A Busy Day

We started our busy day working with Valda at the Strut Your Mutt benefit for the Homer Animal Friends. Valda enlisted us several months ago to participate in various activities at the Strut, including having Vince cook hot dogs and Mema to be a crossing guard. Good thing Valda came over for dinner the night before the Strut and reminded us about it. I had the job of helping my kids parade Scratch through town. Yes, we paraded in the rain. Thanks to Mel for these fabulous matching rain slickers which were the hit of the parade! And thank you Scratch for not making us clean up any poo on the parade route.

I also had the job of helping them participate in contests. They chose 'Owner Dog Look Alike' and 'Best Tail Wagger'. They performed the following song for their part in the owner dog look alike competition.

Sadly, they did not win for this competition, but they did get a ribbon for having the second best tail wager in town.

After the competition, but before the Strut ended, I snuck off to Irene's where the Methodist Women were throwing a baby shower for Maya.

What a delightful gathering. What a nice group of women. Irene was blessed with lots of wonderful gifts. Maya was ever the princess, enjoying the ripping of paper. The buffet line was fabulous and this cake! Wow! It was a poppy seed with lemon filling and whipped cream frosting. Delicious!

The most touching gift Maya received was a handmade book by the Sonnen's about Maya's adoption journey. They reproduced pictures of her and the Wise family in colored pencil and wrote the story of her never being alone. It made Irene cry. Then it made me cry. Then I warned Priscilla not to read it, but she did and it made her cry. It is a beautiful book. I told Irene to keep it filed next to Love You Forever for those times when you really want to get sentimental and cry yourself to sleep. She agreed.

I left the baby shower in time to pick up my kids, husband and mother to head for Mariner ParkBeach, where Kate Finn was having her 63rd birthday party. More delicious food, more fun conversations with long time friends. It was windy at the beach and cold, but warm by the fire. Kate's cake was a Tarimisu. We drank sparkling cider out of paper bowls. Happy Birthday Kate!

We blasted off the beach, dropped my mother and the kids off at the Shack and went up Dimond Ridge Road where we joined up with the 40th birthday celebration of Emily W.

This cake was the feature of a blog poll several weeks ago about ordering your own birthday cake, and is it OK? Yes, Jenni M. took care of Emily (and all of us for that matter and got this cake for her). It was a fun adult hang out party. I was glad to meet Suzanne and Jean's boss Randy and his wife after all I've heard about them. I was also relieved to meet people (not Randy and Bobbie) who were unfortunate enough to witness the end of our civilization as we know it; the summer television program 'Swingtown'. Yes, it's a show set in 1973 about couples who swing. Yes, the movie 'Idiocracy' is becoming a non-fiction film.

Happy Birthday Emily! Thanks for including me in a fun night!

Vince took this picture on Skyline as we were driving home at 12:30 at night. Summer, Homer, Alaska.