Catch Up Part 2: Shaina's Birthday

Yesterday I posted pictures from Christmas, these pictures were from Shaina's birthday party, which happened not too much after the holidays. Sarah has always loved making specialty foods, and she recently got into planning tea parties, so for Shaina's birthday we planned an Alice In Wonderland themed tea party.

This was the spread. The Wonderland details are subtle.

The blue butterfly.

A white rabbit.

Sasha even provided Steve, so we'd have a walrus. :p

Sarah made a whole bunch of tiny tarts and muffins.

And she has a large collection of assorted china.

Sasha made a crown for the birthday girl. I should mention that this was a surprise, so she wasn't warned in advance to dress for the occasion. Which explains the hoodie. :p I was the most dressed up, as I own a Mad Hatter costume. However, I neglected to get a picture of myself that day, so here's one from a few years ago instead. :p

A sample of the fare.

Sarah made her own lemon curd, and clotted cream!

Sasha made all the tea sandwiches.

They went all out!

I blew up balloons. :p And these were actually more difficult that they look, because those aren't polka dots, it's confetti that had to be stuffed into the balloons before blowing them up!

After the tea we watched Disney's Alice in Wonderland.

I have like five different versions of the movie, but Sarah wanted to stick with the classic. :)

Later Shaina opened her gifts, I gave her four Funko Pops from one of her all-time favorite movies, Labyrinth. Can you spot the fourth Pop? It's slightly hidden. :p

My friend Sam gave me two Irish unicorns to give to her, because she knew I had a cousin who absolutely loved unicorns. And Shaina absolutely loved them. :p

Sasha made Shaina a rainbow cake, which we had later that night.

Shaina loves rainbow anything.

She LOVES rainbows. :p

Even the inside was rainbow'd. :)

Shaina was suitably impressed. :)

And that's all from that day! I am pretty sure I have some other pictures to catch up on as well, but those were all the other big holiday pictures. I'll get to the others eventually. :)

Life Update: ISU Year 1 done!

I decided to do a brief life update since I haven't done one in awhile. I haven't done much of anything on this blog in awhile. My computer actually is having problems at the moment, and I generally don't like using my iPad to blog. But since that's all I've got at the moment it will have to do. I bought a keyboard for it, so writing on it is not that bad anymore. I'm waiting for some stuff to fix my computer to be shipped to me. Hopefully that will take care of it. If not, I'll have to take it somewhere to be fixed.

In case you didn't know, I am now done with my first year at Iowa State. I am loving it so far. I got pretty good grades all around. One not-so-good grade, but also one very good one, so it kind of evens itself out. I took (a few) pictures and I plan to share them as soon as my computer is working properly again. Next semester I'll be taking a few more journalism classes, as well as introductory Spanish, and Photography. I'm hoping the photography class will start teaching me more about all the hundreds of settings on my camera that I have no idea what they do.

I also quit my job at the Ames Hy-Vee. I was getting barely any hours all semester. A couple of weeks I only got three hours. For the whole week. Which is not enough for anything. So I decided to cut my losses before going home for the summer and look elsewhere next semester. Right now I'm looking into getting a job at the campus bookstore. I've always loved the idea of working in a bookstore or library, so I hope it works out!

Tomorrow I turn into a saggy pile of wrinkles and begin using a walker, drinking prune juice, and going to bed at 7:30. I mean, it's my birthday. I turn 28. Get off my lawn kids.

In related, happier news, my uncle is taking me to a Lindsey Stirling concert for my birthday on Saturday! I can't wait! It will be my first ever "Real" concert, not just a classical performance at the local high school, or at college. I will be bringing my good camera and praying it makes it through security. I want good pictures!

Well, that's about it for now. I'm still working at the Harlan Hy-Vee. I'm getting way more hours than I was in Ames. Later this summer my cousins and I are tentatively planning a trip to somewhere. We're still ironing out the details, but there will be pictures. I've been going to a bunch of movies, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Godzilla, X-Men: Days of Future Past, but I haven't written any reviews. Maybe I'll do that later on. There's still a few coming up. I'll be seeing Maleficent tomorrow with my cousins for my birthday. It looks amazing. I love new twists on old stories.

Okay, that's enough rambling. Look for another True Facts post tomorrow!

Best Birthday Ever!

I just got the best birthday present ever! My friends the Frenches made a video for me where they acted out a short story I wrote. To read the original story, click HERE, then continue on to see their version.



My day was made a whole lot better when I saw this. :)

May 30th

On May 30th I turned 26. A quarter century is in the rear-view, and half a century is just ahead... I'd better start my hunching exercises so I can hold on to my walker properly.

Anyway, enough of the pity party. The week of my birthday some extended family members from Illinois were visiting and we had a barbeque. It wasn't for my birthday, but somewhere in the middle it became one for a few minutes when Sarah produced a cheesecake she had made for me, and Shaina and Joel each gave me a present.

Shaina's present was wrapped by Sasha, who had given me a gift a few days before, but I didn't even think to photograph it. Sasha's wrapping jobs are a works of art in themselves. You hate to rip the paper off them.

But in the end, that's the only way to get to the contents, so the ripping has to happen.

Shaina's gift to me was a notebook with a cool zebra print on it. The pages are blank with no lines. It's really nice.

Sasha's gift had been a DVD of the movie Candleshoe.

We have been in a classic Disney mood recently and watching a lot of 50's, 60's, and 70's era live action Disney films and this one of our favorites.

Joel's gift was not quite as expertly wrapped. But at least it was funny. :p

The inside was much better than the outside.

As you know, I can't wait for this movie! :D I decided to NOT look at this book until after I've seen the movie, as it is quite likely that I will spoil a lot of the plot for myself if I do. So until the 23rd. The book will sit untouched, where I won't see it and have it tempting me to look at it. :)

I wish I'd taken a few more pictures that day, but I didn't, so this one will have to do. :)

I'm 25 now!!!

Has anyone seen my dentures? I think I lost them along with my glasses and cane when I hobbled outside to yell at those filthy kids to get off my lawn.

What?! It's 10:30?! At night?! Goodness gracious me! I should have been in bed three hours ago! I got sidetracked watching a Laurence Welk marathon while doing my crossword puzzles! I should know better than to multitask like that! I'd better go take my prune juice and hit the hay!

...Wait... What was I going to do again?