Alona's Baby Shower

Some of our best friends (Dima & Alona) are expecting! They are due to have a baby girl in September...although I am betting that baby Julia will make her debut in August. Anyway, I wanted to give Alona a 'traditional' American baby shower so here are a few pics from that day. Susan and I were the hostesses and you know we had fun planning, decorating, and preparing for the party. They are always so much fun!

Packing everything for the baby shower.
Yeah, I brought everything from Birmingham to Gainesville!

The diaper cake that I made.
It was ADORABLE and served as a decoration as well as part of my gift.
They are very easy to make and you can get super-creative with these.

Basically it's rolled up diapers, bottles filled with candy in the center of the 'cake', and whatever you want to use for decorations.
I used ribbon, faux flowers, gift basket stuffing, and a toy on top.
VERY CUTE!!!

The guest of honor!

Hostess (me) & Mother-to-be!

Alona (and Julia!) & Hostess Susie-Q

We had some delicious food.
Chicken salad croissants, broccoli salad, deviled eggs, pigs in a blanket, mini cranberry muffins, guacamole, spinach dip, fruit salads, cheesecake, candies, and cake!
YUMMY!

The food was SOOOO GOOD. Really! Not trying to brag, but it turned out great!

Yuuuuum! Notice the table cloth. It's really wrapping paper that I found at the dollar store. It was my inspiration for the entire shower.
Very cute and very inexpensive.
It goes a long way and really spices things up!

How cute? This was part of the "Cupcake Cake"

More decorations....add a personal touch by using pictures of the mommy-and-daddy-to-be.
They can keep the framed pictures too!

Present time! Alona is using a Winnie the Pooh theme for her nursery.

She really got a lot of useful things and not just all clothes.

Haha! This is one of the shower games that Susan came up with. You have several diapers and you put samples of baby food in each. For example, this one was Pureed Squash. EW!

Each shower guest has to try to guess what baby food it is.
They can touch, smell, or even taste if they want to.

It's hilarious and really makes some laughs!

Candid shots :-)

Candid shots (me & Anya). I think I was explaining the "Don't Say Baby" game.
That game was a hit too!

More candid shots :-)

Group picture!!! It was a wonderful shower and very special for Alona!

It was also extra special because we got to announce two other pregnancies in our circle of friends!!!! Here the three moms-to-be
(Anya, Alona, and Anastasia)
are posing with the diaper cake.
I guess two more showers (and diaper cakes) are in the near future! :-)


More blogging to come later. For now it's house cleaning + the continuation of the job search!