Eiley the Great

When Eiley was 3 I thought she was a perfect 3 year old and I could never imagine her being any older. And now that she is 13 I'll say she is a perfect 13 year old also.  Some of those years in the middle I spent not looking forward to her teen years but now that they are here we get along better than ever.  In fact, I love having teenagers.  Love it! 



Eiley at 3, sneaking nibbles of a sugar skull in front of our Day of the Dead ofrenda.
Noah, 6, is offended because Eiley is being irreverent. 
His arms were crossed because he thought that was more respectful of the dead.
 

And 10 years later, still being silly!

This year we went to the mountains of Virginia to celebrate Eiley's birthday.  We rented an historic cabin-turned-bed & breakfast. 

Eiley had asked for the Guess Who? game she remembered liking as a child.  We played a few rounds and Eiley was like 'Isn't this a fun game??' and I was like 'Yeah!!' but about 15 minutes later we were done with the thrill.  'Do you think we should return it to Target?' 'Yeahhh'. 

playing Guess Who?

The next day we went tubing down the Shenandoah River.  We had a great time just drifting along talking about our dreams; Eiley wants to be a movie star and I want to write books.

That night we went to see a local production of The Importance of Being Earnest.  With Eiley's interest in acting she was as excited as I was.  It went very late and we were very tired, but we made it though and it was great.  They even had delicious tiny cucumber sandwiches at the concession stand. 

this is Eiley's new favorite photo

 

Every year we get a picture of us together in front of the sign of the place we stayed.  This year the sign didn't give the name of the cabin, only the address... Jiggady Road.  Made us giggle, that name.