Baby Shower for Candice

If you know me at all, you know that I LOVE to throw parties! I love all the details of planning and making. I also love to decorate the party room so it's visually stimulating and fun to look at.

Thank goodness Candice was having a baby and there was another reason to have a party. :)

I had offered to throw Candice a baby shower for Jackson or Lizzy, but she didn't want to trouble me. This time I wouldn't take NO for an answer. She just got to tell me what day and time would work and give her input on what direction I should go with a theme.

Because she liked the color combination of green and brown for a baby boy, we went for a jungle and monkey theme.

This was my first, and maybe my last, attempt at making a sock monkey.

It wasn't nearly as fun or as easy as I thought it would be. The socks I had chosen were quite long and VERY stretchy. So this made my monkey extra long. My family had concerns as I was constructing it, but in the end I think it turned out OK. :)

I had fun making this banner and I liked how it turned out.
I used brown paper grocery bags, green paper and computer printed letters and monkey. Then stapled the circles to one of my grocery bag "vines".

When my kids saw my making and decorating efforts, they wanted to help. Taylee, Treyson and Abree made these monkeys and bananas for decoration.
The yellow thing that kinda looks like a flower is a banana peel. Taylee's cute idea. Love it!

Grandma Ison's sock monkey came to the party.

The vines were made out of brown paper grocery bags that had been cut, folded and then sewn together attaching green felt leaves randomly.

My kids also helped by getting their Webkins jungle animals and decorating the bookshelf.

Treyson was just sure we needed a HUGE snake at the jungle party. He let me use Bowden the Boa Constrictor to decorate the banister.

Vines were everywhere! It was a JUNGLE in there. :)

I wanted to make a jungle themed diaper cake. In my creating process I came up with this diaper tree instead. This was another of my ideas that my family was skeptical of at first. I LOVE the monkey we found to hang out in the tree. His face is so happy.

The party wouldn't be a party without yummy snacks.... jungle themed of course.

We had a nice turn out of friends and family at the party.

Jacque & Nici

Amber

Amber & Lisa

Mom-LoraDawn, Tera, Miriam

Daisylyn was part of our entertainment. She was a cute little busy monkey.

Tammy

What is a shower or party without games? Don't say "perfect"!

The first game we played was fun. I had Candice's kids (Micaela-8, Jackson-5 & Lizzy-3) draw pictures of Nursery Rhymes. We numbered them and then had everyone guess which nursery rhymes they were. They were SO cute.... even with the additions of snakes and camouflage, that had nothing to do with the rhyme. :)

Wish I had taken some pictures of them. I was too busy holding the pictures and being hostess, I guess.

Next, instead of giving Candice baby advice, we wrote down "Wishes for Baby". I gathered these and put them in a little photo album for Candice to take home.

Next was draw a baby on a plate.... on top of your head.

The winning "baby".

Joan-Candice's mom & Candice

After snacking on jungle food, opening gifts was next.

Candice received lots of C-U-T-E baby boy things.

This diaper cake was from Jacque.

See? I told you she got lots of C-U-T-E stuff.

Can't wait to meet baby boy!

Amber's Baby Girl Shower

On Friday, we had Amber's baby shower. We did it at her new house, so she could give tours and let everyone know where her new residence was.

(I know the decor looks familiar, but if it ain't broke, why fix it?!) :o)
Amber's good friend Amy, made these little petite fore cakes. They were so cute and tasty.
Aubree (Amy's daughter), Taylee and Rylee got the privilege of coming to the "big girl party". Rylee told me later, "Mom, I wasn't sure if a Baby Shower would be that much fun and didn't think I really wanted to go... but it WAS really fun! I'm glad I got to go." Silly girl, big girl parties are always fun!

Karen, Deon (Brinton's mom), Amber, Candice, and Aunt Jana.

Candice, Aunt Jana, Rylee, Tawnya (still pregnant!), Jayma (Amber's friend), Grandma Ison, Kortney (Brinton's sister), Mom/Grandma McKinley with Baby Sydney.

Amy was in charge of the game, Baby Concentration. Some of us were really, really good, others (like myself) were very, very bad at the memory thing! We all helped one another and earned candy bar prizes for each match. Example: Umbilical Cord = red rope licorice, Conception = Skor, Grandparents = Sugar Daddy, Delivery = Push pop, etc.

We also wrote down baby advice for Amber. She's probably heard all of my advice time and time again, but I told her not to feel too guilty about letting the baby swing for as long as she needs...even if it's several hours during the night. :o)
Amber received some really nice gifts. We ooo-ed and ahhh-ed over the cute outfits and loved the homemade taggy and flannel strip blanket, made by her good friends, Jayma and Amy.
Gifts galore!

Tawnya & Karen's Baby Shower

Last Friday, I hosted another baby shower, this time for Tawnya and Karen (sister & sister-in-law). They were both having girls, so our colors were pink, spring green and white. (There are A LOT of baby girls being born right now!) I chose to decorate with what is starting to be my signature, flower balloons. I just love how they look and they are really quite easy to make.

I also made them a diaper cake. Once again, I kept it simple because my financial resources were spent other places. Even in it's simplicity, I like the way it turned out.

Almost everywhere you looked, you could find "pink stuff", including pink candy and pink sugared popcorn for favors, "Thanks for POPPING by."





I also had fun painting and pok-a-dotting clothes pins to hang baby clothes for decoration.








These clotheslines had 2 functions; decoration and gifts for the new mommies. Karen, Tawnya & Amber got to take home all these cute outfits.

We had a nice gathering of friends & family. Missed you, if you didn't come!

Here's a sweet picture of Candice & Baby Sydney. Look she's waving at you.

A 4 Generation picture; Karen, LoraDawn (mom-in-law to Karen),
Great Grandma Ison & Sydney.

Karen opening gifts.








Tawnya opening gifts.






For games, we played "Makin' Babies" (again) & "Baby Catch Phrase". Catch Phrase was really fun. Play was normal, except we used baby/pregnacy/delivery related words.

Another new baby girl in the family, Jordan. She and Sydney are only 2 days apart. Both of them only weigh around 6 pounds. They are so small, but SO CUTE!

Jordan & her mamma Amber Munt.
Congratulations Amber (it was SO nice to see you)!

It was so nice to gather for the celebration of all these new little ones. I'm so glad Sydney is here safe and sound (even though she made her entrance a month early). I'm also looking forward to meeting Tawnya's new baby girl, as she arrives in the next week or so. And then in a little more than a month, I'll get to meet Amber (Croff)'s baby girl. This is so much fun!

Mark your calendar's for Amber Croff's baby shower. It's coming up Friday- March 20th. If I didn't see you at Tawnya & Karen's shower, I'll be looking forward to seeing you at Amber's. If I saw you at Tawnya & Karen's shower, I'll STILL be looking forward to seeing you at Amber's. :o)