48 Hours of Celebrations

I finally made it to Boise at 4:50PM on Friday feeling kinda poopy (literally), had my blood drawn, went to Winco and then home (with a few stops at 2 different McDonalds to use their restrooms; I was serious about the poopy part.)  My stomach has been bothering me for a week and I'm getting tired of the discomfort and hoping that it has nothing to do with my results that I won't get until Tuesday.  Hopefully it has just been a bug.  I felt bad the beginning of the week, felt better when I was in Seattle and then felt bad again almost the entire time I was home, but today I'm feeling much better, until I ate that is....

Friday when we got home we put ourselves in high gear in the kitchen, except for the short time I snuggled with my nieces.  We were getting ready for a little ladies luncheon to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday that she had last Monday.  Of course we went all out for this big celebration and this amazing woman.

After doing all the prep work, setting up the tables, teacups and the candy table, we finally went to bed at midnight and got up at 7AM to put on the finishing touches.  

We were pretty much almost finished with the details when the doorbell rang and mom's closest 25 friend's and family arrived.  It was really hard to narrow down the guest list, but we couldn't invite everyone, even though mom has many close friends and family.

Everyone had such a wonderful 3 hours chalk full of food, learning and laughter.

The Menu:

Pumpkin with Caramel, Strawberry and  Lemon Poppy seed Scones made out of our favorite scones cookbook and tea cottage in NYC; Alice's Teacup.  I heard comments from scone lovers that these were the best they had ever had.  Of course we made them fresh and they came out of the oven just as soon as the guests were arriving.  We paired these with raspberry jam and cured whipped topping

Yogurt Parfait's:  Yogurt from McDonalds, yes it can be purchased only if you are in with the manager like Tristen is.

Mom's Egg Soufle' and mini cinnamon rolls from Costco.

Let's just say there weren't many leftovers.  Some ladies even enjoyed seconds!

After brunch we sat around for nearly 2 hours each telling favorite beauty product's, kitchen gadget's, random favorite thing and their relationship to mom.  It was funny and special as some relayed how they were able to get through hard times because of the many therapy sessions they had over the phone and on walks with my mom.

Everyone went home with a "These are a few of my favorite things" bag which were full of some of our favorite things and some favorite things brought by the guests.  They included:  our favorite ratting comb, mexican vanilla, spatula's, tongs, a travel nail kit, lots of chocolate, a clutch bag for traveling, earrings, aquafore chapstick, a few favorite quotes and both mom and Aunt Thalia gave hankies; neither one knew what the other was giving which was a funny coincidence.

 We did buy mom's favorite Linda's Chocolate cake but were too full to cut it for the luncheon.

Mom's friends since she was a teenager

We had 1 hour to change close and get to the church for Kadyns special day!  He got baptized!  It was so special and spiritual and so fun to see the kids at the baptismal font.  After this we had a BBQ, chatted and cleaned up the kitchen again!

Aidree was scratching Gavins back here.  It was so cute.

How precious is this?

Today we went to church, had dinner, did some coloring, ate chocolate cake and then I boarded a plane back to Phoenix at 4:50.  This weekend went by both slow and fast.  It is always so fun to snuggle and love my cute nieces and nephews.

The next time I will go home will be in June when Gavin gets baptized.