Baby showers. Everyone has a love/hate relationship with baby showers. The older you get, the more you tend to roll your eyes at them. The games get a little ridiculous. I mean, who wouldn't want to try baby food and sniff diapers full of melted candy bars. Don't get me wrong....we did some of those things at my baby showers but I was 25 and it was fun. When I offered to throw a shower for my best friend Stacy, she was excited but requested NO GAMES. So we did some fun little activities instead.
This shower came together beautifully and I was so happy to help in showering this amazing woman and her new baby girl with love, prayers and gifts.
We guessed the date the baby would arrive. We wrote encouraging notes on diapers to give Stacy a laugh in the middle of the night and wrote words of advise and wisdom.
Stacy's sister Stephanie is going to make a quilt so we each designed squares for the quilt that will hang in the baby's room.
Just to show how much the woman is loved and how excited everyone is for this baby....only ONE person wasn't able to come. It ended up being a huge spring storm (we got over 12 inches of snow) and yet everyone braved the cold and snow and made it.
This is my favorite picture. I looked over and saw her belly hanging over the edge of the counter and had to take a picture. Isn't it adorable?
I kept the food pretty simple, especially as there are some food allergies in the group. So we had fruit, veggies (sorry, no pretty pictures of that), chocolate drizzled pretzels and cake.
I love simple decor as well, so I just had mason jars of baby's breath around the house and I made little garlands with circles. I just sewed them together with my sewing machine. Easy peasy!
Also, I hate punch. If I am going to waste calories on a sugary drink it better have bubbles and caffeine. So I went with bubbly water, soda and coffee.
This cake. It is my new favorite. It looks SO gourmet and pretty. Yet it was the easiest cake I have ever made. I made 2 boxes of chocolate fudge cake mix and put them into 3-9" cake pans. After they were out and cooled, I wrapped them in saran wrap and stuck them in the freezer. Looking back, I should have trimmed off the top to make them even before freezing them but it still worked out just fine. I left them in the freezer until I was ready to decorate them on the day of the shower.
When I was ready to decorate (about 1 hour before the shower) I took the cakes out of the freezer and unwrapped them. Freezing them keeps them nice and moist and they were DELICIOUS!!! I took 2 cans of cream cheese frosting (I know, right!?!?) and put them into a ziploc bag and cut off one corner for a pastry bag. I piped a bit in the middle of the cake stand to make it stick, then I added the first layer of cake. Then I piped a little frosting in the middle and then a large line of frosting along the outside edge. Then I plopped on another layer of the cake and repeated the process. Then I put the top layer on and squeezed all of the frosting that was left on the top of the cake and spread it around with a knife. I added fruit to the top and edges of the cake stand and sprinkled it with powdered sugar. I used a paint brush to brush a little powdered sugar on the sides. It was very helpful. Viola! A beautiful and easy cake that took me less than 20 minutes to "decorate".
Everyone enjoyed the food and friends. Before opening gifts we all sat around Stacy and layed hands on her and prayed for her, the baby, their marriage and all the things they will be facing in the next few months and years. It was amazing!
As Stacy opened her gifts, we each took turns sharing our "advise" from the paper they had filled out earlier. They were funny, unusual, heartfelt and there was some GREAT advise on them.
Thanks everyone for coming out to help us celebrate Stacy, Jeff and Baby Girl Stutzman! We all can't wait to meet her and snuggle her.
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