Saturday we had a big playdate for Annika. Instead of inviting a bunch of little kids over for her birthday and starting the whole gift giving cycle, we just invited everyone over to play instead - no gifts, no cake, no mention of a birthday party at all. And it was great! Brianna, Emma, Sam, Jessie, Asher, Emily, Ryan, Erin and Madalyn all came over to play. At first Annika was overwhelmed and was shy and she didn't know what to think about all these kids playing with her toys bit after a few minutes she jumped right in and had a great time. And I think the other kids did too. Annika's new tea set and art easel were big hits with the kids. All the kids sat around the table having a tea party and then there would be three of them at a time clustered around the art easel all drawing. And Kris was super fantastic and took some of the kids outside to play too. It was overall just a great time. I didn't get to talk too much with the other parents but that's to be expected. And James just took it all in. I think he liked having the other kids there too. After everyone left both Annika and James took some nice long naps.

That evening we headed out to watch the Minnesota Vixen play Thee Toledo Reign. When we told Annika that we were going to go watch girls play football she got all indignant and told us matter-of-factly "Girls can't play football. Only boys." What?!? Where in the world would she get that from. Neither Kris nor I have ever told her that girls can't do something or that only boys do this. I'm wondering if she just sees football on tv and has correllated football with boys or something. Anyway, the kids were great at the game. Annika played in the bleachers a bit and Papa was able to come too and he helped entertain Annika as well. James just sat on my lap the whole time taking it all in. He was bright eyed and happy for someone hours past his bed time. It wasn't until late in the fourth quarter that he succumbed to the sleepiness and fell asleep in my arms. Actually it was as soon as I got his blanket out that he grabbed that, smooshed it in his face and went right to sleep.

We've had some terribly sad news in our family. My cousin Brad's wife has died in a horrific 4-wheeler accident. They have a 5 year old boy and a 2 year old girl. The funeral is tomorrow and I can't stop crying when I think about it. Please, please pray for this family.