Baby Shower For Baby Ellerbroek!

Well it is very obvious that before our sweet little baby has even been born there are many people who really care and love the little one. Oh and there's apparently many people who would love to babysit too. The baby shower hosted by two great coworkers this past weekend showed me just that. I was overwhelmed with kindness and humbled by generosity. I wanted to recap the great day with these pictures, but I couldn't post any pictures without the photography skills of Collette. She brought her camera and snapped away all afternoon. Thank to her I actually have pictures to share!

Jean and Megan were the amazing hostesses. Seriously, they know how to throw a party! Equipped with fun games, amazing food and sweet baby decorations, no detail went untouched.

The table was decorated with gender neutral plates and napkins plus pink and blue hydrangeas. Perfect for a little surprise baby. I can't wait to hear the announcement in the delivery room. Will it be a boy or will it be a girl?

Collette took a lot of detail shots which I adore. She even included the invite and cake.

My favorite food was a tie between the delicious breakfast casserole made by Jean and the cake ordered by Megan. I was lucky to be the only one who got to bring home the left over cake. Well, maybe Joe was equally as lucky because I did share with him too.

If you look closely you can actually tell that the bakery misspelled our last name. I didn't even realize it until Megan pointed it out. I guess they missed the last E (common mistake I must say). It was an easy fix though and was pretty unnoticeable.

The games began pretty much right when the guest entered the door. Everyone was given a clothes pin to stick somewhere on their clothing. If they crossed their arms or legs in any fashion and someone caught them they'd have to forfeit their clothes pin to that person. It got pretty intense for a while. Some were way into the game and others were out of clothes pins immediately (the latter was me).

Another fun game that we will not find out the winner to for some time was to guess the birth date and gender. Everyone got to put a pink or blue stamp on the date they thought baby Ellerbroek would arrive. I look forward to keeping an eye on this in the future. My office had talked about creating a pool for the baby birth date, gender, weight etc. Makes the anticipation even more fun!

The last game was one I thought I might be able to win... unfortunately I did not. Megan froze small plastic babies in ice cubes. The challenge was to put one in your drink and as soon as the baby broke free from the ice cube you yelled "my water broke!" I warned everyone that if I ended up winning I wouldn't yell out in an alarming way. Lucky for the guests, and their blood pressure, I did not win this one, but it was a lot of fun to watch the little baby floating away in my drink.

Before opening presents I asked that no one laugh at me if I happened to open one and didn't quite know what the present was. I have learned a lot about what baby needs and some of the items have been completely new to me (for example: swaddle sacks, breastfeeding storage bags, butt paste, etc.) Lucky for me majority of the guests were not moms so chances were if I didn't know then they wouldn't either.

I was blown away by the amazing gifts. The highlight that had everyone talking was the tricycle made out of diapers, bibs and receiving cloths. It was so cool we still haven't taken it apart at home. The colors match our nursery perfectly and will be great for either a baby boy or girl. Props to Collette once more for this creation.

We received many items on our registry which just helps Joe and I feel more and more prepared for this little one to arrive. I can already tell our kitchen will soon be taken over by baby items like the bottle warmer, bottle drying rack and bottles galore.

Joe arrived at the end of the shower to meet everyone and thank them for their generosity. Well that and to help carry the gifts to the car, let's not kid ourselves. He timed his arrival perfectly because the cake was just getting cut. Do you think he sensed that?

I also wanted Joe to take a group shot of us girls for the memories. I know Collette spent lots of time behind the camera, but I didn't want anyone to leave until we got a shot of the entire group. It was an amazingly gorgeous day (I believe upper 60's or low 70's for temps). We took advantage of the weather and snapped the photo out front of Jean's house.

We even got the hostesses in on the I-O-W-A action... thanks to Megan's suggestion. Of course we all know Joe was game for this pose and I had to share the fun picture.

Thank you all so much for hosting and attending this shower for Baby Ellerbroek! It was so much fun and we are so grateful for all the wonderful memories and gifts. Two more months to go!