The Last of the Bunch

We celebrated Millie's pre-birthday-birthday while we were visiting. Millie sometimes bewails the fact that her birthday is the last of the year, but I believe having two parties once August arrives balances out the wait.

I think Annie took this picture of Mom Owen, Sarah, Judy, and I (and Aidan, but he was nursing and could not have cared less about paparazzi).

Ice cream cake!  I love ice cream cake, so I happily agreed to two pieces when Mom O. offered them.  Thanks for having two birthdays, Millie my dear!

Annika took a ridiculous amount of pictures of Millie opening her gifts, so I'll only post a few.  See if you can puzzle out a theme...

Sarah shooed all the grandchildren over to the side for the yearly cousins portrait, and my girls ruined a glamour shot with their goofiness.

And here's a shot with Anna's head included, too.  Anna's real head, lovely as it is and attached to a body, of course, is now living in the Wild, Wild West, and we missed her.  (I meant to post some of the pictures Sarah took, but I'm too tired to go get the disc right now. Maybe three months from now?)

To cap off the night, Dude unpacked fireworks and instantly became everyone's hero.

He's also a hero for replacing the gorgeous bouquet he'd put in "our" room for our arrival with a fresh one the evening before we left.  Greeted by blooms and sent off by blooms.  Now that's service!

And what greeted us on our arrival home, you ask?  Well, two gardens brimfull of food to pick and eat and can.  And weeds.  Lots of weeds.

 

Oh.  And a doghouse to ride on.