I am overwhelmed

Love.

The gang is all here.

The party was yesterday.

It was awesome!

I had no idea that so many folks would be willing to come in from out of town to celebrate with us the imminent doom bearing down on us the coming arrival of Emma and Logan. Herb and Sue's house was packed!

Many, many thanks to Sue,

Excited that finals are over and that the party is a blast!

Linda,

When do you suppose Camp Grammy will be accepting new members?

Jenni,

Jenni gives me the trademark smile. Eric's family are madly photogenic!

Herb and whomever else they roped into setting up, decorating,

Cute! Clothes lines draped around the house, inside and out, as decorations.

breaking down and clearing out after that massive shebang. It was lovely.

To give you an idea:

• My college friend Alessa (Twenty years! Twenty!) came in on Wednesday and made banana bread and helped clean my house. She's also the one that signed me up for the pre-natal massage classes that have kept the aching and swelling down to a minimum. Ahhh!
  
  Punk!
  This is the face that all photographers make when you dare to photograph them.
  
• Misty arrived on Thursday and brought up the most impressive 4 month old: Oliver. He is way more mind-bogglingly huge in person than he is in photos. I mean, there's only so much your mind can wrap around the words twenty pounds at 4 months. Seeing truly is believing.
  
  What?! Twenty pounds never looked so good!
  
  You know you want to squeeze my cheeks. You know you do!
  
  Seeing Misty, live and in person, is like being wrapped in a warm wave of love. Smells like incense and spices, too. That sounds weird, doesn't it?
  
  That does sound weird!
  
• Val and Ed arrived on Friday, sans twins, which is a first for all involved. We've pumped them for information and have raided their garage for twin gear. Val and I even got to sneak off yesterday for lunch alone and some girl talk. Yay!
  
  The Jungle Stud and the Amazon Temptress have arrived!
  Best shot I've ever taken of Ed. Helps that he's sitting. Since when did being my friend have a height requirement?
  
• Eric's relatives (Janet and Lenore, Shelly, Matt and Bonnie from out of town) arrived by the half dozen (they're a small family, but tight knit!) and are hanging out with either set of in-laws that are located in Colorado. (My family are all coming out in a month or two, once the twins are here. I'm so looking forward to seeing my mom that you have nooooo idea!)
  
  Lenore, Jim, Linda, Max, and Janet.
  

  Herb, Shelly, and Sue.
  
• Friends, friends and more friends turned up,
  
  Kate being kooky. Hey, you make the melodramatic pose, I'm going to shoot it.
  Dan and Laurie.
  Sierra being oh so pretty. Especially once she stopped telling me she doesn't photograph well.
  
  with their kids,
  
  Sara and Steve came with Hazel and with the new baby, cooking away! Sara's only three weeks behind my original due date and note how much smaller she is with a singleton.
  Le Sigh! I have Tiny Tummy envy.
  
  Heather, all dolled up, came with Faith, Tara and Jessi.
  Jessi with handmade gifts!
  
  Patrick checks out Mondo Baby. He brought Tristan.
  
  Tristan at 11. Sounds like he's going to give us the latest news, doesn't it?
  
  without their kids
  
  Carolyn came sans Evie. In this shot I suddenly noticed that Evie looks just like Carolyn in profile.
  
  and stayed for a long while, or just a little while
  
  Shari had to run, but left Mollie for a massive play-date.
  
  and ooh'd and aah'd over The Belly.
  
  Nephew Axl is in awe of The Belly.
  The Belly. I has it.
  The profile view of the belly is the scary part. From the front, I look normally pregnant. From the side? Aieee!
  
  Caitlin got to play for hours with everyone
  
  A Passel of Children. A Scream of Children? A Cacophony of Children!
  
  and everyone was happy.

I was busy running (Well, fast pregnant hobbling at any rate.) around with my camera and shooting pictures as quickly as I could before I ran out of steam. At which point it was clearly time for cake!

Eric and I considered three different sayings to go on top of the cake. My favorite? A red pill and a blue pill and the words: "Welcome...to the real world.". We also considered the cake you see with "Aieeeee!" written in under the blocks that spell out Babies. Eric suggested a screen shot of the Big Mean Dude from World of Warcraft with the words: "You are not prepared!".
I figured if I didn't get it, no one else would, either.

White cake with French cream filling and a light whipped icing. Not too sweet and nothing a certain someone would be allergic to.

Waiting for her piece of cake.

And then there was the deluge of presents.

I didn't list a whole lot at the place we were registered deliberately, because we have a lot left over from Caitlin's infancy, but that didn't stem the tide of gear. Holy moly! When I say I'm overwhelmed, it's at everyone's generosity of time and thought that went into these things and the creativity. What do you get for the person that asks for very little? Whole whacking lots of some of the softest, cutest clothes, towels, toys, blankets, hand knitted shoes, handmade quilts, certificates for housecleaning (OMG! I'm so excited!), a pair of huge photo albums (Almost as if someone thinks I shall be photographing these two! *wink*) a drawing from the resident artist,

The resident artist, Bonnie, doing that art thing.

fresh peaches and peach ice cream, NY bagels! and more hugs than I could count. As well as assorted gifts for the Big Sister

Books! The entire American Girl series. She hasn't finished them yet, but it's only been two days....

that pleased her to no end.

It got a little chaotic with three girl-friends of Caitlin's all trying to open presents at the same time (Jenni was fiercely writing to keep up), but we managed it.

This strikes me as a Charlie's Angels moment. Not quite sure why. They're coming to open the presents. Totally not in focus, but still has a certain something about it.

Then the evening wound down to a close. More hugging as we said goodbye and I took my small portion of the crush (a Squeeze of friends?) back to the house, chatted late into the night and then gamed with the World of Warcraft crew

Pyewacket, Eolai, Caitirin, Leonidas, Starweed, and Dawninglight. Surprise! Some of us are actually women!

Eric attempts to meet the height requirement. "You must be SO BIG to play World of Warcraft."

until even later and then turned into a computer zombie after they'd all gone to bed until I finally snapped out of it and crawled off to my rest at 2 am.

It was a full day. My heart and head and house are full. Now I go to fill my tummy with NY bagels and more friendship.

Life Is Good.

Val suggested the hands-as-heart over belly shot. Nice!

Jim. He admired Eric's hard won woodworking skills for the baseboard trim install. Eric was pleased as punch. Hazel shows off her many decorations.

Steve and Kate. They look like they're plotting something. Oh yes, they do!

Nama and Oliver. Aaaaahn!

Scott whispers subversive information into Oliver's delicate ears. I suspect Oliver will make his move to conquer Colorado after two more sessions with Scott.

Peeping over Eric's shoulder. Any picture with me in it was taken by either Linda or Alessa. Thanks!

Max with meat!

Exhausted by the very thought of twins.
My newest and my oldest friend. Why are my ears burning?

Do not try this at home. These are professional belly touchers and a professional stunt belly.

Awwww!