Baby Shower

My friend Jileen called a few weeks back to remind me that she had promised to throw a Baby Shower for Grace and I when we got home. She was concerned about pushing Grace into seeing everyone before she was ready, but I assured her that she would be fine. It was sweet of her to think of it though. That's one of the reasons she is such a great friend!


Normally I like to make invitations (birth announcements, cards, etc.), but that was just not going to happen right now. Jileen told me about this great website that she found recently. It's call VistaPrint.com. They have just about anything you might think of as far as printing goes. The best parts about it are the flexibility and price. You can REALLY customize your project, and they don't charge an arm and a leg for it. In fact, I would almost say the invitations were downright cheap! Fortunately that is just price, not quality. They turned out VERY NICE!!!!


Next, we got together to brainstorm on games and other ideas for the shower. Our husbands were nice enough to agree to keep the kids for us while we went shopping. Those were Jileen's kids in the pool with mine in the previous post. We practically moved into JoAnn's. I love that store!! We got things to decorate nametags and came up with the cutest idea for a keepsake book.We bought a plain scrapbook. I decorated the cover and then put a picture of Grace on the inside. I wrote her a letter on the facing page. At the shower, we had all the guests write a note to Grace and leave the facing page blank. We will put a picture of Grace with each guest on the appropriate page. This should make it much easier to remember the details of the day when we look back in 20 years. My friend Colleen was ouroffic ial photographer.
At first Grace was happy to visit different people, but after a while, the only way to get a picture with a happy baby was for me to hold her and be in all the pictures. That was not part of the plan, but as my husband would say, "We must adapt, improvise and overcome!"

All of the food was provided by family and friends that came to share in the day. It was SOOO yummy! Jileen had a cake made with Grace's picture on it. She said it didn't come out the way she had planned, but it was still adorable.


We are so blessed to be surrounded by so much family and to live in such close proximity to many friends that have been a part of our lives for what seems like forever. There were more than a few guests exchanging stories about when I used to baby-sit their kids. I missed those that couldn't make it to the party, but I had a good time visiting and reminiscing with the ones that made it. We truly were SHOWERED with gifts. There was so much stuff that we didn't have enough room in our car. So we had to have my sister-in-law load it all up in her pick-up to get it home. Wow!!




Will and the kids even got to come try out some of the goodies before we wrapped up the party. A big THANK YOU to Jileen and everyone who made this a very special day. We love you all!