The Day of the Great Baby Shower went off with nary a hitch, but only because I worked everyone in my household like slaves. Will helped by mowing the lawn, sweeping the deck, watering the flowerbeds, slicing cheese and arranging crackers on plates. Robert pitched in by sweeping off the driveway and cleaning up most of the house. Sam helped by looking cute and Zora did her part by catching and eating all the flies that got in the house. I cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom (a major undertaking in itself), bought all the groceries and spent a couple of hours chopping vegetables. The fun part for me was wrapping the party favors and preparing the props for some of the games we had planned.

A quarter of an hour before the party was scheduled to begin, Laura, the guest of honor, her three year old son and her mother showed up. They prepared some really yummy pinwheel sandwiches to add to the buffet.

We had an amazing spread. Along with the sandwiches, there was a platter of vegetables with spinach dip, bowls of strawberries, cherries and grapes, a variety of crackers and cheeses, corn chips and salsa (would a party be a party without these???), pitas and hummus, foccacia and a lovely white cake. I should have taken a picture of the food when it was all laid out, but the idea came to me too late.

Fifteen guests hardly made a dent in all of the food. I sent half the vegetables and fruit home with Laura, which helped a little bit. And now, three days later, my family is still munching on the leftovers. It’s a bit like Thanksgiving in June!

Two guests, Janica and Rose, helped plan and run the games. They came up with some good ones. The funniest, though, was the “poopie diaper” game. Rose crumbled up and partially melted different chocolate bars in several diapers and instructed everyone to guess which candybar was in which numbered diaper. They were allowed to use all of their senses, except taste, to figure out what was what. It was amusing to see the squeamish looks cross their faces as one of the diapers was thrust into their hands. LOL! We took lots of photos of this event.

Laura received many nice gifts, including, books blankets, socks, a portable swing, a musical mobile and lots more. Since she’s having a daughter, she ended up with a stack of pretty pink frilly outfits. Something about the sight of those cute little clothes filled me with a longing for another child.

When I looked at my gigantic son (he’s outgrown his 12-18 month sized clothes and he’s only 10 months old), I remembered when he was small enough to fit inside the crook of my arm. How did he grow up so fast?? What happened to my baby? He’s starting to look and act more like a toddler now. *sigh* I’m not really ready for another baby, but events like this do fill us with a certain sentimentality. It’s difficult not to be overcome with the excitement surrounding the imminent birth…and wish to hold onto a bit of it for yourself