Welcoming Baby Robyn & Brian

In early July, we got the chance to shower Brian & Robyn, parents-to-be, with lots of presents and love for their little one. Working closely with Robyn's mom, we secured a location and a cake and date and time. All that was left was to have a little fun!

First, we all got together. The shower was held in Robyn's family church way up in Crystal Lake. It was....far.

Celebrity Baby Game

One of the first things we did was invite everyone to play in a "Guess the celebrity baby photo" game. I found pictures and wrote clues. I was....not successful. I'm no good at stuff like that. Some of the clues were a little to esoteric. Shower fail!

Celeb babies & coloring pages

Another "game" we played...when people arrived, they received a coloring page. Each page had a letter of the alphabet on top, as well as the ASL finger alphabet hand sign representing that letter. (Robyn is an interpreter for the Deaf, so his her mom. Robyn's brother is also Deaf.) Everyone was asked to color a picture or pictures that start with their given letter.  They were all put into a binder for "Declan's Alphabet Book".

I drew a very pathetic excuse for a panda.

We ate  some food....

The spread

 Played some games.....

Some prizes

 Ate some cake....

Dairy-free cake for the Mama

 And as Brobyn opened gifts, we all got to decorate a few onesies or t-shirts for their little baby. This, my friends, is a terribly fun activity.

My sister-in-law Mary couldn't make it to the shower because she was in Paraguay, visiting her bestie. Her mama took it upon herself to decorate a shirt for her.

"Aunt Mary went to Paraguay and all I got was this t-shirt. Que pasa?"

 Cousin Lindsey, with her sister Kim, made a kick-ass onesie for Hannah at my shower (photo TBA). Kimberly was off in the Caribbean for this shower, so Lindsey was on her own this time. Thanks to the magic of smart phones, Google, and the search term, "cartoon abs", she came up with this:

Because we live so far, I wanted to make sure my nephew gets to know and love me as much as he will his Aunt Mary. So, I told him what I want to hear:

This baby has great taste.

All told, it was a good day. The mama and papa to be had a nice time (I'm pretty sure), and we were glad to be able to celebrate with them and help them prepare for their little one. From here, it was less than two months before their lives changed forever!