Celebrating A

We celebrated Adrienne on her actual birthday, with an afternoon ice cream social and water play. I wanted her party to scream summer fun--sunshine, casual conversation, cool treats, and bare feet. We kept the guest list small and preparations to a minimum (Matt might argue with the last part, but really, I did work hard to keep myself reigned in). I made some homemade ice cream sauces, baked/decorated Adrienne's smash cake, and rolled cake pops for Aunt Mal to dip and decorate when she arrived. Other than that, I focused on creating an ice cream dream for the kids--sprinkles, whipped cream, cones, etc--so that they could create whatever their little hearts desired (and it WAS fun to see what they came up with). Matt and Uncle John blew up the kiddie pool, we pulled out a couple of sprinklers, and I set out a bunch of bubbles. The kids came up with games in the water (my favorite was Jillian and Isaac's "cooking" game of making "chocolate mac and cheese" with some water, sand, and wood chips), the dads threw the football around, and we all sipped cold drinks and did our best to find any bit of shade in our sunny back yard on an unusually hot (for MN) summer day. At the end of that day, I felt grateful that the day was just as I imagined it would be. Tonight, I realized it was even better. You might recall that my dear friend and roommate from OT school, Shannon, drove all the way from KC when Adrienne was born to document our homecoming. Well, she did it again. She selflessly left her 4 sweet kiddos in the care of her very capable husband and headed up to share her talents with us. That in itself is no small feat, and as a fellow nursing mom, I appreciate that effort more than I can express. I am once again blown away at what she was able to capture, and am overflowing with thankfulness for the blessings staring back at me in the images--the moments big and small, the people, the relationships, and the memories we will always treasure. Thanks to Shannon, I can relive this special day anytime I want---AND, as a bonus, be reminded of all the sweet moments that are present (and sometimes seemingly hidden) within what Shannon calls "a real day".
I will share my favorite images within a blog post when I get the CD for purposes of documenting for the blog book, but for now, enjoy Shannon's blog post ( "happy birthday squeaks", dated July 9th)--you can read it here and watch the slideshow here