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Earlier this week, Patch was stopped on our morning run by an artist who wants to put him on canvas. It kind of went to his head and he’s started his own fan club. Meet, Jack, the President and only club member of Patch’s Official Fan Club. Are you really official if you only have one fan? If he’s as cute as Jack, I guess so!  I’ve been invited to 8 weddings, all within a 2.5 month period this summer. For girls, that usually means a shower and bachelorette party. What I didn’t realize is that it also meant lots of real mail! I actually know the time the mailman arrives now. I quickly skim through all the coupon magazines I’ll never use and the local paper I’ll never read, hoping for a little envelope with my name hand-written or pressed into the paper. I’m not going to lie, I have my favorites and several of them belong to the wedding of my friend, April. She’s an artist. Her friends are artists, or, at least, know they have to be artistic to support April’s image. Yeah, they have set a high bar. So when I flipped over her beautiful shower invite and saw that her MOH had purchased it off of Minted.com, I immediately logged on to browse through some shower invites. Claire’s baby shower was fast approaching and we needed some invites ASAP. Okay, invites that I was satisfied with ASAP. It was exactly what I had described to my co-host. What luck! And with a few tweaks to change the colors and announcement, they were able to send me a draft almost right away. Here’s what we ended up with:
I just love the personal touch with their packaging!
Even though I was too
 When Claire told me she was pregnant, I immediately offered to throw her baby shower. I’ve known her since we were in high school, she was my super senior year roommate at college, and she had been waiting for this baby for SIX years. I mean, if anything is cause for a celebration, it is Claire and Baby Verti. Our mutual friend, Jenn, offered to be my partner-in-crime, and then her sister-in-law, Jenn, said she wanted in, too. I love volunteer Jenns! Like all good celebrations, we needed a theme. Claire is waiting to find out the sex of Baby V. until he or she is born, so we were open for colors. I thought about blue and yellow for “UCLA Baby,” but that seemed too…mmm…mascot-like. Then I thought about the neutral green and yellow before quickly realized my OSU grad husband wouldn’t pay a dime for those colors, even if he wasn’t attending the party. So, needless to say, ducks were also out. In talking over this gender dilemma with Claire, we just decided to embrace both genders and use turquoise and pinks. I decided on the theme “Bundle of Love” and envisioned a baby being swaddled. I kid you not, I found exactly what I had pictured in looking through invites on Minted.com . So, after a few tweaks, we ended up with this invitation:
Since Claire has lots of family and friends who are super excited about Baby V., we knew we were in for a high head count. So, we planned for an outdoor party, which meant we needed linens to cover the tables. I rented turquoise and flamingo linens from Platinum Party Rentals. Stefanie was super helpful in picking out the exact shade of pink to match the invites and got my order in that same day (which is always good for a procrastinator!). On a friend’s suggestion, I went to check out Whole Sale Flowers & Supplies, because what party is complete without awesome flowers?! Wow, I could walk around this store for hours. But, I was on a mission, so I picked out some tulips and green filler. I thought I was done with flowers until I got to Trader Joe’s. Right outside were my favorite of all flowers: peonies. Yes, please! I picked up three bouquets and figured that just about did it for 5 tables and the serving table. Jenn V. offered to frame baby photos of Claire and Mark to add the table center pieces. So Cute! This is how it turned out:
I can’t believe I didn’t get close-ups of the peonies :( But, here are the tulips! These ones spent the next 4 hours wilting until I realized I forgot to put water in the vase! I worry about myself sometimes :/
Cuteness!
Of course, no party is complete without food. My sister suggested these brilliant raspberry jam, goat cheese, rosemary paninis. Sure, we had our skeptics, but they were a hit! I’m glad we made extra because they were all gone fast! I know Jenn R. and I had a few right off the panini press. The cooks have to make sure the food tastes good ;) Then we made Greek pasta chicken salad, fruit salad, a veggie tray, and served white bean hummus and gaucamole with chips a la Trader Joe’s. The blood orange Italian soda was also gone in a flash. Next time, that’s all I’m getting for drinks! I’m posting recipes over the next few days :) Oh, look Alice got a pic of some of the peonies!  Photo credit: Alice :) Shower games: Some people love ‘em, others can’t wait to be done with ‘em. We are all on the latter end of this spectrum, so we just played the usual word scrabble. Jenn V. also printed up baby photos guests had sent in and we had to guess who was who. My suggestion is to start this game early and give a list of names to give people a start. Our guests were too shy (or full) to really play. All the same, I think it’s worth another try at the next shower. The first person to email me the name of the baby on the far right wins! If that isn’t a big hint, I don’t know what is!
Lastly, were cake and presents. We got Claire’s favorite flavor: chocolate. And then ate while we watched her open tons of gifts! What a lucky baby! This card gets an A+. I may never make fun of scrapbookers again… or people who use scrapbooking as a verb. And check out that gift box!
More than one guest thinks Claire is having a baby boy.
Others are rooting for a girl. I believe Jenn V. handed down this blanket to Claire. Mark’s mother, who passed away a few years ago, made it.
Talking of hand-made quilts, I think Marge, Claire’s mom, has been busy! Wow!
The classic diaper cake. I love them every time!
The real cake: Jenn V. ordered it from Costco. It turned out just perfect, right?! And, it was really delicious. Go, Jenn!
Before you knew it, it was time to leave :(
Aimee, Jenn R., Claire, Jenn V.
I love that Claire gave us hostess presents wrapped to match the party colors. Our party photographer, kitchen helper, gift wrapper, gift name noter, set-up and take-down person: Claire’s sister, Alice!
The thing about being a hostess, is that there are hardly any time for photos! Luckily, Alice took lots and you can see her photos and some of mine here: You can view these photos in a full-screen screen slideshow and download full-resolution copies for free. Enjoy!   June 26, 2011
[...] this salad is a hit at parties. We served it at Claire’s baby shower. People were suspicious because it looked “so healthy;” but, it was also gone in a [...]  June 28, 2011
You guys did such a great job! I think you should consider a career in party planning. Can’t wait to see who is right about the sex of this baby! Boy? or Girl? I thought it was kind of a funny coincidence when I saw Claire’s name flash on my cell. I was on the 99 heading south towards the grapevine. It was a road we had both traveled many times – away from the small town where our parents still live, towards the big city where we attended college together. In fact, we had lived together the year after we graduated from UCLA. Okay, Claire graduated and I was enjoying a bit of a Super Senior year. They say you never really know someone until you live with them. Claire was one of the best roommates I’ve ever had. A+ all the way. She’s a teacher, so she’ll appreciate that OR tell me that you shouldn’t really give pluses. Anyway, I also learned some of Claire’s little quirks. For example, Claire’s room was always covered in laundry, but her bathroom was spotless. That girl bleached it down – every inch of it – once a week. I could have eaten dinner out of her tub and been okay with it. Also, and more to the point, she could smell a baby within a two block radius. We would step out of our apartment and she would say, “There’s a baby here.” And, sure enough, a random neighbor we had never met would be heading down the hallway pushing a stroller. Claire would shower the baby with high-pitched compliments the whole ride down the elevator. Then she would head off to her teacher’s school and I would head off to UCLA to get that last super senior class done. Claire, a former high school cheerleader, was going to teach high school math. Mark, her boyfriend was a former high school star and UCLA football player. He was going to coach high school and teach history. They were the perfect pair and teaching would be perfect work schedule for having kids, Claire explained – lots of them. The next year, Claire and Mark got married and started teaching and coaching. But, no babies came. I didn’t think much of it. They were young and I figured they were waiting until they were settled into their marriage and had bought their first home. Claire was always a planner. It wasn’t until 4 years later when Claire called to tell me that a mutual friend was having her first baby that I realized they had been trying. For 4 years. It was time to think about fertility treatments. It’s a slow process, and then there was the huge disappointment of a conception with no baby. “It means we can get pregnant though.” ”That’s awesome, Claire. It’s going to happen.” And I probably made some joke about poor Mark and all the play he was going to be getting from his wife. So, like I said, when I saw her name on my cell again, I just knew what she was going to say. “Hey, Aimee!” “Heeey!” “Guess what, I’m pregnant!” We chatted about babies and all the excitement that is motherhood until I lost my signal in the hills, before I passed UCLA and then the exit we took to our apartment in Culver City. 6 years seemed like oh so very long ago. It’s a long time to wait for a baby. However, July is just around the corner and then Claire is going to smell baby in her house everyday. Jenn, Claire and me at Claire's baby shower.  The other week I was watching a rerun of Modern Family. If you haven’t ever seen it, they have a semi-reality shower set up wherein the characters look like a crew is taping them. The show usually concludes with a short interview with some of the characters. This episode was about fatherhood and what makes a good dad. Of course all the dads screw up, say the wrong thing, and realize they don’t know the first thing about what it takes to be a parent. But, in the end, Jay comes through for his stepson, Manny, by forfeiting a weekend away with his wife to spend it with Manny when his biological dad bails at the very last minute on a father-son trip. “What makes a good dad?” Jay asks in his closing interview, “I think 90% of being a good dad is just showing up.” Isn’t the that truth, I thought. Sure, my dad made mistakes, was always giving me unsolicited advice (“It’s FREE,” he would say), and is probably the first to admit that he’s no expert in parenting. Yet, even though he was busy with medical school and an 80-hour week during residency most of my childhood, he always did his best to attend my and my sister’s dance recitals and out of tune band concerts. I still can’t believe he traded shifts at the hospital to come to my cross-country and track races. I mean, they were always in 100-degree sweltering Bakersfield heat; but, he was there cheering me on. And just last month he drove (mom – we both know dad’s the one behind the wheel) to San Diego just for a weekend to sit through another long and boring graduation before driving back straight to an overnight shift at the hospital.
It mattered that he was there. Every time. Thank you, dad, for showing up. I love you.
Photo Credit: True Photography 2010   June 19, 2011
But he’s such an awesome driver and he loves cars!  July 3, 2011
Ummm… so glad that I fond your blog. Had no idea and totally blog stalking you! LOVE IT! Also, when Max’s anaesthesiologist last week had a thick unrecognisable accent, it reminded me of your dad and I knew he was going to be okay! :) Love your parents!! |
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Alex - Popular Patchy. Great picture.