Baby Shower # 1

On Sunday June 29 at 1:30 pm, my mother hosted my first baby shower for me and for Sadie. Preparations for this baby shower began weeks in advance! I created the invitations on Microsoft Publisher and put them all in the mail. My mom handled pretty much everything else. :) We went to Flower Factory together and got lots of decorations. Then my mom's friend Holly, who I've always called Aunt Holly, came over in the week before the party. She made her famous sugar cookies and decorated them, despite having sliced her thumb on the Sunday before the shower (she has several stitches in her thumb!) My dad even got in on the cookie decorating! I made a few cookies too and had some help eating them when Amy, Bryn, Shay, Andrea, and Hannah came to visit! :) I'm quite glad I had visitors to keep me occupied and to motivate me to clean my house! :) My mom and Aunt Holly also made sandwiches and all sorts of other goodies to get ready for the party. Then Aunt Holly brought over her collection of glass serving plates to add to my mom's collection. Aunt Holly also brought over a punch bowl and punch glasses. In addition, she brought over this really old baby stroller. It was very cool and that was where we had the guests put all of their presents. Silly me, however, did not take any pictures of all of this. I'm hoping that my mom's friend Julia, another person I've always referred to as my Aunt, took some pictures of everything all set up. Aunt Julia also helped with getting all of the snacks and punch ready and just generally helping with the final touches of everything. Plus, Aunt Julia and Aunt Holly both work to keep my mom sane, so their help is ALWAYS appreciated greatly by me! The house really looked nice and I'm bummed I don't have more pictures of the whole set-up.

Another thing I did in preparation for the party was to assemble a folder for each guest. Each guest's folder had a nametag on the front and then directions for what to do while waiting on the inside of the folder. I had a huge and diverse collection of guests. I had relatives, family friends, co-workers from Dublin, co-workers from West Jeff, and old friends. One thing that each guest had to do upon arrival was to get a drink with a "baby" ice cube. Inside the ice cube was a frozen plastic baby. The idea was that whom ever's ice cube melted first to "free" the baby had to shout, "My water broke!" It was pretty funny, but the babies didn't stay frozen for as long as anticipated, so it was a game that ended pretty quickly. Other activities the guests were to be working on were filling out an advice page and their baby bingo sheets. My mom also had the guests try to answer 11 questions about me and my likes and dislikes.

Let me show you some of the pictures of guests at the party:


Picture 1 is Jerri (my co-worker at West Jeff), Patty (my mother-in-law), Jeanie (Patty's sister, Adam's Aunt), and Sarah (my sister-in-law)

Picture 2 is Molly, Emily, (Holly's daughters) and Aunt Holly.

Picture 3 is me opening a gift. You can see Molly and Emily again as well as Dee and Ashley (family friends) and several co-workers in the background, including my principal, Debbie.

The party was a HUGE success and Sadie is going to need to have her clothes changed at least 5 times a day in order to wear all of the clothes that she received. Despite Adam's great fear, I think Sadie may be an even bigger clothes hog than me! We also got some wonderful other gifts including a video monitor, a BeBe Pod Orange chair, a pack-and-play, wonderful books, and many, many other goodies. As soon as I get it all organized in Sadie's room, I will post further pictures. Adam and I are tremendously thankful for all that we received and thank everyone who attended. Sadie is certainly one very lucky little girl!

Adam and I took our first baby-birthing class so I have quite a few funny stories to share and will get to those ASAP. Hope you're all off to a great and SHORT week! :)