The Baby Shower to end ALL baby showers!!

It is true! I have been to many baby showers over the years. Some have been almost spontaneous, others over worked and worked over. Most all of them have had totally NAFF games (can you tell I don't like 'party' games?) of some kind or other that involved tying the pregnant mother up in all the bows from the gifts, making her look beautiful using either cloth or paper/plastic diapers pinned together with safety pins/and or fashioning hats with same. The imagination knows no bounds, it seems, when you get a group of young -ish women together who either have children of a similar age and are celebrating the late arrival of a first (usually) child of a friend/colleague etc. I thought I was allergic to groups of wimmin doing this kind of thing!

The quiz cards and the plastic tape (top) used to guestimate the circumference of the mothers tum! Yes, the clothes pins were used for another game.

Ok...now for the good news!!
It is possible, as it was on Sunday (yesterday...it is President's Day today, therefore a Public Holiday for most) to get a group of mature women (emphasis) together in civilized fashion to celebrate the imminent birth of a much longed for and long awaited baby girl. Even though there were some 'games'..one might be more inclined to call them quizzes, which actually had us all 'thinking' because they were those kind of questions: Is it true that a baby has more bones than an adult? True or False! test yourself...do you know the answer??
You have to think about that one, don't you? Well, Babies do in fact have more bones...that is until they fuse, but according to my medical sources, they are counted as extra bones until they DO fuse.
Next question...What is the ratio of male/female births? Hmmm that was an interesting one!! do you know the answer? and the next question...Which country has zero birth rate? Well, it might surprise you (or not) to know that it is Sweden!

These are the pub quiz night kind of questions I can go for!!:)

Where was I?
Oh yes.... we also had to do that thing where you cut off a piece of ribbon or string to guestimate the circumference of the pregnant mother's belly! It can show you just how bad some of us are at estimating anything, lol. Not too mind blowing, but some good natured fun.

The Venue: One of the local Yacht Clubs was obtained for the purposes of accommodating the thirty-odd women who attended. It was Sunday Brunch Buffet for the club members, so the shower guests were included in that event. The food at the yacht club is excellent anyway, so this was a bonus for most of us:)

The Buffet at the Yacht Club

Eggs Benedict, Corned Beef Hash, Breakfast Sausage, Bacon and melon...a pretty good brunch!!

...and of course, Champagne!

 

The women who did a fabulous job of organizing this event are to be congratulated. It was classy, low key, very pretty and ..well, they really had no control over the number of gifts, but the poor recipient took a while....yes, a loooong while to open such a HUGE number of fab. well thought out gifts. People were sooo generous!

Such a pretty table setting

Hershey's Kisses were inside the baby bottles as Party Favors for the guests.

 

Table decorations

 

The Cupcake tower...Waz said the cupcakes even tasted good:) (when we took the left overs home)

We all ooh'ed and ahhh'd  over the soft and cuddly, cute and pretty clothes, cloths, blankets, soft toys, books and practical and impractical gifts. Special mention goes to the woman who knitted beautiful little hats with pompoms, and embroidered a cat face on the corner of a soft blanket. Refreshing to know that people still take the time to do these things.

It was a major mission to get all the gifts into three vehicles to take them home...we are talking not one but THREE porta-cribs..do you know how heavy those things are? No wonder mothers with young babies develop such strong muscles!!...and more clothes, fripperies (this is a GIRL baby we are talking about here:) ) etc than you could poke a stick at.

Gifts...

...and more gifts

gorgeous little dresses!

CUTE outfits

..and the Maternal Grandmother sent a bunch of rubber duckies with her gift:)

 

This is the trash can...pretty!:)

 

We managed to find a space in the home entry to put all the bags when we got the mom-to-be's home. She and the father (maybe) are going to have some fun putting everything away...or not.

By this time, some of us were hungry again, and while the cats were away, the mice (some of the husbands) had been busy at home with their own small get-together. There was food on the counter that demanded to be eaten, and some of us tried to finish it off...I didn't know that photographing a baby shower could be such hungry and thirsty work!

Waz and I finally left them all to it around 5pm, and went for a walk. A gorgeous sunset was enjoyed at the end of the next street over, looking out over Charlotte Harbor. It was still...almost no wind...and incredibly beautiful. We walked home more slowly than usual, marveling at that special ice blue color that the water takes on at the 'gloming'. This is that time of evening when the sun has gone down, but the moon has yet to make it's presence felt...twilight? I didn't have my camera on me, sorry, which meant I could just enjoy the moment, rather than thinking about how to take the best shot!

What a lovely day! Celebrating the imminent birth of a child is rather special. That so many people came from hours away, speaks volumes about the parents-to-be. This child is blessed to have so many caring and loving people around her. We look forward to the delivery date!!! I'm sure the mother does too, at this feet swelling stage!