A Very Hungry Caterpillar - Our Baby Shower!

My family might get a little carried away with theme parties, as evident with my Mom's 50th birthday Decades party (please ignore the horrible photos) and David & Pagie's Monkey Baby Shower.   It was no surprise that our baby shower would be equally decadent.  And it did not disappoint.

In addition to my mom and sister's creative touch, my friend Rosemary joined in the planning and hosting.  My sister-in-law, Paige, and my brother's girlfriend, Bridget also gave a helping hand. Thank you, ladies!

Rosemary's sister is a graphic designer.  She made the invitations, banner and other signage for the party.  She used the diaper bag we registered for as her inspiration.  Creative huh? 

{via}

PS: You can click on any of the photos and collages to make them larger...

(Yes, we had the Notre Dame game on during the shower. Duh. And we won. Finally)

Given the invitations, I had no idea what the theme of our shower might be. I was half secretly hoping in would be Hungry Caterpillar because it matches the nursery, but I was also half secretly hoping it wouldn't be so we could use the theme for baby girl's 1st birthday.  Either way, Eric and I were excited to walk in the door on Saturday afternoon to see what the girls came up with.

We walked in the front door to find the Welcome Table with a giant copy of A Very Hungry Caterpillar for the guests to sign as a guest book.  There were also marshmallow pops decorated to be the Caterpillar.  The guests could wrap them up in a bag as their party favor.

The creativity and delicious did not end there.  The snack table boasted treats from every page of A Very Hungry Caterpillar.  My family made every treat the caterpillar ate through...

All the fruit.

All the cookies, candies, pies, cakes, cupcakes, salamis, cheeses.

Look closely at the little tags my mom made! She included a picture of the snack and the line from the story book.  My dad even helped by scanning in the pages of the book for her! 

Because the shower was co-ed, and the football game was going on, the girls decided to skip the awkward awesome party games in favor of a few creative stations around the house.  This allowed all the kids to participate as well.

The station on the porch had little sheets of paper for the guests to write advice to us and hang the little strips of paper on the clothes line as to not "leave us out to dry" haha.

The other station on the porch included several packages of white onsies in all sizes and a cup full of fabric markers.  The guests were invited to decorate outfits for Baby Ninja.  Everyone was so creative! Of course my Georgia Southern alumni siblings had to make her a Miss GSU one :)

Inside was a station to taste & guess the baby food flavors.  It was fun to see the kids faces, but also listen to the experienced adults argue over their suspicions. 

Not pictured was the delicious spread of (wheat free!) finger foods, dips, and treats that my parents, siblings, and aunties made.  Everyone ate until their heart's content. And then some!  My cousin found me at Mass on Sunday night and was like "I feel like the hungry caterpillar... I'm still stuffed!"

Then it was shower time!  Oh my, the loot!  It was so fun! It was great to share the time with Eric looking through all the baby gear.  So many fun and thoughtful gifts.  Many of the kids brought a copy of their favorite book or their favorite toy. Some of the parents gave goody bags of their favorite parenting secret weapons.  We got several of the basics off the registry as well as our first two cloth diapers!  Of course, they became a topic of conversation among the 80s moms who had previously desperately begging us to NOT cloth diaper.  Once they saw these "new fangled ones" they were impressed!  But I digress...

Baby girl is well outfitted in Notre Dame, Braves, Ninja and Pirate clothes.  She also got several Thanksgiving outfits since she's due 4 days before.

I can't write about the shower with out sharing two gems from the party.  First, the nail artist who did my pre-shower pedicure did a brillant caterpillar on my big toe.

And second, the shirt that Sean wore to the party

He asked if it was inappropriate given that it was a family event, but I said I was flattered and he could wear it :)  Amazing.

Eric and I received a very generous mystery gift that was bulky, wrapped in The Wallstreet Journal and given by a guest not at the party!  Anyone want to guess what we got?

Thank you to our fabulous party hostesses! The party was wonderful and we appreciate all the thoughtful details!  And a special thanks to Rosemary for all the photos :)

We are so blessed!!

PS: We're linking up with Growing up Gardner for {Kid}ding around Friday