Showering with Love

The photo below expresses what each woman who attended the baby shower last week was really saying when she entered our house.

Banner on the Den Mantle

We all wanted to shower Jay and Jessica with love.  We all want to welcome their new bundles to this world and help them to guide and nurture those little cherubs toward independence and success.  We all are excited about the addition of a new baby to any family and when that is doubled, the feelings of love and excitement are also multiplied. 

Here is a walk-through of the festivities...

These guys became the welcome crew on the French doors entering the kitchen.

Again, we were so busy enjoying everybody's company that we forgot to take photos of the entry.  Cute green balloons with white polka-dots and blue balloons tied together with green or blue tulle were strung along the plank fence leading to the house.  Then, the two storks holding the cute little bundles were cut out, stapled and stuffed and hung by a cute ribbon on the back doors leading from the deck into the kitchen of our house.

My daughter, Bridgette, created those guys.  They were adorable!  I really hate we didn't get a shot of them hanging there facing one another and becoming folks in the door.  She added orange storky legs made from cardboard rolls.  At first her bubble of creative pride was feeling a little bit burst when her hubby told her that they looked like "the pickle bird."  Then, she realized that "the pickle bird" is a stork and she was gratified! 

Beautiful Mom-to-be

Our honored mom-to-be was pinned with a corsage as soon as she came into the door.  Then, we quickly slid a chair beneath her because she has been relegated to bed rest for the remainder of our wait till the babes make their appearance.

Close-up of the corsage

The cute corsage is also a practical gift.  It was fashioned of three little soft washcloths rolled and tied together with coordinating ribbons and baby pacifiers.  It's softness also coordinated the colors and polka-dots which served as the coordinating theme of the shower.

Laundry Line Mantle Decoration

In the background of this photo you can see the laundry line that was strung across the kitchen mantle which featured onesies Bridgette had appliqued with the babies' names and the cute little crocheted hats which match.

Food Table Centerpiece

We kept the decorations to a minimum and tried to make them all be a practical gift for our honored mom.  We simply set a lantern filled with baby bottles, color-coordinated coated spoons, and pacifiers all tied with coordinating ribbons on a tray with flowers which followed our color scheme - chartreuse pom mums, white Shasta daisies, and hydrangea blooms.  (We originally tried for blue hydrangea blooms and woke up the morning of our soiree to notice that they had wilted miserably.  So, Jessica stopped at the grocery store florist on her way to the party and picked up new soft white blooms.  I'll share what I learned about preventing hydrangea wilting in a later post.)

Diaper Cake Jessica created

My daughter-in-law, Jessica created this cute diaper cake to serve as a decorative centerpiece for the gift table.  You can read more about the preparations HERE in a previous post. 

We tried to keep the menu simple and requiring little last-minute preparation.  It included:

California Chicken Salad stuffed Croissants

Pretzels

Crudites and Ranch Dip

Sliced Granny Smith Apples and Caramel Dip

White Chocolate coated Oreos drizzled with green frosting

Chocolate coated Peanut butter shortbread cookies drizzled with blue frosting

Cream Cheese Squares

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip muffins

Cheese Ring and Crackers

It was light, tasty, and simple.  Plus, it looked beautiful!

Food Table

Sandwiches

White chocolate coated Oreos with green drizzle

Simple chocolate chip muffins look festive with cute little baby picks poking out the top!

Chocolate coated peanut butter shortbread cookies drizzled with blue frosting

Cream Cheese Squares (I'll post a recipe for these easy treats later!)

Bridgette was the photographer and her camera even makes the healthy snacks look delicious!

Yummy Munchies

You can find the recipe for the Cheese Ring spread HERE or contact the Nolensville Historical Society to get your own copy of the Recipes and Memories cookbook.  We used simple white Pfaltsgraff plates and a collection of white and blue cloth napkins out of my cupboard.  To wet our whistles we had ice water served in simple glass pitchers, a carafe of coffee, and a punch bowl filled with Miss Daisy's Tea Punch.  I froze slices of lime in a little bowl of punch to serve as the chiller in the punch bowl.  I have a collection of glass punch cups which came with my two inexpensive antique punch bowls and we also used the white coffee cups from my Pfaltsgraff dishes.

Our anxious mother soon set to unwrapping all the gifts.  The excitement just seemed to build with each unveiling.

Jessica reading one of the cards as her sister-in-law, Julie, keeps a list of the gifts

to aide in Thank-You Note writing later.

Most gifts came like the babies, in twos!

Every little farm boy will need a cap.

Even diaper packages came in pairs!

There were so many treats that great-grandmother O had to help out at times.

Lots of gifts were personalized to aide in sorting out which baby is who later.

Lots of socializing and catching up was enjoyed by all in attendance.

Wonder if grandma 'Nan' is counting the days till she is squeezing two new little boys?

Lillie seems to be informing her great-grandma as well as the

babies' other great-grandma of something important!

One wonders how her back and legs are holding up!  Guess that is part of why she needs complete bed rest for a few more days till the due date, huh?

Till then, we all are waiting anxiously for the arrival of the two cuddly bundles - and nobody is looking forward to that more than Jessica, I'm sure!