A Slice of Smith Life: baby shower

Baby Shower for Baby #5

Last week was an especially busy and fun week with me leading a group of 1st graders at Catholic Kidz Camp (VBS) at our parish and a dear friend of mine hosted a baby shower for our blessing #5 during the week. It was such a fun and wonderful baby shower to celebrate our baby's arrival due on August 3, 2013!


Mason jars with safety pins attached to the sides that were our drinking glasses. My friend is so creative as we rinsed out our drinking glasses at the end of the shower and filled them with homemade bath crystals to take home with us.

A few friends worked hard to make the beautifully decorated food table that was all so delicious! Everyone loved the fruit centerpiece made by my friend's sister!

The onsie clothesline was so cute and a big hit!

My friend decorated the center of the dessert table with the "Baby's first year" frames that I have for each of my "cupcakes". Each guest filled out their address on a green envelope in the basket to make my job easier when I wrote "thank you" notes to everyone. :)

My sister's friend made the beautiful cake and cute duck cupcakes. I heard the sweets were delicious too, but I didn't have any because I've been on a strict meal plan since I have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes :( Yep, there are many reasons I can't wait for the birth of my baby, one being no more giving myself insulin shots in my stomach 4 times/day and checking my blood sugar levels by pricking my fingers 4 times/day. My life these days revolve around needles and eating the right stuff! But, it's all worth it for sure, just not fun! :)

My younger sister (peach shirt and yes, we are real sisters :) ), my mom is in green, next is my mother-in-law, then me. I was so blessed to have my sister in town for the shower and my moms!

The bunny in the black-striped diaper bag was handmade by my Mom. It is adorable and she is so very talented! My babies are blessed with a special Nana!

Mommy's lil cupcake...this one will go on our boy or girl baby for sure :)

I'm trying out a cloth diaper service for the first time with this baby and so some of my gifts were certificates for a week worth of diaper service. So that means I drop dirty cloth diapers on my porch and the diaper service picks them up, washes them, and leaves me with fresh clean cloth diapers.

I loved the diaper bag that my mom and sister gave me filled with goodies and the handmade bunny is so special from my mom. It will be treasured for sure! Here's a stretch hug since neither of us felt like getting off our chairs for a non-stretch hug! :)

Here's my dear friend, J.H., who hosted the shower. She did a great job and it was so fun to gather with family and friends to celebrate Baby Smith #5! J.H. and I have known each other for about 15 years and she homeschools 3 out of 5 of her children now. Her oldest just graduated high school and her son will be entering public high school in the Fall. She is a wonderful friend and gives me much support in our homeschool journeys and gives great baby showers!

I'm 35 weeks pregnant this week...the countdown continues! Our family can't wait to see if we will have a boy or girl and meet our new little blessing!

A Friend's Special Baby Shower

Today we celebrated a baby shower for a mom in our homeschool group. Her baby was born at 32 weeks and weighed 4 pounds at birth. He is a fighter and getting stronger each day. He is still in the NICU so he couldn't be with us for our celebration, but so many friends and family continue to pray for T's miracle baby and the sooner he reaches all the necessary milestones he will be able to join his 3 older brothers and big sister at home.

A mom in our homeschool group organized the shower and she thought instead of having the sweet cake as the centerpiece she would carve this creative baby out of fruit that we saw on the internet. A.R. did a fantastic job! It's adorable isn't?

The blue punch was so cute and creative too!

Other pictures from our special shower:

Just a few days before the shower I found this idea on a blog that featured a wonderful religious gift idea. As the post suggested, we asked each guest to bring in a holy card/prayer/scripture verse and while our guest of honor was unwrapping her gifts, I assembled the collective cards and prayers into a frame. We then presented the collage and frame to T. She really liked it and she said she was going to display it in her son's hospital room. We hope that each time she reflects on this, she will be reminded of the love, thoughts, and prayers that so many continue to offer up for her baby and family.