Showered with Love

We had the best shower, Matt and I were so emotional afterward (feeling the love!) Most of our friends were able to make it, along with some of my mom's friends, and our dear family. There were about 21 people, so it was intimate and fun.

When I got there, my family had already set the restaurant up with Sunflowers centerpieces (my favorite flower) and surprised me with a white rose corsage. The had a lovely cake with a beautiful saying, and the restaurant had the lunch menu typed up at everyone's place setting. It was really lovely!
As everyone arrived, little hors d'oeuvres were passed around (stuffed mushrooms and goat cheese puffs). We all mingled and sipped cocktails (well, I had ice tea but a mimosa would have been better). It was great catching up with friends and showing off the belly and the cankles. Everyone said I looked good, but the photos show a different story (I'm B-I-G). In fact, when I took a picture with my aunt, she brushed my butt and said, "What's this?" Then she gave it a nice squeeze! More to love, I say.


My cousins were the "hostesses with the mostesses" and gave a nice speech and put the games together. They had "Guess how many gumballs in the bottle" during the appetizers. And during lunch, they had a quiz "How well do you know the Mama?" No surprise that my best friend from high school won (Matt wasn't eligible but I made him play and he got 1 wrong - automatic FAIL - ha ha!).
Lunch started off with salad with strawberries, oranges, and almonds in a champagne vinaigrette, followed by pan-seared chicken breast with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and asparagus.
Before dessert, everyone got string and had to guess how large my belly was. That meant I had to go around and have everyone tie the string around my waist. I thought that was the most fun, especially trying my aunt's string which was so long I called it the "Jon & K.ate + 8" belly string. Only 1 of my friends made it too small (thank you Stephanie).

Finally dessert -- the cake and Italian pastries, and rum cake from my mom's friend -- and present opening. Everyone was so generous and we received some much needed items to welcome our little one. Our last present was the car seat from my grandma & grandpa and everyone said, "Now you can take the baby home!"
It was just such a lovely afternoon, we can't thank everyone enough who made this so memorable. Matt was so overcome with emotions, he said it was the best day ever.