1st Annual Scleroderma Park Golf Tournament

This weekend we attended the 1st annual Scleroderma Park Golf Tournament! It was a blast! I wish I took more pictures at the event, but I was having so much fun I forgot! Park Golf is the Japanese style of golfing. The sport is a mix of traditional golf and croquet. There are still 18 hole, but the distance is much shorter and just as the name implies, the sport is meant to be "park-like", relaxing and fun.

The tournament was played at the first and only Park Golf course in the United States called Destroyer Park Golf. My Dad learned about this course last year and has been playing at it several times each month this summer. He just loves it and thought it would be a great idea to try as a fundraiser. I am so proud of my Mom because she set this event up all on her own. The owners of the course are fantastic and were so helpful too!

Each persons $20 ticket included their round of golf, equipment - club & ball, light lunch and three chances to win 3 door prizes! I can't wait to hear back from Tri-State Scleroderma to see how much money was raised! We had about 40 participants this first year which is awesome! Hopefully next year we will sell out the tournament!

Everyone had a great time and my Mom received excellent feedback too. A HUGE thank you to everyone who participated in this first event and for those that couldn't make it, but donated. We are so appreciative of your support!

Babies!!!

In previous posts I mention that some of my friends are pregnant. Some of the babies are here!!!! And...we found out that another friend is pregnant with TWINS and another is pregnant too! The crazy year is going to continue! All my friends are doing well, healthy and adapting to their new additions. 

Baby Natalie - Born August 7th @ 1:32 am, 7lb 9oz, 19.5"

Baby Zoe Anne born Friday, August 16th @ 7:58 pm, 8 lb 14oz and 21" long

Babies to come:

Christine & Brian's little Molly - due September 7th! I seriously cannot wait to meet her! Christine and I had our "last" lunch just the two of us! 

Babies Umstead - coming our way February 2014!

And...my friend Jenn is also expecting too!!! CRAZYNESS! 

All my "nieces" and possible "nephews" are going to be so loved!

Welcome to the World Natalie

I am so excited for our friends and the arrival of their little one - Natalie! She was born at 1:32 am, weighing 7 lb 9 oz and 19.5". Both mom and baby are doing well! This is definitely going to be an exciting end of 2013 with all of the babies arriving.

Looking forward to meeting you soon!

Christine's Baby Shower

Man I have been bad about keeping my posts up to date! Since the last time I posted lots of exciting things have happened and I will try to address them all in the next couple of posts.

Last weekend I helped host one of my best friends baby shower! I am so excited to meet little Molly Rae. Little does she know how loved she is already. The shower was perfect. It was held at Protocol Restaurant on Transit Road and we did a brunch shower, which I really liked! The buffet was lovely and delicious and there was even an omelet station. I think every had a great time. The guests were entertained by completing little "Notes to Molly" cards. The cards had a phrase started like "I hope you grow up..." or "I hope you ignore..." They seemed to go over really well and I cannot wait to hear Christine and Brian's reaction to them. We also played Baby Bingo while Christine and Brian opened all the gifts. That seemed to go over well too. Sheryl and I put together little baskets of sort with kitchen, coffee, bath and wine themes.

Everyone showered Christine, Brian and Molly with beautiful gifts. I think they have almost everything they need off of their registry. The room is almost complete too. Brian did a great job painting the room, the dresser and putting everything together.

Christine is doing great. She currently has less than 7 weeks to go! Lauren is due in two weeks and Sheryl in 4. Theresa and Kira had their girls this past month and they are both doing well!

2013 Buffalo Scleroderma Walk

Saturday brought on the 2013 Buffalo Scleroderma Walk and Fundraiser. It ended up being a beautiful and sunny day! About 140 walkers game out and we all raised over $11,000 for Scleroderma research! What a success! And...Kathy's Krew took home the cup again! We had 35 walkers and raised over $1,500.

And of course our favorite part...the basket raffle! I think almost every group went home with a basket. Christopher and I took home three - a pink purse, glass & metal candle holder, and watch & clutch. Our friends Steve & Lauren took home two - a garden hose and a champagne basket. There were over 115 baskets raffled off!

Our group had a ton of fun and we are looking forward to the walk next year. Save the date: Saturday, June 21st!

How do Weekends get so Busy?

Christopher and I had another fun and jammed packed weekend. On Friday, our friends Greg and his girlfriend, Emily came into town from DC. We then packed up the car and drove to Rochester to visit with more friends, Dennis and Anna and their cute baby boy Jack. We had a great night of burgers and games. I think we could have sat there and played Apples to Apples all night.

Then Saturday morning, I met my best friend Christine out for breakfast to celebrate her birthday. We went to Break 'N Eggs, a crepe place and it was delicious. Probably because we started and ended with dessert. Christine ordered the Nutella, banana, strawberry and whipped cream crepe and I had an orange sauce crepe finished with Grand Marnier. They were both scrumptious!

Saturday afternoon was amazing. I practically did NOTHING...well...except for the grocery shopping. But even that did not take long as I had most of the items for this upcoming weeks meals.

Saturday night we went to my friend Ashley's house for a moving party for her friend Felicia. It was a blast and there was so much delicious food! Ashley had dinner catered by Chiavetta's - a grilled chicken catering company based out of Buffalo. We also got to meet a bunch of new people too. And of course catch up with some old friends.

Sunday I had a baby shower to go to for my friend Lauren. It was great to see all of my pregnant friends (I think currently 5 are expecting!) and catch up with each other. I made a diaper cake for Lauren (and my friend Sheryl too) and it turned out pretty good. It was a little harder than I expected because I did not want to individually wrap each diaper (pain in the butt for me AND for the mommy to be), so I tried to fan them out and wrap them together. I used a cake pan to help and rubberbands to keep the layers together.

Cutest favors at the baby shower - pink nail polish (it's a girl!), little feet cookie cutters and we played a lottery game for prizes! Everyone went home with a cute prize - mostly candles. 

Chocolate covered pretzels on every table - so hard to resist!

Voila! This is the diaper cake creation. It turned out pretty cute, right?

My adorable friend Christine and her baby bump!  I can't wait to meet little Molly.

Christine and I at the baby shower

Sunday night Christopher and I relaxed and ate a delicious dinner together. Christopher loves bacon wrapped steak and is trying to perfect his method of cooking them. He ultimately would like to do a bite sized version for tailgating at Bills games. So Sunday night I got to be the Guinea Pig and try his bite sized creations. What a success! They cooked fairly quickly and were delicious! I made the sides - grilled broccoli and green squash finished in a garlic butter sauce and garlic smashed potatoes (Christopher's request).

Bacon wrapped steaks, grilled squash & broccoli and garlic smashed potatoes - yummy!

After dinner, we relaxed and watched Disney's Brave. We are totally excited for our trip to Disney and have continued the vacation countdown. We are looking forward to watching more Disney movies as the day gets closer!