2 showers & 1 lucky baby~

you guys! there is a very special baby on it's way to us.

it's almost time now for my grand baby to be born and there have been lovely parties

thrown by lovely people to celebrate babies life and

help mommy and daddy gather the 1001 things

pinterest says you need to bring a child into the world these days.

: )

*I swear when I had my kids you needed:

some cloth diapers and a plastic diaper pail from pamida

6 sleepers

6 bottles in case you weren't nursing and a can of enfamil

a bottle brush

4 bibs

4 flannel receiving blankets

one heavier blanket

a few white onesies

a bassinet or crib

one car seat

& 2 pacifiers.

done. ready for baby to come!

the list now a days fills a couple pages. there are these new straw things you

"suck" mucus out of babies nose with. everyone has video monitors so you

can watch what's going on in the nursery at all times. there are special decorative grass 

mats to dry your bottles on. there's this giraffe that if your kid doesn't

have- he or she will

never get into preschool.

there are strollers that you're going to need the engineer next door to

help you figure out. (the car seat, highchair and potty chair all snap into it).

*just kidding

speaking of car seats~you new parents will be buying about 3 of

them...for all the different weights of your baby over the next few years.

you need a white noise machine, a bouncy chair that will so totally entertain your

baby that you may get a shower every few days~

you need a special little bassinet for by your bed, a pack and play for travel,

a crib for their rooms that will transition to a toddler bed~ then a single bed and

then it'll go in their dorm room. (again, I kid).

you need organic cotton "everything" - oh wait bamboo is ok too!

you need swaddle blankets to wrap your baby up in like a burrito and these 

special sleep sacks because you can no longer use blankets in babies cribs.

or pillows or stuffed animals and remember- lay baby on it's back only.

it's all just so new and different from the way us "gramas" used to do things,

but I am 100% ready to wrap up my burrito grand baby like they've told us. whatever is good
for the baby is what i want too! * thank goodness

they haven't decided rocking is bad.

i'm going to rock and cuddle and read books and sing 

my little songs in my weak voice to this baby and I

cannot wait! maybe baby won't even know for a while that
this grama can't sing.

so anywhoooo, there were these amazing parties for adri and her baby.

the first one was hosted by baby p.'s auntie brandy and auntie lacey.

when daddy's side of the family throws a party, it's a biggie.

the grandmas, aunties, cousins, cousins friend's neighbors and

the FedEx man all come. it is so lovely how they love to 

acknowledge all the special events in their family and celebrate together.

the girls had ahhh-mazing food for the shower-salads, fruit breads, chicken sand-

wiches, many kinds of bars,veggie trays, fresh fruit...oh man it was yummy!

they had a couple of really unique games for us to play and then the gifts

oh my the gifts!

Ad got soooo many precious gifts for their baby I was just blown away, but
what I really want to talk about is this cake!!!!!

i think they call these "naked cakes". auntie b. ordered the cake but then she did the decorating and

if you're on pinterest or follow martha stewart you've no doubt seen them. they are soooo my daughter's style and the girls planned their party around a woodland theme. the little garland of shiny gold discs was reminiscent of the kids wedding and it was held up by real twigs! the little woodsy animals and trees were just adorable and it perched on this cake plate was the cat's meow!

<------  brandy       lacey  ------>

how ka-ute are their shirts?

check out the Chinese lanterns hanging from the ceiling, the adorable baby animal framed prints that were a gift from the aunties, and the prize bags lined up for games!

grandma p.       momma to be        and me!

I've gotten to know these fun relatives from bridal showers and the wedding and they

are just the best!

more of my favorite guests,  making dishing their plates look very serious.

the gift opening took a long time. there were over 30 wonderful women in that room, and we were

simply blown away by the lovely things given to a. and c. for baby p. !

ad, saying thank you to everyone...

and let's take one more look at this cute cake!

i am so grateful that my girl married into this wonderful,

caring, supportive, FUN family!!

thank you to any of you reading this for sharing this special day with us.

***************

i decided to do both these showers in one post so here goes the next one. : )

this party was just last weekend, and was hosted by two of my best friends.

mary and cheri, knowing ad's love for the outdoors and the fact that

the babies nursery is done in a woodland theme, went with that look too!

i just love how the hostesses of these two parties had no idea what the other shower

was like and there were such fun different ideas around a common theme.

cheri had been at a friend's cabin and she scoured the woods for birch bark, pine cones, acorns and pine boughs that they used to decorate the tables.

the food was so delicious and amazing at this party too. seriously, for someone who doesn't like to cook, i am so appreciative of tables full of yummy food that someone lovingly prepared for us!

there were egg bakes, warm bread and cinnamon rolls, fruit skewers, cheese and crackers, a spinach salad and for dessert? bundtinis for the win! 

<------  cheri       mary   ------>

eric's girlfriend corinne, ad and friend jess (who's preggos with her 4th baby) : )

g-ma alice and ad

a very special onesie from a very special girl, lexi, who is a ballerina with the new york city ballet.

she has a strong loyalty for her home state of mn. and wanted baby p. to have a mn. shirt!

my daughter's motto has been "i do what i want" since she was about 15, so when i saw this onesie i wasted no time putting it in my cart.

: )

this was one of the gifts ad got from her brother. it had a story too. when she was 4 days old 

i took a photo of her with a little (very little) stuffed pig and they were the same size.

he bought baby p. a stuffed piggy of it's own.

me and my girl. 

i can hardly stand how beautiful she is pregnant. it kind of makes me choke up whenever i see her.

pregnancy and birth is such an absolute miracle isn't it?

to think there's a little person growing in her beautiful round bump that

is going to be born and change our world is just

the best.

and to end, here is a pic of ad, her big brother, (who may rival me for most excited about this baby's birth) and jess.

eric wasn't really at the shower, but he dropped corinne off and came in to say hi.)

to say adria and i are grateful to all of you who came to these parties is an understatement.

to the hostesses who spent so many hours planning and cooking and setting up for these

lovely, lovely parties, we just love you.

thank you!

we just love you. 

it won't be long now and when you have so many people

(a whole village!)

who love you and can't wait to share in the joy of

a new life... 

well, it's going to be amazing.

xox, b.

this is duluth~

in august lars and i spent a long weekend in duluth. 

it was a great chance to relax and pre-celebrate our upcoming wedding anniversary.

this is where we spent our honeymoon too.

40 short years ago.

at that time, because we were country kids who'd hardly been out

of dodge this destination really felt like a destination.

i love this industrial city and always look forward to a trip 

back up the north shore.

any chance to wander along the big waters of lake superior just

seems to settle you down and remind you of how small we are in a great big world.

as you know by now i love to look for beach glass so when we got to town

we had a yummy lunch and then lars happily went to take a nap while

i walked to canal park to dig in the sand.

i barely got down by the water before the sky started to rumble and

lightning flashed in the distance. there were a ton of other people down

at the shore though so i just started looking for treasures.

after a bit i looked around and it was just me and one other person

still out there so I hustled up to the hotel right before the sky opened up

and it poooouuuured!

you can get a carriage ride in canal park~

next we headed up the shore to lake breeze motel where we were going to spend a few nights.

after we settled in I walked down to the lake again and snapped a few pictures of

the wildflowers along the way.

the weather was perfect when we were there and we had our breakfasts on our little deck.

the morning of day 2 lars took a long bike ride up to two harbors and back while I drove to 3 different beaches to ding around and look for beach glass, pretty rocks and drift wood.

later on we met back up at the cabin and drove to two harbors.

it's always fun to drive by the beautiful home (above) that my friend leslie and her

hubbie built and lived in for several years on old hwy. 61.

I have many favorite memories of time spent in this house laughing till

the wee hours of the morning, the wedding reception for their daughter Maggie,

the fabulous boutique sales leslie had there.

we love to harass them that when they moved to Alexandria,

they should have kept this house and used it as

a cabin so we could all keep coming back.

french river bridge

don't you love this view in my side mirror?     hello lake superior.

we parked in two harbors and could see this light house off in the distance so we started walking and kept on till we'd hiked to it.

on the way we passed this big rig where ships get loaded. if you look close you can see how tiny the men look that are up there working.

out from the lighthouse is another lighthouse on this long arm, stretched out in "the sea". 

I never miss an opportunity to see if there might be beach glass and while I was looking lars started talking to this nice couple. when she found out I wasn't having much luck she took two beautiful pieces out of her pail and insisted on giving them to me. I tried to say nooooo, but she just pressed them into my hand and said "these are a blessing for you".

who does that? LOVED her! 

pretty sure this bird made the blonde highlights on this carved trader.

after walking all the way over to see the red lighthouse, lars said of course we're walking out to the end of the pier too.

we stopped at another marina on the way back and this weathered driftwood was intriguing to me.

(*in a brainy sort of way.)

a mermaid sighting.

we stopped for a yummy meal on this deck on the way back to the resort. this place used to be called 

the castle, but it's under new ownership and I can't remember the new name. the food was excellent!

lars brought his hammock along and he took at least one nap in it.

dude loves to nap.

he wanted me to try it so bad...so I crawled in and laid there for 2.5 minutes, but i'm not a napper ha.

5 beaches later this is the total extent of my treasure hunting. it wasn't the best this time, but i guess it wasn't the correct time of year for the big winds that toss up the treasures. oh well, i brought the loot home and added it to my bowl of sea glass. it makes me happy.

the last day we headed to brighton beach so dale could try kayaking the big lake. he really loved being out there, but did say that it was a really weird feeling too. he felt like he wasn't going anywhere, just paddling and paddling and then all of a sudden he looked back and felt like he was in the middle of the ocean. : )

of course he wouldn't put his life jacket on, just had it in the bottom of the kayak. (some people's kids!)
to tell you the truth i kind of had to drag my hubbie to duluth. he didn't think there was enough to do up there. (and he doesn't like to leave his dog).
by the time we left he was ready to move. 

being a woosy land lover there was no way i was kayaking lake superior. i happily played on the beach while he paddled. i like to make rock stacks so i did some of that and took photos. this isn't as hard as it looks, but it's not easy either. does that make sense? if you've never tried it you should. just find a handful of rocks and start balancing them. it takes patience, but you can make all most all of them work if you take your time.

our last stop before heading home was the leif erickson rose gardens in duluth. so much beauty. these gardens are close to the fitger building on london road if you want to check them out sometime.

have a good weekend friends, i'm so excited for a baby shower that my girlfriends are hosting for my daughter. you guys our grandbaby will be here very soon now~ there is so much love being extended to our daughter and son in law and so much excitement from our camp.
eeeeekkkk!
: ))

take care, 

b.