Josh's Man Shower

One of the best things about my job is the great people I work with and food days. Food days occur once a month and everyone brings in a dish to share. We usually are in a food coma by 10:30 in the morning. We also find any excuse to celebrate an occasion with food. My friend Josh and his wife Megan are expecting their first baby in May and we celebrated with a man shower at work. When we sat down to brainstorm for the shower, we decided the incriminating photos from Vegas we used for his wedding shower would not be appropriate for the baby shower so we turned to owls. Josh and Megan have decorated the nursery in greys, greens, and oranges with owls so we took this and ran with it for the party!

We have an awesome design department at work which is where the invitation below came from. Both Josh and Megan have very curly hair so a sketch of a curly haired baby was a must.

Although you usually can expect to have a shower thrown for you when you are getting married or having a baby, we make the date a surprise. We were able to pull off the surprise and Josh was very surprised when he walked into the room full of people and presents.

Using owls as decorations, the party evolved into a woodland theme. I took letters for the baby's name and painted them green and put them on sticks. We then took a log and drilled holes into it to put the sticks into.

Next, I made owls and flowers out of felt and hung them from branches in a vase. Halfway through the this project I was wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into since I am an amateur sewer at best. After making a couple that looked like bats, I had some that turned out very cute.

When I put together the table for a party, typically I stand back survey the cuteness and may or may not jump up and down and clap. A lot of clapping occurred when we put out the cakes and cupcakes for this party. I borrowed some wood candles and platters from a friend who had made them. For the platters they had cut up pieces of wood and coated it in olive oil to make it food safe. The owl cakes looked great on the pieces of wood.

It was great to see the generosity and love that was poured out to Josh and Megan during the shower. Most of us spent the afternoon on sugar highs but it was definitely another successful work shower!

I am in my hometown for Easter this weekend and helping my mom roll silverware for a pancake breakfast at church in the morning. Happy Easter Everyone!

Allison's Wondermom Shower

My mom and I had the best time hosting Allison's Wondermom Shower. We had 16 people including some of Allison's friends and my father's side of the family or as we like to call ourselves, The Strong Howard Women. Hang around us long enough and you will see how we got that nickname. The Howard Women are an amazing group of ladies, very dedicated to family and very fun to spend an afternoon with. We had four generations there including Allison's new niece Amelia and my soon to be sister in law Katie :)



For decorations, we used a lot of polka dots and word bubbles. A Wondermom banner hung behind the fireplace. I have been relying heavily on http://www.dafont.com/ for fonts. I was able to download this superhero font for the party.

The Superhero theme was carried out in the food. We had hero sandwiches made from Hawaiian bread and italian dressing.

My mom made bundles of veggies to be dipped in hummus. We put the hummus in plastic shot glasses that we wrapped in polka dot paper. They each had signs on them that said "Wow!" "Yum!" and "MMM!".

I was able to use the cute milk jars again for Krytonite shakes!

Last but not least, Mom made the cutest and tastiest sugar cookies. They were in the shape of stars, lightening bolts, and word bubbles. I have to give the Househusband credit for the lettering on the word bubbles. He agreed to it even after anouncing he was not a morning person when I dragged him out of bed at 7:00. What a trooper. Instead of superhero sayings, the word bubbles said things like "Burp", "Waa", and "Splat".

The centerpiece displayed the cookies on wooden sticks. We took a glass bowl, filled it with tissue and stryophone, and stuck the cookies in it. Only a couple of causilties occurred in the making of this display and there were plenty of volunteers to eat the broken ones!

Lastly, for favors we had popcorn with the word "POP" on them. The sign above the bowl said, "Allison is about to pop, thanks for helping her get ready for the big day!"



It was so much fun to put this together and spend the afternoon with family and friends. Allison got a lot of great things for the baby including a couple of superhero onesies :)

Next up is another baby shower and then a tea party in May!

Blog to you soon!

Lucy