Saturday was the big Island Party!
Jenna bought Sophie her very own lei.
I wore it for Sophie when she decided to eat it.
Sophie wore her favorite party dress.
And met Erin and Greg for the first time.
It was a great weekend.
“True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island … to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.” —Baltasar Gracian
The weekend before last several good, long-distance friends came into town, and Greg and Jenna hosted their second annual Island Party.
Friday night we went to Pompilios.
We played Bocce Ball.
And ate tiramisu.
It was hot, hot, hot. Jenna used a menu to keep Sophie cool.
We saw parents-to-be, Alex and Michelle.
Here’s Julie (my Bocce Ball partner), Sophie and Jack.
And the newly engaged Justin and Jenny.
Sophie did an awesome job taking her bottles.
“The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you’re hungry again.” —George Miller
Sophie loves to play with this stuffed hippo from Great Aunt Fran.
“There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.” —Carl Sandburg
Janet (my grandma Mangan) and her mom, Mabel Davis, spring 1934.
Sophie and me, summer 2008.
“We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies.” —Shirley Abbott
This week Sophie and I met Tari and her daughters for lunch at The Pub in Newport. We also met Nini and Grandpa at a Mediterranean restaurant in West Chester.
“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like, ‘What about lunch?'” —A.A. Milne
Last week Mom took me to Tower Park. She pushed me up and down the sidewalks and streets in my stroller and then spread a quilt out on the grass. I watched big kids slide down a slide and climb a tree. I looked up at the clouds and the many, many leaves. I got real dirt in my fingernails after grabbing fistfuls of clover and grass. Mom sat next to me, watching me and talking to me, and did a good job of keeping insects away from me.
“It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.” —Robert Louis Stevenson
Mom is in charge of holding most of my books. But this book is soft and fuzzy, so she lets me be in charge.
Sometimes I have trouble turning the pages.
So I lick them instead.
The worst is when I drop the book and it disappears. Mom tried to explain something called object permanence to me. I just wanted my book back.
“A good book should leave you … slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.” —William Styron
Yesterday we went to Greenup Cafe for brunch.
(Andy isn’t always thrilled with the fact that I take pictures of everything now.)
We also went to Greg and Jenna’s where Sophie met Greg’s parents, Erin and her two daughters, Jillian and Claire.
That evening, while I worked on shower invites for a friend, Andy and Sophie lounged on a blanket in our front yard, watching the clouds, the sky and the leaves.
“Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week” —Henry Wadsworth
Saturday we attended Erin and Ben’s wedding.
It was Sophie’s first wedding. She slept during the first part of the ceremony.
Then she woke up, untied the bow on her dress and chewed on the ribbon.
She loved looking at the stained glass windows.
About halfway through, Andy had to take her out of the church.
Our friend Kelly …
… made the cake!
I also got to meet Cindy’s new husband.
My dad spent a lot of time comforting Sophie. Sophie, unfortunately, refused to take a bottle again. So my mom was a huge help when I went searching for a place to nurse her. (Dresses do not make for good nursing attire.)
The three of us danced and danced. Sophie loved the thousands of lights created by the disco ball hanging from the ceiling. It was a fun evening.
“A happy marriage is a long conversation that always seems too short.” —Andre Maurois
Saturday we celebrated my uncle Roger’s 50th birthday at my grandma Gebhart’s house. There was lots of food for lunch, including a big bowl of my uncle Roger’s blackberries, picked that morning. (He also sent us home with some fresh corn—yum!)
In addition to Uncle Roger, Sophie met lots of new people—Aunt Ellen, Uncle Mark and Aunt Tammy—for the first time.
In true Gebhart fashion, there was lots of ice cream on hand.
“Let us not forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins, other arts will follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization.” —Daniel Webster
