No angst this year

I know some of you are wondering why I haven't been obsessing about Emmelia's birthday party arrangements like I did last year. You probably think that I will soon - right? Wrong! There is almost no angst about arrangments this year and it's wonderful! Back in August, Emmelia decided where she wants to have the party and I called and arranged it. I have ordered and purchased some fun things for gift bags. She's already selected the cake she wants. And late last week, I finished designing the invitations:
I'm really happy with how they came out and, more importantly, so is she! So it's a go. And it's ever so nice that it's going together without a lot of worry this year, because I just don't have worry in me. No energy to worry - maybe that's a good thing. Or maybe that's why there hasn't been any angst... sort of a chicken-egg thing. Who knows?

We had a nice weekend. We had a playdate on Friday that was relaxing and fun. Even though the Buffs lost AGAIN on Saturday, it was a lovely day. We did some shopping and planned a menu to get us through until we meet with the nutritionist this week about our new life changes, and we even got some leaves picked up in the yard with the help of our friend Michael. We used the leaves to make a giant pumpkin-head man (dubbed "Jack Pumpkinhead" by Emmelia after the character in the Oz books) and a huge spider (dubbed "Shilob" by the Deac and I vis a vis "The Lord of the Rings").





















You can see more of our leaf fun in my flickr account by clicking on the badge on the left. Emmelia's been dying to "decorate" for Halloween, so this activity killed two birds with one stone, so to speak. Then she drew several pictures of jack-o-lanterns and taped them up on the outside of the house, the garage and in the yard. She really wants people to be scared! Hee. Here's a couple she posted:

Yesterday I got out my sewing machine for the first time since I made the christening gown for our girls just in time for Emmelia's baptism back in 2001. I made a quick quilted blanket fitted to fit in the window frame in their room to block the light. It was a fast project and worked really well! In the meantime, I discovered a brand new JoAnn's store just a few miles north of us that is soooo much better than the other fabric stores around here. I might just start sewing again. Of course, I also discovered that Maura enjoys things like sticking pins in her mouth and disconnecting my power cord whenever she can.... maybe I'll have to sew after they fall asleep at night.