SFAMily baby shower ,2.0

as nanette said on saturday, this will probably be the most blogged-about baby shower ever! or something like that. heh.

and she's totally right! my trusty google reader has already given me a sneak peek at several posts written by various attendees. if i were smart, i'd just link you to the monkey's fabulous picture-filled post and leave it at that. but we all know better than that, don't we?

nanette and california girl are both due in october with baby girls. i'm just so excited that the SFAMily will have THREE october girls - with the bean barely making the cut with her 10/1 birthday. and with my own SFAMily baby shower not quite a full year old, i was thrilled to help host a shower for them - kind of my way of paying it forward, you know? and when we started talking about venues and ideas months ago, i was really excited that the group was open to the idea of a schwank-ay party. since we were rolling two showers into one, i figured it wasn't too difficult to justify! and here's where we ended up (i took a couple of these while sitting in my car, so they're not great):

yup. elegant and classy indeed. and i happily accepted the offer of help from lilcee, who then turned to tater for additional assistance. they took over the tasks of decorating and favors, while i handled the business side of things with the hotel (as well as the zillion and one e-mails out to the group - sorry, ladies!) and a few other details. with mrs. shorty cake volunteering to do the invitations, all the major duties were covered.

being the ultimate procrastinator, i was working on game prizes, cards for the mommies and place cards for the table the day before. heh. but i managed to whip through 'em, and packed everything (including small gifts for both moms) in a giant juicy couture shopping bag. hey, it was pink and brown and cute. shut up.

we all chipped in and ordered group gifts from their registries (infant car seat for nanners and bassinet for california girl) to be sent directly to their homes, and wrapped up these adorable fleurville "escape pods" for them to open at the party. they're mini diaper bags, meant to take on quick trips to the park or the grocery store or something, and after the diaper stage is over, they can be used for packing toiletries on trips. whee!

i woke up early saturday to slap some hair dye on. seriously, it was necessary - i had enough grays to weave a fucking blanket. ugh. and then it was time to go, so i hopped in the car, pointed the navi towards beverly hills, and off i went.

of course, the stupid thing took me the long, traffic-y way, and i drove SEVEN miles on santa monica boulevard before finally arriving at the hotel, only about 25 minutes later than i expected. oy. i pulled in, declined the offer of a car wash from the valet, and barely took notice of my beautiful surroundings as i damn near ran to the private room reserved for us.

amber and r were already there, and a few minutes later, kenna arrived. i gratefully accepted their offer to help set up, and in no time the clothesline, photo guest book, and teacup candy buffet were being set up as i scurried around the long table with the place cards. and then lilcee and tater arrived with the runner and flowers, and we were ready at last.

it was such a pretty room! having our own space is always a bonus, since we have a tendency to break out into hearty laughter, tell silly stories, and do the "yaay!" clap. we even had two private restrooms - perfect. but the prettiness of the room was eclipsed by the arrival of the gorgeously glowing guests of honor. i didn't get a lot of great pictures, but the monkey did, of course.

we sat down and the tea service began. the teapots came out decked out in "cozies," and i liked mine - it had pineapples on it! i giggled at amber's cozy, which almost looked like it was made out of corrugated paper. yes, my paper nerdiness comes out in all sorts of weird ways.

i opened the sugar pot, expecting cute little cubes, but found this instead.

and then r and i discovered that adding milk to our fruity-flavored tea made it look yucky.

the first course, strawberries and cream, was served. here's mine, before i scraped off the whipped cream and then handed it over to r:

the rest of the goodies were delivered on these pretty little 3-tiered serving trays. scones, sandwiches, petite desserts. yummy! and of course, devonshire cream and lemon curd for the scones. my favorite part.

i took a picture of the camera twins. i love how there are THREE of us with the same fabulous piece of photographic equipment.

and then we gave the mommies their cards and gifts.

we played a couple of games - lilcee printed copies of SFAMily baby pictures, and it was fun guessing who the adorable little faces were. but we had two more prizes, so we played the diaper game. i wonder if anyone will ever forgive me for this one.

then, all too quickly, it was over. we packed up, there were hugs all around, and then one by one the cars arrived and that was it. so much fun! i love it when we can gather so many of the SFAMs together. it's so damn hard to coordinate schedules, but so worth it when we do.

happy, happy baby shower to nanette and california girl! ooh, i can't wait to see who SFAMily baby shower 3.0 ends up being for. can't. wait.