little bean's baby shower

WARNING: This post WILL be picture heavy :)

As usual, it's going to be very hard to limit all the awesome pictures I have from this day, but I'm going to try and do this recap in one post!

We had our Baby Shower on the 27th of July (almost 3 years to the day since I threw one for my sister and nephew on the 24/07/2010!) at my parents' home. It was hosted by my sister and my mum, but my wonderful girlfriends all helped out with various roles and assisted my sister with set up (and photography haha - thanks MoH and Amy!) on the day.

my gorgeous sister, responsible for all the gorgeousness, and I...I realised I didn't get a photo with my mum though!!

We had an absolutely fantastic day - the afternoon flew by and I hope everyone had as great a time as I did! I was so exhausted by the time I got home, but completely overwhelmed with the love and joy from our family and friends.

We started off the afternoon with some mingling and checking out all the awesome decorations my sister and mum had organised -

After mingling for a bit and munching on some yummy food (we had so many lovely friends bring along scrumptious food! Oh my!) we got started on that typical baby shower past time (but my sister found some not so typical ones!) - games.

First up was Baby Shower Charades -

1. giving birth and baby landing on the floor! -- 2. trying to breastfeed while swatting away flies

3. trying to shop while the kids keep adding things to the trolley! (this lady has PLENTY of practice with this, with 5 kiddies under 5!!) -- 4. i believe this one was possibly trying to use the bathroom while the kids keep annoying you...i spared her the embarrassing picture we have!

5. actually my aunt's 2nd turn up, but I'll just use one - trying to give birth while your husband is driving you crazy!

Next we moved onto a Baby Shower Find-A-Word and a list of Baby-related words that were jumbled up and had to be unscrambled. It was harder than it sounds, particularly since it was an American version so there were words like "diaper" and "pacifier" which were throwing all us Aussies off! ("nappy" and "dummy" are the common terms here, for those wondering!)

some lovely ladies (all teachers!) trying to work out the puzzles!

While everyone was working on their sheets, another game was started - a race to see who could dress and swaddle a baby doll the fastest...while blind folded! My sister-in-law and a family friend took part in this race - our family friend won! I don't know that I'll be letting either of them dress Little Bean any time soon though...hehe...

Then everyone was asked to draw what they thought Little Bean was going to look like...there was some cute, some hilarious and some downright strange drawings (here's looking at YOU MoH!) but one thing they all had in common? Dimples!

drawings were posted on the wall near the present table for everyone to look at! winner was chosen by my dad as I was busy opening presents!

The other game that was going on throughout the say was the typical "don't say" game - guests weren't allowed to say "Baby", "Amanda", "Graham" or our last name. You can see in some of the pictures that guests had necklaces on. Each necklace had a blue and pink dummy on it. Normally, in this game whoever ends up with the most necklaces (or pegs, or whatever is used...) by the end of the Shower, wins. My mum and sister did things a little differently though - every dummy on every necklace had a number on the back of it. After the cake was cut, I was asked to choose a number between 1 and 100 and whoever had that number on a dummy won! (so the more you had, the better your chances...but someone with just one necklace could win! Sort of Baby lotto if you will :) ) Since my little niece had collected the most necklaces though, and didn't win via the number selection, we gave her a prize as well.

i had to add this picture, not only because it has one little niece in it - but two! see that gorgeous bump my sister-in-law is sporting? in there is my gorgeous new niece, Kimberly! she was originally approx 6 weeks ahead of myself during pregnancy, but she was induced 9 days early and little Kimberly was born on the 6th of August, 2013 at 1pm! we took a few bump pictures together throughout our pregnancies, the last one just days before she was induced. i can't wait for our little one to join the family and for the two of them to grow up together!

speaking of bumps - this is my sister pulling a "fake" bump pic with me....except little did everyone know, this was not a fake bump! my little sister is also preggers and due Valentines Day next year! my Little Bean is going to have a cousin close in age on BOTH sides of the family! (and my sister was wearing this hoodie to try and cover her bump, as they weren't ready to share the news just yet!)

But back to the story at hand! Next up was cake cutting and speeches...since we all apparently pull *terrible* faces while speaking, I'll spare you those pictures. Instead, here's some cake cutting ones...

my cake was amazing. my sister has been excited about this cake from the day she asked to host our baby shower and i must say, it turned out amazing! it was yummy too! the middle of the cake was pink and blue swirls, since we don't know whether Little Bean is a boy or a girl! it looked great! (and yes, i cut the booby...no way was I going for the belly - still too close to the end of Game of Thrones for me!) some of the gorgeous ladies at our shower! ahhhhh....loved this!

After cake, we moved inside to open all of the amazing pressies that Little Bean was spoiled with. I cannot even express how grateful we are to our amazing friends and family for all the love they piled upon us and all the wonderful gifts that they bought Baby!! I know it's not terribly exciting to see gift pictures, but here are a few (I'll try and keep them down!) -

my cousin's little boy decided to be my helper for the evening...he got a little over-enthusiastic sometimes, bless him!

Every time I use something someone has bought us, I will be reminded of the amazing love that they expressed for this little baby they haven't even met yet...Now, if only I could memorize who bought what outfit because I would love to show them all when Baby is in it!

Finally, this lovely lady was responsible for the favours for the party, and sent all our guests home with one of these:

They were PERFECT and I may or may not have teared up the first time I saw them. I am so blessed to have such amazing friends and family who know me so well. Guests actually thought that I had made the Shower Invites by hand, they were so perfectly something I would have chosen! But I didn't see them til everyone else did, and they were the work of the lovely Romana! I have just realised however that I do not have a photo of them...I will share with you soon, because they were gorgeous. One is tucked into Baby's album already :)

Oh, and yep - here's another baby bump!

This lovely lady and her hubby are expecting their SECOND bubba, at New Years! I'm so excited about how many wonderful people in my life are having babies so close to us - our Little Bean can add a faux cousin to the list as well!

Overall, I cannot express just how thankful we are for the entire day, for all our wonderful family and friends, and for all the love we have felt as a family. I can't wait til Little Bean gets to meet all the amazing people who care so much for them already.

We are truly blessed!