Happy Birthday, Dear Amy

Your Birthday, a Day for Celebration.

Here you are 28 years ago, celebrating your first...

and now, you are celebrating your 29th in the Land Down Under.

Since you are 17 hours ahead of us, your birthday celebration is now a memory and I hope you had a wonderful day.

(Your birthday cakes were always presented on a milk glass pedistal cake plate...

because that's what my mother always did. I own two now. One was a wedding gift, and one was Grammy's. You and your sister can each have one, for when you make birthday cakes for your children! )

One of your gifts was this wagon.  It was my wagon when I was a little girl.

Your dad and I brought it back from the farm and he refinished it.

That wagon put on a lot of miles!

In the summer, you would load all of your stuffed animals into the wagon 

and we would go around the block...

again, and again, and again!

You were a busy little girl, but oh, so delightful.

You loved swimming in our backyard pool...

Dressing up for special events...

And singing and dancing.

Here, you and Aunt Stacy "toast" in the New Year,

as daddy was out playing a dance job with his band.

(I hate to break it to you now, but this was probably 9 p.m. 

when we had our punch and celebrated with our noisemakers!)

A favorite for you was hosting a tea party.

I'm sure we had several tea parties every day.  

Here Carmichael was even dressed up for the event.

And now, to think...you will be living in England,

where perhaps you will host a real tea party with grown up guests?!

Nothing was more thrilling than finding a batch of new kitties 

at Gramps and Grammy's farm.

And speaking of dressing up,

you loved to wear pretty dresses with fancy necklaces.

You never left home without your purse.

Always the fashionista...

Your sister and I can always count on you for fashion advice!

I bet we went to Storybook Land at least 3 to 4 times a week.

(I'm including this picture, simply because I am 29 years old here,

the same age you are today.)

Amy, you have always been our pride and joy.

We love you...we miss you...

We hope you had a fabulous birthday and we can't wait to see you in 3 weeks!

Dad and Mom