Guest Blogger: Teach's Baby Shower by the Dog Walker

This may sound a little weird, but Mom asked me to guest blog for you about Teach's baby shower. It was quite a party. At first, I thought the normal rule of a baby shower is that the only male who would be invited to a baby shower is the husband with his wife who is the pregnant woman. But with a little bit of empathy from mom, she said that for this shower, it's just for everybody in the family, like we all gathered for the birthday parties for the past several months. I decided that maybe for this family, there are exceptions to special occasions, like a baby shower.

Super Polliwog!!

Super Tadpole, Super Little Warrior, and Super Twizlet!! Princess made all the capes, aren't they cute?!

Super Tadpole!! (again... because his mom made all the capes...)

Anyway, the shower was quite a blast for the most part. Puppy Lover wanted to come along to give the baby shower present to Teach. But before Teach would open her presents, we had dinner of Baby Back Ribs, Baked Potatoes, Zucchini, and many other foods. We also had different kinds of cake that Princess and Mom made.

Super Skittles!

Twizlet wanted to open all the presents.

Our amazing party planner!

And thanks to Drama Queen's creativity of party-planning, we played a lot of games that were Superhero-themed. We had a lot of fun playing the games, like word scramble with using the letters in the baby's given name, Pictionary, Word Search, and Wheel of Superhero Fortune.

We had a lot of fun celebrating for Teach's baby. Now, we're not going to reveal the name of the baby until he is born. We'll keep in touch on that eventually.

Baby Doll is super even without the cape...!

This Work Party was All Play!!

Friday night was my sweetie's work party at our very own Utah amusement park, Lagoon! We had tons of fun eating dinner, riding rides, and playing games. We managed to get 12 of us there; everyone living at home except for Grandpa. He had his mission and the overlap was just too much. Then we had Prima Donna, Drama Queen and a friend, Curly and a friend, and Beauty.

 

We got there about 6:30 and we headed straight for the food lines. I knew if we let the kids get on the rides then we would never get them gathered back up by 8:00 when they quit serving dinner. When we had finished with our hamburgers, salads, chips and such, we cleaned up our areas and while we were standing in the drink line, the kids paired up and then all took off without us! Not that it was a big thing, it was just strange to not have little ones around that needed us.

We stopped for a minute in the Biergarten to see the sculpture conceived and built by our cousin, George.

My sweetie and I wandered the park, stopping now and again to visit with one of his friends. We rode the Terroride, the Sky Ride, and the Bumper Cars. At one point we met up with some of the kids and we got on the gigantic Ferris wheel. Unfortunately, Sport, Drama Queen, Prima Donna, and I really needed more leg room than we had...

We rode the bumper cars a few more times, threw away some money on carnival games, and then all too soon it was time to leave.

Can't wait until next year!

Building a Laundry Platform

I know I promised to show you my sweetie's latest project, but it continues to grow. Yesterday we went to the store and we ordered new carpet for the laundry/sewing room. It currently has the original 25-year-old carpet and after my sweetie had to slice into it, we decided it was time for something new. We were able to get a remnant, so the price was excellent.

Just realize this is a work in progress, but let me tell you the story.

When we built our home, they routed the dryer vent under the bay window in our craft room. After about 10 years or so, we realized that it was nearly impossible for the angle of the dryer vent to keep the air flowing so my sweetie capped the outside vent and reran it into the garage.

Over time, that has proven to be a really bad idea. We get lint blowing all over the garage and the moisture has helped rust his tools, shelving, etc. But since we didn't really want to have a fire, we were stuck until my sweetie came up with a brilliant plan.

Our most recent washer and dryer purchases included a front loading washer that was able to sit on a raised base, but rather than buy one, he had always planned to build one of our own that would allow a change in the dryer vent. After several years of waiting for the right moment, he just picked this weekend and made it the right one.

He just finished the tile.

After digging out the old system including part of the floor and the concrete around the vent, he was able to tap into the old system that vented to the backyard. Then, he built a platform that would hold both the washer and the dryer as well as provide ample room to widen the airflow to the outside.

As usual, my sweetie is building more than projects.

Then to make it beautiful, he spent a day tiling the entire thing. now that it is nearly finished, he has decided that since we still have original carpet and paint in there (it is a utility room for goodness sake!!) that we needed to get those things updated as well.

Looking great with the grout all finished!

Now it is up to me to choose paint and get that part of the project moving before we have the carpet delivered next week. Sure wish there were 48 hours in every day...

Some Labor Day Fun

We hadn't planned to do anything for Labor Day weekend except for a huge project my sweetie had been planning for quite some time now, but for some reason, my kids like to get together, even if it is just the appeal of a simple BBQ.

I blame her dad for this deviant behavior...

Most of them showed up on Sunday about 5:00. My sweetie spent way too much time prepping for the party after his laundry room project that I will show you pics of tomorrow. He is not quite finished yet. Anyway, on Saturday while I was out shopping, I bought a case of his favorite peaches. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) he also made a quick stop at the Farmer's Market on his way to the Home Depot and bought a second case of peaches that were not quite his favorite since they didn't have Lemon Elbertas.

Gotta have that peach cobbler!!

That meant we had way too many peaches, so we just had to have some peach cobbler! Along with hot dogs, brats, fries, corn on the cob, and watermelon; we had quite the feast.

It was too hot to eat outside, although we gave it a good try. After things were cleaned up and some of the kids had drifted off to their own homes, we watched our favorite Labor Day movie, The Newsies.

My sweetie doesn't love The Newsies like we do. He took the opportunity to turn in early.

Actual Labor Day was more laboring for my sweetie and hundreds of tiny cupcakes for Club Rush tomorrow for Sport and the girls. I ran errands and took care of some mission stuff for Crafty. Now it's off and running with Fall activities. Hopefully by tomorrow my fridge will be "running" too.