welcome into the world {mel's baby shower}

i love getting to be apart of throwing a baby shower. not only because it means you are welcoming new life into the world, but you celebrate friendships, family and the decorating! i am lucky enough to have grown up in a home that never missed a party. my mother loves to entertain. while setting up for mel's shower, she told us a story of how she served crackers and cheese on her mother's footstool (yes a stinky footstool) to visiting missionaries at the age of 3. she longed to host. she is good at it. and she passed it down to me.

planning showers with two little kids in tow isn't as easy as it used to be (without the kids). that's why we have a TEAM of ladies to help. (from left to right: Amy Sue, Tara, Kristin, Mel (the mommy we celebrated), me with baby Cohen (not mine-ha), Caitlin, and Kellie)

from left to right: Amy Sue, Tara, Kristin, Mel (mommy we
celebrated), me with baby Cohen (not mine-ha),
Caitlin & Kellie)

my friends threw me a shower for Ireland and the coolest part about it was that i was able to take all the decor home and stick it in her room! i seriously thought my friends were genius. so, we decided to go that same direction for Mel. they are naming their baby boy "Brooklyn Jay" and with that decided to go a stylish chevron grey, water soft blue, accents of mustard yellow and maps included.

of course we first went to our nifty pinterest site and created a board for mel's shower (view it by clicking on the link). we had an intial party planning meeting to divy up jobs and we were on our way. a few of my tasks included:

the invitation

chalkboard, books, napkins and the map pinwheels

spray painted botles, created the map "b" and bought the amazing globe off of craigslist for only $20. ps it's vintage 1963 and came with a book to authenticate it. all going in the baby's room.

wrapped the cones in map paper which were then filled up with fruit.

oh, there are so many more details that mel's amazing friends came up with like the pallet board, the table decor, the favors, etc. i can't leave out the banner that the one-and-only aubrey stewart created. the map print outs that we stuck in frames, the mad gab game created for the tables. i guess I'll just have to do a part 2.

another baby shower down. love you mamma melly! excited to "welcome baby brooklyn into the the world" in august!

on a budget . . . buy invites at costco!

I'm trying to figure out how to write short and to-the-point blogs. However (as my husband would point out)...I'm kind of long-winded. Trying to get over it...I just like giving lots of details (even though you could live without some of them).

I discovered for Judah's first bday that you can print custom invites from costco's photo center. So, he's turning 2...and i did it all over again. It's only $14.99 for 50 bday invites and envelopes included. That's a steal (especially since you can customize). They are 6x7.5 and they even throw in a few calendars w/ a photo of your choice for free. Under the "more" tab they have an option for a custom template. Check it out if you are into designing your own cards...

Take a look at Judah's 2nd bday party invite...=)
Thinking of Joe (I blurred out the contact info...)

Note to self too: I did a little survey from moms with kids on facebook as to what time to throw a bday party. There was an overwhelming 10am-12pm vote...so we are going to try it out...I'll let you know how it goes...party is coming soon before baby #2 hopefully!

Ps: Thanks again to Alyssa Ballisty for shooting the photos of Judah in the laundromat!