Shower Fun

Flower girl Maria (who turns 3 two days before our wedding!) got to hang out with us at the shower for awhile - until naptime. She gave me some pretty soap that smelled really good. Thanks, Maria!

Saturday was my final shower - 4 total including the surprise one the kids threw us! It was thrown by family friends of John -- Annie and Ruthann. Thank you, ladies, for a fabulous time! Guests included many of John's relatives, family friends and my mom. I hope you all enjoyed your day!

We started with a beautifully prepared lunch of chicken salad surrounded by fruit. That was followed by ice cream and cookies. Can't go wrong with ice cream!

After that I opened gift after gift of wonderful presents. I know several of the attendees read this blog, so thank you all for the gifts! Your thank you notes will be in the mail soon! We are excited to cook up a storm with our new cookbooks and kitchen items, and our bathroom will look great with new towels. And the new hamper? Already put together and in use! Again, I'm overwhelmed with the thoughtfulness of everyone.

New mom Laura (can you believe she had a baby 18 days before this picture was taken?) and terrific hostess Annie.

The other terrific hostess Ruthann, along with guests Kathy, Marguerite and Sarah (mom to Maria).

Following the gift opening, it was time for games! The first game we were set to play was bridal bingo. For that game everyone gets a card with wedding related words on it (gown, groom, bouquet, etc.) and then like typical bingo, you want to cross off all words in a row to win. But there was a problem, discovered by John's sister Anne. Apparently the game had gone missing, but someone had the brilliant idea to photocopy one of the sheets. Unfortunately, that meant we all had identical boards and would all get BINGO at the same time ... so that game came to an end before it started. And as we all had a laugh, John's mom said "Katie, you have my permission to blog about this." So there you go!

Instead, we played a game to see how many words you could make out of letters in my full name to be, which has 25 letters, in 5 minutes. It was a challenge I was up for: It's my name, and I loooove word games (almost as much as spelling). So of course I had the most words, I mean it is MY name:) I deferred the prizes to others. Anne had the longest word - 10 letters, I think - though I can't remember what it is. I will have to check!

**Update 12:52 p.m. Thursday: The word was chandelier. Thanks for remembering, Mom. **

I also got to meet my new nephew-to-be Nathaniel. He was the only boy allowed at the shower post-lunch (John, his two brothers and his nephew Sammy came to the lunch part). He was very good and will have no memory of going to a bridal shower. But I'll remind him!

John's sister Anne and mom, Kathy. Kathy is holding the bow bouquet she made for our rehearsal!

After a very full afternoon, we headed out with a car full of gifts, which I got to share with John later on. We're still trying to find new homes for some of them, so no one is allowed to visit the house in the near future as you might trip over something.

Fortunately, when I get home today, there will be new shelves in the basement perfect for storage. Thank you, Dad, for spending the day at my house putting in shelves. It is a priceless gift! Your packrat daughter is ever grateful.