Party

The folks at work threw me a very surprise shower the other day at work! How fabulous! I was so very surprised.

There was a whole spread of home-made desserts, including brownies, cookies, and rice crispy treats, plus other store-bought yummies, including cheesecake and donuts. I was in heaven.

The diaper cake was an enormous diaper cake and each diaper was individually hand-tied. Wow! It was adorned with cute pacifiers and rattles and topped with the most adorable stuffed frog. I may claim him for myself.

The girls who threw the party put on a game of Baby Family Feud. Every time a team won a round, they got a gift card, which they promptly gave to me! We have restaurant gift cards to keep us in food for weeks after the baby comes! How thoughtful!!

We also got a few outfits for the baby and a very soft, very snuggly blanket.

It was such a nice event, and I loved being so surprised with it. Hooray!

This will probably be the prettiest post on my site, so enjoy all these lovely pictures!

The spread at the shower was just amazing. Credit to the girl who dreamed up the menu! It was delish, and there was so much food, I know no one left hungry!!

I had one request and for that I used either the word “Mexican” or “cheese,” I can’t remember which. I got a variety of tasty little cheese-filled mexican treats. And when asked what food would go best with melted chocolate, I greedily said pineapple! I got that wish, too.

The table, at a glance.

Some close-ups.

My girls wouldn’t use bowls for dip, would they?

The chocolate fondue - how fabulous is chocolate fondue?

I spent half the night eating most of the pineapple at the fondue bowl. YUM.

What shower would be complete without a cake? But not content to do it up like everyone else, they went with a cookie cake!! It was like a chocolate chip coookie, but enormous, and with icing. It said “Bye bye tummy, Hello Mummy!” So freaking cute.

And I didn’t even make it to this tray, but they look gorgeous, don’t they?

There was plenty of wine, some crazy strong blue Wildberry Martinis and of course, pudding shots. Pudding shots are quite yum! Everyone seemed pretty relaxed and happy - I think the food and drink was a hit!

Photo credit.

It seemed like the ladies worked all day on shower preparations. There were trips to the store, lots of cleaning and straightening, and a few conspiritorial conversations. Everybody got involved but me, of course. They got most of it set up while I wasn’t looking, so I got to be surprised by the spread and the decorations.
It was so amazingly lovely to have a party at home and be just exactly what you wanted, but not have to work at it. Must be what it’s like to have a catered party, but this was still better because it was dreamed up by the thoughfulness of friends.

Saturday night at Fishmongers we celebrated Dave’s birthday with Mom, Gene, Kerri, and Beany.
It was awesome!

First we stuffed ourselves silly.

And then Dave got to open lots of presents!!

Gene, with Mom giving advice.

I am America (and So Can You)

Jeni and Beany

I’m Just Here for the Food

Dave’s New Car

Terrific Ice Cream Cake from Maggie Moos

Happy Birthday sweetie!

This season was pretty light on Christmas parties. There was one work party that we missed because I was too pooped to make it. And then last night, there was Ele’s Annual Chili and Beer party. I was impressed they decided to have the party, seeing as how their newborn son is only about 5 weeks old.
But they did it, and I think they had a really nice time. It was a smaller party than last year’s, but I liked it because it was more intimate and a little less hectic. Finn settled down once the party got started and spent most of his time being held by his adoring fans. I snapped a picture but didn’t want to use the flash, so it’s fuzzy. But it doesn’t matter because he’s so friggin’ cute!

Cristin invited me over for a 12 hour Harry Potter movie watching party on Saturday. I missed the first movie but arrived at 3 PM for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. After that we watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and then Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was a very nice, intimate party. It’s gotten me excited for the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

I got to meet Kelli and Jamie, both very sweet girls, as well as Matt, who seemed nice and kept out of our way while we chatted and drank.

Kelli and Cristin really outdid themselves gettting ready for the party. Ele would have been impressed! Kelli was even wearing Gryffindor colors.

• Wands - Pretzles coated with dark and white chocolate
• Polyjuice Potion - Grape juice, sprite and vodka
• Hogwarts Cake - Castle-shaped cake filled with cream
• Gryffindor Jello Shots - Both yellow and burgundy jello shooters (quite strong!)

I brought some Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans and they were a hoot to try! Cristin’s blog linked to to some funny photos on her Flickr album. I also got some good snuggles with Lily, Cristin’s adorable kitty. (I promise I didn’t take her home with me!)

Ele was super-smart and hosted a Fourth of July party on the Tuesday night before the fourth. She sent out these adorable handmade invites and her party was no let-down.

Ahh, I love hot dogs, so her hotdog bar was a perfect treat!
The whole spread was quite nice, very delectable!! Those fruit parfaits were amazing!!
Our hosts, Will and Ele! Thanks for the great party, guys!

Photos from the Luau at Mom and Dad’s.

The kids spent lots of time in the pool on Saturday. Dave kept the kids occupied by swimming with them in the pool.
Here’s Carson, getting ready to go on an underwater expedition.
Here’s baby Kate. Damn she’s cute.
Here’s Riley, who spent nearly all day in those Muck boots he found. He’s such a great kid!

Look at these adorable invites from Ele! They are so cute but I had no idea they were so labor intensive. Ele, we’ll be there!