The Party

One of the factors in choosing the dates for our travel this year was the fact that Mia would be 1 on Sept. 18 (last Friday) and we could be here for the party on Saturday. Mia isn't walking by herself, yet, but if she can hold a hand or find a piece of furniture, she'll walk all over. This was her birthday party dress, the brown color fitting the theme of the party: Brown Bear.

When Mia was born, Chris and Rachel gave her a teddy bear, and each month Joy has taken a picture of Mia with the bear, which is a very interesting way of charting Mia's growth. By following this link, you'll see most of the pictures in the series. This is one of the pictures taken Friday on her first birthday.

Jeff drove up from Dallas and met us at Harrison, when we visited Abbie's folks. It was good for him to visit his grandparents, and I know they appreciated it. He stayed up here in Arkansas to help celebrate Mia's birthday, too. In fact, he made it a very special event. The night before the party, on Friday, as we were making the various preparations for the party, Jeff went outside, then came to the door and knocked:

In keeping with the theme of the party, he had ordered a bear suit. (Abbie and I already knew about it.) This was Joy's reaction:

Here's Jeff holding his head:

All the kids at the party (and the adults, as well) got a kick out of Jeff's appearance during the party the next day. One of the little boys deduced that it must have been Jeff in the suit, because "Jeff said he didn't see the real bear." Elementary, for this future Sherlock Holmes. Well, almost everyone enjoyed the bear. Everyone, except Mia. After the initial fright (she cried), she progressed to the point of reluctant, but suspicious acceptance. She never did want to get too close.

As for Jeff, a whole new career is opening up for him. But after 15 minutes in the suit, he's not keen on making it his new line of work. Money is not the object, by the way. In fact, according to him, "No matter what you pay me to wear a suit like this, it will never be enough!"