Baby Shower

I was so excited that my daughter allowed me the honor to host her baby shower.  She has a number of friends who would have been happy to do it.  So....I wanted to make it very special.

She does not have a theme for her baby room and I had trouble coming up with a theme for her shower.  She picked out these cute invitations and I decided to use them for inspiration.

 

So began the hunt for decorations that were blue and white, checked and polka and elephants.  I was so stumped.  I was in a party store and I actually wished for decorations that were blue, white and elephants in a theme, so I wouldn't have to create anything.  I turned a corner, and lo and behold, there they were.  

Blue, elephants, they had plates and napkins, plus all sorts of decorations.  Anything I could possibly want.  And, guess what?  I didn't want them.  All I could think was that they were kind of cheesy.  And, they just didn't seem personal.  So, I went back to coming up with ideas to make the party special and personal.  Unique.  Not a party in a bag kind of party.  

I knew that I wanted to put balloons out front.  And, I saw some pretty banners on Pinterest that I wanted to copy.  I searched for paper to cut and make my banners out of.  I found some that would do, but not perfect.  And then.....my neighbor, Kelli (who is also one of my daughter's best friends) stopped by to tell me that she had an idea for making banners.  Wow.  We had the same idea.  She came over and we made these pretty banners.  She made the paper herself with photoshop and cut them into triangles.  We punched holes on each side and threaded some ribbon through.  I found some baby diaper pins to hang them up on my umbrellas.  

I loved this shower.  I couldn't have done it without help.  Kelli helped me make the decorations and on the morning of the shower, Meghan showed up early and put them all up!  

Meghan also took charge of the games and prizes.  How lucky am I?  I told her that I really don't like some of the games that they play at showers and she agreed.  The games she came up with were fun!  We all guessed with a piece of yarn what size my daughter's belly was.  Mine was about double what it should have been!  We also played a memory game with a BIG baby bottle filled with baby essentials.  And the gifts were terrific.  Woo Hoo!

That's Kelly in the Stripes and Meghan in the solid blue.  

For the shower, we had a brunch.  I made two casseroles, one was bacon, eggs and hash browns.  The other was french toast.  Mmmmm, brunch is my favorite meal. I set up the food in the tent.

 Kelli brought the "fruit baby", which was a huge hit!

Jesi made the most wonderful and beautiful cupcakes.

I put them on the cart.

I set up the bar with mimosa punch (non alcoholic in honor of the mommy to be).

  The punch was yummy with orange juice and ginger ale.  I froze some orange juice in cup cake tins to make huge ice cubes that wouldn't dilute the punch as it melted.

I also made big cubes with lemon slices for the water.  And, clear ones for the apple juice.

For dishes, I thought about getting paper plates, but then I found clear glass at the thrift store for only fifty cents each and I found a clear mug at the dollar store.  Somehow these just seemed the perfect fit.

We just visited and played a few games.  Kristen found this vintage shower game that I just love!

Stork Bingo!!

One BIG surprise was that her friend, Terry, from her work came all the way from the bay area.  I knew that she was coming, but I left it for a fun little surprise for dear daughter.

My daughter's friend Stephanie, had a baby just a couple of months ago.  Here is Meghan holding him.

 

My daughter was wearing "our" shoes.  We "co" bought these a while back.  I haven't worn them yet.  Aren't they cute!

 

I had three kids myself and never once had a shower.  I don't think I ever even went to one either.  Did we do this kind of thing back then?  I never know what to buy people, so I love the idea of a gift registry.   My daughter used Babies R Us.  I made her promise to NOT look at the registry so that she would be surprised. 

 

I set up a table with a vintage table cloth for the gifts and we sat on the deck for the unveiling.

My girl was like a kid at Christmas.  How fun!!  Her friends and family were beyond generous.  I can't wait to see the nursery all set up.  

I had the doggies on the deck all morning and they were dying to get close to the people.  When we came down to the deck, they shied away.

I took this picture of the girls and when I posted it on Facebook, they noticed little Pookie under the couch, posing for the pic!

A princess needs a crown.  I found this perfect little tiara for her.  

We packed her up.

And filled up Terry's truck and off she went to get hubby started on putting things together.  Lucky guy.

When it was all over, I didn't want to take down the decorations.....ever!

It was a great time.  Now let's have that baby!!

Road Trip! Over the Mountains to Lone Pine CA

Hubby and I took a quick trip to his Dad's for his 85th birthday.  We both looked forward to a road trip, one of our favorite things to do.

We love to drive up to the mountains and on this trip, we enjoyed passing all of our favorite places.  

This is Caples Lake.  I had to take a pic because it wasn't that long ago that they had the lake drained and we actually walked on the bottom of it.  

I had to share this picture of "Red Lake".  Why is it called that I wonder?  It's not red, that's for sure, but it is very green.

It's a long drive.  We decided to change things up and go a different route.  We usually go over Carson Pass.  

We chose this time to go over Monitor Pass.  It's not that much different.

This route goes through Markleeville.  It's a really small town. I wouldn't want to be there in the winter, I imagine they are pretty cut off during the snow.

It was pretty enough, but not spectacular.  We couldn't really tell if it saved time or not.  

Once you get over the mountains, it just seems like the road goes on forever.

It was a very long drive.  Here is a picture of the family:

This is actually their front yard.  Can you imagine this view all day every day?  Wow.

The sunset was spectacular.   I took this picture with my Iphone.  It was so beautiful.

Hubby took this one with his camera:

It was one of those things that was over way too quickly.  

We visited and then spent the night in town.  One thing that we both loved was all the old fashioned motel signs.  

How many suitcases should one bring for an overnight?  If I was flying, I would economize.  But, driving is just encouraging me to bring more.  I have a motto, "if you think you might want it, bring it!".  And, that's what I did.  These are all just for ME!.  Hubby had his own bags. My red suitcase for clothes, my other red bag has makeup and toiletries, the bags in the middle have shakes for breakfast (I even brought my blender...but forgot the most important piece....boo hoo), the fluffy bags had pillows and beach towels (just in case) and the black bag in front had my lap top.  I always bring a outlet strip for all of our plugs and my own alarm clock.  I never claimed to be someone who travels light.

The next morning we had breakfast with the family and enjoyed all the beautiful scenery.  This was taken on the road to hubby's Dad's house:

Hubby took some stunning photos of the area: (at 5 am !!! I stayed in bed)

On the way home, we went to Bodie, a famous old west ghost town.  I will save that for a separate post. It was so interesting.

We stopped in Bridgeport and could not find a mocha anywhere!!  So we had ice cream instead.  That's a fair trade.

After Bodie, we took an entirely different pass over the mountains.  Sonora pass:

This was a truly beautiful drive and it actually seemed a little shorter to go this way.  We would take this pass again the next time.  We loved the scenery.  I took this short video of one of the incredible views:

This trip was a photographer's dream.  Hubby it just itching to go back and really take some time to just take pictures to his hearts content.  

I was a photographer's assistant

Let me tell you.  This wedding photography is hard work.  My husband is the BEST photographer ever. And, I’m not the least bit biased.  He has done professional business photography for many years.  He’s done a few weddings for friends and they turned out FABULOUS!  He decided that he wanted to do more and put the word out.  Immediately he had people trying to book him.  Woo Hoo.  www.stevenfarrellphotography.com

This was a small wedding at a beautiful winery.  A wonderful way to spend a warm (or hot) summer evening.  I came along to be his assistant and help him with whatever he needed.  And, I planned to videotape as much as I could.

The bridal suite, where the bride gets ready was upstairs.  And, UP and DOWN those stairs I went.  Over and over!  Then it was out to the car to get something, then it was hold this reflector up in the air until you have no feeling in your arms!  Yep.  Photographer’s assistant is a hard job indeed.  Hubby is really nice and that made it better.  I can’t imagine if the photographer was barking orders at me.  I would have to quit for sure!

It was fun to be in the bridal room as the girls were getting ready.  They had a hairdresser and a makeup artist on hand.  That was cool.  The bride and the groom both have the MOST adorable children, and it was fun to see them in all their excitement.  What is it about weddings that makes everyone seem so BEAUTIFUL?  Or maybe these people are BEAUTIFUL!

Hubby took wonderful pictures and they will be over the moon when they see them.  My video was disappointing.  I will have to buy a new camera if I want to continue.  I got the whole ceremony, but it’s not in HD and hubby blocked my view of the bride coming down the aisle.  We will have to coordinate that in the future.  And, the bride and groom did not have a microphone, so my video did not capture them speaking their vows.  After the ceremony, I had both my camcorder and my small hand held camera.  My point and shoot actually took better video.  Especially in low light.  One bummer is that right when the cute little daughter was giving her special speech, my battery went dead.  That was so sad.  I’m still not sure what I actually got and how I can put it together as a nice video remembrance of their wedding.  It wasn’t anything we charged them for, so there is no pressure, it would just be a gift from me.  And, I know that I got something.

I think I was able to show hubby a few shots he might have missed.  Nothing big, but I feel like I contributed.  We have two more weddings this summer.  Both are at fun locations and we are really looking forward to them.

My fun 4th of July

We had a last minute invitation to watch the local fireworks from a friend’s house.  She has a spectacular view and of course we said YES!  We had to attend a local community planning meeting (who schedules stuff like that on a holiday??).  When we got there it was very exciting.  Steve immediately set up his camera.  Steve’s mom came with us and we had a wonderful time.  There was a potluck (we didn’t bring anything…how embarrassing!) and we were invited to eat.  It is apparent that I have a real weakness for potlucks.  I just love food and potlucks always seem to have such yummy choices.  For dessert, I was just going to taste a little of each one and I ended up eating pretty much a whole plate of goodies. 

As it started to turn to dusk, the moon started to rise and it was HUGE!  By the time the fireworks started the full moon was an amazing backdrop.  Hubby took some really great photos and I got some cool video.  Note to self on the video…hold the phone the other way.  Argh.

Here are some of hubby’s pics:

 

 

 

 

 

I took some video:

We all agreed that it was the BEST view of the fireworks and we felt honored to get to be there!

I love the Fourth of July.  It makes me emotional to see everyone celebrating our country.  We have a rich and unique history and this day is representative of all that our Founding Fathers had to go through to make it all happen.   A while back I came across this wonderful video about the history of the Star Spangled Banner and I want to share it with you.

I had come across this video a while back and shortly after I was invited to sing the National Anthem.  I almost cried as I sang the words, thinking about those times and how hard it must have been.  I don’t think most people realize how long it took to become a free country.  Just think about this, the signing of the Declaration of Independence was 1776 and this battle where Frances Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner was 1814, that 38 years later!  A LIFETIME!  A whole life of fighting to be free.  Wow.  I can’t imagine what that was like.  We are so very lucky!