A dozen years of Dagny

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Our dolly-belle Dagny is twelve years old. Can you believe?

Her birthday fell in mid-June, and naturally we celebrated with two parties.

The first event took place on the Friday evening before her Sunday birthday.

TG and I, Audrey, Dagny, Erica, Rhett, and Elliot gathered at the Mexican restaurant of the birthday girl's choosing, for a festive dinner.

Mike and Chad weren't able to come but they got in on phase two of the partying, the next day at our house.

It's not a birthday party without a balloon

Dagny chose a restaurant named El Jimador. It's a chain outfit but the food is good.

Last January we gathered at El Jimador for TG's birthday, right before the snowstorm. Since there are several of these places around town, I thought we were going to the same one as before.

It’s the one closest to my house.

But Audrey specified that Dagny wanted to go to another location, so we all showed up there. It was a stifling hot evening.

(A harbinger of the especially sweltering summer we have had and are having.)

The servers sang to her

Only, it was a busy night and it was going to be a while before we could get a table where we could be seated together.

But the night was young, so it was decided that we'd all get back into our cars and drive several miles to another El Jimador.

There was some dithering about which one, but eventually we got it sorted out.

Or so we thought.

Except, when TG and I and Audrey and Dagny had arrived at said El Jimador and were seated, there was no sign of Erica and the boys.

The next week, the Chericas were in Philadelphia

We have that thing on our phones where we can check on where one another are in the world, so whoever has the ability to track Erica (not me), looked her up.

She was at the El Jimador where we'd eaten for TG's birthday in January.

Which was not the one that the rest of us were at.

But she had realized her error as soon as she got there and saw that the rest of us weren't there.

She was even then en route to the third El Jimador she would grace that day, and pretty soon she'd arrived and we were ordering.

Mount Vernon is in the distance

We enjoyed a delicious meal.

This is the kind of place where, if they know you're observing a birthday, they show up with a complimentary dessert, and the requisite communal sombrero, and they sing to the birthday person.

This may have been why Dagny insisted on celebrating her birthday at El Jimador.

At any rate, no sooner had the child finished her Enchiladas Verdes than she was sporting the sombrero and being serenaded by servers, before tucking into a sumptuous dessert.

She shared with the boys.

The folks at El Jimador did her right

The next day, everyone came over to our house for a swim party.

I don’t remember what we ate for a meal — pizza, maybe — but there was a cheesecake which Erica had made.

And there was a balloon, and there were presents.

In recent months Dagny has become enamored of the old TV show Little House on the Prairie. 

She has already read the books. As I did when I was a child, and my children did when they were kids.

I'd call her Half Pint but she's more like a whole pint

And she’d mentioned more than once to her mother that she loved the aesthetic of the pioneer family — their house, their outfits, and so forth.

Audrey revealed this information to me, and I decided to find a pioneer girl costume for Dagny.

And I did, and it was not difficult to do, and I must tell you that I could not recommend this company any more highly than I am to you now.

It’s called Dress Up America and judging by the depth and breadth of their site, if you want, you can dress as everything from a donut to a doctor.

I found a pioneer girl costume in no time — dress, apron, bonnet — and made the purchase.

Laura Ingalls Wilder would be amazed

When it arrived, I was astounded at the quality of the outfit. And also the way it was packaged.

Just excellent. If you need to dress up as something other than yourself — or dress someone else as someone other than themselves — be smart and visit Dress Up America online.

The next day, which was Dagny’s actual birthday, we had church. 

Afterwards I gave her one last gift which I’d wrapped weeks earlier and forgot about. 

It was this Kobalt mini toolbox, in pink. I also got one of these for Allissa when she graduated from high school in May.

Erica made this confection from scratch

It’s a cute girl gift. Just in case you needed any ideas.

Dagny posed for her OBP — Official Birthday Portrait — and then she and I posed for a picture together.

Then she hopped into the car with TG and me and came to our house, and shortly after that, she and TG were headed to North Carolina.

Dagny would be going to church camp in Knoxville with her Uncle Joel and Aunt Stephanie and her cousins, for the week.

TG had agreed to deliver her to Stephanie’s house on that Sunday. 

She is becoming a young lady

Audrey would travel to Knoxville later in the week to help Brittany with Ember and Guy for a few days.

Then on the following Friday she would pick up Dagny at camp, and the next day come home, bringing Ember and Guy to spend a week with us.

So we had the Tennessee grands for a week, and we packed in lots of fun in the form of swimming and shopping and eating and all the things.

Brittany came to get them at week’s end and spent the night with us. I made a spaghetti supper and we ate it poolside where there had already been much splishin’ and a-splashin’ that day.

Meanwhile the Chericas — that would be Chad, Erica, Rhett and Elliot (Rhelliot) — had packed up early that week and headed for Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Dagny's Official Birthday Photo

They visited Mount Vernon and the Liberty Bell and Gettysburg National Military Park, among many other things, and had a wonderful time.

I was so glad to see everyone when they finally came home.

Speaking of coming home, we had been told a few weeks ago that our Andrew’s tour in the Middle East had been extended to September thirtieth at the very least.

Meaning, it could be extended again if the powers that be deemed it necessary and appropriate.

We were devastated by the news but we decided that we would meet this continued trial with grace and dignity and lots of prayer, plus deep breaths and a one-day-at-a-time attitude.

Dagny and me on her birthday

I actually quoted the Serenity Prayer to my children, in a text: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

We knew that, as wartime trials and tribulations go, many Americans have faced much worse and for far longer.

But a few days ago, our military leadership in that part of the world made the decision to send a group of pilots home.

Andrew will be home next week.

This is one of my favorite pictures of him

We are overjoyed and so grateful. It is an answer to prayer.

Many of you have prayed and I want to thank you yet again for taking the time, and for caring enough, to do that.

We’ll continue in that vein until the day break, and the shadows flee away!

And that is all for now.

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Happy Friday :: Happy Weekend