My beautiful baby shower in Florida

Hi, my friends! I’m still in Southwest Florida, having a most wonderful time with my family. Over the weekend, my Mom and future sister-in-law, Stephanie, hosted a beautiful baby shower for me, and it was fantastic.

(My dress is from Pink Blush maternity, here are my earrings and necklace, and the flowers in my hair were hand-made by Stephanie!)

I knew I wanted to be able to celebrate the baby boy on the way with all of my dear Florida people, whom I have known for so many years and don’t get to see that often. And of course, my Mom was eager to host a little celebration as well, so it worked out perfectly. We chose a date a few months ago, and I booked a plane ticket in order to have a whole week hanging out at home, with the baby shower right in the middle of the visit.

The event itself was perfect. And leading up to it and cleaning up from it was fun as well, because I got to spend a ton of time with my Mom and Stephanie (my brother and Stephanie live in Atlanta, and they are planning to get married in April or May of next year there, by the way, so we have more celebrations ahead for our fam).

My Mom and Stephanie didn’t want me to help with any preparations or clean-up, but I chipped in on little things just for fun anyway, because we were all doing it together. It was great girl time! And as a treat, we each did some eye treatments the night before the shower, which I totally have to buy again and take a picture of to show you guys. But I digress …

(The lovely hostesses, Stephanie, and my Momma.)

Here are some of the reasons I am SO grateful for the baby shower that they held for me …

• They did the most thoughtful decorating, which was right up my alley, without me even saying what I liked or wanted all — I literally gave no direction, and they nailed it. The invitations were adorable and from this Etsy shop, and the games and little “wish cards” that my Mom had everyone fill out all followed along the same theme. The colors were light blue, white and grey — which are the colors I plan to use to decorate our future make-shift nursery. (More to come on that soon!)
• Some of the decor items were actually gifts I could take home. Stephanie had the idea to hang little baby boy clothes on a clothesline around the food table room, and all of those little items will be worn in the future. And the little baby boy shoes? They are so small, that every time I touch them, I giggle. 
• People came from far and wide for this event. I’m so touched and honored that my dear friends made the effort to show up for my shower, no matter what was going on in their lives. A few of my girlfriends drove down from Orlando (a three-hour drive), a few drove from the Tampa/St. Pete area (a sometimes two-hour drive), and of course, others took time out of their day to come over and celebrate from nearby. It’s not easy to pop into Florida only once this year, when I would love to have come many more times, and my friends knew that and came over to hang. I wish they could’ve stayed all day! But of course, they had to get back to their respective families too.
• Having so many of my good friends and my Mom and Stephanie and my Mom’s friends, who have definitely seen me grow up, all in one place, was amazing. We laughed, we chatted, we dined, and we had a great time.
• As I mentioned above, my Mom had everyone fill out a custom little “wish card,” which she had made on Etsy, and everyone who came to the shower filled out some cute things for the future babe, like what qualities they hope he gets from Dave and from me and what his favorite song should be, etc.. The evening after the shower, we read through them all, and I loved it. All the wish cards are now in a little matching book that we can save as a keepsake and show him one day. (The consensus was mostly that people want the baby to get my smarts/positivity and Dave’s athleticism/looks hahahah!) 
• Delicious food and the cutest cake I’ve ever seen. You won’t be getting a close-up shot of the cake in today’s blog post, because I’m keeping the babe’s name off the Interwebs for now, but believe me, it was a cute two-layered cake, which was as nice as a wedding cake. The top layer was fondant, cream and raspberry, and the bottom layer was decadent chocolate. I love cake. I love fondant. Enough said.
• Pictures! Even though I wanted to do nothing but enjoy the moment, I told myself I wanted to get a few good shots of the scene, decor and people at the shower. So I pulled out my good camera (I didn’t have my phone all day, and it stayed on silent in a bedroom untouched, which was awesome), and we all pitched in to take a bunch of pictures. It was worth the effort, because now I have a ton to look back on and enjoy. Yay!
• Baby clothes! I haven’t bought ANY baby clothes yet and even though I know most new moms say that they prefer to get the useful stuff at baby showers, I was excited to get a lot of clothes at this shower. Because I was planning to travel, a lot of people sent larger gifts to my house in Walnut Creek directly and brought just a little something cute for me to open at the shower, like an outfit or a book. (Another reason I’m so appreciative of the double effort they had to make!) So I will be able to easily pack all of the cute stuff I received in my suitcase on the way home. And I got SO many cute baby clothes. Literally, I may have to make an Instagram page for the babe once he comes, because it’s going to have to be dress-up every single day. Did I mention the tiny shoes? They are very small. I giggle.
• Games, friends, food, conversation. All the good stuff in one day! Loved it all!

Now, let’s get to some more pictures …

The people … 

There were 20 people at the shower, including my friends and my Mom’s friends. And they are a beautiful crew, if I do say so myself.

(Me and the Grandma-to-be!)

(My long-time Florida friends, from left to right, Kristen, Courtney, me, Judy, Amanda, Shannon and Yolanda.)

The food … 

We had cheese and crackers, bruschetta and cucumber toasts as appetizers; followed by lasagna, chicken salad croissants and strawberry and feta salad for lunch; and we finished up with cookies, brownies, scones and cake for dessert. Umm, yum!

The entertainment …

Everybody took a picture with a little chalkboard with their guess on the baby’s arrival date (my due date is October 15, by the way). They each filled out their wish cards, and we played two games, including guessing celebrity baby names and baby songs. And I failed miserably at the celebrity baby names one, which was unexpected, because I thought I was up on pop culture, but clearly not like the rest of the gang. Then, at the end, we opened gifts. Yay!

(Seriously, how about this onesie? I also received a matching “Big Brother” bandana from this Etsy shop for Rudy the pup to wear, and I’m sure that won’t be the last matching set the two of them are seen in around town.)

(We had two little gift helpers in attendance too, who were super cute!)

I can’t say thank you enough to my wonderful Mom and to Stephanie for working so hard to host the sweetest and most beautiful baby shower for me, for the babe and of course, for Dave (who was in absentia). I loved every single thing about it! I am SO grateful for them and for all of the people who came to celebrate with me! 

Cheers to good friends and time at home in Florida! I’ll be here a few more days before flying back to the Bay Area, and I have another wonderful baby shower to look forward to with all of my California people too next weekend! Woohoo! I’ll see you all back here on the blog very soon. 🙂 

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Questions of the day

What’s your favorite gift to give or receive at a shower?

What’s your favorite game to play at a shower?

How was your weekend?