Baby Shower 101

Throwing a baby shower...

Step 1: Have a cute little grandma that says "Have the potentially wild (based upon Kim's bridal shower) baby shower at my house." Thanks grandma.

Step 2: Have lots of good food. People like food.

Step 3: Invite lots of friends...

and of course family.

Step 4: Have the future grandma there via Skype. Oh, and have her dress up. And be the ONLY one at the party that dresses up.

I'm still trying to figure out what my mom was dressed up as. The only way I can describe her is as a "Punk Rocker Pumpkin." I'm pretty sure that's what she was aiming for. And may I just say that my mom looked way weirder/scarier via Skype than she did in this actual picture. Those eyebrows are pretty crazy though. Although I have seen worse on women here in Utah that just don't quite ever figure out how to draw on their eyebrows after menopause.

Anyway, thanks Mil for dressing up and joining in on the fun even though you were 6000 miles away.

Step 5: Invite lots of people...the more the merrier. We had over 25 there! I like a big group. Things tend to get a little wild. Just my style...

Oh, and have activities to try and keep people entertained. Since it was Halloween we had some cheesy little Halloween baby shower things like: decorating "little pumpkins," guessing facts about the little "baby a brewing" like weight, name, hair color, etc., and writing advice to Kim, or things your "mummy" did to make you feel special when you were a kid.

P.S. my mom, who is famous for little sayings like that(second only to my Aunt Jenny), helped me come up with them. I'm not that creative/cheesy.

Step 6: Gifts, of course. And Kim got so many nice and thoughtful gifts. I love the little Batman costume Pam made for the little guy. I hope he likes dressing up as much as his dad does. I think Lee will be a little disappointed if he doesn't.

And may I just pause here to say that now that my first nephew is soon to be born I finally have an excuse to shop for baby clothes...and I do. So, my gift was clothes for the kid. Because, as an older single girl there are two things you don't want to be...

1) Bitter

2) Crazy

And one of the weirdest things you can do as a single girl is to start collecting baby clothes. That just has "Crazy" written all over it. I think it is right up there with having a scrapbook of wedding dresses, rings, and reception ideas all gathered up. Psycho. No one wants to marry the crazy girl. But, now I can legitimately enter the baby section of any store and not be seen as a psycho. It is a great and liberating feeling. Because shopping for baby clothes is fun!

Kimmae opening one of her gifts. She was a pretty fast gift opener, a talent everybody likes to see in a baby shower guest of honor.

Step 7: Of course you must have a few cheesy baby shower games to make things fun. These are a must...even if it requires your 83 year-old grandma to have to drink apple juice from a baby bottle. Sacrifices must be made in order to have fun. Thanks for being a good sport grandma.

We also had people guess how big around Kim's little belly is. Some people were off, WAY OFF, but we had a few guess right on.

Step 8: The after party. A must have. This happened spontaneously when I called my brothers to see if they wanted to come eat leftover brunch from the shower. They were there in a flash.

The after party was pretty much the same as the shower except it was the man version of the party. Lee even had his belly measured to see if he was bigger around than his 7 month pregnant wife.

My brothers did a very good job of helping me clean up the extra food. They were pretty amazed at the food. I think they must have just been hungry. You'd think it was the first time they'd ever eaten. I heard things like,

Russell: "Wow, do you have food like this at all these girl parties you have?"

Me: "Yes, even better sometimes."

Russell: "Can I come next time too?"

Me: "We'll see."

Lee: "How much did these sausages cost? They are so good."

Me: "Like 4 dollars a bag or something."

Lee: "That's only 20 cents per sausage patty. Amazing! I could take these to work to eat."
Me: "Yes, however they each have 200 calories."

(I guess my warning didn't worry Lee as he went to the store that night and bought some sausage.)

Ty: "I call for the last pumpkin waffle!...Oooh are those sausages?"

So the boys cleaned up the food. Boys are so good at that. And at making you feel like it is the best food they've ever eaten or ever will eat. Then they helped me put away chairs and clean up.

And then Lee had to see if he could stick out his belly and make it look like Kim's. And...he could.

And fortunately there were exactly three little candy bags left from the shower, so the boys each got a party favor for coming to the after-party party.

Thanks again to everyone who came and everyone who wished they could have been there. Well, until one of those other two boys decides to get married, it looks like my job as a shower planner is done.

Oh, and sorry I didn't get good pictures of everyone who was there. I just didn't take as many pictures as I should have. I'm sure you are all devastated to not have your picture on this blog post. Maybe next time...