baby shower

Today we celebrated my niece Annie's baby shower...jungle themed and it was wildy successful (get it?!).  My aunt Mary and I were in charge of the decorations.  Note to self: next time volunteer to bring store bought food instead of making table centerpieces and invitations.  The bedding that Annie registered for (and Mary bought) was a jungle/sports theme so we took it from there....heavy on jungle light on sports.  

"Sure I'll take care of the guest list, invitations,  and RSVPs.  Really?  You're inviting 170 people?? Sure, no problem" Hang up the phone....shit!shit!shit! Note to self: don't ever put your phone number or email address on 170 invitations that require an RSVP.  I should have changed my voicemail message to "Grand Central Station, this is Shower Coordinator Debbie, are you in or are you out? Thank you and have a nice day" :)

Who is that strange woman peeking out the door?  Why that's our mom-to-be! I was trying to capture a photo of the wreath that Mary made for the entrance door but Annie photo-bombed me :)

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The room looked awesome after all of the tables were set and the food/cake/drinks/gift tables were filled.  Mary had the cutest wrappers made for Hershey bars..I wish I had gotten a picture of one :(  Those were our favors for each guest. 

I googled jungle themed baby shower centerpieces, clicked on "images" and had a zillion to choose from.  The ones I chose to duplicate were fairly cheap to make and only slightly time consuming.  My fingers have no skin left due to my love/hate relationship with the glue gun, but overall I thought they turned out great :) 

I used animal print and solid colored ROUND scrapbooking paper to make the cones.  One twist, a line of glue, and that was that.  The bases are boxes that I wrapped with coordinating wrapping paper.  I found the wood animals at Michael's and hot glued them to sticks. Cut holes in the top of the box to stick the cones and animals in, used hot glue to secure them, filled the cones with animal crackers, and finished it off with some "grass filling" and this one even got a leopard ribbon...ooohhhahhhhh.  They did take a couple of hours to make...and making 15 of anything is tedious, but I got them all done (on time!) and I think they turned out cute.

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These are cards I made so each guest could offer the parents-to-be some words of advice or helpful hints on how to raise a baby. They were printed on 4x9 cream card stock.  We collected the cards once they were filled with words of wisdom, threw them in a basket and every 15 minutes Jen drew one out and a gift was delivered to the winner. About the easiest and least annoying baby shower game ever!

Prizes and Cake table

My very talented sister, aka GRANDMA Kathy, made this awesome diaper cake. We used it as a centerpiece on the food table.
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Cate was determined to help Annie open ALL of the gifts.  And she did :) Thank you Ann for letting her help, she's been looking forward to it for months!

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Here's where my photo subjects start to change. As in, less Annie and baby shower stuff, and more me, Jen, Vanessa, and our kids. A small photo session may or may not have happened in the back of the room while Ann was opening gifts.  We're good at turning any big event into being all about us :)  

Vanessa, Jen, Me
BFFs! Sometimes when these three broads are together, there is more play and less work happening.  Embarrassed to say that the other 60 pictures I took had nothing to do with Annie and everything to do with us and our girls.  Ha!

BFF daughters Cate, Harper, Claire, Delaney

Acting like their fathers ;)

Serving cake with a smile!

Is that Jen sweeping the floors????

I'm guessing Cate is letting Harper know she missed a spot.....

Once again, everyone was thankful when Brady showed up.  He was a huge help to Annie while she opened 1,983,801 gifts.  He collected trash, organized already opened gifts, and whatever else Ann needed.  She was so grateful for his help that she gave him $20.  He asked me how many funnel cakes he could buy with that at the pool!!!!

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Overall, it was a fantastic day.  Hosting a shower for 90+ people is a lot of work. A LOT.  Weeks of coordinating, countless emails/texts, lots of WalMart/Party Store/Craft Store runs, but in the end, it was all worth it.  Annie had a great day sharing the excitement of her final weeks of pregnancy with all of the people that love her most.

Good luck Annie & Cody....get ready for the ride of your lives!!!