Birthday Weekend Extraordinaire

I am very tired but the feelings of joy & happiness from the weekend are still with me & should carry me thru packing for our trip tomorrow. Karlie turned 2 on Aug. 21st. For various reasons it was decided that rather than Karl & I going to Midland last weekend, they would come here for a party with friends & family.

We had sooooo much fun. One of my favorite things was having both kids and spouses & Ms. K here all together. It wasn't a sure thing until fairly late in the planning as Ashley has a new job at Central Market and they are in the middle of Hatch Chili Fest. She was able to make it and Friday night we all went to dinner at a family favorite, Mr. Chop Sticks in Denton.  Sat. morning we did the Akers traditional brunch of sausage gravy & bisquits.  When Elliott played baseball as a kid we had to have it every Sat. morning as he was sure it gave him home run advantage.

Back to Friday night.  Ashley is experimenting with ice cream, having taken a class last week & acquiring a new book on the subject.  OH MY GOSH! Did she succeed! Two flavors, Salted Caramel & White Chocolate Pecan along with Chocolate coating and homemade waffle cones! DELICIOUS.  She didn't have the means to make enough for the party so this was a special family treat. 

I don't want her to leave her jewelry making but we all think she could have another career in food. She also did adorable & delicious cookies for the guest's treat bags (by the way, Joann's Fabric has Martha Stewart tape so you can get it with a coupon for less than the Japanese version). Also, the dress & doll she made for Karlie were absolutely precious & much admired by everyone.   Those should be on her blog http://ashleyakers.blogspot.com/ soon.

The plan was that Karlie would take a nap to be "fresh" for the party. She knew something was up and didn't go along with that program, giving the big people some momentary concern but all went well after Aya (Tia Ashley) convinced her to get dressed in her party attire.  When I got back from picking up the cake & balloons she was over the top excited and that lasted until she collapsed into sweet slumber that evening.  For some reason I can't get the videos of her blowing out the candle here but it's really cute and on facebook. I was proud that she remembered her "thank yous" and shared toys and pinata thrashing with her guests. That one would have never let go of it's goodies without bigger kid hits as it was the largest, densest pinata I'd ever seen.

Years from now, Karlie will have to look at pictures to "remember" this celebration. I hope she will always know what's important. I made her a book in case she needs a reminder. Don't we all need to prompted occasionally?