Birthday weekend

(photo courtesy of Alana Yorke)

I had been meaning to post some catch-up videos and photos from Juniper's day-to-day, but I thought I should maybe post about this past weekend while it is still fresh. So, on Friday last (ie, Jan 15th), I turned the big Three-Oh. That's right, 30. And boy, was there ever a jam-packed weekend of celebration!

On Friday, after our weekly yoga class, a bunch of my friends and their wee ones came over for some hang-out and eats. It was such a blast! We even got to hang out a bit with some of their partners, which was lovely, as mostly it's just the moms and babies that spend any time together. I was especially curious to see if the kids would be interested in each other, or if it was too early for that yet (most were right around Juniper's age). Here is Juniper and her friend Isabella (who is 1 week older than Juniper); both of whom have mastered the art of sitting!

Conclusion: there was some acknowledgment of each other's presence, and some tentative reaching out to touch each other's faces. Juniper, however, was mostly interested in playing with the new toys (she absolutely knew which toys were not hers, and didn't want anything to do with her regular toys - only the ones that belonged to the other kids), and eating the other babies' feet. That's right, their feet. To be fair, they were slippered, and therefore little, colourful, and moving - could you think of anything more appealing to stuff in your face? Here is a short video of one of her attempts... sadly I didn't catch the actual chomping. And this is also my first time over dubbing!

Then on Saturday, we had a lovely, and incredibly eclectic mix of people over for a crepe potluck. This meant that Clark whipped up a veritable mountain of crepes, and everyone brought contributions to out on the inside. What a delicious success! There was so much lovely fresh fruit, and cheeses, and sauces - I stuffed myself silly. Juniper even had a friend to play with - Cristina and Dag's little 11-month old, Ida, came and very graciously shared her toys. Notice Juniper's sparkly party duds :)

Apart from those two parties, we also had a whole host of people staying with us - Faye and Brent (my sister and her s.o.) were down for the weekend, as was our long-time family friend, Jill Allison (who lives in St. John's). It was Jill's first time meeting Juniper, and they were fast friends. On Saturday night, after the crepe brunch, Faye and Brent spent a couple of hours in the kitchen, preparing us some lovely sushi and tempura for supper. How spoiled am I?

On Sunday, my festivities had ended, but we went to the shower/birthday party of our friend Ashley, who is due in two weeks. It was great fun, and I suddenly felt like the seasoned five and a half month veteran :) Then Clark and Juniper and I walked around downtown, picked up some supper at Pete's Frootique, and had a very quiet evening. Obviously, a complete whirlwind of a weekend, but lots of fun!

Stay tuned for all the videos I've been meaning to post! In the meantime, here is just a little something fun to leave you with.