My dear friend Julie will be celebrating the birth of her baby girl this spring, and I couldn't wait to shower her with a Valentine-inspired party today. Being the classy lady she is, the vintage (rather than a "pink explosion" in her words) look was more her speed, so after I found the invitations to set the tone, everything else was easy.
Thank goodness I had the help of my mom, who always helps me with putting everything together. Get ready for a billion photos of our fun day celebrating Julie and her sweet baby-to-be!
In true Valentine spirit, I fell in love with these invitations from Green Cherry Factory
Mason jars filled with the first tulips of the season, tied with a Cricut heart and twine
Inside each bag was a baby item beginning with the letter on the bag. Guests wrote down their guesses (answers: bubble bath, aspirator, bib, yellow rubber duck, shampoo, hat, (baby) oil, wipes, ear thermometer off her registry, rattle)
Favors were Dollar Store salt shakers filled with a cinnamon sugar mix (1/2 C sugar + 1 TB cinnamon) and tied with party circles from Green Cherry
Now do you get it?
Supplies for one of our guest activities. We made baby blocks to coordinate with the Baby's nursery, which will be navy, pink and nautical. Blocks are from Melissa from West Virginia Cabin, who was awesome!
The directions were to pick a letter sticker, use paints, paper cutouts and paint to design a set of alphabet blocks for the baby.
Some of the finished products! The kids and tweens especially liked this activity.
Another activity that left Julie with a keepsake from her guests was letter writing. Guests chose an envelope with a note card inside. They wrote encouraging and inspiring messages for Julie and Keith to open when the envelope says to open (mom and dad's anniversary, mom goes back to work, etc.)
Veggies in cordial cups from Party City. This leaves more room on your plate for sweets!
Chicken salad from Meijer (one pound served over 16 people) and cucumber sandwiches (which were cut into hearts and I totally missed getting a photo of that detail!)
Peanut butter kisses (I made them with Hershey hearts rather than Dove because the hearts hold their shape better), Nutella brownies (I made them into minis and only baked 10 minutes), and strawberry fruit pizzas (always a hit)
These chocolate cake pops were alllll my mom. I just showed her the pin and she figured them out!
Again, all mom. She used a can of Wilton pink frosting with a decorating tip and added a heart sprinkle. PS, who owns a sugar cube serving set? My mom :)
I used those party circles everywhere I could! If you print them on full sheet labels, they become stickers. And the Valentine punch was a serendipitous mix of 1 large can pineapple juice + 1 bottle cranberry juice cocktail + 1 can undiluted pink lemonade concentrate + 1 2 liter gingerale + raspberry sherbet.
Julie loves her tea, so we had the full tea set up. I was pleasantly surprised that this was very popular after lunch, while guests watched her open presents.
So many fun and practical gifts for the mom-to-be!
It'll be fun when boyfriend and girlfriend finally meet! And it'll be fun when I have a minute to get my hair cut. Oy.
What a fabulous photo, mama!
Hope you enjoyed your time as Queen for a day. Can't wait to meet the princess. Love ya!
Comments
http://thermee.net