Baby Shower, IKEA, and Daddy's Impressive Artistic Skill

Mom and I went to my cousin, Vicki's, baby shower in Ohio this afternoon. It was really nice to see and visit with Venessa, Vicki, and their mom Vera Jo. Vicki is due with her first baby, a boy, at the end of July.

Decorations that Venessa made

Isn't this bouquet of baby socks just so adorable?

Vera Jo, Vicki, Mom, and Venessa

Venessa planned a couple of games for the shower including one where she placed an assortment of baby-related items out for us to view, and then we had to guess what the total amount was that she spent to purchase the items. Being the crazed coupon maniac and price-watcher that I am, I quizzed Venessa on: where the items were purchased, whether coupons were used, and what the tax rate is in Ohio. I was quite surprised that the total I came up with was about 20-30 cents off from the actual price. So, I won the prize for the game- some yummy Tastefully Simple beer bread. How lame that I pay THAT close of attention to prices!

Assortment of baby items to price

Vicki lives just 5 miles away from a new IKEA store. I have only been to an IKEA once, and I loved it! I could have spent hours and hours there if Dan hadn't been with me trying to get out of there as fast as possible. Mom was about as excited about shopping at IKEA as Dan had been, but I did manage to convince her that we should at least stop since we had driven for hours and were so close! I really only got to shop in the children's section, but I was excited to find a few sets of little containers to store Ethan's toys in, a step stool for Ethan to reach the sink upstairs, and a set of 2 cutting boards (<-obviously in the kitchen rather than the children's section! I picked these up on our way to the checkout ;). I hope to make a much longer shopping trip there with some friends in the near future.

While we were gone, Dan and Ethan had some fun bonding time. The weather had finally cleared off at home, so I suggested that Dan see if Ethan would be interested in trying out some sidewalk chalk that I had bought for him but hadn't opened yet. Dan said that Ethan wasn't very interested in the chalk, but I found these adorable drawings on the driveway when I got home! Daddy had been drawing Ethan's favorite Sesame Street characters for him. Dan said he wished he had a black piece of chalk to finish off their eyes, but I thought they were adorable. Who knew that Daddy the engineer had this artistic side to him? :)