ode to an exersaucer

man this exersaucer is cool.

but basically...

the best thing...

is chewing this blue elephant.

olive and daddy

olive's new favorite thing: being on dad's shoulders. she laughs and smiles and is so content when she is there.

waking dad up from his nap. of course clover is good at helping out with that.

hey dad, wake up, join the day.

surprise! you are turning 30!

daniel is turning 30 this year. since he and i try to keep our birthdays seperate from christmas we always exchange our gifts from each other on the first weekend of december. since daniel is turning 30 this year i wanted to make it special. i planned a secret weekend in louisville for daniel, myself and olive. and he found out that saturday. olive was wearing her "need a lift" tow truck shirt because she was going to sweep him away. she found it hard to keep the secret.

but she looked pretty darn cute doing it.

we arrived in louisville on saturday afternoon.

the room they gave us smelled like smoke so they upgraded us. and boy did they ever. this room looked like an apartment it was so big. it was such a nice room.

olive got a little nap then we started getting ready for dinner. 

i had researched and planned a special dinner at a really nice restaurant named veranese.

on our way out we took some pictures in the beautiful lobby.

daddy sure looks handsome at 30.

my fabulous husband.

what a gorgeous little lady.

the restaurant was so nice. perfect ambiance for a special birthday dinner.

olive practiced drinking water from a glass, something she is fascinated with these days.

we read some deep literature.

and had an amazing meal. it was so delicious. daniel had pork loin.

i had some chicken and mushroom pasta. yum.

daniel got his dessert on the house. they were so nice there.

but of course, no rest for the weary, dad had to keep feeding olive his squash he mashed up for her. that was the first time she tried it and she was in love.

when we got back it was bed time and olive got in her super cute frog sleeper my mom gave her.

it was a great day for everyone.

the next morning we had breakfast in the hotel.

they had a buffet. and olive hung out with her caterpillar and chewed her hands as usual.

after a nap we had lunch at another place i researched, toast on market.

olive met a lot of adoring fans there.

after our delicious meals and a touch of sweet potatoes for the wee one, we headed back home. it was a great time filled with lots of smiles and laughs. i love this man born 30 years ago, he is so very special to me!

kappa pi christmas party

each year kappa pi, the art fraternity, has a christmas party at an art faculty's house. this year it was our turn. we were excited to have everyone over.

all the art faculty made it with their families minus juilee. 

there was a great turnout. probably 20 some guests all together.

everyone brought food and a gift for the found gift exchange.

clover got ample amounts of love, which she found necessary.

she says "joel is my new boyfriend".

olive was quite the entertainer for the first half of the party. she cracked during the last half of the party and her and mommy stayed in her nursery, read books and sang to stay calm. i was proud of her for lasting as long as she did though- it was a lot of stimulus for her!

food was shared.

laughs were had. good company, good times.

after the annual found object gift exchange they all cleared out and went home. a group of the students stayed and cleaned up the kitchen so it was all taken care of and clean like they found it. they are such good kids! we love knowing them! and it was a great party.