Showered much this weekend

 On Saturday, my MIL, Leon and myself headed to Minnesota for a wedding shower for Maddy.  And believe it or not, we only made one stop!  

So we made it there at 8 am and the shower wasn't until 10...

I finally got a hold of Maddy as we just passed college town and she said, COME HERE!!  So we turned around.  I guess we would have just driven around, sat in the car, watched the ladies set up for the party, get in the way, whatever...  But we went to the dorm for a while instead, then drove up together.  Matthew is student teaching over 7 hours away, so he wasn't able to attend.

Despite that, the party was great!  

Church ladies REALLY know how to shower a young bride with food and gifts!  

SO many types of sweet breads!!  Yummm...  And delicious coffees!

Leon had a blast playing with Matthew's Legos & blocks that Matthew's dad had brought over from their house next door.  AND he enjoyed playing Bingo.  

Which was one of the games played during the party.  Everyone got a bingo paper and you had to fill in each square with a gift that Maddy could potentially receive.  Then as she unwrapped the gifts, you marked them off.  If you got a Bingo, then you yelled it out and Leon would give her another special hostess gift, which Maddy had him help unwrap.  He really got into the yelling BINGO part and several little ladies asked him over to yell for them.

There were so many gifts that it took Maddy two hours to open them in front of everyone.  That's one every minute or so...  You do the math.  It will also take 4 kitchens to house all the items... :)  I hope they live in a big house!  Or at the very least, have deep drawers for all their utensils!!! 

I started to worry about where we would store all these gifts until after the wedding, but Matthew's mom had room in Matthew's bedroom/storage.  Whew!  Thank goodness for dorms!!

Afterwards, we went out for a late lunch with his family, Maddy, bridesmaid Tessa, Leon, my MIL and my nieces that lived nearby.  It was great to see them and hear about Sarah's wedding plans for the week after Maddy's.  June is THE month to get married in!

We were exhausted after that, so we got my MIL checked in at the hotel to rest, dropped off Tessa at the college so she could do her homework.  Then let Leon nap on our way to the big city that had a JoAnn fabric so we could make use of our 50% off coupons.  Nothing like fabric shopping to wake you up and get you in a creative mood!

Maddy and I picked out the fabric for the wedding dress.  Well, really just the bodice so far.  We're going to do one more sample bodice which MAY be the final bodice.  One of the sample ones that I brought fit her perfectly and she loves it, so we're on the right track!!! WOOHOO!!!  With one tweak.

One of the sample dresses pretty much scarred her for life with a pin that got left in, so we're definitely obligated now to use this design...  Yeow... I hope it heals up well before the wedding!  There is a hefty scratch on the back of her shoulder now.

While at JoAnn's, we found the perfect lace and Leon found some Shopkins...  REally??  I spoil that kid...  But in a good way.  I do say no to him, but just wasn't feeling it on Saturday.  My neck and back were out most of the weekend and I was living off Acetaminophen and caffeine.  

Caffeine... take me away...

My office chair is the only one that can crack my back just right, except for my neck.  So I'm better today.

Got a pizza to take back to the hotel, then since Maddy & Matthew had gotten SO many things off their gift registry, I helped Maddy fill it back up.  These kids won't know what they need until they find their first home, but it's always great to be prepared and give the guests ideas for gifts.

And as I'm sure you've heard me say before...  I would renew our wedding vows JUST for the towels.  You can never have too many!

Because... SHOWERS...