Goodbye to Angi and Dante

Two of our friends, Angi and Dante, are leaving Oklahoma City and heading home to Ohio. We went to their lovely goodbye party. Of course, we took zero photos with them but a million photos with their daughter, Olivia. Story of our lives, Angi and Danta. Story of our lives. Here are some photos from the party, none of which include the two adults who are moving.

Chatting with Alison, probably talking about how appalled we are about something.

Leigh with Chad and Carrie Dean.

Thank you, Dawn, for taking this photo!

Julie and Mark's son, Samuel, is a doll! Look at this little man!

This was as good as it was going to get for getting all three kids in one photo. Olivia is busy with her milk.

Leigh with Mandy, Chad and Carrie Dean.

Bryan read to Mia.

Mia loved the decorations.

Here she is again, trying to steal them.

Kisses for Jenni! I love this.

Mia using her outdoor voice.

Mia and Many.

Mia drawing a picture.

Mia, Mandy, Jennifer and Samuel.



Partaaay

So today was the big party. Mia, of course, probably didn't know it was her birthday party. I'm pretty sure she was just excited about the playground equipment.

We packed up the coolers and Mia helped.

Then she demanded that Leigh's dad help her carry one of the coolers all over the yard.
We celebrated with lots of good friends. Once again we had a decorate-your-own-cupcake station. Mia decorated three.



Then she enjoyed her own cupcake - the world's best cupcake ever. Our friend Alison, who is an absolutely baking superstar, made her a cake in the shape of the Arcadia Round Barn, which is a Route 66 icon in Oklahoma.

Then, we opened presents. Because even if you tell people that they don't have to bring presents, they bring presents. To be fair, shopping for a 2-year-old is pretty fun. Mia got tons of board books, which is fantastic. She wants to turn the pages and we've lost a few paper books that way. (If you try to turn the pages when she wants to, she'll quickly say, "No. Stop, mama." She also got some cute clothes and fun toys.

It was such a fun day, but I still can't believe she's 2. Remember when she was a teeny-tiny baby?

Garage sale time!

It was time for our annual Vilakazi garage sale, and the second annual might be the last annual. It. Was. Hot. But we made more than $500, which was great!

We spent forever - forever! - pricing things. We were so lucky to have our fantastic board and fabulous volunteers, Jenni and Darla.


Moving everything outside then back and then out and back again was exhausting. But remember, it's all for the children!


Speaking of children, at least one child was grateful for the garage sale. Mia enjoyed touching pretty much everything and wearing lanyards.

Guess who won?

Not me. It was a bowling tournament.

Some friends and I participated in the Central Oklahoma Parrothead Association's annual bowling tournament. We were local media celebrities, which is an overstatement for sure. It was Jenni Carlson, Ubaldo Martinez and me, plus our friend Carrie Dean, who got to be a media representative just because she's great. It was so much fun! Jenni ended up winning, but Ubaldo was close behind. I, however, was not. I was in a league of my own, scoring in the double digits. Sad.

S'more s'mores

We went to the best food party of the year: Soup and S'mores! Jenni and Ryan make all kinds of soups and then we make s'mores outside. Fantastic. Leigh gets quite excited about this. Why? Because South Africans don't have s'mores. They have lots of good things, but this isn't one of them. So sad. So we ate and ate and ate. Oh. And hung out with friends and stuff. That was nice, too.

Soup and Smores

Our pals - Jenni Carlson Reaves and Ryan Reaves - hosted their super fun soup and smores party. (Thank you, Alison Lowe, for the fabulous photos!) We took Mia with and she had a great time hanging out with all kinds of people. She didn't cry or get fussy, but she did need a wardrobe change midway through. That's when we discovered not only did we not bring diapers, but we also forgot to bring a onesie. We had a jumper, pajamas and a pair of pants. This does not an outfit make. So she had to go sans onesie and leave on the pants and sweater. She was like a flasher in a trench coat, but she's still not coordinated enough to unbutton her shirt and flash. Thank god.