Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A Very Betty Celebration (complete with Ravens WIN!)

The grossest game I have ever witnessed in my life was at a baby shower. Personally, I opted out of playing because I HATE HATE HATE shower games with a passion, but the memory of watching my friend microwave miniature bars of chocolate in tiny diapers and then having people identify them is forever seared into my memory. The day I find random peanuts in my newborn's diaper is the day the pediatrician gets an alarmed phone call.

So when I found out that my sisters-in-law and my stepmom wanted to throw Betty a baby shower, I was SO excited, but also a little terrified. What if I had to play the candy bar crap game? Or any terrible game? Plus, though you might find this a little hard to believe, I'm not very good at being the center of attention and parties that are focused on me make me feel very nervous and awky. Throughout my pregnancy, people have been telling me to soak it up now because once baby gets here it will be all about her, but what they don't seem to understand is that I will be GLADLY handing over any and all attention to Betty. Even in school plays growing up, I always did better as an auxiliary character. I never wanted the lead.

Fortunately what I must have forgotten in my panic is that these people are my family and they know me. Hence, the theme for the party that day pretty much became laid-back awesomeness with close friends, eating delicious food, chatting, only playing ONE shower game (that somewhat humiliating one where people cut a ribbon to indicate how big they think my belly is, and then everyone with the exception of two people grossly overestimating and making me feel like even more of a house), and mostly doing one of my personal favorite things...gathering around the television to watch RAVENS FOOTBALL!

It just so happened that our playoff game vs the Texans fell on the exact same date and at the exact same time as my shower. At first I thought this might be a tragedy and that no one would want to come because of it, but almost everyone did come and the fact that the game was on kept some of the attention off of me. A HUGE win all around.

Not only did all those guests come, but they also completely spoiled my daughter, which I suppose is just a taste of things to come in her life. (Only child, plus the only girl in either of our families? We'll take care to make sure that she doesn't turn into a brat, but little B is going to be spoiled whether we like it or not.) For the most part, we have everything we need now and I'm pretty much completely overwhelmed by the generosity and have about a million thank you's to write this weekend.

And of course to top it all off, the Ravens won! Thanks for the gift, guys! Did I mention how much Betty would love it if you won the Superbowl this year?

I wish I had pictures to share. Actually I do have a few, but I look like a cow in every single one of them so I will leave you with a few pictures that don't involve me.

Such a gorgeous cake, right? I love the idea of putting alphabet letters on there. Of course, I think maybe ABC or even EAE (B's initials) would have been a little more appropriate than BAD, but I am not a cake artist, so what do I know.

Just some of her presents! I told you she got spoiled.

Food is always the best kind of party favor. How cute are these little personalized M&M's my stepmom ordered? My answer? Too cute to eat.

Photo credits go to my friend, Kate. My brother was also acting as photographer for the day, but I have yet to see any of the pics he took. I'm sure they are great too!

10 comments:

  1. So adorable! And I agree with you, I hate shower games (particularly baby shower games). It looks like you had a beautiful shower.

    Congratulations on the Ravens win! I can't wait until the game this weekend. :)

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  2. Sounds like an awesome, low-key shower! I also hate those games and definitely won't be playing them at my shower someday.

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  3. I requested the same exact thing for my unisex shower. NO lame shower games, and I wanted it to just be a laid-back, chill time with good company, good food and good conversation. I'm envious that you were able to have a game on during yours. My family would never have allowed that(they were barely okay with the unisex party, but once I explained that I wouldn't have any friends there if I couldn't invite men, they caved). The only request of mine that wasn't met was my plea to not have to open presents in front of everyone. I HATE that, but apparently that's what everyone else likes to see. My Aida is also the only girl on my side of the family and the youngest by about 8 years on her dad's side. Betty will be well-loved. Don't think the attention will be off of you once she is born though. All of a sudden you'll be dealing with a different sort of attention. People love babies, especially baby girls. Anytime you go out in public, random strangers will stop you and want talk about your precious girl. It happens to us all the time.

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  4. I'm planning a shower for the first time (and I've actually never been to a baby shower)...note to self...leave out lame ass games.

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  5. so so cute!!!

    is it bad i now want to have a baby during football season so i can have a game shower??

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  6. YAY! Looks like Betty cleaned up with gifts! I love that it was laid back. That is why I requested a shower for both Mike and I and while we were unwrapping gifts the Alabama game was on. Like you I feel a bit strange when the focus is all on me - so does Mike so I'm happy we were able to do this.

    The cake is adorable and I'm glad you commented on the "BAD" because I was wondering the same thing. ;)

    P.S. I HATE games.. who started that anyway?

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  7. I laughed out loud at the bad cake- I also looked at the letters on the side of the blocks & expected them to say ass (as in bad ass) but I tend to be inappropriate...also, I am terrified of that poopy diaper game.

    I still love when I stumble across your posts on the bump, I miss blogland & it makes me feel warm & fuzzy.

    Lastly, you are the cutest preggo lady.

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  8. i had to go to a baby shower yesterday and the only thing i could think of as i drive to the house was, "puh-leez don't let there be any baby shower games!". and the first thing i saw on the cake picture was that it spells out BAD. also....i want you to know that i was totally rooting for the ravens vs the patriots today.

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  9. Lol bad baby! I'm guessing someone messed up on the c and attempted to fix it. Haha! Still very pretty cake. Glad you had a nice shower. Me, I love the games! But I'm more a fan of the balloon under the shirt and make the non preggos try to tie their shoes. Hilarious!

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  10. Bwhaha my only rule for my showers were that there could be NO games and if they just had to have games no one had better ask me to participate. I have such a weird thing about those games! Some people were sad but I was the beached whale there and you cater to the whale. ;]

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