Colleen's bridal shower
We had Colleen's third shower this Saturday. It's such a relief to have all of them done. Every other week she had a shower. My mom really needs to get on the ball and rearrange this house to better accommodate a playpen and whatever else I'm going to need in the living room. She still has to clean out the attic and the spare bedroom. She keeps saying that she has all summer to do that, but I know that she's going to want to spend as much time as she can with Colleen and the baby. So not much is going to be done around here after the first week in June. Plus, once the weather changes and stays warm, that attic is going to be like a furnace and no one will want to go in there.
We left here a little after 11am (Aunt Kathy called here at 11, demanding to know what we were doing. I don't know why she would call if she thought we'd be gone. I never did find out why she called, except to tell me that she was in Cambridge. She and Grandpop came in from the Eastern Shore and Cambridge is about 40 minutes away from their town. I think she wanted to let us know that she was on her way at the correct time, because earlier that week Grandpop had told my mother that Kathy wasn't planning on leaving the house until noon. By the time they arrived, the shower would have been pretty much over), hoping to get to the restaurant by noon so we could set up and decorate. We had to stop by the party outlet first to get balloons and ended up standing in line for 45 minutes for 10 latex balloons (five yellow, five green). Everyone was in there picking up balloons for baby showers, first communion parties, birthday parties. There was this father there, picking up birthday balloons for his daughter, Chelsey (he got one of those balloons where they spell out the name on it). She was turning 14-years-old and wanted a Cinderella cake. We know this because his wife called him on a walkie-talkie phone and started giving him grief about what he had to do versus what she had to do, making it seem like she had so much more to get accomplished than he did. He was just rolling his eyes, and then calmly said, "okay." She had picked up a cake at Dairy Queen, but apparently they didn't do Cinderella cakes, so she wanted him to go check the cake decorations to see if he could find something to stick on the cake. Thing is, he wasn't quite sure which princess was Cinderella. All the women in line eventually convinced him to buy a more expensive balloon for Chelsey's bouquet of balloons, because it had Cinderella on it. My mom and I found it odd, though, that a 14-year-old girl would still be into Cinderella. She must be so sheltered. At least we had these people in line to occupy us while we waited. We probably should have placed an order a couple days ahead of time. That way we could have just dashed in to pick them up. Oh well, lesson learned.
Bushie and her sister, Aunt Marie, were already at the restaurant when my mom and I arrived. I sent them out to help my mom unload the van because we had tons of gifts, plus my mother had insisted on making brownies and chocolate nut delight for dessert, even though Bushie brought a half-sheet cake (devil's food with chocolate icing). For some reason, Bushie had insisted that the cake was for people to take home, instead of eating it there. When I told my mother this, I thought I made it quite apparent that I thought that was a ridiculous idea, but my mom must have wanted to stay on Bushie's good side for once. Bushie and Aunt Marie also helped hang the decorations. It was a good thing that they were there to help because my mom never would have gotten everything done in time. She would have spent that remaining half hour unloading the van. Our shower seemed to be a success, even though it was about $150 more than we had expected.
We had about 30 people at the shower and my mother suffocated them with games. We played know your nursery rhymes, know your baby animals, and word scramble. Mom had also made up a crossword puzzle. They were all fairly easy games, and the guests were okay playing them until the food came. Then they would have rather been left alone to eat their lunch. They were happier to just chat with family that they hadn't seen in a while. We played Bingo while Colleen was opening gifts, but not one person marked off their sheets. We had to give the prizes away randomly at the end of the shower because we had so many left over. The favors (pint glasses with lemons on them with 8 bendy straws, two mixed drink stirrers (one green palm tree and one pink flamingo), 2 packs of lemonade, one pack of fruit punch, and a "magic towel" in them) seemed to be a hit. Only one person walked out of there without one, and that person (Aunt Irene) claimed that she had given hers to Bridgette for her kids. We had only two extra, but Irene could have taken one anyway. She's just too snooty. When she called to RSVP she said that she was coming "because it's free." And this is one of my mom's favorite aunts. Usually tons of people leave without their favors. I think it may have helped that we had them set out at each place setting when people came in.
We left here a little after 11am (Aunt Kathy called here at 11, demanding to know what we were doing. I don't know why she would call if she thought we'd be gone. I never did find out why she called, except to tell me that she was in Cambridge. She and Grandpop came in from the Eastern Shore and Cambridge is about 40 minutes away from their town. I think she wanted to let us know that she was on her way at the correct time, because earlier that week Grandpop had told my mother that Kathy wasn't planning on leaving the house until noon. By the time they arrived, the shower would have been pretty much over), hoping to get to the restaurant by noon so we could set up and decorate. We had to stop by the party outlet first to get balloons and ended up standing in line for 45 minutes for 10 latex balloons (five yellow, five green). Everyone was in there picking up balloons for baby showers, first communion parties, birthday parties. There was this father there, picking up birthday balloons for his daughter, Chelsey (he got one of those balloons where they spell out the name on it). She was turning 14-years-old and wanted a Cinderella cake. We know this because his wife called him on a walkie-talkie phone and started giving him grief about what he had to do versus what she had to do, making it seem like she had so much more to get accomplished than he did. He was just rolling his eyes, and then calmly said, "okay." She had picked up a cake at Dairy Queen, but apparently they didn't do Cinderella cakes, so she wanted him to go check the cake decorations to see if he could find something to stick on the cake. Thing is, he wasn't quite sure which princess was Cinderella. All the women in line eventually convinced him to buy a more expensive balloon for Chelsey's bouquet of balloons, because it had Cinderella on it. My mom and I found it odd, though, that a 14-year-old girl would still be into Cinderella. She must be so sheltered. At least we had these people in line to occupy us while we waited. We probably should have placed an order a couple days ahead of time. That way we could have just dashed in to pick them up. Oh well, lesson learned.
Bushie and her sister, Aunt Marie, were already at the restaurant when my mom and I arrived. I sent them out to help my mom unload the van because we had tons of gifts, plus my mother had insisted on making brownies and chocolate nut delight for dessert, even though Bushie brought a half-sheet cake (devil's food with chocolate icing). For some reason, Bushie had insisted that the cake was for people to take home, instead of eating it there. When I told my mother this, I thought I made it quite apparent that I thought that was a ridiculous idea, but my mom must have wanted to stay on Bushie's good side for once. Bushie and Aunt Marie also helped hang the decorations. It was a good thing that they were there to help because my mom never would have gotten everything done in time. She would have spent that remaining half hour unloading the van. Our shower seemed to be a success, even though it was about $150 more than we had expected.
We had about 30 people at the shower and my mother suffocated them with games. We played know your nursery rhymes, know your baby animals, and word scramble. Mom had also made up a crossword puzzle. They were all fairly easy games, and the guests were okay playing them until the food came. Then they would have rather been left alone to eat their lunch. They were happier to just chat with family that they hadn't seen in a while. We played Bingo while Colleen was opening gifts, but not one person marked off their sheets. We had to give the prizes away randomly at the end of the shower because we had so many left over. The favors (pint glasses with lemons on them with 8 bendy straws, two mixed drink stirrers (one green palm tree and one pink flamingo), 2 packs of lemonade, one pack of fruit punch, and a "magic towel" in them) seemed to be a hit. Only one person walked out of there without one, and that person (Aunt Irene) claimed that she had given hers to Bridgette for her kids. We had only two extra, but Irene could have taken one anyway. She's just too snooty. When she called to RSVP she said that she was coming "because it's free." And this is one of my mom's favorite aunts. Usually tons of people leave without their favors. I think it may have helped that we had them set out at each place setting when people came in.