Baby Shower!

Finally, i know! It has been a whirlwind couple of days around here, complete with fun and more fun. I got up this morning super early in order to get all the pics sorted and re sized for this posting. I know it has been long anticipated.....

The baby shower was wonderful. The weather was perfect, all of the important ladies were present. Auntie Emily provided us with a few awesome craft projects and there was some delicious food. All in all, it was the perfect low key party i had envisioned for Shannon. Sitting around after the fact ( dressing up a stuffed monkey in baby clothes) i noticed that the pile of loot was exactly what Shannon had wanted- a few big, necessary things, thoughtfully chosen clothing and blanketing items, but no toys, bottles, binkies, or other plastic items that would surely have had to find their way to island thrift. I think that says a lot about our family and friends- they may have differing opinions about what and how and why, but they are all able to respect and honor Shannon and Adam's choices. Cheers, on to the pictures!

It was a bright and sunny day, which is total sabotage for the photographer. I ended up with some great shots anyway, a large number of pics of the onesies, which i am just totally in love with. Can't get enough! They were so freaking awesome. In no particular order....

The finished product of the bead activity- everyone brought a special bead to string together on a necklace for Shannon to wear during her labor. Luckily we had Kim's jewelry making expertise, this ended up looking great!

The beads, pre- necklace, got passed around in a cup for everyone to see.

Post shower, we used a stuffed monkey as our baby to try out all the new stuff!

Lots of amazing hand knitted items from Anne's Aunt.

Onesie stencils pre-project

I used this one!

Yup, there's the monkey again.

Sophie curled up on all the soft baby things as the night came to a close.

Emily shows us how it's done!

Three generations of feet!

Both of my grandmas together!

Cloth diaper cake

Candles for everyone to light during Shannon's labor. And lovely flowers from Margie's garden.

Dad getting his present ready.  He was sure to include an equal number of blue and pink ribbons, 

In the end, however, the whole roll of pink was used, but there was still plenty of blue left. My father and  I are choosing to interpret this in different ways.......

I am now officially more excited than ever! Only two short months to baby time! I'm sure it will just fly, the last 8 sure have. Thanks everyone for coming to the party and helping us celebrate our fabulous baby and mama, it was a pleasure to have you.

Another world...

Open house at Creative Minds School today, a large circle of parents standing around me all asking questions! Ah! Kind of overwhelming. I took a lot of notes, remembered a few names, and took some pictures.

Tiny little toilet!

So that's my room! There are several of these owl murals, that's the theme, i suppose. I spent about an hour in here today cutting tags off of new toys and opening drawers and such. I love the big windows! Lots of light and room to see out into our world! That's all you get for now, i'm tired! Love you, baby shower pics to come....

Memorial day strangeness.....

June is going to be a doozy. I'm going to be finishing finals just in time to pack and move, hopefully all before 

going up north for the big birthday baby weekend. I guess compared with how many activities i've packed into my last few months, finals and moving and traveling and partying actually make for kind of a tame month.... No, no, it's just not true. I will survive, however, this I can assure you. 

Kale seeds scattered in a lonely barrel 

Pea sprouts!!!

The carrots are my favorite, i'm not sure why.

We had a salad from the garden!

This is what kale sprouts look like.

On Sunday, after barbequeing, Ben and I headed down to the Hawthorne bridge, where I had heard there would be something going on. Hand holding and such. True enough, there were thousands of people at a rally on the west side and they marched up the ramp and onto the bridge, lined up from end to end to hold hands. For Solidarity. Sweet. We walked across when they were still organizing and lining up, hit the south side when everyone was going the other way.

On the other side, summoned by a giant bungee jump simulator machine( To watch! Not to ride, i'm throwing up right now thinking about that....) we wandered into the Rose Festival- duh, huge festival that happens on the west side every memorial day weekend. We could have easily known about this but stumbled in much by surprise. Inside we found a petting zoo complete with African animals, a carnival, and lots of food vendors.  So, people watching, mostly.

150 year old tortoise!
Actually I can't remember how old it is, but it was old. And the handler told us that it would live 150 more years. So maybe it was 150 more years and not 150 years old. I don't know. Giant, though.

This African animal thing was complete with snakes and spiders and small furry animals- a few we couldn't see, a kangaroo ( except really small, is that something different?) and a lion cub. There was a handler, woman, going through the cages and getting the animals out for people to see, when we walked up she was in the cage with the baby lion and it was seriously eating her hair. Like, this thing had latched onto her head area with it's mouth and paws. It was strange and kind of disturbing, she was trying to laugh and make light of it but i'm not sure. She definitely wanted this thing to let go right away. I didn't even take a picture.

There was a full size tiger also. Super depressing. No pictures. We left the African zoo at this point.

On a lighter note, this is my birthday iris! My yard is abloom with irises right now, the yellow ones i like especially. This lovely yellow one bloomed the morning of my birthday. Still going strong, that makes two of us.

Here's looking at 27!

So it was an odd entry into 27, no doubt. I was sick and took the day off work, sick. First time ever taking a sick day and it was a friday, the day that it is most important for me to be there, for reasons- blah, blah, blah. Anyway, i wan't there. I did homework and napped and walked to the library and new seasons. And I made myself dinner- lamb burger and sweet potato fries. Yum.

I got several fabulous birthday mailings- I hope to do them all justice....

All my cards and the plant whitney made for me

Earrings by Kim. 

Happy Lady Gaga Day!

The Great Garden Pants Off!

Ben and I have entered a new stage of our lives this last week- as urban farmers. It is also a bit of a friendly competition, one he refers to as "Plants for Pants" and I have chosen to call "Pants for Plants". We are peacefully agreeing to disagree on that one. The gist of it is, who ever's plants are more bountiful, gets new pants bought for them by the other. Why pants? At this point, i can't really remember how that started but it is what it is. Pants for Plants. We had a giant shopping and planting day monday, followed by the first bbq of the season.

Farmer Ben!

Our friend Pete helping Ben change the music

A chair I made with a cutting board!

Ribs!

Ben is growing tomatoes, peppers, herbs, lettuce, and beans. I am growing tomatoes, kale, peas, lettuce, carrots, and strawberries. I'm not exactly sure how the bounty will be measured, or compared for that matter, but we will certainly have lots of veggies to eat! My prediction is that Ben will end up buying pants, but for  himself, he needs them more than I do...