Making a Toddler's Day

While I was at my friend's baby shower on Saturday, Dave took Riley and Joe on a tour of the bridges of St. Paul. Riley still gushes about it every time she sees a bridge. They also got a kite and found a perfect park on the river for flying it, and that's what we did after they picked me up.

It was windy and brisk and clouds were skudding across the sky. There was a bridal party and a soccer party and someone famous in a large white hummer limo and our six-dollar Target kite turned out to be really good at what kites do. It was perfection. Riley was in ecstasy to finally get to fly a kite - she has been talking about it for weeks. I documented. It was such a fun afternoon, and every one of these pictures makes me smile or flat-out laugh. I cannot edit any of them out so humor me as I share a bagazillion photos.

Riley loving her kite already.

Threw off her coat and jumped circles around Dad while he was assembling.

 Joe got a brief turn now and again and he was happy as a clam. It's the little things, right buddy?

So much happy.

Then we took a little ramble along the river.

 

The last time I flew a kite was with Dave when we were first dating. Dave got dowels and string and materials to make our own and we flew them at Kiwanis in Provo. It was fun. I mean, I was falling in love at the time so of course it was fun. But doing it with giddy toddlers that we made ourselves, wat wat, that was pretty awesome too.

Baby Shower

What better activity for the Saturday before what I thought was supposed to be Mother's Day (yeah, that was a let down) than a baby shower! It was for the lovely Anna, who I met at church only about a month ago after she and her husband moved here from Russia. Can you imagine being six month pregnant and moving to a foreign country?? So my friend Anjela and I decided to throw her a shower; we made tissue paper "clouds" and rain drops, set up a onesie decorating station, and organized a brunch meal for 15, and a bunch of other church ladies brought food and gifts and we had a real rockin' party of a shower.

 Anna herself brought a Russian dessert called a "Napoleon" - layers of pastry and sweet creamy filling and I could eat it every day of my life it was soooo good. We told her she didn't need to bring anything but dang, sure glad she did! She is such a sweet, gracious girl, and I'm glad she let us celebrate with her, even though it isn't done in Russia and we probably made her feel all kinds of awkward.