Birthday Weekend!

What an incredible birthday weekend Eleanora had! Yesterday Grandpa Ron brought over her new bike and she is in love. She made us take her on 3 bike rides yesterday after Grandpa left. This morning when she came out into the living room and saw it again she said "I see a bike! It's Nora's bike!"

Today was the big party! She had lots of fun and so did we. Of course looking back at the photos I realized I barely took pictures of anyone besides Eleanora, but there were a ton of people there! I don't have any of her opening presents b/c we were both helping, but hopefully mom you can send me some??

Before guests arrived (and before her onesie was trashed),

The guest began arriving,

And so did the face painter, which was a huge hit with Eleanora. She got three paintings (one on each arm, Elmo and a baseball, and a butterfly on her cheek to match Lily's)

Her friends waiting in line picking out what they wanted painted,

Her banner,

"cousins" picture,

Being sung Happy Birthday,

Cupcakes!

Cupcake aftermath,

Mommy & Grandma-to-be,

When we got home we realized we never asked anyone to take a picture of us with Nora, so we took these...gotta remember next year to get a pic of all three of us at her party!

We had lots of friends and lots of family party with us (even uncle Kavan happened to be in town, what luck!). It turned out to be a great party.

Thank you to everyone who celebrated Eleanora with us today, it was so special.

 I cannot believe my baby is almost 2!

Uptown Art Fair 2010

Oh boy did we have fun at the Uptown Art Fair this year! It is right outside our door. It shuts down parking around here pretty much Thurs-Sun, so most residents are not so thrilled, but we have a parking spot in the alley so what do we care? We ate cheese curds, mini donuts, ice cream and pizza. We bought some art, sat and enjoyed the festivites, and walked back the 20 ft to our beautifully air conditioned home. Lovely.

Here we are enjoying ice cream at the Ben and Jerry's stand,

I swore we weren't going to buy any art this year, but we came across a booth that I was drawn into. I browsed the 8x10 serigraphs because they were affordable and I thought one would look cute in Nora's room. So then I fell in love with one, and then another, and then I saw the sign that if you buy 3 you get the 3rd half off, so I found another I loved and what do you know we now have a set of three pieces for Eleanora's room. We went and bought frames tonight and here they are, waiting to be hung,

(pictures SO do not due these justice, I nearly cried when I saw them framed and lined up how we are going to hang them, I just love them)

So after buying art I swore we wouldn't, an artist approached us asking if she could use our beloved parking spot on Sunday in order to load up her van when the Fair closed. Bryce was planning on being gone all day Sunday to golf with his dad and bro that is in town, so we said sure and she offered us an original piece of her work that we could go pick out from her booth. She had about 10 pieces we could pick from, all $160 each! So here's our other score from the Fair,

(the pipe is from our apartment, not in the picture, just a reflection)

We really enjoy our neighborhood and I'm so glad I bought those pieces for Eleanora. I usually talk myself out of purchases that aren't necessary, but I think she will love them as she grows older.

So yes, we've officially lived here a year now (we moved in to our apartment the weekend of the 2009 Uptown Art Fair). The year has flown by and we are still feeling so blessed to have found this job and we love where we live!