baby shower!

On Saturday, I co-hosted a baby shower for my sister-in-law.  It was the first shower I have ever been involved with planning!  I wanted to do an EXTRA special good job for her.  She is expecting her first child (a girl), and has been there for me so many times (cough *bachelorette party* cough).   I was very excited to help plan this shower.  The vision was girly and pretty - right up my alley.

So, I was in charge of the perishable elements - food and flowers - two of my favorite things!   I thought about buying the food and flowers, but then decided that I wanted to do it myself.  I wanted to make sure everything tasted good and was just right!  I made chocolate cupcakes, madelines, beet and goat cheese sandwiches, ham and cheese finger sandwiches, lemon strawberries, and oatmeal blueberry scones.

Cupcakes!

Our kitchen on Friday night as I prepped all the food for Saturday

Making the spread for the ham and cheese sandwiches

The sandwich spread

The beets for the open faced sandwiches

Arranging the flowers

The finished product (we had 6 canning jars full of flowers)

We transported everything pre-measured up to San Francisco on the morning of the party

I pulled out my wedding silver for the occasion

The spread!

My silver service in service

The name tags, favors (tea caddies, lip balm, and chocolate)

Game #1: write a funny message on the diapers

Game #2: Write messages to the new baby on a frame mat

 Game #3 (not pictured): Andrea asked both the mother and father-to-be questions and she had to guess what his answers would be.  It was really cute!

The planning team (minus an out-of-towner) and the mother-to-be

It was a beautiful day!  We had so much fun, and I really enjoyed meeting my sister-in-law's friends!  Most of them seemed to have children (or be expecting) and I laughed SO hard as they recounted their birth experience stories - ranging from being kicked out of a cab while in labor to husbands who cut their paternity leave short when they realized how much work it was!

I was asked several times for the recipes for what I made, so here is the line up:

• Cakebread Beet Tartare (I changed the bread for this occasion)
• Party Ham Sandwiches (from SouthernLiving.com)
• Madelines from the Joy of Cooking
• Blueberry Oatmeal Scones from Bon Appetit
• Chocolate cupcakes with whipped vanilla frosting (in the shape of rosettes) - Duncan Hines!
• Strawberries with grated lemon peel and sugar (thanks Nell for the idea!)

So would I do anything differently?  The savory food (sandwiches) and the strawberries went the fastest - not sure I needed the 45 cupcakes I made!   I gave away 30 or so and then my boss and I ate an additional 4 today at work.  Gotta love leftovers!

Congratulations again to the mother-to-be!!  Can't wait to meet the new little one!

p.s. I fully aim to be her favorite Aunt... just saying these Duncan Hines skills will not go to waste...