Shelley's Birthday

Saturday night I convinced Shelley to have a low-key dinner to celebrate her birthday. That's her and her friend, Kristin. Very intimate group:

Here's the gifts I got Shelley: signed copy of JLo's Love? cd and a SideSleeperPro pillow.

Shelley using the paper flower I made as a necklace:

Opening the cd:

Sharefest - Boys and Girls Club Project

This past Saturday was Sharefest's Annual Workday. I signed up to help Joseph Haller's project at the Boys and Girls Club of Harbor Gateway Torrance. I was really surprised at how tiny this place is. Here is Diane Haller and her daughter, Hannah, folding tee shirts. I helped at with volunteer registration and was blessed to get to know Diane better.

The volunteers painted both the interior and exterior of the building.

They also cleaned up the area from old plant and furniture debris.

The wheelchair ramp had corroded paint and was very slippery so the surface was scraped and non-slip strips were installed.

I thought it was hilarious, yet practical, that when their tape measure went missing, Robin Haller had the idea of using a Winchell's box as the consistent measure between the slip strips.

Part of my job was to help get the lunch, as well as cut fruit for the volunteers.

I went with Nancy Detjen and her friend, Jeannette, to Del Amo mall to pick up the sandwiches that were donated by Chick-fil-A.

Here we are serving the volunteers lunch:

All the teens replenishing their energy after their hard work. Joseph is in the red tee shirt. He was doing this as his Eagle Scout project as well as working with Sharefest. He did a great job.

Favorite Pics

Shower Gifts

Since there were 40 guests in attendance, Jenn and Andy had a mound of gifts to open. Andy came for this part of the shower, which I think is great to include the father in.

This sweater and quilt were made by Grandma Barbara:

This is the blanket Erika's kids made:

Rebecca spent her own Awana dollars on this ball for the baby:

Heather checks out the "My Brest Friend."

Jenn shows off the beautiful painting Lauren made as a gift.

This is a diaper bag Julie (Jenn's mom) got her. It's filled with lots of different goodies.

Shower Games

Erika put together a few fun games for the shower. I was her helper. Here I am showing off the various candy bars for the first game, which was a candy bar match up game. You had to match up a pregnancy/baby related word or phrase with a candy bar name. For instance, if the word was "nursing" the corresponding candy bar was "Milky Way." All the guests had fun guessing. Some were pretty funny!

Jill got all of them right (I wonder why?)!

Heather was second runner up. Heather is Jenn's sister and she is the mother of four.

Paper Plate Game
The paper plate game is simple: every guest puts a paper plate on their head and with a pen they draw the profile of the pregnant woman and Jenn picked the best one.

Everyone participated but there could be only one winner. Some of the pictures were hilarious!

Erika organized a diaper raffle: bring a package of diapers and be eligible for a gift card to The Cheesecake Factory:

Jenn's mom, Julie won.

Funny Faces

I had Rebecca look a little serious for her "Hollywood" look:Lauren wanted to make faces for the camera:

My favorite:

Guests arrive at shower

The three Steip sisters, Erika, Jenn and Katie: Kimberly arrives and sets her gift on the table. Stella is looking out, spying Rebecca and Lauren, girls around her age. I had to encourage them to get to know each other...they were all so shy!

Great Grandma Barbara with her great-grand child, Lauren.

Here I am with my friend, Lisa. She is in my bible study and is a really good friend of Jenn's.

Rebecca playing hide-go-seek:

Scotti welcomes everyone and talks to her daughters-in-law:

It was Jenn's mom's birthday so Jenn wished her a "Happy Birthday" and pinned a corsage on her:

Shower Set Up

Erika asked me to help her set up for Jenn's baby shower. First we put up chinese lanterns in the colors of the shower: pink, white, green and turquoise. Jenn and Andy don't know the sex of the baby so it was all neutral (well neutral for a baby shower)/non-baby specific. I was mainly holding the lanterns and handing them to Erika:

Lauren was kind of bored because she couldn't help with the lanterns (it was misty and cold outside) so she petted Mickey, Penni and Ross's dog.

The girls did help us put up the lanterns in the backyard, however. They did a great job!

Rebecca folded napkins:

And placed them on the tables. Those favors (multi-colored pails with nail kids, candy and gum in them) are what Erika and I put together the Thursday before. The centerpieces are roses that came from Penni's garden. Aren't they beautiful?