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Every year this mommy duck uses our neighbor’s yard to give birth  (she likes their pool cover).  When the ducklings are old enough, she makes the trek out of their yard, down the street, to the canal.

Today while she was making the quest to the canal, the ducklings fell in to the storm drain at the bottom of the street.  Animal Control came and “fished” them out of the drain.  Because we were all watching, the mom left her babies.  The babies ended up in our yard with the mom flying over our house quacking.  Animal Control asked the onlookers (Riley and I included) to go home because the mom was scared and they didn’t want her to abandon them for good.  Riley and I were able to watch from inside as the babies were reunited with their mom in the safety our neighbors backyard.  They are gone now.  I hope they made it to the canal!

So, it’s May 1st.  The first day of May, 6 weeks since the first day of Spring.  This is what we have enjoyed all day long … SNOW!? What!?  Are you serious?  It was 80 degrees on Tuesday (two days ago).  I guess this is just part of the fun of the unpredictable Utah weather.

Kris (inkielady) send an email & let me know which set you’d like!

I looked at my emails for only 5 minutes … I swear!  This is what my imaginative boy did to kill time!  When I came in the room, he proudly proclaimed “Look Mom, it’s a spider web!”  (What you can’t see is that he has the ribbon wrapped all through the TV room as well) 

Long ago, I gave up on the idea that the world should revolve around me on my birthday.  Maybe it was not wanting to take my birthday off and use a cherished “vacation day”, attending college courses or maybe it’s that money was tight and I’d rather not have presents and be able to pay the bills.  Who knows!? 

All I know is this birthday was really fun … I felt like I was a kid again.  It started with the party and my special surprise from Carey last night and continued with the phone calls and other acts of kindness from family and friends.

Today I woke up with a phone call, breakfast and “simplify” plaque (we try!) from Tamara.  Then I received a fun surprise (bundtletts from Nothing Bundt Cakes) from Shyloh and flowers from my friend Natasha ~ I can’t wait to plant them when it’s warm! 

Bryan came home early and we all went to see “U23D” It was awesome!  I chose Red Robin for dinner and had my favorite menu item, the Teriyaki Chicken Burger (it has pineapple on it!).  YUMMY!  Because Dad Packer started chemo today, we went to their house and I was surprised with this gorgeous Amber necklace (see left).  It’s a family heirloom from Bryan’s great grandfather’s sister.  She didn’t have any children of her own and gave some of her jewelry to Bryan’s grandma who gave some to my mother-in-law.  As she and my father-in-law are “a lover of all things Amber and antique” (as was stated in my card) they gave it to me.  It is over 100 years old.  But more important than that is the fact that I was thought of enough to share it with.

My last wonderful surprise was a visit from my parents who were out serving in their mission and stopped by on their way home.  Another deposit has been made into the “basement account”.  I am blessed to have the parents I have that are willing to serve all they come in contact with.  It was nice to have a day where I was reminded of my many blessings!

Since Dad Packer is having another round of chemo this week, on his birthday, we got together tonight to have a delicious dinner and fun time with the fam.  (you need to check out the chemo cupcake ~ as my mother-in-law says: it’s green in the face and it has that grin and bear-it smile) 

“Mom’s chocolate cake”  (Doesn’t this look delicious?)

Every year growing up, Dad Packer looked forward to eating his “Mom’s chocolate cake”.

As we daughters-in-law are prone to do, my mother-in-law switched the recipe up a little, combining Grandma Packer’s icing with Grandma Voorhees’ cake.  I was treated to my first taste of it tonight.  How I’ve been a part of this family for 13 years and never had it, I’m not sure, but I haven’t.  Mom Packer says it’s been a while since she made it.  I guess so (wink).

When we got home, I was delighted to find a surprise of my own:

My sweet friend, Carey, & her family had left on my counter, this adorable (and delicious!) giant cupcake, my favorite drink and treat!  I also get our traditional gift for each other:  dinner on Thursday!  I am grateful to have such a good friend!

I’ve hinted at and eluded to our Spaghetti Dinner and Auction a few times over the last couple of weeks.  Tonight was the night.  It feels like we’ve been planning this dinner for a year … and, we have.  We were put in as a presidency (leadership council) a year ago and have been planning this night since.  The girls were a great help.  They did everything we asked them to do including coming 2 hours early to set up and staying late (on a Saturday) to clean up. 

We bought this yummy loaf of pumpkin chocolate chip bread for $20.  The boys enjoyed it so much I found crumbs of it on the kitchen floor for days.

As is tradition, a pie tin full of whipped cream was up for auction.  The purchaser can choose anyone in attendance at the party to throw the pie at.  This year, our friend Lena paid to throw it at her husband, Donny.  As you can see, there are no hard feelings.

The dinner was delicious, everything was warm, every seat was taken and people were generous at the auction!

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Tonight for Young Women we made our centerpieces for the upcoming Spaghetti Dinner and Auction.  While reading the current issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine, I ran across an article about a mother/daughter crop night.  Online they had instructions and patterns for this fun paper flower bouquet:

I brought a bunch of Basic Grey Blush papers, downloaded patterns from CK, and this is what our girls came up with:

Scrapbook USA was such a huge success!  There was a lot of work that went into getting ready for the show, mostly by Shyloh, Missy, Heidi, Heather, and Shyloh’s brother, mom & dad.

Today it was time to celebrate!  We went and had pedicures.  It’s so much fun working with friends.  We truly enjoy our time together and it’s nice to spend time not thinking about designing.  Check back tomorrow for a pic.  I need to get it from Tamara (I forgot my camera). 

Can you guess which toes are mine?