Another Grandbaby - Another Baby Shower!

Yes, I mentioned back in December that Shirley's pregnant, due in late August. And with the progress in technology now you have to ask to NOT be informed of the sex of the baby. Well, that's what Shirley did - for a while.

I don't know whose idea it was but the plan was for Rachyl to throw a shower for Shirley and make the sex of the baby known to Shirley at the shower. All the guests would know and be able to buy gifts accordingly and the surprise wouldn't be the shower itself but rather the color of the shower.

So a Garden Tea party theme was chosen and the hunt was on for all the appropriate decorations and food for the party. I didn't realize it til recently but the location was also determined - my place. Rach says "Well, yeah, YOU have the garden!" OK, I'm glad my yard is finally appreciated and being used for special functions but this is now 3 years in a row: Rick and my wedding in '09, Kevin and Shirley's "Re-I do" last year and the baby shower this year.

We all visited thrift stores regularly looking for teacups, teapots, saucers, pretty serving platters, etc. We got a nice collection and other decorations were planned. Rach and I had a weekly "Survivor in the hot tub" time that we switched for the last couple weeks to watching in the living room and working on decorations. Rach wanted tissue paper poof-balls and then the apparently now-mandatory diaper cake. I knew how to do the poof-balls from my youth, we made a dozen of those and looked for nice diaper cake designs on the web, we made a BEAUTIFUL diaper cake!

Part of a tea party of any kind is flowers and it was a perfect time of year for that! I just visited a couple of the multitude of empty houses around and picked the flowers left to fend for themselves in the neglected yards. In the process I discovered a house slated for demolition that had not one blade of grass on the whole lot - it's covered with blooming plants! Now we have a plant digging expedition in the plans, Denny, Rach and me someday soon! Ooh, fun!

The day of the shower arrived cool and threatening to shower but, for the most part, stayed dry. The guests arrived with all their pink bags and decorated onesies. Rachyl had to text Shirley that she could not leave her house until 10 minutes after the hour, to assure as many guests present as possible to witness the unveiling of the sex of the baby to Shirley.

Kevin met her at her car, blindfolded her and led her into the yard facing away from the party. Rachyl gave her a gift, a onesie with the ultrasound picture showing the baby's gender that we family members received weeks prior attached via an iron-on decal and wrapped in 3 layers of tissue paper. She had the appropriate squeal when she finally got through all the paper and turned around and screamed at the pukingly-pink party that greeted her! Then she yells "it has a vagina!" OK, I guess you could say she was thrilled with the news. She researched how to improve the chances of conceiving a girl and pulled it off!

The party was very nicely done, the decorations were beautiful, the food was delicious (Shirley made most of it, to keep her occupied) and I believe everyone had a decent time. The hot tub was the gift table and it was covered. She got a beautiful hand-me-down bassinet as well as bags of other hand-me-downs.

Near the end of the party Heather brought a gift and then the men and children also came to help un-party my house. All in all a very good event.

The very next day Denny asked me to come down to his house. He had an ultrasound picture to show me - Heather's pregnant too! Due in early January!

Uh-oh, that means another shower.....