Happy Ivy with the Minnie Mouse we gave her. It's amazing how good it feels to be home two weekends in a row! We need to make that happen more often.  Stanford played away this weekend (and did dreadfully I might add), but it gave us a little more free time to tackle new projects.  While I ran errands and rode my bike, Lee and his friend Christina started building us a coffee table.  There is still plenty of work ahead before it's finished, but we're really excited to retire the fake wood Ikea table we currently have.

The highlight of the weekend though was Ivy's second birthday.  The Hardings invited us over for dinner and birthday festivities.  As little as she is, Ivy had caught on that this birthday stuff meant she was special and everything was for her "not Abby".  She couldn't have been more excited about her gifts and her energy level was awesome.  It was such a treat for us to be part of her birthday.   We love that little girl, Abby and her parents. 

We got invited to Sunday dinner with some friends and it motivated me to make some pretty elaborate cookies that I hadn't made in a long time - peppermint patties.  They are beyond rich and the butter content is disturbing.  But they were so very delicious and went over well with everyone...