Violet Joy is 15!

September 30, 2009, Violet Joy was born into this world and we knew our world would never be the same. What a gift she is to everyone she meets!

We started the day with the usual birthday breakfast: chocolate chip pancakes.  She directed us in "Happy Birthday" and sang along loudly.

Blow out those candles, sweet girl!

She opened her (somewhat boring) gift of new shirts. Although she's always happy to open presents, regardless of what's inside.

She did get THREE new shirts, so that's something anyway.

She also had a thoughtful gift from Ms. Debra at church, an adorable homemade wallet with a Walmart gift card inside! Violet was super excited about this one!

We attempted a birthday picture with the sunrise. 

Violet was way more interested in finding Kitty for the photo shoot.  Kitty was a decent sport about it.

For her birthday lunch, she very specifically requested chicken nuggets, french fries and a frosty from Wendy's.  Well okay then.  As you can see, the frosty was the main attraction in this lunch.

Her friend Katelyn and Oliver stopped by to see her while we were having birthday lunch.

Such a goofball -- I just love her so much!

15th birthday lunch with mom and dad -- complete!

She also requested brownies WITH SPRINKLES for her class treat.  Yes, ma'am.

We took the treats to the school just in time for her class party. She got plenty of Reese's and Dr. Pepper, a new cat shirt and a Hot Off the Press gift card. She has the sweetest class!

And as a bonus surprise, Hannah came back for the party!  Violet was SO excited to see her friend, who she's missed so much this year.  Also, Evelyn was able to get out of the last half-hour of her English class to come to the party as well.  Violet is very loved.

What a great party at school to celebrate our girl!

For her birthday dinner (because she gets the WHOLE DAY, of course), she requested "Mexican Restaurant." While Evie and I were at volleyball practice, they picked up lots of yummy food and we all enjoyed it together at home.

Violet's birthday always makes me extra thankful.  As I said at the start of this post, she truly is a gift to this world.  She is everything we never knew we needed, but God knew.  And I'm just so thankful to God for his protection, guidance and provision over her life these past 15 years.  Yesterday was "St. Michael and All Angels" Sunday at church and we focused throughout the service on all that angels do for us.  In the Gospel reading from Matthew 18, Pastor read, "See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven."  I know that God has special angels constantly watching over our sweet Violet girl, and I praise Him for the blessing that she is! 

Wellsville Days 2024

 We just finished another awesome Wellsville Days, and God really blessed us with an absolutely beautiful day for it!  As we were getting ready to head up to the parade, Violet walked out of her room with her new shirt she got from Aunt Dana for her birthday.  I wasn't quite sure about her wearing this shirt out of the house, especially for a busy event like Wellsville Days, but she insisted.  So I chose my shirt carefully in attempts to counteract :).  (As it turned out, K-State had a MUCH better day than KU, so Violet was the one smiling in the end.)

We made it to our usual intersection for the parade and watched the American Legion present the colors while the high school choir sang the National Anthem.  This definitely made me think of Grandpa Evan and the many, many years he was holding the flags for Wellsville Days.  I sure miss him.

Then the floats started down the bricks. The theme this year was "Candy Land" and it was such a fun, colorful theme!  The volleyball team and Family church had really cute floats.

Brent and Laura were kind enough to pull the football team with their big ol' tractor again this year.  It's still so weird that Calvin isn't on this float as he has been the past 6 years.  And that he couldn't even be home for Wellsville Days this year -- this is the first time in his life that he hasn't been on the bricks for Wellsville Days :(

Oliver was on the float, but as is typical, I was on the wrong side.  I hollered at him and thankfully he heard, so he and Eli were able to give us moms a wave.

After the parade, Violet caught up with her two favorite humans, Grandma Jo and Grandma Cheryl.

These sweet friends ran around all day and consumed LOTS of sugar, as is evidenced by these two pictures.  I mean, what's Wellsville Days without ice cream and cotton candy??

I had some sweet friends to run around with also :)  There were lots of great craft booths and vendors this year -- lots of great shopping to do!

Evie met up with Jackson, Ty and Oliver at the MidAmerica tent, a very popular place because of the free ice cream being distributed.

I sent that pic to Syd and she sent me this one of her and Calvin tailgating at the K-State game. . . cousins all having a fun Saturday!

We got some lunch and found our spots by the main stage to watch Uncle John (aka Constantly Positive) perform some of his original music.  He did a great job!

Some of Constantly Positive's fans with him performing behind on the stage!

I only ran into Oliver briefly, but I love getting a squad pic with my kids and their friends each year at Wellsville Days -- SO many great ones over the years!

The girls were getting a little worn out, so we came home for a bit in the afternoon.  It turns out, they had a surprise for Evie with a little mini-birthday party!  We've never had "friends birthday parties" in our house, but I love that these girls love Evie so well that they wanted to do one for her.  She was super excited about all of her new skincare goodies and candy and mini-Stanley.

The girls played at the house for a little while and then wanted to head back uptown and get some more use out of those $10 wristbands (well actually we paid $5 extra from the "premium" band this year which got a couple of extras. Still can't beat $15 for all-day-fun!)  I love that these girls aren't too old for the inflatable races. . .

. . . or the petting zoo.

The big inflatable ball race was pretty entertaining to watch!  Evie and Charli are racing each other in this one.

And try as they might, the girls never did sink Officer Pelts (although he was sunk plenty of times by other kids).

As the sun began to drop, the fun continued on the bricks.

The rides have basically no lines after dark and that's when they are most fun anyway!

I somehow missed getting any pictures of the street dance.  Our Wellsville Days committee did another fantastic job of finding awesome bands to entertain us all day and night.  And the Dwyers had another fantastic Wellsville Days! Even as my kids get older, I love that they still look forward to this day as much as they always have.  Since I was a child, I've always loved Wellsville Days, and I'm thankful that my kids have these fond memories as well.