Cowboy Boots and Cake

It's our youngest daughter's second birthday today, and just two short years ago we were in a truly frustrating portion of our brief time as farmers. June 10, 2009 was the culmination of a truly bizarre and utterly unpredictable spring season for us, punctuated by the birth of Amelia.

Like an insanely wet and cold spring-- one where a guy gets his biggest tractor stuck in the field and needs a bulldozer to pull it out type of spring-- needs any more punctuation, but we Webels live large, I guess.

Anyway, fast forward two years, add another kid, make the baby a two year old, and here we are. This year, our June 10th has not been a frustrating day. Instead, we have been celebrating all day, with cowboy boots, real ones, and cake.

Even though she's just two, Amelia has the personality to fill a room and the vocabulary to match, which, if you know us, is not surprising...we do not lack in conversation or pizazz! Anyway, she is turning into a farm girl, through and through, requesting cowboy boots for her one and only gift. The funny thing about this, is that I purchased her some fashion farm boots on a recent Target run, but on a trip to Farm King for work jeans, a coffee mug, and some hoses, Joe got to looking and found her some "real" cowboy boots: pink and brown in color and a true cowboy brand. It made me laugh, as we have purchased many cowboy-ish boots at Target for our little ones, but since Amelia's new phrase is "Check cows, Daddy?" he figured it wasn't too much to get her some real boots.




She was ecstatic, and pulling them on, she announced, "Chores, Daddy?"

Should we record this for when she's 16 and not wanting to help out on a Saturday morning?

Anyway, even though the trucks were running, hauling grain to the river, the mulch was being delivered and dumped on my driveway, the internet man was on the roof fixing our connection, and the girls played in the mud multiple times this morning, we were able to stop whatever we were doing this afternoon, after naps, and enjoy our big girl's cake altogether. That's the joy of having a dad who's just a few steps away, filling up his semi from the "big bin." He can stop in and sing happy birthday to his baby girl. That's joy.

Life on the farm can be unpredictable and frustrating, but fortunately, years go by and we are able to put the weird years behind us, telling the stories with a smile and a groan, and focus on the good stuff that's going on, like enjoying cowboy boots and cake.

Happy birthday, my sweet Amelia.