Happy Birthday, Part 1

It has been a fun weekend! The month of September is a big one in the Kovall family. First, Grammy (GiGi) celebrated her birthday. She doesn't look a day over 30! A week later, AJ's mom (Grammy 2) celebrates her birthday. A week after that, I turn 29 for the 3rd time.

The Birthday Girls

My gifts from AJ came in the mail on Saturday. He did very well this year. I made a wish list on Amazon and he bought it ;-). I got a fancy new flat iron. I know, it seems vain and silly, but I've wanted one for so long. Every time I get my hair cut and it looks so long and straight, I wish my stylist could fix it every day. Now, I don't need her :-) And, I got a new 'wristlet' purse. It is so convenient - everything I need is right in my hand!

Sweeping in Gradma's shoes and no pants

It's a good look.

My mom came for the day, and AJ and I used that time to shop-til-we-dropped. We ran to Cranberry and then had a great, silent, adult dinner. We gave Ethan a fairly traumatic hair cut when we got home. He had three rough nights in a row; Saturday was the hair cut and Friday, he had a giant splinter AJ had to dig out. Today, he was in his bed NOT sleeping when AJ decided to go and put gas in his car. Two seconds later, Ethan starts SOBBING uncontrollably. I went running in, thinking he got hurt. No. Dummy was standing looking out his window, saw AJ leave, and got so upset. I had to bring him out into the living room and rock him until he could see AJ was back in the house.

Playing with all of Daddy's old cars

Speaking of Ethan, he got to meet his fill-in babysitter on Friday. He did great! He ran right into her house to examine the ceiling fans in every room. Big surprise. He let her hold him, so I think he'll be fine. He spends his first day with her tomorrow, so keep your fingers crossed!

We drove in to Connellsville on Sunday to celebrate together. It was a beautiful day! We played at the playground before the big gift exchange. Ethan had a blast!

We hate football and the Steelers,

but how cute does he look??

While we waited for the West Virginia Wyatt's, we did a quick gift exchange between the birthday girls. We all did very well - I got some very cute sweaters from the in-laws and a very lovely bill from GiGi :-) Ethan loved 'helping' with the wrapping paper. He was very thorough - I couldn't open the box until every inch of tape and paper was removed. He gets that from Pap.

GiGi got a beautiful picture from Ethan - look how sweet!

Grammy got a photo book from Ethan and a shirt from us. Pretty good, huh?!?

We ALL got beautiful, hand-made braille shirts from Jen - don't we look good? Mine says "Aunt Tricia" - I figured out all of the letters. I am feeling pretty impressed with myself. I even remembered that the very first dot on the bottom of each line means that the first letter is capitalized. See, Jen - I was paying attention at the picnic! Phyllis is wearing "Grammy," Grammy is wearing "GiGi," and Aunt Renee is wearing "See the Light." I love these shirts!

It was a great celebration - yummy food and great company. I am looking forward to round two next week - my mom is bringing me a cake, and AJ is taking me to Beni Hana. What could be better??

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On a side note - our vision walk is now less than three weeks away. We are in the home stretch for fundraising. Our team is doing great, but any little bit helps. If you haven't given to our team yet, consider clicking on our page (the link is on the top right of this page) and checking it out. It's really easy to donate online. And, if you are around on October 2, please come and join our family on our walk. We want to have the largest team there (we are already the largest fundraisers as of this point!) to show our support for Finley. If you need more info, send us a message!