1st Baby Shower

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After breaking the news to the family, it was decided (by moms and sisters) that a baby shower was in order. “Isn’t it too early?” was my initial response (I was barely past my 12th week). “well, maybe, but better early than never!” was the consensus. And so the wheels started moving and the planning started. Gera’s mom had already decided on a place and time: breakfast on the Saturday before I was to leave, so that would give them 2 weeks to plan and invite people. Then Abril and I started working our magic and created a bird theme baby shower (inspired by Martha, of course!).

It all started with the cupcake idea and then went on from there: bird houses for the center pieces, bird invitations (which I designed and printed, of course), nests with eggs (Jordan almonds) as party favors, and a whole bunch of other little bird-theme details. We had a long guest list, since it included my friends and my sister’s friends, as well as my mom’s and mom-in-law’s friends. I think we handed out about 50 invites total, and we had about 40 guests… not too bad I’d say.

I must admit I was pretty excited about having a shower… the cake, the presents… hehe. We all worked really hard to put it all together, and I enjoyed the planning as well as the execution. I did the center pieces because I couldn’t wait for my mom (the florist) to get off work… it was just a big temptation to have all the flowers and materials there and not do it. I love how they turned out! Abril did the cupcakes, of course (she’s the pastry chef to-be). Although she (we) encountered “mild” problems with the frosting and the heat, after a second batch of not-so-melty frosting they were done at about 2am. We also did the cake stand for the cupcakes, and even though we ended up putting it together after a few guests had arrived, it looked terrific and made the cupcakes stand out! We got a lot of compliments on the décor, invites, cakes, etc… I was really happy!

The invites requested “lluvia de dolares” (dollar shower/rain), which is a common theme for bridal and baby showers. That way you get to buy whatever you want (since registering is not that common in mexico yet). But I also registered at Target and Babys’R’us at El Paso. I got 2 gifts from the registry, and the rest were half money envelopes and half baby stuff (mostly clothes). There was no time to open the presents at the shower, so I took them home unopened and then waited like 7 hours for Gera’s mom to come to dinner so she could be there when I opened them. Oh… my fingers were itching…. I did peek at one…. don’t tell her, hehe. It was also nice to do it like that because the dads (grandpas-to-be) were there and could be included in the baby festivities. Gera had already returned to Zurich by then so he wasn’t there for the shower, but he was there for most of the preparation, and he contributed ideas and we went together to register. It was great to see him buying baby stuff!