Baby Shower #1

On Sunday, I was given a baby shower by my sisters-in-law on my side of the family--Kara and Marie. It was a nice, but REALLY HUMID day, so I was definitely grateful for the central air conditioning at my mom's house, where the shower was held. It was a bummer we weren't able to be outside on the deck, though!

Everyone arrived around noon. The guests were all women, but we managed to recruit my brothers and Michael to attend so that they could grill for all of us. There was a lot of good food, and good times were had by all.

I'm so glad that I was able to split things into two showers this time. For my bridal shower, I just had one big shower, so there were about 40-45 people there. It was nice, of course, but it was overwhelming. I felt like I didn't really get to see or talk to anybody, and I felt badly that people had come to celebrate with me and had seen so little of me. This time, each side of the family offered to throw a shower, so I was able to split the guest list among two dates. Today, we only had 17 guests and it was fabulous! I actually got to visit with everyone.

Some photos:

Kara and Marie decided to do a bee theme, because they came across an idea online for a unisex shower that was, "What will our baby bee?" It was cute. Kara made the cake.

Obligatory diaper cake!

Little man Hunter brought up to the male to female ratio a little bit, too. Here he is, hanging out with Uncle Michael.

The guys left him inside when they were out on the deck grilling, and Hunter wanted to go out there with them SO BADLY. He just stood at the window, staring at them. They eventually gave into his cute little face and brought him out to join the guys.

He was sleepy, so he was toting his blankie everywhere. He reminds me of Linus from Charlie Brown. :)

After we ate lunch, we played a couple of games that Kara and Marie set up--they were fun, "brain-teaser" type games that I really quite enjoyed (I'm not usually a huge fan of shower games!). For one, we were given names of TV shows and had to name the kids that were on each show. For example, The Simpsons--we had to come up with Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Or The Cosby Show--we had to come up with Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa, and Rudy. It was actually quite challenging! Whoever got the most correct answers won that game.

For the second one, it was a word scramble, and all of the words were baby items. Whoever got all of them solved correctly first won. I had most of them done pretty quickly, but was stuck on one last one, and my cousin ended up beating me out! Damn! (The word I was stuck on? "Sunshade.")

Games were followed by presents:

We received quite a bit of stuff. Everyone was so generous. Hooded towels and wash cloths, diapers (we actually plan to use cloth, but we're still going to need disposables for the first few weeks at least!), onesies, pajamas...

...the baby bath tub, a bunch of Johnson & Johnson bath products, little toys, pajamas, blankets, and more. So much more! Notice my little helper in the pictures. That's my little cousin, Mia, who is almost 3 years old. She's going to become a big sister in just a few short weeks, and she's going to be the BIGGEST mommy's helper! She's hilarious! She retrieved all of my gifts for me, and helped me open them, too.

My mother-in-law crocheted this beautiful blanket. I love it!

After presents, we did cake, and soon after that, people started to take off. I was proud of myself and my hostesses for keeping things moving--I hate when showers drag and you're forced to sit around for hours. We were all business and got things wrapped up so that people could get on with their Sundays!

My good friend, Carrie, and me. We've been friends since high school and even though we very rarely get to see each other, I love her dearly!

And of course, my lovely hostesses and me. They did a great job and I'm so grateful to them for all of the work they put into everything. It's so nice to be "pampered" with a baby shower and I feel very lucky that I had these two to do it for me!