Seventeen!? How Can it Be!?

Happy Birthday to my beautiful daughter

or as Ian has lovingly referred to her for

the past seventeen years,

our "Punkin' Princess".

It seems like just yesterday we were
Bringing her home from the hospital...

watching her take her first steps across the wood floor in our Minneapolis home...

adoring her big smile as she learned to ride her bike along the Minnehaha Creek...

Dropping her off for her first day of Kindergarten at Calvin Christian . . .

Seventeen!?  How can it be!?

The day was filled with Cinderella rehearsals of course,
so we took lunch and gourmet cupcakes from Treats to the studio.

The girls had decorated the studio
and several of them had made homemade birthday treats -
cake, cupcakes, chocolate covered strawberries, brownies.....
no shortage of sweet treats to get them through the day!

Meredith, I'm sure, felt very loved.
How thankful we are that she has made such
good friends where she spends much of her time outside of school.
These girls are precious.
All spread out over the city, attending different schools,
but sharing a mutual love of and commitment to ballet and each other!

I can't wait for next weekend's performances!

This evening we enjoyed a family dinner with all of Meredith's favorites -
Grilled steaks, mashed potatoes, roasted green beans . . .


and chocolate cake made by Meredith's friend Racquel

Mmmmmmmmm. . .

with Blue Bell vanilla ice cream, of course!



We all shared memories of Meredith
David said, "I like jumping on the trampoline with Mimi!"


We had some good laughs



and it was special that Meredith's friend Bobby could join us, too



Seventeen.
God has been so good to us.
He's been good to our girl, too!

God bless you, Mimi.
We love you!!!