The Baby Shower

I threw a baby shower for my friend and neighbor, Ashley. It was the first event of it's kind that I've organized, and all factors considered, feel pretty good about how it turned out. As I thought about it over the months I had to prepare, I envisioned more decorations and greater incorporation of my theme than actually ended up happening. I probably didn't do as much as I should have in advance, so as the time drew near, I gave up or altered many of my ideas. I thought the space looked nice enough though, and it turns out we have really an ideal set up for hosting lots of people. 

I made candied nuts for the party favor

While I didn't particularly enjoy researching or planning the decorations, I did really like thinking about and preparing the food. Several people asked to help, so I wasn't the only one cooking. I made a sausage strata (which I over baked and hardly anyone ate), mini hot dog babies (the picture is from my trial run earlier in the week), and Oreo truffles (which were probably the party's biggest hit), as well as a lemonade/7UP punch. Our large drink container (not pictured) holds a lot more liquid than I realized and I grossly underestimated how much juice I'd need. What I bought barely reached the spigot, so Matthew ran out half an hour before the party started to get more lemonade. We ended up needing several gallons of punch to make the container work properly, which we'll be drinking for days to come. Four other women contributed sourdough bread and artichoke dip, lemon tarts, chips and a mango salsa, fruit kabobs, pasta salad, and a lemon strawberry cake. Everything was delicious and the food table was definitely the center of the party. I was pleased with the amount of leftovers: enough for the rest of the family to have some lunch, but no so much as to indicate that we seriously over-cooked. 

Another friend brought all the trimmings for a bow making station. People were sufficiently occupied with eating, visiting, and the opening of presents, that it was pretty well ignored, but after everyone else left the Mama of honor (Left) and the one who brought the stuff were able to make some cute headbands.

Des' husband was on call, so she brought her kids and Matthew was good enough to entertain them all while the women-folk did our thing. They came down once everyone else was gone for their share of the banquet and some time on the trampoline.

I'm not sad that I volunteered to throw this party, and I feel reasonably confident that everyone who came had a good time, but I don't foresee me signing up for a similar experience any time soon. I like having people over at my house, but prefer the occasions to be a bit more spontaneous, with fewer expectations and a lot less planning. It's good to know that about myself.