Baby Shower Games-Simple and Hilarious

Shower games are always hard.  You don't want to be lame or cheesy or make anyone feel weird (or be forced to eat baby food) so it can get tough depending on who is attending the shower and what the mother-to-be likes.

Mrs. Curly J aka the Brayer was in charge of games for the shower.  She decided to go simple and hilarious.

Our simple game involved guessing how many bookworms (to go with the Book Theme) were in a jar.  Curly T, below, actually tied as one of the winners.  She won the bookworms.  The other winner got a Target gift card.  (PS-Hobie did not grow by 20 billion times.  That is my friend's dog Barkley, Hobie's Wise Old Man friend)

The second game was Baby Shower Bingo that we played while Beezus5 was opening her presents.  Each person filled out a Bingo card with baby related items that we thought B5 would get.  When she opened one of the items, we got to mark them off our card until someone got Bingo.  It was fun/hard to come up with 25 baby items if you are not used to babies.  My mom had no idea of the plethora of breast feeding supplies that are out there today.

The hilarious part came courtesy of the free space on the card.  We decided that although this was a girls only event, the Dad should be present in some way.  So Mr. Curly J did some photo shopping (or something) to create a baby version of the Dad to be, E.

I died laughing when J first emailed me the 'free space' pictures.   Fortunately, I don't think E reads my blog and therefore won't see that I posted this pic on the interweb.

Luckily, I think most people found this funny and not totally disturbing. 

Good job on games, Brayer!

What do you guys think?

Wordless Wednesday-Fall Themed Mantel Decor

As part of my 31 for 31 goal, I have decided to decorate my mantel for each season.  Here is my weak attempt at Fall.  Considering I will probalby decorate for Christmas next week, I didn't go all out on this one.

Amazing, right?

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Baby Shower Craft Hour-Alphabet Book

This weekend, my friends and I had a baby shower for Beezus5 who is having a baby in January-ish.  I think that the most important thing about party planning is trying to make it personalized to the individual.  Beezus5 likes reading so we had a book themed baby shower (with some owls and Harry Potter and Fall stuff thrown in there too).

I kind of like making stuff, so I thought it would be fun to force people to make a craft at the baby shower.  We made an alphabet book for B5 and her baby that also doubled as a guest book so one day mini B5 will know who came to her mom's baby shower.

I bought a photo album and made a page for each letter of the alphabet (by adding alphabet sticker).  Then we had each person draw or color a page and sign the back.  I was concerned that some people would not want to draw (or think they were not good enough at drawing) so I found some alphabet pictures at the Dollar Tree that people could just color if they did not want to draw.

Shanzie and my mom were so excited to be getting their craft on...

This ended up working much better than I thought it would.  I have come to realize recently that not everyone loves crafting or making stuff as much as me, but everyone at the shower willingly participated in this craft.   Some of the drawings were realllllly awesome (not my drawing of a jar of jam per se)...

Have you ever been to a baby shower where you had to make a craft?

Don't you wish you had your own ABC book?

My Italian Food Birthday....

My birthday got of to a good start.  On my birthday I found it acceptable to have dessert for breakfast.  So B and I headed to a local bakery, Ollie's, and I selected this raspberry tart as my breakfast.  We also picked up 2 giant loaves of Italian Country bread....

because later that evening some of my friends (and parent friends) came over for an Italian feast.  Here's our appetizer meat and cheese platter (including some fig chutney we got in Italy).

I made bruschetta that was similar to how we had it in Italy...
Bruschetta with Capers Recipe
-1 pint cherry tomatoes (quartered)
-1 to 2 garlic cloves minced
-2-3 tablespoons of capers
-some good quality olive oil (probably just a couple tablespoons)
Mix together and serve with toasted bread.

My mom got me some Italian spices to mix with oil and dip bread in.  It was awesome.  We had four types of spices and used our olive oil from Italy.  This was a big hit.

The pregnant girl made a fig and ricotta tart.

And my husband made some tiramisu.  (He also bought a backup tiramisu in case his failed.  They were all awesome.)

There was also a lasagna in there somewhere.
Obligatory girl photo.

Obligatory girl photo where I awkwardly touch baby.

It was an excellent birthday party!

Wordless Wednesday-Halloween Baking

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars from What's Gaby Cooking...

Cast Iron Skillet Apple pie by Beezus5...

Both were delightful.

Did you do any Halloween baking?