A Pom and Popcorn Baby Shower

Last week I had the privilege of co-hosting, with my SIL Olivia, a baby shower for our sweet friends Joe and Emily. They are happily expecting a baby boy, Isaac Ambrose, this spring and we were thrilled to give her a shower during the holidays while Olivia was in town.

Most of the baby showers I have attended, for some reason or another, have been for baby girls. So, I was not exactly sure what theme to go with for a boy. Emily and Joe do not have any specific nursery theme or colors. But, she did send me a swatch of fabric for her crib bedding.

So, I took it and ran with those colors and created this invite on my computer.

I decided on a "Pom and Popcorn" shower. I wanted a twist on the traditional Martha Stewart tissue paper pom. They are normally very flowery and pink...but, to make it more boy-ish we cut the ends into points, rather than petals, and made them with bright and bold colors. We also made smaller poms and used them in an apothecary jar for a centerpiece and on my mantle with pics of Joe and Emily as babies.

I also designed a logo "Emily's about to Pop" and printed it on Avery Sticker Paper and cut them into circles for labels on the gourmet popcorn favors. (Cheddar Ranch and Chipotle Jalapeno...yummy!)

I also made a door hanger, water bottle labels, cookie toppers and food labels to coordinate with the invite.

Mendy made the cake and coordinated with the colors and invite. She is so talented and it was a hit!

My house was a little small to host the 35-40 people...but, we made do and even used some of Kinley's chairs.

Overall, the shower was a hit and we can't wait for baby Isaac!

St. Louis Christmas

I know it's already the new year...but, I am still back in 2010 with my posts! One more Christmas update about our St. Louis trip (for all of our sweet extended Lamke family that reads the blog!) and then it is on to 2011 posts! Lots of pics here! (Editing pictures out is the hardest thing for me! I just love pictures...so my posts are always too long with more pics than you will ever want to look at....but, I digress....) We were in St. Louis for 5 days and nights and it was a fun, relaxing time with wonderful family.

We spent our first full day in St. Louis touring around the city. St. Louis is where Gary and Cheryl met, fell in love, got married and had Ben! We went to see Forest Park which, according to Gary, is the 2nd biggest park in the US, even bigger than Central Park. It has museums, arboretums, and even a zoo! We drove around St. Louis and saw some beautiful homes and tree lined streets and places where Gary and Cheryl had their first apartment and their favorite bar (Tom's) to hang out in when they were just youngsters. We went to see the St. Louis Arch and the museum below where Ben took lots of pictures of old pictures he liked in the museum. We tried to get picks in front of the arch but it was so hard because it is SO tall!

The rest of St. Louis was spent doing a lot of eating....playing games (lots of Pinochle and the newlywed game which Ben and I WON!).....and spending good quality time with family.

It snowed all day on Christmas eve and we had a white Christmas! So much fun! Kinley loved the snow and grabbing it with her hands but, when she fell in it...she did not like it so much. Lots of snow pictures. It was so fun playing with the new camera in the snow for the first time.

We spent Christmas morning in the Drury Inn and Santa brought Kinley her stocking. She loved it of course. Then we all watched Grandma open her presents....she raked it in.

It was such a fun trip and we can't wait to see everyone again! Hopefully they will all vacation in Texas this summer!