Welcome back to Scavenger Hunt Sunday and happy birthday to ME! Yesterday, I celebrated my 31st birthday…and this weekend, my sweet husband took time out of his busy schedule to help me with a few things around the house. We enjoyed a beautiful Friday evening outside (it was gorgeous) and dinner last night. These days, I don’t really need anything glamorous – just my family. Next weekend, we’ll be celebrating Felicity’s first birthday. I’m much more concerned about that. With that said, this week, I will be consumed in preparing all the details for her party. It’s going to be awesome and I can’t wait!

But enough of that. Let’s get back to the hunt. For those of you who didn’t participate this week, but want to participate next week…next week’s list is sponsored by Christine E-E. I hope these prompts inspire you!

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The rules are simple:

1. Anyone can participate.
2. You’re encouraged to take five new photos this week for the challenge. Creativity is also encouraged!
3. If you get stumped, you may use one photo from your archive (although I’m not too strict about it – I do my best to take fresh shots).
4. Link up here on Sunday (or Tuesday at the latest) – you can use the button above.
5. Leave comments for at least five entries around yours (with so many new participants each week, it’s the only way I know to be inclusive
6. Have fun!
 

Without further discussion…here are my interpretations this week:

1. Fun

We actually had quite a bit of fun this week. In fact, I have probably three posts worth of photos to share over the next week…and that doesn’t include my client session scheduled for tomorrow afternoon (I always like to do a preview within a week). But for this prompt, I thought I’d share one of Felicity’s current favorite things to do – play in the dishwasher/indoor water table. She received a sand and water table for outside for her birthday (and we played with that this weekend a bit too), but she really loves to play in the dishwasher while I am unloading dishes. At one point, I tried getting her away from it…but she enjoys it so much that I’ve decided that adding water and letting her play is the way to go. She loves it!

2. Arts N’ Crafts

On Thursday, my friend Michelle and her daughter Madeline came over to finger paint with us. I created edible finger paint from this recipe by the Krazy Coupon Lady: click HERE. It worked out pretty well, but probably could have been even thicker.

3. Messy

Here’s Madeline playing in the finger paint. I would have shared a photo of Felicity, but she spent most of the afternoon crying and clinging to me. Don’t worry – I got a few photos before the crying started (and Michelle was nice enough to share her photos with me), but I’ll save those for one of my posts this week.

4. Blessing

On Friday evening, as I was sitting outside enjoying the wedding (while my husband planted a few flowers), I started thinking about how blessed I was. The past year has been such a blur (hence the blurred shot). It was just a year ago that I was attending my last baby shower in my home town. My mom commented on how I was waddling a little early to have five weeks left in my pregnancy. I was looking forward to spending the month of July by the pool and mentally preparing for the arrival of my first born. I had no idea that within one week, I would go into labor. I had no idea that my heart would explode. Yes – I have a clingy baby, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It feels unnatural not to be with her. I can’t imagine my life without her around. How did I go 30 years without such love? I really am so blessed.

5. Effort

For those of you who know me beyond the blog, you know that I am not very domestic…which if funny considering that I am now a stay at home mom. However, as Felicity’s birthday quickly approaches, I find myself wanting to be more domestic. Example – I have this burning desire to bake a giant cupcake for her to smash into (for photos – my mom has so graciously offered to bring a small cake for her birthday party). I’m completely nuts. So, last week, I thought it best to do a test run of this giant cupcake…you know, to work out the kinks. I’ve learned a few lessons. 1) Fill the mold about 2/3 full (I clearly overfilled). 2) Apply a much thinner layer of candy melt for the outer shell. No, Felicity won’t know the difference…and I’m sure no one really cares what cake I use, but I’d like to think that I’m giving it my best effort.

So, what were your interpretations of the items this week? Be sure to load your pictures on your blog (or your Flickr photostream) and link up at the bottom of this post. Feel free to grab a button to display on your blog along with your scavenger hunt items. The linky will be open until Tuesday night at midnight (EST). If you didn’t participate this week, but want to participate next week, the items below are sponsored by Christine E-E (I think some of these were used recently…but they I like them for what I have going on this week, so I’m going to reuse them).

1. Tools
2. Motion
3. Sweet
4. Dots
5. Stripes

If you’d like to contribute items to the list, just send me an email with your suggestions (I can better keep track of them this way). Each week, I will select one reader’s prompt list and give the selected reader a shout out on my blog during Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

Happy Shooting!