Surprise Baby Shower for a Sweet Friend

Sign Courtesy  of artist extraordinaire, Evelina 

Since Moving to Fayetteville last October, God has placed us in a great church with an awesome community of believers. Around the same time that we started attending, several other young couples started attending too and we formed a small group with them and some other couples that had been going for years.

We meet every other week for a Bible Study, but in truth we hang out much more often than that. We do dinners, play kickball, watch movies, and just do life together. Over the past few months, Brendan and I have gotten especially close with two other couples Brett and Evelina and Kelly and Evan (plus one very special toddler named Ian). All of our husbands are in the army, which instantly makes things easier because there is little explanation needed when I show up at our small group and explain that Brendan is stuck at work or that he's jumping out of a plane. On top of that common bond, these people are real, they are funny, sarcastic, and compassionate. They understand that married life, especially with the added stress of the military is not easy and I don't feel embarrassed to admit to them when Brendan and I are struggling.

One of these couples, Evan and Kelly, are amazing. They got married at 19 and are two of the most Christ-seeking people that I know, when I think of Christ-centered families, they are definitely at the top of the list for me.  They have a little boy, Ian,who happens to be the epitome of a happy baby, he loves basketballs, trains, and strawberries. I constantly find myself reminding Brendan (and me) that babies don't pop out like Ian and he is almost two.

When I first really got to know Kelly, she let me know that she was training for a triathlon... while being pregnant with their second baby. I already thought she was crazy.. but she did it, and she did well! As I got to know her and see her interact with her family, and especially Ian, I was taken aback by how great of a mother and wife she was... She also happens to be one of the prettiest people, ( and prettiest pregnant person) I know. (I am so glad that we aren't pregnant at the same time because she would put me to shame!)

One of the funnest and funniest things about Kelly is how much she loves surprises. She loves them so much that she didn't want to find out with Ian if they were having a boy or girl and although they decided to find out what they were having with baby #2, they wouldn't tell anyone! Kelly also told us she was really good at guessing if people were surprising her, and once guessed that her husband was planning on surprising her by bringing out two of her best friends to visit her!

As it got closer to her due date, Evelina and I decided to try to do the impossible... we were going to plan a surprise baby shower! So after getting Evan in on the idea, we started planning... and it totally worked!!! I told Kelly the weekend before that we were having a party at our house for Brendan because he was leaving for 5 weeks, so she thought that's why they were coming over.

Since we didn't know if they were having a boy or girl we decided to do a yellow color scheme and since they already had some stuff from Ian, we just asked people to bring a gift card to either Wal-Mart or Babies R US. Evelina is like basically the best artist I have ever met, so she took care of most of the decorations while I concentrated on food. Here are some photos of the party!

This is Evan, Kelly and Ian

Decorations

Like I said, Evelina is great with artsy stuff and when she came over on Friday to help me decorate, I was blown away by the stuff she made!

this was the dining room/kitchen set up (photo by Evelina)

Evelina made these cool little paper tissue balls to decorate the ceiling

Desk Turned gift table (photo by Evelina)

Towards the end of the day, this sign was a tie between Boy and Dinosaur (which the guys wrote in as an option along with "New Dog")

And our favorite decoration, a photo of Ian telling his cousin to talk to the hand!

Activities

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of party games and neither is Kelly so we came up with two activities that are fun but not forced and you can do them at your own leisure. The first activity was called "Midnight Diapers" where we basically took sharpies and wrote funny sayings on the backs of the diaper so Mommy or Daddy could get a laugh during those sleep deprived hours. The second activity, even the guys enjoyed! We decorated some white onesies for the baby to wear over the first year... because it's always cute when babies wear clothes with funny sayings on them!

The food setup from afar and craft table

Craft Table

These little sign holders Evelina recycled from her wedding worked perfectly to put instructions in for the activities!

Photo by Evelina

Some of the onesies!

Food

We weren't sure how many people would show up so we decided to make some appetizers and Evelina made cute cupcakes with little duck toppers on them (there are still some in my fridge that I may or may not have had for breakfast the past few days). I could have gotten away with making less of most of the stuff, but we had a few people who weren't able to come at the last minute.  Here's the rundown for what was served:

Food
Fruit Salad
Caprese Bites
Spinach Dip
Cheese and Crackers
Veggies
Assorted Olives
Breaded Ravioli with Marinara Dipping Sauce
Cupcakes


Drinks

Lemonade
Iced Tea

Caprese Bites up close (photos by Evelina)

Sometimes I wish I had just a little more space on my counters.

Overall, I think the party went really well and I was just happy that Kelly was surprised and felt loved. One of the hardest things about being a military family is being away from your real family when big life events like this happen. Luckily I've found that when you create your own family wherever you move, life gets a lot easier! Kelly is due in the beginning of August, so if you remember to keep her little family in your prayers for the next few months as they transition to taking care of two little ones instead of one that would be great!!