The Preparation and Execution of Amy's Baby Shower

We had my sister Amy's baby shower Sunday. It went very well, considering we had over 30 woman crammed into Erin's home (my other sister).

Friday night, Joe and I went shopping for everything I still needed for the shower. We made a trip out to Sam's Club. We arrived at 8:38. You can imagine my disappointment when we realized they closed at 8:30. That seems pretty early for a Friday night! We then headed to the grocery store and then to Walmart. I hate that I have been to Walmart to so often lately... but when you are on a budget.... it sure is alot cheaper. We decided to pick up "I Love You Man" on our way home. When we watched it, I laughed out loud. Alot. It was pretty damn funny.

I spent most of Saturday preparing. The Hubs helped me bake over 100 cookies, which I wrapped up in baggies and tied with ribbons and a cute little message to hand out as favors. I wrapped the presents and prepared the food that I was in charge of.

We also ran out to get a few more things I needed for the shower, and on a whim decided to look at recliners at the La-Z-Boy store. We were thinking how nice it would be to have one in the living room to hang out in with the munchkin. They had a recliner there that matched our couches exactly and it was 50% off!! We then decided to look at another furniture store first to see if they had any better deals. They didn't. Then we realized we didn't have any money for a recliner anyway. We headed home. Oh well, it was still fun looking.

I delegated most of the food to others (my sister Erin, my mom and a couple of friends that were helping). I was responsible for a cheesy sausage dip (my husband lovingly nicknamed it "crack dip" years ago) and a pesto pasta salad. Everyone was preparing their food and whatever else they were in charge of on their own and we would meet at Erin's house 2 hours prior to the party and set everything up. I was a little worried about how everything was going to come together. I love planning parties and insisted that even at 9+ mos pregnant I would still have the honor of planning Amy's baby shower, but luckily I had started the preparations months ago and enlisted the help of others.

Sunday morning came and, thanks to all of the work I had done the day before, all I had to do was take a shower, get myself ready, pack up the car and pick up the cake before I headed to Erin's house. It sounded easy enough, but then my cousin called. She wasn't coming to the shower anymore and wanted to drop off Amy's present at my house. She showed up right after I got out of the shower. She gave me Amy's present, along with a present for myself (she hadn't been able to attend my shower either), and then she stayed and chatted for a while. Then we chatted some more. Then I showed her the nursery. Then we chatted some more. By the time she left, it was time for me to leave to go pick up the cake. I didn't even get to fix my hair! I had to leave it half blow dried and hope that it didn't look too miserable. I slapped on some make-up, threw my stuff in the car and headed to Sarah's to pick up the cake.


I had given Sarah creative freedom to do whatever she wanted with Amy's shower cake. I knew she could handle it and I was absolutely correct. I had told her we wanted a chocolate cake that was decorated in green and yellow and pretty simple. What she came up with was perfect! That girl can make a cake!

After picking up the cake, I raced to Erin's (not too fast, as I now had to be careful with the cake in the back of my car). Somehow, after all of this, I managed to still get there right on time. I also only managed to forget one thing, a large bowl to serve the pasta salad in once I threw it all together. Sarah lent me one of hers when I picked up the cake. Under the circumstances, I think I did pretty well. I was relieved. We only had 2 hours to get everything together, and that was going to be cutting it close!

Unfortunately, I was the only one there on time (besides Erin who lived there). Our friend Cheryl arrived 15 minutes after me, my mom showed up an hour late and then Michele got there 15 minutes after her. Somehow everything came together, not that things weren't extremely hectic and crazy that 2 hours right before the party. The kitchen was a huge mess with the preparations! We were slicing and dicing, boiling and mixing, hanging decorations and whatever else needed to be done. The last minute items fell into place as guests started arriving. It was time for the party to start and I was already in desperate need for a nap and my feet were throbbing in agony. Have I mentioned how pregnant I am?

The party went pretty smoothly. The food was delicious and I was a bit disappointed at the lack of room available in my stomach.



Here are the baskets of favors. The basket on the left has the cookies I made and the one on the right has little boxes with a duck on the top filled with candy. Why didn't I get a close up?


There was a great turnout and Amy really made out like a bandit! She had the biggest stack of presents I can recall ever seeing piled up for one person (well I suppose this was for her family really). It was so much fun to see her open them all!



Here's me and Gina watching Amy open her presents. Notice how puffy my face is getting!

Here are some guests crammed into the living room.


I was so happy everything turned out so well. After the amazing shower that Amy threw for me, I had some large shoes to fill! It was fun, but it left me totally and utterly exhausted. I felt completely drained by the time it was over. I sat on the couch after I got home and drifted in and out of consciousness as I tried to relax and watch some tv. I took care of a few chores, but was ultimately too tired to do much and ended up going to bed around 9:00. Whew! Now all the showers are over and we just have to wait for the babies to start arriving!

Friday night Joe took a pic of my belly at 37 weeks. I realized I hadn't posted one of these in a while.... it may be a little shocking!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I will be spending the next couple of days recovering from mine....