BABY SHOWER SUCCESS!!

My sister in law Cindy moved to town a few months ago with her family from Nevada. She has 4 boys and her first little girl is on the way. When we found out that they were moving here, I was excited about many things and for many reasons...but I was almost jumping up and down since it meant that I would be able to throw her a baby shower. FINALLY, it was my chance to do something nice for her.

When she found out it was going to be a girl, I was ecstatic!...As most of you know I LOVE PINK!! So buying decorations was super fun and exciting for me. I was determined from the start not to throw a cheesy party... and believe me I ran into many roadblocks in the baby shower aisles at Walmart, Target, Party City, Pretty Party Place, etc.. as they are all filled with things that made me want to gag. You know the decorations that remind you of the 80's. Well wait..I honestly probably wouldn't have picked any of that stuff back then either. :) Anyway, I quickly found that it wasn't going to be as easy as I thought to complete my vision of the ultimate shower extraordinaire..however in the end turned out to be a lot more fun.

So I first decided on the colors..and choose to go with HOT pink, black, and white. A little risky, but a lot more trendy/modern. The invitations took me weeks to design and complete, but they turned out so cute. I want to post one for everyone to see, but still have to figure out how to display them without showing my address and phone number...you know things vital for the guests to know, but not any Joe schmo who might be actually reading this blog. So once I do, I will attach here for your viewing pleasure.

I wish I could take all the credit for how great the shower turned out, but I had quite a lot of help from the guest of honor, my other sister-in-law, my husband and my mother in law. Amber sent all the way from CA, a beautiful diaper cake that I displayed on the center most coffee table and made all of the treats for the guests (chocolates wrapped in pink tulle with "It's a Girl" silver charms tied to them with black ribbon). My mother in law brought all the vegetables and fruits...and I hate to say it but Cindy herself was my SAVING GRACE in completing so many of the other tasks.

I bought fabric from Joann's for the table cloths to all the tables that were used (6 total) as I thought the plastic ones would ruin the look I was trying to achieve. Unfortunately for Cindy she put all the work into sewing them. I found the cutest cookie cutter, its in the shape of a onesie, and wanted to make cookies along with the cupcakes for the desserts instead of having a cake...and again Cindy made all of the cookies. I really tried to help with that..but it was a disaster. The yummy cookie recipe we decided on was really soft..and hard for an ammature like myself in the kitchen to work with, so she saved me and stepped up to the plate. So much so, she was at my house frosting them until almost midnight the night before the shower...YIKES!!! Oh and she also made or bought most all of the other food too, like the chicken salad, punch, croissants, etc.. I appreciated her more than anyone could know, but couldn't help but feel guilty for relying on her so much when this was a shower honoring her.

My husband helped with running errors for last minute things from the store, cleaning the house, and blowing up all of the balloons. Oh and let me mention, he also borrowed a chocolate fountain from someone at work...a great idea, but one that was a total fail. We were going to dye the chocolate pink and have pretzels, fruits, marshmallows, and other treats with it...but it never worked. The chocolate did melt though and was used but never flowed like a fountain should...next time I will buy one or do a dry run first. Ahhh that's the "A" type personality coming out again.

So, all this talk of the preparation and little of the shower. Let me start my saying it was a total success!! My house looked adorable and PINK was everywhere. It was a social shower, so I didn't have any games to play..but that wasn't a problem as most people knew each other or were very friendly. I did do a diaper raffle, where the guests who wanted to brought a package of diapers for Cindy and received a raffle ticked into a drawing for a prize. The raffle tickets were die cuts of a baby carriage and about 8 ladies brought diapers. 2 big prizes were given...large smell good candles that were wrapped in black paper with white polka dots and tied with hot pink ribbons. And all the others out of appreciation for their generosity were given black and white notepads, sticky notes, and to do lists also tied together with hot pink ribbon.

The shower started at about 11 and the last guest didn't leave until around 5pm. Time flew fast, but it was so nice to visit with everyone. Cindy received a lot of wonderful gifts for her baby and all of us enjoyed looking at them. So many sweet things. The only REALLY unsuccessful part was the fact that I was so busy hosting and visiting, I didn't get to take a whole lot of pictures. I have some of the decorations, food, and few of the guests. In fact I feel so lame because the pics I tried to take of everyone cut Cindy out of the photos. I guess I just wasn't thinking. Chalk it up to exhaustion and ADD at this point. So I will post a few that I have. Can't wait to meet the new bundle of joy that will be coming in less than two weeks. I am sure I will have plenty of photos then. I am going for Aunt of the Year award...OK well I might loose that one, so maybe Sister-in-Law of the Year award:)