The Big Weekend

You know, I put fall leaves up there in the blog's banner about 3 weeks ago, but apparently fall doesn't actually arrive here in Richmond until late December. It's in the mid 80's here today and tomorrow is expected to be close to 90. What is up with this climate? I feel like I moved to the tropics, for pete's sake!

On to more important matters. We had a busy week last week trying to get this house ready for our weekend company. The painting is finished for now (our bedroom is still bare white....) and pictures have been hung back on the walls and all boxes have been unpacked and broken down and are awaiting curbside recycling pick up. It's starting to feel like home, so we've decided to give ourselves a break for now and relax a little. We still have closets to make-over and containers that need to go up the stairs to the attic. But the toilets are all in working order, Lois's room looks almost as good as it did in Christiansburg, and the dryer is no longer venting into the laundry room. So for now, we're just going to enjoy living here for a bit.

The Buddy Walk was a huge success and Lois and her team had a great time. Our girl was super sleepy during most of the event which made her appear completely unimpressed and disinterested in what was going on around her. Lois was our team's Buddy Captain (i.e. person with Down Syndrome) - although Auntie Gina insisted it should be her - so she was introduced and walked across the makeshift stage with her Daddy while everyone was chuckling over her team name. She stood for a few photos with the group and then promptly fell asleep on my shoulder. Too much excitement for the girl, I guess. Look at these sleepy eyes.


When it came time to actually walk, Aunt Marpa, Uncle Scootie, Andy, Maggie, Pops, Uncle Jimmy, Olivia, Cousin Phyllis, Mr. Darren and Jay took off with Lois on a scenic walk around the lake on the University of Richmond's campus. Auntie Gina, the Ya-Ya and I chose to sit on our big butts under the shade of a tree and talk. I'm not at all ashamed to admit it, either. I am a lazy slug. We renamed the event the Buddy Sit on Your Butt. I'm much more comfortable with that concept, frankly. Here's some pictures of the team enjoying their walk. (Aunt Marpa took the camera, thankfully.)

That evening, back at Chez Hogan, we celebrated Lois's first birthday. I made her a giant cupcake cake that turned out a lot better than I thought it might. It was a big tower of chocolaty goodness, which reminds me of the left overs that are in my kitchen right now. Anyway, the little pink cupcakes were for her to destroy.

Jay and I blew her candle out for her. I meant to ask him what he wished for, but to tell you the truth, I think I know! Do you think she looks anything like this little guy on his first birthday?

Poor Jay stuck his fingers in the candle flames - a fate we were sure to avoid with Lois.

I'm happy to report that my girl was dainty and reserved in her attempt to shovel white cake and cherry icing into her little mouth.


She liked it. Can you tell? When she was finished, Ya-Ya took her upstairs and cleaned her up but reported there was dried cake stuck to her ankles that we would have to remove in the bathtub the next morning. You can tell you really enjoyed something when it turns up dried onto miscellaneous body parts. Not that I would know.

We can't forget that Lois was born on the exact same day as her Cousin Maggie, so we had a Barbie cake for Maggie at Lois's party. Jay and I bought her some purple jelly Barbie walkie talkies that were used for the rest of the evening to communicate with the person on the other end of the sofa. Good fun, people. Good fun.

All in all, it was a great weekend spent with the people we love. Lois will officially turn one on Thursday when I'll take her final Baxter the Pottery Barn Clearance Sale Bunny picture. And I'll fill you in on what happened in the delivery room when the doctor looked at Jay and said, "She has Down Syndrome, but isn't she beautiful?"