Sunday, September 19, 2010

Hanna's Sip and See

One of my good friends, Lauren, had her third baby girl in August. My friend Josh and I planned to take her to the spa rather than throw a baby shower since everyone knows that a woman with three kids needs a spa day more than just about anything else! We still plan to take her but when the opportunity to co-host a "sip and see" came up, we couldn't pass up the chance to participate in the fun. We told Lauren if she keeps having babies, we'll keep hosting showers!

Our theme for the party was "Wild about Hanna" and we decorated with animal prints all over the place. (aside: decorating Josh's house for parties is so much fun for me because he does not like it when I move his things around. He thinks we should leave everything exactly as he normally has it and try to work the party stuff around his normal arrangement. I never listen to that since I usually have a theme in mind so it is always fun to watch him grimace as I replace his things with party decorations.)

(because let's be honest, it wasn't a housewarming party for Josh, it was a baby shower for Hanna. That's two completely different looks.) (I hope.)

Here's what we came up with:
The banner was hung in 2 other places before we finally settled on this spot. Josh doesn't have a bare space on any of his walls so it was definitely a challenge finding a place to hang this. He watched me hang it and when I was all done he said, "well I guess we aren't opening those blinds at the party." grrr. (also, those stupid wooden animals held up all night and day before the party but once the party got started they kept falling down. The banner was taped to the blinds also so the words didn't fall but the stupid monkey on the left would not stay in place. I tried to re-tape it each time but I finally gave up.)

The dessert table. Yum! We had cake balls, chocolate dipped oreos, iced sugar cookies and macaroons.

Matt made the food labels for everything. Keeping with the theme, I made the chocolate dipped oreos with giraffe print on top.

The cake balls had animal print designs also. Some were giraffe print and some were zebra print. They were chocolate inside.

My Aunt Debbie and Mom helped make the table runner for the shower. We tried to go with some "animal" type food--or at least we forced the food into an animal theme. We had "Safari Sandwiches" (which are, of course, sliders from chili's), tropical fruit salsa (what? that works), chicken skewers (they skewer chicken on safari's, right?), trail mix (obviously), veggies, and fruit.

I didn't want to have a typical veggie tray so I put dip in little cups and then put some cut veggies on top of the dip. It was less messy than a regular veggie tray plus it worked well for the kids at the party.

We gave little cookies as the party favors.

Any good baby shower has a good bar. I didn't get a picture of the full bar but here are some of the mixed drinks we had for guests. We always like to serve alcohol at baby showers because we figure we are just increasing our chances at throwing another baby shower in about 9 months....

These are Hanna's sisters, Amanda and Olivia. The third girl on the right is her cousin, Reagan. They had a good time playing together (and sneaking food from the dessert table) during the party.

Hanna was passed around from person to person at the party. There was no shortage of love for her there. Plus, she is so cute that she makes it really easy to fall in love immediately.

Even Josh had a soft spot for little Hanna. (it helped that she didn't spit up on him or his furniture!)

And like all good parties at Josh's house, there was a girl with her pants down at the end. :-)

Elissa, Josh, and I all had a great time putting this together. I'm so glad Elissa suggested it because we really did enjoy getting to spend time with baby Hanna and her family.

(Of course, the spa day should be equally fun to plan. Looking forward to that time away from kids, too.)

Congratulations to Lauren and Adam on their beautiful new addition, Hanna!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Someone Misplaced August!

That's weird. While I look for August (ahem)...and maybe figure out how to catch up on a month that was filled with class reunions, a great wedding, birthday parties and more...check out the latest from Jack.