An Unbelievable Confluence of Events

When we hadn’t heard back from our second $500 winner of our Favorites Contest, I put a couple tweets on twitter, and then followed up with another email. Meanwhile, there was some fact-finding going on at the le•top offices, with some confusion (and suspense!) building about our winner.

This is how the story unfolded: as I was sending the email notification to our winner, Deanna J., she was…in LABOR!! I received her email just this morning:

Hello,
I am so excited that I won…Sorry for the delay in response I was actually in Labor giving birth to my daughter Mia the day this e-mail was sent…I can’t believe it…I am so excited and can’t wait to pick out the clothes for my precious one.”

When I found out, my first reaction was, “You’ve GOT to be kidding me!” I couldn’t have scripted this if I’d tried (I don’t know if I could have even thought this up)! WOW! Congratulations on your win, Deanna J., but we send you even bigger congratulations on your new, beautiful baby girl, Mia! Happy Birthday, Mia! And Deanna, no need for an apology for your delayed response…but if ever there was a good excuse, yours was it!

Read Full Post »

Rayna’s Birthday Gifts

Rayna, the magical birthday girl, and the niece of the magical uncle!

Sweetie has many nieces and nephews, and until recently, Rayna has been the youngest niece. For her third birthday, Sweetie sent Rayna a very cute card. It was the kind that folded accordion style, with 3 different kittens on it, all dressed up in intricate outfits, with cut-out layers and so on. I think we’ve all seen these kinds of very cute cards. Well, according to Rayna’s mom, Rayna thought it was the BEST thing EVER! She kept it at the table while eating breakfast, just so she could look at it some more. They went out in the truck, and she had to bring it with her. Over and over, she talked about the cute dresses they had on, the cute little baskets they were each holding, the pretty purple hat one was wearing, the sparkly glitter that was all over the card, etc., etc., etc.!

Finally, there was a pause in her awestruck monologue…and then she said, in utter, wide-eyed wonder, “Howww did Uncle Matt MAKE this??!!”

And of course when Rayna’s mom told us this story, we all had a riotous laugh about it because Uncle Matt, I mean, Sweetie, is one of the least likely people on this planet to do any such thing as hand-making a card with kittens! But it’s always amazing to be let into the mind (and very interesting perceptions!) of a young child, as well as seeing anew, something we adults see as just a cute birthday card. Even though it was her birthday, Rayna was the one giving us all the gifts.

Read Full Post »

Baby Shower Fun and Games

Erin T. (E.T. for short!) is expecting her first baby, a girl they are calling Emma Grace (ooooh, what a cute name!). We met up for lunch with her mom and a couple other friends (and yes, there was another Erin there, too! haha) to plan her baby shower. We were trying to think of games and activities (besides eating!) for the guests to participate in that were fun, classy and not too overdone. One of the activities we came up with was to each write a letter to baby Emma on a designated birthday (i.e. 3 years old, 10 years, old, etc), and seal it in an envelope. It seems like such a special thing for her to look forward to as she grows up, and for the first couple of years, for her mom and dad to look forward to opening as well! What other fun games and activities have you done at baby showers?

Read Full Post »