Pittock Mansion

Since it was going to be a nice day, we decided to go the Audubon Society of Portland and pick up the new Willamette Valley Birding Trail guide. Fortunately/unfortunately, they do not allow dogs to walk the trails around there since it is a wildlife sanctuary. So we decided to take a quick trip up to Pittock Mansion. It was hazy/cloudy day so the view from the mansion wasn't all that spectacular but I am sure it is incredible when it is clear.

We did take a few pictures in the front and back of the building.

Baby Album

Here is a look at the baby album I made for Hillary and Bumper. This is where most of my time was spent. The party decorations really did not take that long.

I had an American Crafts kit to coordinate these two pages.



I played around with my new Slice and the Animal Crakers design card for these layouts.



This was my favorite layout in the book. Clean, simple and fun.



Here is a closeup of the birds. I used foam dots to give them dimension.



More fun with animal paper.



And of course a layout for all those cute sleeping pictures.



This layout took the longest. I actually cut patterned paper for the "kelp". I added the ducks to pull it all together.



And I love ending my baby albums with this page.

Hillary's Baby Shower

Hillary's baby shower was fantastic. We had a great bunch of women, some with excellent baby experience to pass on to the soon-to-be first time mom. The games were a lot of fun. The first was to guess the number of jelly beans in the baby bottle. Here is Robin coming up with her guess.



For the second game, everyone had to cut a size of tape corresponding to the diameter of her baby bump. Shockingly, I got to within 3 inches. I think I won because we have been doing water aerobics together every Wednesday for a few months, so I have recently seen her in a bathing suit :) Here is Sheryl measuring her tape.



We played the Animal Baby Name game for the third game. Everyone had a few minutes to guess the names of all the baby animals. For example, Duck - Duckling. I had a few tough ones on there.



Prudence, Hillary's mom, did the best with 29 of 40 correct!



Then it was time to open presents. I made Hillary a baby album, which I will post seperately.



Here is Hillary and her Aunt CeCe with the beautiful sweater she made for the baby.



And of course we had to have a baby at the baby shower. Here is Hillary with Natalie and baby Desmond.



It was a lot of fun and hard work putting on this shower but it is all worth it when you get to create wonderful memories for a friend.

Hillary's Baby Shower Decorations

Yesterday I hosted Hillary's baby shower. She is due in early April and does not yet know the sex. I decided to do a yellow and green elephant theme. It was a ton of fun creating the decorations. I made several green and yellow tissue paper pompoms to hang around the house. In addition, I made this cute banner using my brand new Cricut (THANK YOU KIM!)





I made these mom and baby elephant cookies for the favor. My friend, Kristi, and I spent the day baking and decorating with royal icing.








We also made these life saver pacifiers and glued them together with the royal icing. They were scattered around the tables and hanging on the banner.



On the buffet, I created an elephant themed fruit display...and yes all the fruit is yellow and green on purpose. I stamped the elephants on patterned paper, cut them out and glued them to the picks.



I also made this "cake stand" from cardboard cake boards and canned vegetables. I used it to display the white bean crotini.



I also decorated glass hurricane vases to add height to the buffet. Hillary made the green and yellow cookies.



To drink, I followed Martha Stewart's recipe for sparkling citrus punch (8 c OJ, 1/2 c lemon juice, 1/2 c lime juice, 7 c sparkling water). I used mango OJ and it turned out great. I even froze the lemon and lime slices in some of the juice to keep it cool.

Agility demo

Lavi and I had a great time with our agility club on Saturday. It was a magnificent day. We held an agility demo at a dog event called March 4 Mutts, a fundraiser for Meals on Wheels. Afterwards, we built a confidence course for new dogs to play in the equipment, including Lavi's buddy, Roxie, from next door.

Here's Lavi waiting for me to set up her spot.



Here she is during our first run.



Suprisingly, she loves the teeter.



Susan, Doug and Roxie waiting for their turn.



Roxie going through the tunnel the first time.



A few other members of our club.

Natalia and her Corgi.


And of course Vegas, one of the few Danes that does agility in the area. She is actually quite good.