We tried to get a nice pic of all the kids on the couch. Didn’t quite work out, but hilarious nonetheless!
Party time!
Last weekend our good friends were kind enough to host a Free Linus party for our little spica cast escapee. It was terrific. The best part was that Nicole made up t-shirts for all the kids that said “Free Linus” and then she let them choose an assortment of iron-on patches to decorate their shirts. Linus’s shirt just said “Free” on the front and “Watch out world” on the back. It was a terrific party and we had a blast! Thanks, everybody, for helping celebrate!
We celebrated Henry’s first birthday on Sunday, the day before his birthday (March 2nd). It was so awesome and super fun! Thanks to everyone who made his day special.
Dave’s folks came down and my mom and Gene were there, of course. Unfortunately, my granma got sick the week before and was not able to make it. That’s okay, though, she’ll just get all that Henry-time to herself the next time we see her. We missed having the West Coast contingent of the family but hope to party down with them sometime this summer.
We had a very easy party. I served champagne, wine and beer and a few easy hor dourves that went straight from the freezer to the oven. Dave made this amazing Angel Food cake with orange flavoring, topped with orange-colored Cool Whip and mandarin oranges. Henry’s favorite!
It seemed like everyone was very relaxed and had a good time. As per usual, I felt like I didn’t get to talk to half the people who were there but that’s just how it goes.
Two of Henry’s little friends came over, Sawyer and Finn, with their parents. It was fun to have someone for Henry to share the toys and cake with. And of course, Cristin and Beanie made it, too. The surprise guest was Julia, Henry’s favorite teacher from school. She may have won “best gift” award with her Mickey Mouse airplane. It was a hit with all the kids! However, they didn’t have any lack of toys to complain about.
Henry got lots of great gifts from all his friends and relatives. I’ve pictured only a few here. Perhaps the most labor intensive gift was the sweater that Cristin knit him. She’s too crafty! It’s the perfect blend of David Bowie and Henry’s birthday! It’s from the Strangers When We Meet video (I adore this song) and it has a “1” on it in honor of his birthday. Although he may not be wearing it anytime soon (it’s a tad big), at least he will not grow right out of it.
The next day we got to open more fabulous presents from Monica, and the day after that presents from Jonah and Nolan arrived. Hooray for the weeklong birthday!
(I realize that there are way too many pictures in this post and I’m sorry. But he’s my only baby and he only turns one once. If you’re a Henry junkie, you can see all of Cristin’s photos here and my photos here.)
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- Angel Food Cake
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- Prepared to Party
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- Background slideshow
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- Grinning Birthday Boy
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- Mountain of Presents
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- Little People Farm
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- Finn and Henry
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- Mickey Airpane
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- Excited about Tigger
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- Henry’s Number One!
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- Puppy Rocker
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- See Kai Run
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- Tigger
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- Hut Hut!
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- Granma Q’s gift
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- Happy Birthday!
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- Stuffing Cake
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- Happy Cake
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- Sawyer and Henry
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- Family Portrait
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- Henry and Mommy
The folks at work threw me a very surprise shower the other day at work! How fabulous! I was so very surprised.
There was a whole spread of home-made desserts, including brownies, cookies, and rice crispy treats, plus other store-bought yummies, including cheesecake and donuts. I was in heaven.
The diaper cake was an enormous diaper cake and each diaper was individually hand-tied. 🙂 Wow! It was adorned with cute pacifiers and rattles and topped with the most adorable stuffed frog. I may claim him for myself.
The girls who threw the party put on a game of Baby Family Feud. Every time a team won a round, they got a gift card, which they promptly gave to me! We have restaurant gift cards to keep us in food for weeks after the baby comes! How thoughtful!!
We also got a few outfits for the baby and a very soft, very snuggly blanket.
It was such a nice event, and I loved being so surprised with it. Hooray!
This will probably be the prettiest post on my site, so enjoy all these lovely pictures!
The spread at the shower was just amazing. Credit to the girl who dreamed up the menu! It was delish, and there was so much food, I know no one left hungry!!
I had one request and for that I used either the word “Mexican” or “cheese,” I can’t remember which. I got a variety of tasty little cheese-filled mexican treats. And when asked what food would go best with melted chocolate, I greedily said pineapple! I got that wish, too.
The table, at a glance.
Some close-ups.
My girls wouldn’t use bowls for dip, would they?
The chocolate fondue – how fabulous is chocolate fondue?
I spent half the night eating most of the pineapple at the fondue bowl. YUM.
What shower would be complete without a cake? But not content to do it up like everyone else, they went with a cookie cake!! It was like a chocolate chip coookie, but enormous, and with icing. It said “Bye bye tummy, Hello Mummy!” So freaking cute.
And I didn’t even make it to this tray, but they look gorgeous, don’t they?
There was plenty of wine, some crazy strong blue Wildberry Martinis and of course, pudding shots. Pudding shots are quite yum! Everyone seemed pretty relaxed and happy – I think the food and drink was a hit!
Photo credit.
It seemed like the ladies worked all day on shower preparations. There were trips to the store, lots of cleaning and straightening, and a few conspiritorial conversations. Everybody got involved but me, of course. They got most of it set up while I wasn’t looking, so I got to be surprised by the spread and the decorations.
It was so amazingly lovely to have a party at home and be just exactly what you wanted, but not have to work at it. Must be what it’s like to have a catered party, but this was still better because it was dreamed up by the thoughfulness of friends.
Saturday night at Fishmongers we celebrated Dave’s birthday with Mom, Gene, Kerri, and Beany.
It was awesome!
First we stuffed ourselves silly.
And then Dave got to open lots of presents!!
Gene, with Mom giving advice.
Jeni and Beany
Dave’s New Car
Terrific Ice Cream Cake from Maggie Moos
Happy Birthday sweetie!
This season was pretty light on Christmas parties. There was one work party that we missed because I was too pooped to make it. And then last night, there was Ele’s Annual Chili and Beer party. I was impressed they decided to have the party, seeing as how their newborn son is only about 5 weeks old.
But they did it, and I think they had a really nice time. It was a smaller party than last year’s, but I liked it because it was more intimate and a little less hectic. Finn settled down once the party got started and spent most of his time being held by his adoring fans. I snapped a picture but didn’t want to use the flash, so it’s fuzzy. But it doesn’t matter because he’s so friggin’ cute!
Cristin invited me over for a 12 hour Harry Potter movie watching party on Saturday. I missed the first movie but arrived at 3 PM for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. After that we watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and then Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was a very nice, intimate party. It’s gotten me excited for the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
I got to meet Kelli and Jamie, both very sweet girls, as well as Matt, who seemed nice and kept out of our way while we chatted and drank.
Kelli and Cristin really outdid themselves gettting ready for the party. Ele would have been impressed! Kelli was even wearing Gryffindor colors. 🙂
- Wands – Pretzles coated with dark and white chocolate
- Polyjuice Potion – Grape juice, sprite and vodka
- Hogwarts Cake – Castle-shaped cake filled with cream
- Gryffindor Jello Shots – Both yellow and burgundy jello shooters (quite strong!)
I brought some Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans and they were a hoot to try! Cristin’s blog linked to to some funny photos on her Flickr album. I also got some good snuggles with Lily, Cristin’s adorable kitty. (I promise I didn’t take her home with me!)
Ele was super-smart and hosted a Fourth of July party on the Tuesday night before the fourth. She sent out these adorable handmade invites and her party was no let-down.
Ahh, I love hot dogs, so her hotdog bar was a perfect treat!
The whole spread was quite nice, very delectable!! Those fruit parfaits were amazing!!
Our hosts, Will and Ele! Thanks for the great party, guys!