Saturday, February 8th, our small group of friends got the honor of celebrating another baby who was due to join our group in March. All of the guys went to SPSU together and were in the fraternity together. All of the girls are friends and we have kids together from 15 months to 7 years old. Some of them now play softball together so I named our group The Softball Wives Club.
The Green Family decided on Hudson for their second little boy. Tiffany went with the popular woodland theme in his nursery so we did that for the shower.
I think everything I purchased came from Hobby Lobby. Other stuff I had at home.
I bought three pieces of scrapbook paper to make the banner. The little bits of leftover paper became his last name and we hung it from the chandelier in the dining room.
Ok, let's talk food. Tiffany really liked an Aztec print for his bedding so to play off of that, we decided to do Mexican food for the couples shower.
We had Mexican chili chocolate cupcakes made by Britany. I love to decorate and have themed stuff (and I totally want a Woodland nursery for our next child) so I immediately jumped on decor.
I made s'more pops as a take home for our guests although most were consumed in-house. Simply just a marshmallow dipped in melted chocolate and rolled in crushed graham crackers. I added a bit of cinnamon and chipotle chili powder to the chocolate for a spicy Mexican twist.
I also found the cutest Woodland themed cookie cutters at IKEA, so I made sugar cookies for those rare individuals who don't like chocolate (like me and Britany). Isn't it funny the two folks who don't like chocolate, made stuff with chocolate? I couldn't NOT make the s'more pops though. They were really easy and cheap to make. Plus, adorable! And, hello......when you think of outdoors, don't you go to campfires and s'mores?
I provided the cute little chevron printed paper sacks so the guests could grab cookies or the pops for a little treat later.
The birch wrapped candles, stick shelf, wooden bird and log drawer (made by a friend of the family about 20 something years ago) was all mine. The tree cross section was purchased from HL. I just inverted a plain white bowl for height.
The plain wooden acorn and trees also came from HL. I originally planned to paint them, then decided against it, really liking their natural color.
So I am NOT a cookie decorator! Included in the Woodland set-fox, moose, bear, hedgehog, snail (totally thought it was a whale until I confessed to D I had no idea) and squirrel. I had the acorn cookie cutters so I did a few of those. I meant to bake and ice them the night before the party, but that didn't happen. I had planned everything else out well, this just didn't work out. So I iced some completely, but knew they wouldn't set in time. I started outlining and then thought I'd just do the initials of all of the kids on the cookies. Whatever. They were yummy and the kids didn't care. And to be honest, I'm pretty sure the adults didn't either-they were eaten.
Ok, so now on to the real food. Our group loves to get together for birthdays, to celebrate and engagement or baby or just because. Everyone is super awesome about sharing the work which is great.
Kim brought chicken tortilla soup and the fixins'.
Melissa brought the ever popular 7-layer dip and pork for carnitas.
Britany made the cupcakes and Mexican rice.
Kelsey brought the shells and tortillas, toppings for tacos and the drinks.
Laura made the meat for the tacos, Mexican slaw, queso and chips.
I made a spicy skillet corn (ok, technically Donald fixed it), the cookies & s'more pops and the winter sangria.
The winter sangria had just a crisp and fruity white wine (from Aldi), club soda, clementines, apples, sugar, apple juice and a few stalks of rosemary from the garden. It was supposed to have frozen cranberries for a pop of color and to drive home the winter aspect (red and green), but they got left in the freezer at home. Oh well, still delicious and refreshing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I picked up this initial cork board with no real idea of what I wanted to do with it. I just knew I had a 40% off coupon and I'd figure it out later. Since I'm the closet friend to Tiffany and our kids play together a lot, I knew it'd be easy for me to run to the store or grab Landon for a play date. So then I thought of coupons. I went back to HL and purchased a tag punch on sale and made coupons for Tiffany to redeem.
I did things like:
*a free meal
*a play date at either house
*watch Landon & straighten the house or do laundry-whatever she needed
*a grocery run
I found this light teal arrow print fabric at HL and just HAD to buy a yard. Again, not knowing what for, but I remembered there were arrow prints in some of the framed artwork in Hudson's nursery. I used the fuse-able tape and an iron to "hem" the edges and ended up using it as just part of the decor by the presents.
Tiffany got a teacher who she works with to make a pillow case out of the fabric and another teacher monogrammed HRG on it. I'm so glad she is able to actually use it!
On a trip to TJ Maxx/Marshalls, I found this gray and coral arrow printed bag on clearance for $7. So Hudson's gift went in it. Since Hudson is The Green's second boy, they had a lot of stuff already. So we just did an essentials shower-wipes, diapers, shampoo, lotion, etc.
Here is the big brother, Landon. Isn't he gorgeous? And those curls. Total heartbreaker. Although, he's kind of taken. By Stella. Most days that is. Sometimes she plays a little hard to get.
Look at this happy boy-Mr. Ethan.
So Tiffany and I took a canvas painting class together this past Fall. We noticed some of the other canvases decorating the wall and I'm pretty sure she commented on this one below. Fast forward to December and I got an email from the business saying they were having a canvas sale. I show up, buy 4 canvases and intended on giving The Greens this one for Christmas. But then I decided to wait until the shower. This canvas shows three birds under the tree and a tiny one up in the tree-for their newest arrival.
The Green Family: Soon-to-be party of 4
Here's the gorgeous Momma-to-be. Not completely barefoot and pregnant, but definitely shoe-less. I didn't even notice that when I took the pictures.
So here's our kids. I never realized we had equal girls and boys until I took this. Of course mine is the least cooperative. She looks half asleep with her thumb in her mouth.
Bennett, Grayson, Lily, Stella, Izzy, Sophie, Ethan and Landon.
I think the best one is the last one.
*Some of the picture quality isn't top notch. I'd forgotten to charge my DSLR so I was forced to snap pictures of the food with my iphone while it charged. If I had waited, then I wouldn't have had pictures of the food if you catch my drift.
No comments:
Post a Comment