ava's "friends" birthday is tomorrow--she is so excited, we have been counting down the days, and she just could not stop asking me about it. it is so cool that she is so interested in having friends now. i think i am ready, sort of. we have food, nothing fancy, just fruit and veggies and cheese and hummus and crackers etc., all finger foods, and we have drinks, and we have an ice cream cake and candles. we have some balloons for the mailbox and for other non-carter accessible places, and we have our art supplies. i got a bunch of paint and put it in spray bottles with some water and a little liquid detergent, and am going to hang paper from the clothes line and have the kids spray it to see what happens. then i have regular paint and brushes and sponges and glitter paint, paper to paint on, and then a bunch of glue sticks and a box of 'things to glue'--pom poms, ribbon, feathers, etc, and a bowl full of little wooden boxes that are very shaker-esque. so, presumably, the kids will take it from there and decorate paper or the boxes. we have favors as well--i got little plastic buckets and there is the requisite bubble solution, and this cute little wooden wind twister thing that you hang and it twirls, and we also put a flowering plant in each. not sure what the kids are going to think of that, but ava thought it was neat, and everyone is pretty crunchy, so i figure a plant will go over well. then of course, there is swimming. it will be extremely messy.

hopefully ava has a really good time. peter is going to take carter to the wild center, so at least i do not have to worry about him becoming an art project.

he fell on his face in the driveway tonight. he has a really nasty shiner from it, but he never complained, save for a bit of a cry in the beginning. it looks horrible, but he could care less.