make this ride go faster and tilt and everything! It seemed like a lot of pressure until I realized the thing maxed out pretty slow and the kids kept asking me to make it go faster!

Violet was a HUGE fan of Turbulence and would have ridden it all day.  Because I wasn't in the mood to clean puke out of the ride, I limited her to 3 rides.

Evelyn thought it was great fun, too.  Russ, on the other hand, did NOT.  I had told him it was slow and boring, but apparently ANY spinning rides do not agree with my husband.  You'd think after 15 years of marriage, I'd have known that. Sorry, honey!

Oliver loved doing flips on the bungee trampoline.  This was definitely the most popular attraction at the Kid Zone.

After my shift was over in the Kid Zone, I made the kids come home for an hour to rest.  After all, we'd been uptown over 8 hours in the sun and I was was beat!  Once the hour was up, they were begging to go back.  They played until dark with their friends. 

 Calvin had the record on the bull at 47 seconds!

Oliver went more like 18 seconds. . .

And this young lady may have had the record for the shortest ride ever.  I think she was off before the bull even moved.

Violet stood and watched -- and laughed -- at the kids on the bull all night long.  She would run up to anyone walking by, hit them on the leg, and point to the ring just to make sure they saw what was going on.  She thought it was about the funniest thing ever watching all of these kids get bucked off the bull.  I couldn't believe she was willing to try, but told Russ that she wanted to ride!  And the littlest Dwyer played and played in the inflatables.  Look closely and you'll see her driving the police car in this one.

The band played until 11 p.m. for the street dance, but we didn't make it that long.  It was such a fun day of community and friends and gorgeous weather and I'm just so thankful to live where I live. (And look at that gorgeous moon!)