Memorial Day Weekend Part One: My Sister’s Baby Shower

My sister, Beth, is pregnant! Her due date is July 24, which just happens to be the day after my birthday. So maybe I’ll end up sharing a birthday with my little niece.

This past weekend we ventured across Pennsylvania to spend Memorial Day weekend with my family. The main event was Beth’s shower on Saturday. It was almost exactly one year ago that Beth and Madison were married at our parents’ house. Why mess with a good thing? It’s a great time of year to be outside, so we hoped for the best, weather-wise, and held the shower there too.

Beth’s sister-in-law, Kari, had prepared some crafts for guests to work on. She’s so creative and crafty! She provided cards, markers and other supplies so that guests could create cards to go into a scrapbook for Beth.

The food was out of this world. Just about everything was prepared by Lilly’s in Doylestown. I’ve always been a big fan of their big sandwiches. Now I’m a fan of their other prepared foods, too.

I’m generally pretty take-it-or-leave-it with salmon. But not this salmon. It was just about the most tender thing I’ve ever eaten. I went back for seconds.

Fortunately the weather cooperated, so Beth opened her plethora of gifts in the courtyard, just adjacent to where she stood when she and Madison said their vows.

Beth’s nieces were very helpful carrying gifts over to Beth. Even the big ones. They’re tough girls!

That creative and industrious Kari brought a clothesline so we could admire all the cute baby clothes. And there was sure a lot of cute stuff! She is going to be a well-dressed little girl.

This next one cracks me up. For the majority of the shower, all of the boys vacated the premises. They returned as Beth opened her last few gifts. Jonas quietly made his way into the sandbox and entertained himself there. So, below, Beth opens a gift while the little urchin lays down in the sand.

That energetic, enterprising Kari provided another popular craft: she brought plain white onesies and art supplies to decorate them. Most were decorated right after we ate, before Beth opened her gifts, but a few people stayed around and decorated a few more after that.

Jonas wanted to participate, too. Fortunately for him, his cousins were there to help supervise. His final product is quite a masterpiece (and was dry two days later):

My sister and me!