Once upon a Time Princess Baby girl shower

 My friend recently adopted a baby, which we are all so happy  for her!  To celebrate her finally finding her princess, we threw her a Princess baby shower.  I recruited my SIL Sallie, of course, who did an amazing job pulling everything together!  You're a pro, Sallie!  This is the front hall table

 I wanted to write a cute "once upon a time" poem about finding a princess, but writing original poetry is definitely not within my talent range, so I framed this adoption quote for her instead.

 Do you love Pinterest?  I LOVE Pinterest!  I found this idea for hanging lanterns and pom poms with tulle like a Princess bassinet and adapted it.  I LOVE how it turned out!

 We had a veggie tray, spinach dip with sourdough bread, fudge, caramel, candied almonds, Princess punch, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and cookies and cream cupcakes.

 My friend Lisa made these cute little chocolate crowns for the cupcakes.

Laura's lil pumpkin baby shower

To celebrate our friend Laura's new baby girl, we had to give her a shower.  With Halloween coming close by, I used inspiration from here, and we gave her a Lil' Pumpkin theme. 

Here's the spread.  Our menu included Squash soup, broccoli and cheese soup, bread soup bowls, pumpkin cinnamon rolls, a fruit tray and dip, a pumpkin cheese ball and crackers, and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

I copied the above blog and polka-dotted some cute little pumpkins.

I made the pumpkin cinnamon rolls, but I won't give out the recipe because I'd never suggest making them again.  I've found another recipe I'm going to try.  My love of all things pumpkin, coupled with cinnamon rolls demands I search until I find a good recipe.  But the cookies were delish!  Thanks Kristin!

Are these not the cutest little favors you've ever seen???  Jen made these from styrofoam cups.  Plus she made the caramels inside them which I've had to hide from my kids because I don't love them enough to share.  They were so beautiful.  Thanks, Jen! 

Cynthia, Scarlet and Jen (the favor maker).

Here's the little bread bowls. 

Up close and personal... 

I can't believe this is the only photo I got of Laura, our guest of honor.  This is her with her beautiful daughter Sarah... 

...and Samantha. 

These are two of my co-hostesses, Teresa and Lisa.  Thanks, ladies!  Lisa, your cheeseball was so wonderful! 

Nicole. 

Scarlet.  The fruit plate was perfect!  Loved the dip. 

Jen's sister Pat, visiting from Las Vegas.  Thanks for coming and helping, Pat!  Always good to see you. 

Kristin.  Great cookies! 

Thanks for giving us a reason to celebrate, Laura!  And thank you Scarlet, Teresa, Lisa, Jen, and Kristin for helping with the food and things.  Everything was so perfect. 

Baby shower for Kristen

My book club friend Kristen is having her first baby so we had a baby shower for her and her baby girl last Saturday.  I tried Martha's pom poms again and yeah! they finally worked.  Well, at least they didn't look like an oversized squashed flower this time.  {Personally, I think it's a conspiracy, and I think there's some details they don't tell so you're forced to buy their kits!}  Here's the overview.

Yummy Chinese salad and fruit plate by Jen.

Veggie tray and dip by Lisa

I found this cast-off boa in my girls' stuff; I liked the added glitz it provided to the decor.

Favor boxes by Lisa; I filled them with salt water taffy and chocolate-dipped pretzels.

And, of course, cupcakes by moi.  The filigrees didn't turn out to how they looked on Kara's Cupcakes, my favorite cupcake blog.

Strawberry lemonade cupcakes, courtesy again of Kara's Cupakes.  Love it!

After everyone went through the food line, someone said, "did you not make your marshmallow pops?"  Oops.  Glad she mentioned it.  So here they are anyways.

This is the mama-to-be.  Isn't she lovely?

I love the basketball belly!  Maybe because I never had one.  I was the basketball.

Thanks for allowing us the honor of throwing you a baby shower, Kristen!

Emily's diaper cake

We had a very small family shower for Kyle and Emily a week ago. She's having their first baby, a girl, so I HAD to make her this cute diaper cake. As you can see, her name is going to be Navy.

For instructions on how to make one of these, go here.

I also was trying to channel Amy Atlas, with her beautiful candy bars, but fell very short. Still, I am compelled to take a picture of my food, and food creations. I made these yummy pink lemonade cupcakes with merengue frosting (realizing too late that I didn't have any pink cupcake liners, so I had to use my leftover Twilight pack liners, which totally threw off my color scheme of pink and brown.). I also made dipped Oreo suckers, and dipped pink marshmallow suckers. I had envisioned pink and brown for those, too, but, due to my bad planning, didn't check my inventory, of which Brighton had gotten to and devoured my chocolate. So, again, not my vision, but a good practice.
I was really just wanting to try out my cupcake recipe I found for next month's UVMOM cupcake party. It's gonna be fun, girls!