Avonlea

"Trusty, dusky, vivid, true,
With eyes of gold and bramble-dew"
-Stevenson

I found the following note on my pillow...

Mommy-
You dearest thing I love you. Your eyes are like spring buds. Your lips quiver, your eyes quake, but you are very very brave. Tomorrow could I please play computer and make a cup of tea for you and me. Could we just have a tea party? APK

Ahhh....so Avonlea. I'd have to be brave if my lips and eyes were quivering and quaking!
This daughter of mine whose birthday we celebrate is a rare soul. She's the only person I've ever met that seems to belong more in a book than real life.

At pictures last week the photographer kept saying, "Say, I'm a monkey! Say I'm silly!" As we walked out Avonlea looked at me in disgust and said, "Was she an evolutionist or what?"

Avonlea was vacuuming the basement for me a few months back. She yanked the vacuum and the cord came unplugged and she kept vacuuming until I called her attention to it quite awhile later.

She mentioned to me that maybe we should get a bigger house so that Daddy and I could have our own rooms. I told her I liked sleeping with Daddy and that's what married people did. She replied, "Yeah but now that Daddy's been newshured wouldn't you like some privacy?"

My first attempt at gluten free muffins were critiqued with this creative response, "It tastes just like sand, and the blueberries are the jellyfish that got washed up at high tide."

And tonight after painting a picture for her friend and pouring a bowl of sesame oil (expensive, whole foods sesame oil) to dip her fingers in and blend the pastels, she poured the remaining oil back in the bottle. And she didn't understand why this was a problem.

So this little artistic, passionate, loving girl has brought us laughter and chagrin for 10 cherished years. Thank you God for Avonlea!