Happy Birthday Jennifer!

Eight years ago, our long awaited third born joined us. I say long awaited for more than one reason - after a miscarriage and a long year of prayer and tears, we were so excited about another little one joining our family. But that wasn't the only waiting we did in regards to Miss Jennifer Lynn, she also made us wait 2 torturous weeks past her due date before she chose to show her face....

Jennifer has been getting the American Girl Magazine for quite a while now, and loves to pore over it's pages. We've always made it quite clear that she shouldn't expect to ever own a doll herself, unless she plans to save her pennies! Imagine her surprise to find that her daddy had searched ebay to find a doll for her eighth birthday :)

She's in love!

I wanted to take a snack to school for Jennifer's classroom and since she doesn't like cake, I planned to make half moon pies. I decided to let her help me make them, rather than surprise her, since she loves to help in the kitchen.

She opted to make mini apple pies in muffin pans instead, which was fine with me! We made the crusts yesterday and froze them overnight.

She had so much fun measuring ingredients - even the shortening - all by herself, and mixing. She loves getting her hands messy! :)

I rolled the dough, and she used a lid to make circles, and a knife to cut them out and then she put them all in the pans by herself too. We layed the circle over a hole, then used a cup to push them down in - worked pretty good!

Today I made crumbs and filled the shells with apple pie filling, sprinkled crumbs on top, and baked them.

I completely forgot to take any pictures of her and her classmates enjoying pie and ice cream this afternoon (couldn't believe I forgot!) but I think the snack was a success anyway :)

So thankful for my bundle of drama and sunshine. She makes our world a brighter place!