an afternoon at wheeler farm

We were in Utah nearly a month ago, for my 30th birthday. (...Um, wut? How the crap am I 30?) One of the things that I decided I wanted to do while we were there was to visit Wheeler Farm. I love Wheeler Farm. I can remember going there on field trips in elementary. It's one of the places that comes up nearly every time we talk about what we miss about living in Salt Lake.

We met up with Boss's cousin Bellinda and her two boys. I love Bellinda more than I love Wheeler Farm, and it was awesome to get to hang out with one of my favorite people at one of my favorite places.

Now, here's a million pictures (and one gif) from our day at the farm:

baby party

Alternate title: "the time I said yes when I wanted to say no"

Some of the decor:
tiny "little sister" jammies,
homemade paper circle garland,
ribbon tassel garland,
mini white pumpkins,
and balloons.

After my baby shower a couple of weeks ago, my sweet bossling2 was inspired. All that night she told me how, when she got older, she wanted to throw showers for people. Then, her eyes lit up and she asked if she could host another shower for me. One that she could also invite her own friends to, of course. My first thought was to say no. I'd just had a shower, and I didn't want to seem ungrateful by turning around and basically hosting a shower for myself (with my daughter's input, of course, but still.) But she was so excited by the idea, I figured it wouldn't hurt to discuss it a bit further.

First, I pulled up the calendar on my phone. I told her the first thing we'd have to do is pick a day. I figured one week would be too short of notice, while two weeks would mean the party happened the day before my due date. I thought it was a bit risky and ambitious - we'd have to cancel if baby came early, but I told her that day was probably the best choice.

From there I started asking her what kinds of snacks and decorations she'd want to have at the shower. She listed off a few ideas, and then we talked about games. I told her about some traditional baby shower games that we might be able to do and we talked about what we could do for prizes. The ideas were simple enough, and her excitement was pretty contagious, even though I was still feeling really self-conscious about the whole idea, I decided to go forward with it.

I created an event on Facebook with a description explaining that this party was E's idea, and was all about her and that she is finally getting a sister. I considered things that we already had on hand to use for decorations, and then picked up a few extras - important things like balloons, and unimportant impulse buys because I wanted to make it extra special for my girl.

As we got closer to the day of the party I started to stress a bit. I was feeling extra worn out, and overwhelmed by why needed to get done. Specifically getting the house ready for guests, but there was also shopping and food prep that I needed to accomplish. When it was all said and done, though, we managed to pull it off. Mr. Boss helped out with the cleaning, and my last-minute-panic abilities set in, which helped me accomplish what I'd wanted.

I was trying to get the food all put together and set up when our first guest arrived. She was super awesome and helped me out with those final preparations, which I really appreciated. Especially because it gave me the opportunity to run and rinse the specks of day old mascara from my cheeks that I'd never gotten around to. Oops. Ha ha.

I frequently have this desire to host gatherings, but every time I actually do it I find myself feeling frazzled and don't really get a chance to enjoy myself. This time was different. I was still running around a bit, but also had the opportunity to sit down and chat and enjoy myself. E got to have some of her friends there, which made it so special for her. Plus, a friend of ours brought her 3 week old baby to the party and all the bosslings got to gush over that sweet, tiny boy.

It was probably the craziest idea, but we pulled it off and had a lot of fun.

The food - my favorite part.
Fruits, veggies, caprese bites, pink fluff, better-than-anything cake, and my favorite frozen pizza,
plus some pink lemonade - because it was pink!

One of our party games - the memory game.
The other game was guessing the size of my bump.
Imagine the surprise and amazement of all when the string of one of the youngest party-goers
was the exact length to touch perfectly end-to-end around my belly!

Gushing over our friend's tiny boy and getting all the more excited for our baby to arrive!

Ain't it good to know you've got a friend.

We have been making some wonderful friends in our branch since moving here. We've met the Carney family and then there is the Tweeddale family, both families are pretty fabulous.
The Tweeddale's have two little girls, Gracie is a couple of months younger than E and baby Kayla is 9 months old. And they are cuties. Their mom, Krystal is such a kind person. We had an instant connection when we met, and also discovered that we were both attending our branch for the first time on the same day (that was about 3 months ago! Can you believe it's been so long?!) Awesome.
Anyway, I was planning to make tacos for dinner last night, and it's a meal that I always want to share, so I asked Krystal and her husband, Tad, if they would like to come over. I'm so glad they said yes. Well, Tad actually didn't make it, because he got sick just before they were going to leave, so it was just Krystal and the girls.
Mr. Boss and I had to do some cleaning and rearranging, because our kitchen isn't really big enough to accommodate guests. We cleared the living room floor, moved the couch back, and pulled our table in.

This wonderful nerdiness occurred as we were cleaning up.
I love him!

It was perfect. And the food was delicious, as usual. (I make an amazing taco, if I do say so myself.)

Afterward the kids played together. They wound up on the bed jumping up and down, they were having a blast. And Z thought it looked pretty fun, so he joined in. He tried out being a big boy, first, standing on his own on the unsteady bed, then he moved over to the wall for some support as he bounced. A few minutes before they left, I brought out the 2 tutus I've made for E, and put one on each girl. They were so thrilled, which made them super willing to pose for this perfect picture. I love it! Aren't these girls adorable?! Also, I just loved how the tutus we have perfectly matched what each girl was wearing.
We had a lot of fun with our new friends, and we are so excited to continue to get to know the lovely people who we've met.

title here.
(I l♥ve James Taylor.)

picnic in the park

Yesterday we invited some friends over for a picnic in the park. When everyone was here, we walked across the street, and found a nice, shady area next to the play ground.
We sat ourselves down on the blankets and got to eating and chatting. It was wonderful. This is the kind of thing that I wish I did more often. (And we have been. This was our second picnic this week!)munching on lunch, Z and Lucas check out the Frisbee
The children enjoyed running around on the playground, and eventually took to hunting squirrels. It was very serious work, the 3 big kids stood around a tree with their hunting sticks and waited for their victim. (Note: no squirrels were harmed during the squirrel hunt.)nerdy E, C and his buddy Jack
The little boys enjoyed playing with Peanut, the funny looking chihuahua. They took turns grabbing at him, petting him, crawling after him. It was a good time for the two doggy-loving, 1-year-old gentlemen.E shares a snack with Z, Z found Peanut
Finally, Z got a hold of the raisins, and he chowed down on as many as he could. And then he screamed at me when I tried to take the bag away. Moral of the story: don't take food from a fat kid. (But I did anyway, because I'm the mom and I'm the Boss.)hogging the raisins
Our fun day in C's words: We had a picnic, and then we were diggin' in the dirt. I was diggin' in the dirt with Jack. And then I went and had some raisins and some cookies.
I had a good time and then I throwed somethin'. Jack picked up a big rock and throwed it right in the slide. I throwed some dirts in the slide, because Jack didn't find me a big rock, in the dirt. Then I throwed somethin' at Jack.
And then I had a stick and then I wowbed it, and then it touched the squirrels tail. I was huntin' squirrels with my big stick. I catchded that squirrel. I had a happy day because I throwded the stick, and now the squirrel is sad when I throwded the stick at him. And then we had a little rest.
Then we went home, Jack went home with us, he went to our home. Then we raceded cars, and mine got on Jacks head, it was drivin' and then it went thmp and landed on Jacks head, and that was a bad day. Then I said it's okay, and I said sorry.
When I was drivin' my armored truck and then it flip and then flied and then pomg right on the head. It was a mean day after I did that.
I had a little talk with Jack, when we were trying to race with cars, and then we bumped with pillows, we were runnin' and runnin' and runnin' and bomp! Then Jack went home.