A Very Special Celebration

Preparing for the upcoming arrival kicked into full swing, recently! One great-grandma arrived from the south, the other arrived (SURPRISE!) from the west, and sweet S volunteered to spend days-on-end with us helping with all the bits and pieces of the party. Although mostly on the day before the baby shower, I'll admit, we sat around and chatted and painted baby blocks while Caelan baked up a French bakery's worth of fancy foods :) I'm not sure how we'll ever get through that 25 lb. bag of flour she bought, lol!

We had a tea tasting of all the chai tea flavors my boss sent me last month; I still can't quite, but I'm still trying to learn to like loose leaf tea! G$ and C (whose sweetie was on vacay with her fam) did some backyard golf swing practice while we were indoors prepping (C ended up staying a couple of nights, too--we had nine people scattered through the house for a couple of days, on about every sleeping surface we could come up with!) I didn't mind a bit, a full house is a fun house!

With Brennen's unexpected return home for the summer, and some of the baby shower gifts appearing at our door, and Caelan's Farmers Market, vacation, and baby shower boxes in tow, plus visitor luggage and extra bedding all over--well, we need a bigger house :) One specifically with a staging area for big events!

I'm pretty sure Gabby is in there somewhere, too--the balloon dream team reunited! She came over after work and was shocked to see Grandma J sitting casually at the kitchen table :) But all for good reason, the next morning was baby shower time! The theme was classic Pooh/100 Acre Woods. Caelan put honey sticks, like our kids used to enjoy at Farmers Markets when I was writing newspaper articles, in the flower arrangements. Of course, she only picked ones that matched the color theme :)

Wooden blocks were the guest book! We certainly had the advantage of hours to work on ours rather than everyone else's quick stop at the welcome table on the way in to the festivities :) There are some very creative people in that guest group though, and some darling, personalized toys for baby as a result!

We were grateful for Gabby's MIL to hostess the party. Her house is the perfect set-up and flow for large gatherings. Caelan has decorated the rooms before (for Gab's bridal shower), so things came together quickly--especially with all the helpers!

The crocheted booties Caelan made were gifted to her sister later, with the flowers and beans still inside :) I missed the syrup-making while I was at PT, but the ladies at home cooked down mangoes, strawberries, blueberries and more to create homemade flavors for the lemonade bar. They also sliced up pretty fruits to drop into the glitter gold glasses (that were part from other parties and part from a fresh order to restock in a new size). The party was also loosely a tea party (with no tea), but Buck and I found several pretty dishes at various places around town. Mix-n-match settings are quite popular and looked sweet for this event. We also pulled pink paper plates and napkins from Caelan's graduation party backstock--so many party supplies that keep coming in handy!

I forgot to take very many pictures at the shower, but we did capture a few special moments! The storybook guessing game (we all enjoyed working on creative titles together in Wyoming . . . such as Forest Dog Wearing Ankle Blankets, North Carolina Fly-trap, Trunk and Snout Besties--I'm trying to remember them off the top of my head--did you guess Fox in Socks, Charlotte's Web, and Elephant and Piggie? :) We also played a story-building game that turned out to be a comedy/personalized baby book tale for the new one! 

Gabby's gift opening took nearly an hour, and I only got a pic of the tail end of her amazing gift pile. Baby Girl is going to be well set when she arrives! So many sweet, pretty, thoughtful, unique, useful, creative items! S even gave a copy of her own favorite book from childhood, aww!

Those few hours flew by in good company--more than 30 guests appeared! Our first family baby shower proved a success. We hope it was a blessing to the mama- and daddy-to-be!

When we all reconvened back at the house, more block decorating took place--the Uncs needed to add their flair to the collection. S was very sweet with Brennen, encouraging him to maybe finish the block with purple scribbles, because, "He could for sure do that one." Oh my goodness, we laughed so hard! She ended up helping him spruce up some of his Veggie Tales characters, and they shared credit. Noah took on zoo animals and they turned out adorably! Caelan went for under-the-sea and G$ designed a car-enthusiast themed block with a tire burnout of pink smoke, aww! He also got the baby the COOLEST Abc's book at an all-day car show, burnout event he and Josh and C went to. Each alphabet letter is a car part--with good explanations of what they are! A is for Alternator, S is for Supercharger, T is for Transmission . . . seriously, the perfect gift from Uncle G$ :)

While we were sitting at the table, ever knitting or crocheting, Caelan got started on her gift to the baby--a blanket with colors Gabby picked out on our Hobby Lobby outing earlier in the week :)

And because no one wanted to cook, and also because Caelan misses good restaurants which are missing in her rural locale, we all met up for dinner (Buck after work) and Grandma J and Maga treated us to a tasty night out! Somehow, after all that, the four pictured below still had the energy to go out for cookies afterwards! This trip was the first time the schoolyweds  got to meet S, so I'm so happy they found time for a little double date with Brennen and his sweetheart.

So many good things this week! So thankful 💕