"A Giraffe & Her Half" Baby Shower

This shower was a joy to throw. Not just because I love the mommy-to-be, but also because I had the privelege to work with her best friend Jessica. It's always way less stressful when I have people willing to help me put it together, especially when it involves evenings filled with wonderful food, coffee or hot chocolate and plenty of good laughs. Plus, it's so much easier to throw a shower for someone when the person helping you knows that person's likes and dislikes.

It all turned out so cute and God made His presence known throughout the planning and preparation for the shower in more ways than I can count, but I'll share one story specifically. I ordered 2 yards of burlap from JoAnn's Fabric (I had a 50% off coupon to use). Four days before the shower I received an email stating the fabric had been processed and will ship the very next day. When I ordered it I thought standard shipping would do because three weeks was ample time to get it here and complete the project, right? Well, the email specifically noted that with standard shipping I should typically allow 4-7 days, once processed! (EEEEEEEK!) That meant that I'd be getting it after the shower and because I live in a place that does not have a store that offers burlap, I freaked out a tad and wrote in my thankful journal, "Lord, PLEASE work a miracle and get me the fabric here before Saturday!" Well, "work a miracle" HE did. I received it the VERY NEXT DAY. I have been in awe of Him ever since. Yes, it's just fabric, but the fabric isn't the point. The point is that it took less than 24 hours for God to answer my prayer, because He's amazing!

Due to the fact that God is amazing, we were able to complete the projects we had in mind. The Mommy-to-be loves burlap and she seemed to enjoy what we had made, so I'm beyond thankful for that answer to prayer.

This guy was super easy to make. I drew the design I wanted on a piece of cardboard, cut it out and then traced around it on a piece of burlap. I folded the burlap over to cut the two sides (front and back), hot glued the back side onto the cardboard piece, glued the top edges of the front piece on, stuffed it with grocery bags and finished gluing the edges. I then cut out purple giraffe spots out of felt, glued them on, and used pink felt fabric for his face and ears. (The eyes are little green buttons.) Once that was complete, I outlined what I had traced with permanent marker with puffy fabric paint. I used twine to create the puffs for the tail and hair, glued them on and drew a smiley face with puffy fabric paint. Once it was dry I glued twine on the back so this cute little burlap giraffe could be hung up... and voila! This took me a couple hours (not including dry time) to complete. So simple and so cute!

Jessica made this adorable frame, which was the theme for the activity (explained later).

The center pieces were my favorite part. It was so simple and it had special significance. The wooden pieces displayed were used in Ben and Jill's wedding a year ago. We couldn't resist re-using them for her baby shower.

Jessica happened to find the giraffe fabric pieces in a clearance rack and bought them all. We tied giraffe ribbon around the mason jars and filled them with giraffe edibles: twigs and leaves!

Scattered on each table were 10 giraffe facts. For a prize the guest were encouraged to mingle and decide which were true and which were false. Hmmmmm... is this statement true? :)

First thing we did was read a book, which was also the guest book and the inspiration for this showers theme: "A Giraffe & Her Half"

Close Up of the onsie I made...

The book inspired her invitations as well (created using Punchbowl).

The poem I wrote,
"Jill and her half are as cute as can be
So let's celebrate this new mom and her little "mini me"
It'll be an afternoon full of fun-filled laughs
An afternoon to bless "A Giraffe and Her Half"

Jessica had the honor of reading the book, Shel Silverstein is such an amazing author, the kids in the audience LOVED it (which of course was everyone)!

After she read the book we had devotions, where I talked about what Titus 2:3 women are to teach younger women: loving your husbands and children. In a very short few minutes I tried to give a glimpse of that and what it means Biblically. I saw this quote once that stated, "The greatest thing a man can do for his children is love their mother." and explained that also applied to women, "The greatest thing a woman can do for her children is love their father." So what does love look like? We talked about the qualities of love Paul described in 1 Corinthians: patience, kindness, self-less-ness, serving each other, &etc. Still, there's someone that always comes to mind when I think of motherly love and that's Mary, Jesus' mother. Yes, she was the mother of God, so we can (in all honesty) never relate to her, but every time Brielle does something I never want to forget I always think of Mary and how Luke described in her chapter 2:19 and 2:51, "And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart." That statement stops me in my tracks every time I read it. I didn't dive into what it means exactly, what it meant to treasure up the son of God, and I can't imagine the depth of love Mary must've felt for Jesus. Still, every single mother can agree that time flies, you blink and before you know it you're child is 1 and many mothers can attest to blinking and their child is off to college or walking down the isle, so treasure it up. Don't forget.

After devotions the women were encouraged to create something giraffe so that Jill could fill the empty frames as a collage of the wonderful giraffe items made for her. They were to go along with the frame Jessica had made...

Eat, Talk, Create, Laugh, Joke, Have FUN! That was the afternoon. It was so relaxing!

You can never go wrong with yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting, spinach-artichoke dip with chips and vege's, and a pumpkin pie dip with honey graham crackers. All washed down with hot apple cider (caramel and cinnamon sticks included).

The food encouraged crafting and the giraffe creations turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself.

As the women were still creating, Jill opened presents. The diaper cake made by Rhonda, was my favorite. How adorable is that?!

I'd say it was another successful afternoon!

Jill & Jessica
Most importantly, the mom-to-be walked away with a ton of great stuff and I think SHE enjoyed her afternoon centered around her giraffe themed nursery and her little half.

Stevi's Little Cupcake {Baby Shower}

I feel honored that I was able to throw a shower for a former student. She was part of my first 8th grade class and is now all grown up and entering the world of motherhood. She chose a cupcake theme for her little Oaklie's nursery and I followed suit in preparing for her shower. Her color scheme was inspired by an adorable cupcake blanket made by her grandma: teal, pink and brown. I couldn't believe how many ideas revolve around a cupcake party. I hope Stevi enjoyed her cupcake party.

I used Punchbowl to send out virtual invites (which were ADORABLE).

Punchbowl invites.

Homemade "snail mail" invites. I owe Terri (Stevi's grandma) and Stevi a big thank you for helping me put these together!

Approximately 30 people showed up, which was good considering we had over 100 cupcakes on our overflowing cupcake and ice cream bar. (Terri amazed me by making 94 cupcakes before 10 am on Saturday morning! I was impressed. It took me all night to make 30 more... .


Before food...



After food.

All the goodies to top off your cupcake.

There were pink lemonade cupcakes, confetti cupcakes, strawberry, vanilla, and strawberry too!

Psssst.... I'll tell you a little secret... the cupcake stands were just wrapped boxes and vases topped with plates. But. THEY. WERE. SWEET.

The cupcake kabobs made of sugar wafers, marshmallows, rice krispies, and mini cupcakes.

There were even bright pink gift bags and I encouraged ladies to take home as many as they so desired! I didn't have many left over, thank goodness.

The decor was perfect because I didn't do a lot of it. :) I struggled with the caulk that was supposed to serve as fake frosting on these cute mason jar cupcakes, so I had to call a friend. Mine turned into one of those "failed Pinterest ideas".

My first attempt...

It was terrible. Thinking it was just because of my inexperience with a caulking gun, I scraped it off and tried again...

At this point I was hysterically laughing. I'm not sure if it was because it was so funny, or because I was losing it.

I tried smoothing it out and adding sparkles, sparkles fix everything, right? Wrong!

I was told it looks like a santa hat.

I had to call a friend. Her's turned out adorable. THANK YOU LORI!

They were filled with personalized "It's a Girl!" M&M's. They were a perfect center piece and excellent favors to take home.

The banner hanging on the fireplace says, "Sprinkled with Love" and although it's hard to read and see on the picture, the doiles made it so cute.

The guest table was adorned with the cupcake liner flowers, a "Daddy's Cupcake" onsie, and the cupcake frames I made her to take home for her nursery.

The guest book was simply writing addresses on an envelope. That way Stevi wasn't playing a guessing game with who brought her what. There were many women from our church that blessed Stevi with gifts even though they didn't know her. I have an amazing church family! I hope Stevi felt welcome in it!

The frames I made her.

On the left is a vase full of cupcake liners and the guests were encouraged to guess the number for the prize. Ironically, the mommy-to-be guessed the number EXACTLY.
The cupcake banner that didn't turn out how I had planned. I was super bummed because I originally wanted to hang this from the food table, however, when we pulled the yarn through the poof balls, they began falling apart. So we displayed them seperately. I went ahead and gave them to Stevi, but it was the one piece I was most excited about giving her and super bummed about the outcome. Oh well. There are more important things than decor, like our church family and devotions.

Enough about the fufu decor and food. Although it's what gave the first impression of a shower, it's not what made it successful. First of all, I mentioned before how amazing my church family is, but I have to brag on these people for a bit. Immediately after church everyone gets together and sets up tables, chairs, table cloths, table runners, &etc. What should take me an hour or so, literally takes me 20 minutes or less. During the shower, the women forgo filling their plate to help serve punch, fill ice cream bowls, and make sure the frosting stayed full. After the shower, women were wiping tables, putting tables and chairs away, doing the dishes, and packing the boxes for me. I have yet to wash a dish I DIRTIED. Every time I throw a shower I'm amazed at this group of people and their willingness to serve others, which is exactly what Christianity is all about. Not only that, but the women who never knew Stevi before Sunday filled gift bags with items from her registry out of the kindness of their hearts. They didn't have to, but they gave joyfully knowing that Stevi would walk away prepared for the arrival of her baby.

I feel extremely blessed. I hope Stevi felt that way too.

I also hope the women who attended walked away feeling refreshed after an amazing afternoon playing games, gorging on cupcakes, ooooo-ing and awwwwww-ing over all the cute baby clothes, and hearing a beautiful children's story called, "I Couldn't Love You More" by Jason Ingram. (I always read a children's story. I'm a reading teacher, duh!) It tied right into the devotions where I talked about how the love Stevi feels for her little cupcake is only a fraction of the unconditional, steadfast, unwavering love God has for His children. Even though (like our own children) we screw up on a daily basis, that love never changes. The gospel message is similar to your child being convicted of a crime and the judge looks at you (mom) and says you can take the sentence on behalf of your child. Most mom's wouldn't hesitate because we would give our life for our child. Jesus did that on the cross! We deserve that death and He took it for us! Parents have a glimpse into that kind of love once they have a child of their own and Stevi is beginning to understand that. Stevi has loved that child even before she knew she was expecting! I hope the gospel message came alive for those mommies in that room, who can relate to that kind of love.

Even though we're all liars, gossips, judgmental little cupcakes (Romans 3:23), and deserve an eternity in hell (Romans 6:23), God died for us even though He KNEW WE WERE SINNERS (Romans 5:5), so although we are imperfect humans we are made holy and blameless through Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross. That was our deserved death and He took it on our behalf and can now be in the infinitely holy presence of God. How? "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9 That's it.

That is one sweet love story.

And so is the one of Stevi and her little cupcake, Oaklie.

Her sister made her a cute little blanket and painted a cupcake piggy bank for her, both were abolutely adorable. Her little sisters gift was the one earning the most ooooo's and awwwww's especially because it included this adorable poem Mikey included...

I couldn't have done it without the help of Terri, Lori, Kelleigh, the Deb's, Jessica, and the many men and women who stayed after church to help set up. THANK you!