A Florida Baby Shower

A few months ago, one of my crafty friends, Lisa, told me she needed to ask me a question. I'm not one who has ever been short on answers, so I told her to fire away.

But when she told me that several of the craft girls wanted to throw me a baby shower and asked for a few dates that would work for me, I was bowled over. We picked a date in early June, and they went to town planning.

The day of the shower was extremely hot and humid (waytogo, Florida). The food was amazing (like there was ever any doubt!) and the atmosphere of the entire shower was perfect - relaxed, fun and comfortable.

Chowing down, baby-shower style :)

The girls all decorated onesies for Elle - there were fabric markers and puffy paint everywhere! - and it was a really cute idea.

A sampling of the onesies. A former Stater coworker/KSU grad who works at the Times made the "Daily Baby Stater" one, and Julia, my fellow Bret Michaels' lover, made the one on the far right.

Apparently the theme of showers this year was surprise guests. At my Ohio shower, my mom surprised me with three of my former high school teachers. At the Florida shower, I was tricked in to thinking that our friend Julia, who moved to North Carolina to attend law school last fall and is working there this summer, wasn't able to attend. Julia can only make it back to Florida every so often, so I wasn't surprised or offended when she RSVP'd with a "no." But when I saw her walking up the sidewalk to the shower, I was floored. Apparently she'd kept her weekend visit hush-hush so that I wouldn't find out that she WOULD be at the shower. It was an awesome surprise, and I totally didn't see it coming.

Yay, Julia!

Elle got a ton of awesome gifts, including a bath tub (so she's not Smellie Ellie!), a first-aid kit, a Boppy, a ton of adorable clothes, some hand-made washcloths, the coolest turtle nightlight EVER (that may or not be already in use by her mother), some adorable toys, her first CDs and a large contribution to her library, among other things.

Kelly got the perfect book for our future craftster!

She got some amazing books, and Tim practiced reading them the night of the shower (he read one Sesame Street book in complete awe of the complicated plot twists).

Thanks for the fantastic shower, ladies! It is great to know that Elle is being born in to such a caring and generous Florida family :)

The hostesses with the mostess - Lisa, Candice and Jumbles, world's coolest dog.