My sister Kara is having a little boy in December. And I told her I'm throwing the baby shower. Fun thing, I haven't been to a baby shower in around fifteen years. And I was a kid in the background then. (My baby shower(s) didn't happen, not for lack of trying on friends' and family's part - some of them.) So I'm trying to remember what all you do at baby showers, what's cool, what's not. Where the heck to hold the shower if we can't use Kara's ward's Relief Society room. (Boy, Relief Society looks weird when you write it out. I always pronounced it Reeleeephssuh-sigh-eee-tee as a kid. It wasn't two words; it was one nonsensical word smush. It wasn't meant to make sense. So I now that I write it down and look at it as an adult, I think to myself, "Huh? A society for relief? When did that happen?") I don't have oodles of money to spend on some posh banquet room or even enough to pay for everyones drinks and food at a decent restaurant. If I had to hold it at some kind of restaurant, with the cha-ching going in my wallet, we'd be having it in the McDonald's playground, and everyone would be ordering off the dollar menu. "What? They don't have cheese on the double burger here on the dollar menu? Can you add cheese for more?......No." No fun all around, if you include shrieking kids running amok around you.
Soooo....what to do? Any advice? Anything you loved or hated at a baby shower you attended? And yes, you'll be invited, Steph. I run the show this time, so I get to invite who I want. I'm going to make this cake hopefully:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?recipeID=45539&Source=SearchResultPage
Our friends who are supposed to teach me the fine arts of cake decorating are finally coming over this Friday. And there's even a video to show you how to make the cake. (Kara's theme for little Tristan Nicholas is ducks.) So, I figure if I really want to go cheap, I can buy one or two cake mix boxes to make the cake, make my own frosting sans trans fats. And make the rest of the refreshments or beg a few off on a few other people. I know I want to make a brownie pie. And I'm thinking I'm going to buy a couple cute little ducky ice cube trays, set up a cute punch bowl with little rubber duckies on top, and just serve water or blue Kool-Aid with duckie ice cubes, possibly flavored ones. That way, my budget can go for decorating the room so it won't be quite so blah. (Church rooms always seem so blah at a party, to me at least.) And for the prizes and Kara's gifts. And stamps and invitations. And party favors. Gack. The cheaper I can do stuff, the better. If I have to, I'll send round the hat for donations from family members if the costs build up too much. Or just tell someone to do something. *coughjennifercough*
I found a pretty cool website that's helped me plan so far.
http://www.babyshower101.com/index.html
It has a lot of great games. I've already gone through and picked out some for review by my shower sidekick. I just know, if I don't go through and plan out and do a bunch of this now, things are going to happen in between, and then I'll have an avalance of things to do the week before the party. Which will be mid October.
And Natalee's getting her pink princess glove off on Friday. She got a buckle fracture in her right wrist three weeks ago from falling off the bed. So she's had a pink waterproof cast on since mid July. We call it her princess glove. She hasn't minded it so much - she's gotten lots of attention from it. Kids at the playground come up just to ask about her owie. And adults always seem to have stickers or cookies or candy tucked away somewhere for her and kitty cat since this happened. There's a long story about why she broke her wrist, and I could rant and rave for a while about the evil apartment complex and the new manager. But I won't, and Natalee's been doing okay with the cast.
I have an interview tomorrow. Hopefully it'll go well, and it'll be something I want. And maybe I'll get some more invitations for interviews in the next week or two. We'll see. Wish me luck.
