Emma's Welcoming Party

The same day that Bashful gave me the calendar of help, she handed me an invitation. She and HisLady were planning a party for Emma. I thought it was really sweet, because generally you think that someone with three kids won't be needing any more stuff for a baby. But surprisingly, things wear out, get stained or worse and although you may have everything necessary for a baby - it's just really nice to have something new and refreshing!

The day of the shower, was the day after I first came down with my cough that ended up being bronchitis. It was a cloudy day and, although it rained a bit in the morning, it was clear and dry that afternoon and evening. The weather forecast was supposed to be clear and sunny so I had insisted Sir take the car to work and I would walk to Chasm and HisLady's house. It was my first attempt at taking a walk with a stroller and three kids and we arrived at a decent time in spite of our adventures.

I did remember to take the camera, but when you're second-in-line to being the center of attention, you don't end up taking very many pictures. And if you're like me, you don't remember to ask someone else to take pictures for you either. As soon as we got to HisLady's house, PC ran off to find Jolly and I discovered them a few minutes later when I decided it would be wise to locate my absent son. Thankfully, I actually had my camera in hand, and the little boys didn't see me until I'd grabbed a few pictures of them in their mischief. I guess boys will be boys no matter how little they are!

Meanwhile, Dolly had run upstairs to play with the other girls and Emma was making faces at all the cameras aimed at her downstairs. Go ahead and click on any of the pictures to get a closer look. Some of them are worth it!

Anyway, the evening started off with supper. Bashful provided all the food as I later discovered. There were enchiladas, corn pudding casserole, chips, salsa, sour cream and guacamole. All of it was delicious! Grandma C. made my favorite cake for desert, but I didn't get any pictures of it since it was mostly gone by the time I remembered that I had a camera on the premises. Oh well, at least you know it was good!

Once the kids were wiped up and released to play again, HisLady started the games. There was a 'Dress the Baby' race where everyone was divided into three teams, given a bag of clothes (including a diaper, socks and shoes) and one of the three one-year-olds. Wisely, HisLady had made sure that the mother of each toddler was NOT on the team that had to dress her baby. It was an absolute riot and I had so much fun! Monkey's team won and everyone on the team got to choose a prize. Then there was the classic 'Dirty Diaper' game. You had to identify by smell (or taste if you dared) what kind of chocolate candy was mangled inside each diaper. Astonishingly, Aunt Knittery's middle daughter got every single diaper right! The last game we played was a 'Alphabet Baby Names' game. Each person had to come up with a girl's name. They had to be in alphabetical order, and each name could only be used once. They started with me and went clockwise around the room. If you couldn't come up with a name that started with the next letter in the alphabet, you were out. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to come up with a name that starts with Q,X,Z or U until you try this game, but you wouldn't experience the outlandish made up names if you didn't give it a try either! Lots and lots of fun for sure.

After the games were over, I got to open gifts. The main gift was a money basket that turned out to be a very generous amount! But there were quite a few other gifts as well including the decorated diaper cake (above) made out of 78 diapers, baby washcloths, baby socks, bottle liners, a teething ring, pacifiers, tiny teddy bears, wooden spoons and a chocolate filled bottle. I got a few outfits for Emma, some cardboard books, toys and a dozen homemade bibs among other things. I must admit I got rather excited about the bibs and feel rather silly looking back now, but the bibs were terribly practical and something that I really needed, and I was definitely not expecting to get anything like them!

By the time the gifts were all opened it was getting pretty late. The shower had started at 5pm and the alphabet game took a while to play - all that thinking, you know. I called home to let Sir know we were ready to be picked up, but he didn't answer and I left a message instead. Sir had planned to go over the border for gas and groceries after he got off work so I wasn't too suspicious. He called me back half an hour later and said he'd be on his way in a few minutes. Twenty minutes later, he arrived - we live within five minutes driving distant from Chasm and HisLady. Anyway, we loaded the van, with kids and gifts and went home. Once everything was unloaded and I was about halfway through getting the kids ready for bed, I noticed two huge boxes in the living room. Sir had picked up a surprise while he was across the border, but this post is long enough as it is, and I'll write about that another time! Hm, I guess I should include a picture of me with Emma. Just ignore my frizzy hair please - it's worse in the shots where I'm looking at the camera, so that's why I chose this one!

And my kids are up from their naps, so I have other things to do now. Until next time!