Bratcher Baby Shower

The April whirlwind came to a close this weekend with a baby shower for our pastor's son and daughter-in-law, Daniel and Katelyn. They are expecting a baby girl this summer and it's the first grandchild on both sides.

My usually partner in crime, Sherry, handled the food with egg bakes and donuts.  Auntie to be, Anagrace, made a fruit-cuterie board.

I hosted a Family Feud type game, Steve Harvey mustache included.

We followed up with a baby food tasting game.  Grandpa/Pastor Jeremy had a little water issue to take care of, but we made sure he could participate.

The final game was a diaper changing relay!

It was fun to see them get competitive!

We finished the morning with gift opening.

Congrats Katelyn and Daniel, we can't wait to meet baby girl!

Official and Unofficial Dental Work

The kids had dentist appointments on Monday and both of them did great!  Parker actually allowed them to do some plaque scraping.

Both kids also did x-rays!  I was so proud of both of them for listening to instructions and getting clear images.  This is a positive sign we may not have to do another sedated dental visit.

Parker has been working on a loose molar for a while and Tuesday was finally time for it come out.

We went back to our favorite extraction method, a Nerf blaster.  Jimmy has done this twice before without me home to document.  I am glad we finally got it on film!

Esme's Magical Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Esme's 8th birthday on Saturday with a magical unicorn party.

I went with the cupcake pullapart again and love how the rainbow main turned out.  I used a sugar cone dipped in sprinkles for the horn.

We ordered pizza from Dominos and I made rainbow fruit and veggie trays.  Here is where that purple cauliflower I found in Windom came in to play.    

Jaxxon and Jameson enjoyed the fruit most!

This was planned to be a close family and friends party, but Emse hand wrote an invitation and gave it to her friend, Ryley, so I couldn't say "no."

It was a great day celebrating.  Here is our annual picture with her birthday buddy, Chuck.  Separated by 78 years.

Happy Birthday Esme!

Remembering Great Uncle Randy

My Great Uncle Randy passed away last week.  He's my grandma's younger brother and has long been one of my closest family members.  He was 7 years younger than my grandma, got married, and had kids later in life, so he always felt more like an regular uncle than a great one.  Here he is with my great aunt Glenda (left) and my Grandma Bette.  Glenda passed away in 2018.

The last picture I have is from our visit last summer.  He'd been battling cancer for several years, but was in great spirits and looking great when we saw him.

I took the trip down with my parents, which was a fun throwback to pre-married life.  We stopped at teh Windom Hy-Vee for some food and came across purple cauliflower.  I've been searching for it in the cities for Esme's birthday party without success.  Of course it would be in a tiny southern Minnesota store!

It was nice talking, just us. We got stuck by a train for about 10 minutes, but there was a gas station to wait at and I paced around to get some steps in.

We tried our best to find a twist cone on the way, but it wasn't in the cards.  We did find a flavor burst machine and that took some of the sting away.

We stayed at my grandma's house and got to compare her new Ford Ecosport to our Trax.  Made me want to go racing.

It was a really lovely service with full military honors. It was also nice spending some time with my grandma and being there for her during this time.

I stopped at the cute little store in town, curious about the "more."

I got some fudge and peanut clusters to take home to Jimmy.

One other fun nugget from the trip.  We stopped in Mankato for a bathroom break, but the bathroom was broken!  They had a port-a-potty out from for the guys and turned the men's room in to a women's room.

I am glad I was able to get the time off to celebrate Randy's life.  I'll miss the anticipation as he told a story, wondering when it was going to turn in to a joke.  Love you Randy!

Esme is 8!

Esme turned 8 on Sunday.  She was so excited to celebrate.  The first thing she did was go on Animal Crossing and see her birthday party. 

She requested waffles for breakfast then put on her custom shirt I made.

On the way home from church, we saw our dear friends (and birthday buddy) Chuck and Phyllis.  I was happy to be able to catch this moment.

She decided to have waffles again for lunch (you can do that on your birthday.). She also requested to help paint her birthday sign.  I can see this being a fun tradition moving forward.

My parents stopped by with ice cream and muffins for a mid-afternoon treat.

We finished the sign and tied it to the tree.

We finished the evening opening cards she'd received so far.

We are all looking forward to celebrating more on Saturday.