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 

Wondermom Baby Shower

I have to thank all the fabulous people in my life who are getting married and having babies. It allows me to throw some really fun parties : ) Of of those people is my cousin Allison who is having a little girl in May. Allison and I are just a few months apart in age and as we like to say we are "Cousins by Chance, Friends by Choice." One day I will be cross stitching that on a pillow. I gathered my inspiration for this shower from this photo of Allison at one of our family gatherings at Christmas.

Yes, there she is in her Superman pajamas with my father holding out the cape. This photo and her love of Wonderwoman, lead me to the "Wondermom Baby Shower." Since the guest of honor may be reading this, you will have to check back on Sunday for details from the party! Below is the invitation that we sent out. I must say, my photoshop skills have come a long way from my first invitation!

Blog to you soon!

Lucy

M-I-C-K-E-Y

I got home yesterday after the Minnie Mouse birthday party and immediately started uploading my pictures. I had 150 pictures and I had the hardest time picking which ones to post. There were so many cute decorations (this is me tooting my own horn) and kids, that I just couldn't put my camera down.

The party started out with a smile for me when I walked in with the red and white polka dot balloons and Ruby the Birthday Girl was at the door screaming "Minnie Mouse Balloons"! When I stumbled across these on the Internet I knew they were a must for the party I call them White Whale #1 because they were not easy to find. I first attempted buying them online but wasn't willing to pay the price or shipping for them. I was in Creve Coeur one day and passed the Paper Warehouse http://www.paperstl.com/. I did a U-turn and found the balloons I was looking for! They also had them in black with white polka dots. Below is a shot of them on the table.

The table was also filled with the cutest Mickey Mouse plates and bowls that Carrie found at Target (on clearance of course). We had also made Minnie Mouse heads out of felt and put them on sticks to go in jars that were holding the balloons.

To round off the decorations, we had the Happy Birthday banner. And of course, the Birthday Girl's ensemble. She did a lovely job modeling it below.

For party hats, we had Minnie and Mickey Mouse ears made out of felt (I mean what else?) and plastic headbands.





After lunch was served, the desserts came out! The theme was cookies and milk. Carrie made the cutest (and yummiest) Mickey and Minnie sugar cookies. They were the perfect compliment to the chocolate and white milk from Oberweis.

Let me be honest here. Probably 50 of my 150 pictures were of the milk bottles but how cute are they? They were White Wale #2 of the party. I had seen them on so many party blogs but had a hard time finding them to buy. When I finally decided to spend $2.00 per bottle on teeny tiny ones online, they were sold out. I came across an idea where someone had taken a Starbucks Frappuccino bottle and taken the label off to use as a milk bottle. For $1.46 a bottle we had what we were looking for and a delicious coffee treat :) I am also in love with these red and white striped straws. The Househusband had bought a pack of these for me for Valentine's Day. Does he know me or what? 

Something I have learned about party planning is that it doesn't always go as planned, especially when you are doing a party for kids. A lot of parties you see in magazines have everything in place and everything looks perfect. You have to wonder if kids actually attend these parties and if they do if they are having any fun. The reality is things get messy. The Birthday Girl had no interest in wearing her Minnie Ears and would've preferred to be naked instead of wearing a tutu. The kids preferred to eat their lunch under the table instead of chairs. But they had a blast and it was absolutely perfect.

When I was young, my mom threw fabulous birthday parties for my brother and I. She would always go above and beyond to make the day special. To this day, I have great memories of my birthdays and love looking at the pictures. My hope is that Ruby will be able to look back at pictures of her 2nd birthday with fond memories and see the love that went into creating the party and memories for her.

Blog to you soon!

Lucy

Springing Forward

60 degrees and sunny on Saturday, 40 degrees and cloudy Sunday, and snow showers Monday. Welcome to Missouri in March. The days of warm weather and sun have us all itching for Spring. We spent Sunday at my parent's house preparing our garden for planting. While we are still very much amatuers at gardening and my thumb isn't exactly green, we are attempting to do a big garden this year. I have been growing onions from seeds over the last couple of months and have also recently started peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant.

In my attempt to be more frugal, I am starting my plants in egg cartons. I am shocked how cheap it is to start plants from seeds and how much food you get out of it. Now if I can just get them to grow!

Last summer we started a raised bed strawberry patch. You don't get strawberries off of it the first year (how cruel is that?) but we are looking forward to a bountiful crop this year! We took the mulch off of the bed this weekend and there are already green leaves showing. I can already taste the homemade jam and strawberry shortcakes!

The Househusband is particulary intersted in growing and eating your own foods. He has recently started an internship with Earthdance Farms http://www.earthdancefarms.org/ where he will be taking various classes on growing and selling food as well as working at the farm twice a week. I can't wait to hear what he learns. The knowledge and experience he is getting from this is priceless and will hopefully help our thumbs become a little greener!

Blog to you soon!
Lucy

All in a Day's Work

I spent my Saturday afternoon in my friend Carrie's basement crafting the day away. Why can't all Saturday's be like this? We were working on Carrie's daughter Ruby's 2nd birthday party which will be Minnie Mouse themed. I wasn't planning on posting about it until after the party but what we created yesterday is just too cute not to share. We started off the afternoon with a Happy Birthday banner. Carrie really came through by obtaining the use of a Cricut for the afternoon. How have I lived this long without one? They are truly amazing and we are slightly obsessed with finding a good deal on one. With the Cricut we cut out letters for the banner. We used a circle cutter I had to cut out the Minnie Mouses' and printed off a bow to use as a stencil.

Carrie and I make a great team. I am teaching her to be more crafty and she is teaching me about how to get a good deal. I am proud to say that the cost of this banner was under $2.00. You could not find something this cute or this cheap to buy!

My new favorite product for party planning is felt. There is so much you can do with it and is fairly inexpensive at $4.99 a yard. But of course I use a coupon which puts it at about $2.99 a yard. I made a table cloth that will fit a 6 ft table for $8.50. While my sewing skills are not the best I am very pleased with how it turned out!

Other crafts that afternoon included Minnie Mouse heads on sticks that will go in glass jars, felt ears that will go on headbands and serve as party hats, and a tutu for the birthday girl. Not bad for a day's work! I can't wait to post pictures from the party!

Blog to you soon!

Lucy