Birthdays and Showers

On Friday, June 27, my daughter Chelsea turned 16 years old. The day of her birth remains burned into my memory. It was a day that transformed me. My baby is now turning into a woman and she makes me proud for so many reasons. She is very mature for her years and she often challenges me during our conversations. It is not unusual for me to say, "where did you come from?" I ask this not in a derisive manner, but to indicate that I can't believe that someone as intelligent and thoughtful as her came from my loins. Chelsea graciously said that it was okay to schedule my neices baby shower for June 28, knowing full well that on her birthday I would be up to my neck in party stuff. Her bestfriend, Van, who lives in Gridley which is 1/2 hour away, came for the day. They decided to walk to the mall which is easily 3 miles away and they spent the day going from store to store doing who knows what, but she expressed to me at the end of the day that her birthday was just great. Having Van up for the day is not the sum total of Chelsea's birthday. In fact, on July 11 we are going to be flying down to San Diego for the day to celebrate her 16th with her two aunts and her grandmother, so there is more celebrating to do.

Now onto the shower preparations. It was very important to me that our yard look lovely for the day, so our landscaper Dave showed up and really spruced the place up. Here is what he did. In our front yard we have a beautiful rock fountain. When he originally installed it he placed ferns around it. The ferns promptly died over the winter and they've look horrid ever since, so he took the dead ferns out and replaced them with the most beautiful array of flowering plants.
In the front plantar the impatiens that he planted months ago are blooming beautifully along with some really delicate ground cover. The back plantar and fountain area you can see some of the flowers.
This is the plantar located to the left of our front yard. Unfortunately the hydrangea that I posted pictures of when it was at its brightest pink has now faded. But, Dave planted some New Guinea impatiens which are much larger and hardier looking.

This is a close up of our fountain plantar. The fountain is running and you can see it if you look closely enough. Too bad I didn't take a video of it because the sound of the water running is so beautiful and relaxing. Aren't all the colors in the flowers beautiful?

This is the plantar located at the south side our our house. He planted yellow snapdragons. Again, just beautiful.

Another view of our fountain plantar. I love our Japanese maple tree.

This is one of the lovely New Guinea impatiens.
More New Guinea impatiens, but they are little ones.

He also gave me some vibrant begonias. He told me they should last the rest of the year.

Here is the pink version of the New Guinea impatiens. I simply loved what Dave did to make our front yard look stunning.