Karolyn's Baby Shower

Last month Gregory, Joey and I threw Karolyn a baby shower. We honestly had no idea what we were doing. None of us had ever been to a baby shower, let alone planned one. To be honest, Baby Showers don't have the reputation of being fun, so I was a little worried. But, this was for Karolyn so it had to be special.

The first thing we did to get us motivated was get the decorations. Oh my goodness, Joey and Sean at the party store should be illegal. Once we found the baby shower items and saw they came in sets we went nuts. We got every single item available in the duckie theme. That actually got us pretty excited, but a shower is more than just decorations there are games, too. Blech. I was not interested in playing poopy diaper or measuring Karolyn's tummy. Besides, I know how big her boobs are and at that time her belly and boobs were about the same so no fun there. We decided to skip the games and plan the food.

Now this is an area where we always overdo it.  ALWAYS. Every time we have a party we end up with enough food for the entire neighborhood, so this time we planned carefully. Joey offered to make all three of his now famous baked goods - Chocolate Chip Cookies, Russian Tea Cookies and Raspberry Bars. (Yes, DG, we are still baking - even better than a five year old.) He did a beautiful display for the living room and they were delicious. We wanted some savory appetizers, too, so we went with the standard Spinach Dip and I also made a Bake Brie. I love this recipe because you can assemble it in advance, wrap it, then bake it later. You can also decorate it any way you like, so I did a little baby block thing. Tasty as well as cute! We also had some very easy meatballs to round things out.

Okay, so we had the appetizers down, now for the lunch. (Yes, we are still avoiding games.) Gregory is an amazing chef and he made barbecued flank streak and a delicious asparagus salad. He also made Spanakopita. Yumm!! I don't have the recipes, yet, but will post them once I do. I made my usual Sweet Corn Tomalito, which is always a favorite. It's also a great pot luck or party food because you can make it the day before and just reheat it at 350 the day of the party. I also made Brazilian Cheese Rolls and made the batter in the morning. Another tasty timesaver!

Finally, as if we needed anything else, Joey got a cake from Red Ribbon. Don't you think it's beautiful? It tasted as good as it looked so I highly recommend this bakery!

So, the games? Yes, we played them and they were actually fun. For the first game we had everyone fill out advice cards when they arrived, but didn't tell them that they would be read aloud by Karolyn while everyone guessed who said what. That was a complete last minute thing and it was actually fun and funny.  We also had a jar of safety pins and people had to guess how many. It was cute.  Our big game was Decorate the Onesie. We gave each person a onesie pinned on a board. Them we had them pick events out of a hat. The events were "firsts" in a persons life. First date, first day of school, first Folsom Street Fair - things like that. Everyone was given fabric markers and had to decorate their onesie to represent that event. Once all the onesies were decorated, we hung them on a clothes line and had everyone guess the events. While everyone got almost all of them correct, it was still really fun and we enjoyed ourselves.

So, the shower was a big success and we had a good time. Most importantly, we got to give our girl one last party before she becomes a mommy! I made a photo album below. Just flip through the pages. The next time I write about Karolyn it's going to be to announce Peanut's arrival!