Happy Birthday to the Library!

Today was the big birthday party for our library, because we opened one year ago!

We had little buttons for the staff (and any LVs who happen
to be visiting with staff...)

We had little feet on the floor around the library for patrons to follow,
and they lead to different stations around the building on the "Trivia Trail."
Each station is marked with a festive balloon, and has a photo of an event
from the past year, and information about that area of the library!

Banners to celebrate!

And no birthday party is complete without a birthday cake!
Our library is a joint-use library, thus we are the JUL ("jewel").

Olive Bread

For my bachelorette party, my bridesmaid, her husband, and my bridesman went all out making food from the Game of Thrones cookbook and the accompanying website. One of the favorites was the olive bread. I made a batch to take to a friend's house for dinner!

Yummy!

We also made churro bites... angel food cake rolled in cinnamon sugar!

Yesterday was the boss's birthday, so I threw this little thing together for her (it's just felt on the back, so it can easily be adapted to be a magnet, patch, Christmas ornament, whatever).

Damson and the Dumplings

This week's challenge is to post a photo of our LVs participating in our hobbies! Since I'm a cooking fiend (go check out my food blog, Look I Made Dinner!) I let Damson help us make Chinese dumplings last night with my new bamboo steamer!

Here's a picture of the finished product, too!

Cassy's Wedding!

My friend Cassy got married this past weekend! It was beautiful and lovely, and I told her that of course I was bringing my LVs with me, and she was very excited about that. Damson even matched the purple-and-orange color scheme!

Pretty banner out in front of the library where the ceremony was held

Handley Regional Library in Winchester, VA... beautiful!

Bookish centerpieces!

Orange-flavored cake! YUM!

My LVs congratulate the bride

Kiss from the bride!

It was lovely, and great fun, and Damson seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit.

Damson in Toronto

What an exhausting weekend! We had flight delays (first the kind where they cancel your flight before you're even headed to the airport, then the kind where you sit boarded at the gate and wait for someone to fix part of the airplane), excessive walking (we were originally sent away from the Rogers Centre for my purse being too big), etc. etc. BUT we're home now, and we had a bunch of fun in Toronto!

At the concert in the Rogers Centre... pretty sure that's about 10,000 people behind him!

Avicii is on!

Pretty fountain

Travel buddies!

Damson and Piper check out some public art

Lake Ontario!

The CN Tower

More public art for Piper & Damson

The CN Tower from further away

We visited Toronto's Chinatown...

...and tried spicy Dan Dan Noodles!

My travel buddy, Christopher, makes faces with Damson
while we wait for our planes to arrive at the Toronto airport

#vacaselfie!

So we're back, safe and sound, and have lots more adventures on the way! If it seems like we didn't do much in Toronto, we were only there two days (after an initial 17-hour delay because of storms keeping us from leaving Norfolk) over a holiday weekend (Monday was Victoria Day) so a lot of things were closed. And my legs beg to differ... Damson isn't feeling it because he had me to carry him around in my purse, but I had to walk everywhere, and my legs are sore!

Birthday Cookies

We did even more baking! These are for Husband's birthday... his favorite! I've never made them before, and Damson was very helpful.

Unwrapping all the Hershey's Kisses takes longer than I anticipated.

Delicious fruits cookies of our labor!

Piper and Damson pose with a few of each of the cookies we've made
together over the past several days.

Mothers' Day Cookies

I made cookies for all my moms (mom, stepmom, mom-in-law) for Mothers' Day this year. Damson helped me out with the tricky ones: gluten free chocolate-butterscotch cookies for my stepmom!

Helping me add the chocolate chips and butterscotch chips

No, Damson! Don't lick the beaters; that has raw egg in it...

Showing off the finished product.

Yum! There were also walnut butter balls for Mom (which had a lot of powdered sugar so he had to be careful not to get dusted) and raspberry cookies for mom-in-law (which were very messy and I had concerns about raspberry juice stains, so he kept his distance from those, too).