I spent much of last week working on baking and decorating bug cookies for the baby shower yesterday.
The process was even more time-consuming than usual because I was making so many different shapes, and each of them was so detailed. I was pretty happy with how they came out, so in the end, it was worth it. Everyone at the shower loved them, and I think it was a pretty nice favor for each of them to take home!
Here are some photos of the cookies. One of the whole group:
And then each cookie individually:
The caterpillar
The bee. The details on his wings are difficult to see, but there was a pattern of lines on the tips of his wings, and then polka dots toward the middle.
The ladybug. I think these ones were my favorite.
The snail. Cute, but the swirl of the shell was really hard to do well.
The dragonfly. Probably my other favorite. I used a toothpick to combine two different colors on the wings, and I loved how it turned out.
This is how the favors were put together. Everyone got one big cookie, and then a small bee. I put them into cookie bags, and tied them with curling ribbon, and added an “It’s a Boy!” charm.
As always, I used this recipe for the sugar cookie cutouts.
Tomorrow, I’ll share more details about the cake!
You may (or may not) have noticed my lack of every day blog posting this past week. I tried to stay on top of it, but I missed a day here and there because I was just too busy! I spent the entire week preparing for Kara’s baby shower, which was this afternoon. As you may recall, Kara is my brother’s girlfriend, and they are expecting a baby boy in just eight short weeks!
My other brother’s fiancee, Marie, and I hosted the shower, with help from my mom (and well, um, the use of her HOUSE, which needless to say, was pretty important). The party went as planned, everybody showed up, everyone had a good time, and the mom-to-be was, of course, appropriately showered with gifts.
I posted a photo of the invitations back when I designed them in January, but here it is again so you can see how it ended up fitting in with the theme. Marie and I made and mailed the invitations back in February.
I did my best to take a ton of photos so that Kara wouldn’t have to worry about it. I found out I did a pretty good job when I came home and uploaded nearly 200 photos to my computer. Anyway, I just e-mailed over 100 pics to Kara, and figured I’d share several of them here, too.
Before the guests arrived, I went around and took photos of our setup.
This is my mom’s dining room, where we set the table up for a buffet. I didn’t get pics once the food was set, but we served Italian bread, salad, baked ziti, and meatballs.
We set up the cake and the buckets filled with favors (bug cookies) in the dining room as well, on a table next to the windows. (I made these, but we’ll talk more about the baked goods later!)
Cake and dirt cake (again, more on that later–probably a post tomorrow!)
Close-ups of the favor buckets. I bought these felt bug buckets at Michaels. I was in there one day for something else and happened upon these. I couldn’t believe my luck–they fit in with our theme perfectly!
In the kitchen, we set up the island with the snacky stuff. We kept it simple because we wanted people to still be hungry enough to eat the lunch we were serving. Cheese, crackers, chips and dip (an absolute necessity at any function in my family), and a veggie platter.
On the kitchen table, we put the diaper cake I made. This was my first crack at one of these, and I was really happy with how it came out. I just realized I didn’t take close enough pics to show this, but the diapers? They actually had bug designs on them. That was another coincidence that completely worked in my favor.
I purchased Target diapers to use for the cake, and as we were walking to the checkout, I noticed through the sides of the package that there were designs on the diapers. At first I thought, “I can’t use these!” because I wanted them to be plain white diapers. But as I looked more closely, I realized that the designs were bugs. Could it have worked out more perfectly?
For the diaper cake items, I bought a 6-pack of baby socks, a 3-pack of little teethers, a 6-pack of baby spoons, a 2-pack of pacifiers, and the little frog rattle/teether toy for the top. I made the little wooden sign with the baby’s name (Hunter) on it to lean on the front. The colors and theme of the sign match the baby’s nursery. I figured they could reuse the sign by hanging it on the nursery door (which they plan to do).
Drink station. The punch was spiked with a bit of champagne, so the mommy-to-be had to avoid it. Everyone else enjoyed it, though!
Marie took care of coming up with and putting together a few games to be played throughout the shower. This was the setup of the baby food game. The baby food containers were unlabeled, and everyone had to guess the contents (without tasting or smelling).
It was cute: Instead of just numbering the containers, she labeled each one with a letter from Hunter’s name.
Before we knew it, Kara arrived, and the guests started coming shortly after.
The mommy-to-be, Kara.
My 20-month-old cousin, Mia. She was so well-behaved!
Shower hostesses! Marie and me.
We had prepared the pans of ziti on Friday night, so we put them in the oven to bake shortly after people started arriving. Once all of the guests were there, we still had a bit of time for the ziti, so we decided to keep everyone busy with a game.
Marie had planned a “Price is Right”-type game with baby items. We split everyone up into teams of 4-5 people, then gave them sheets of paper Marie had prepared with a list of 10 baby items. On the bottom of the sheet was a “bank” with prices listed, and the groups had to work together to try to match the correct prices to the correct baby items. Apparently it was pretty difficult, because most of our teams were awful at it. :) Our winning team only got 4 correct!
Marie had purchased some really awesome prizes (Tote bags filled with different types of goodies. One was movie-themed, with a Blockbuster gift card, tons of candy, and popcorn. Another was wine themed, with two bottles of wine, wine glasses, and a wine stopper. The last was beach themed, with a beach towel, manicure/pedicure set, flip-flops, etc.). Because of this, we only planned to give three prizes away. As a result, we knew from the beginning that we couldn’t have the whole team of people win the “Price is Right” game. Instead, we had the members of the winning team move onto a bonus round.
The bonus game? They had to properly diaper a baby while blindfolded. Whoever did it correctly the fastest won. Even though Kara wasn’t on the winning team, we thought it was only fair that the mom-to-be got to participate in the bonus round, too. And guess what? She won! Good to know she is prepared for those late nights changing diapers in the dark. :)
Mia sitting quietly and reading with another of my little cousins, 4-year-old Kiara.
After lunch, we decided to keep moving things along and got Kara situated in the living room to begin opening gifts.
One of my favorite gifts that she received. It was from my mom, and it’s a bib that says, “cute but messy… just like daddy.” Given that daddy is my “baby” bro, I can tell you from experience. SO APPROPRIATE. :)
GO BILLS!
Big gift from my dad–the travel system.
From Michael and me… the pack ‘n’ play!
After gifts, we wanted to wrap things up with dessert. Once everyone ate the tasty treats, people began to head out. Successful baby shower, for sure!
The parents-to-be. My brother, Trevor, showed up at the end to thank everyone and start loading gifts in his Jeep to take back to their apartment. I love this photo of them; it’s so cute!
After we had cleaned up most of the shower mess, I stopped back to Trevor and Kara’s apartment to see how the nursery looked with all of the furniture set up in it (since we painted it last weekend!). I realized that we hadn’t gotten a photo of Kara and me, so we took one while we were there.
I’m so relieved to be done with all of the shower planning! Marie and I had a great time doing all of it, but it was a lot of work (especially this past week), so it’s nice to know that it’s done and it was a success. I was so happy to do it for Kara and Trevor, and of course my little nephew. I can’t wait to meet him!
Round 7 of Operation Baking Gals will begin in just a little more than a week. I would be happy to lead a team again, but I am in need of at least one soldier!
Does anyone out there have anybody overseas right now that we could bake for?
If so, please e-mail me as soon as possible at roadtotheaisle@gmail.com. You must have (or be able to get quickly) a current military address for the soldier so that we can make sure the packages will get to him or her.
Also, if you are submitting someone, please provide a short bio about your soldier. Their name, relationship to you, what branch of the military, how long have they been over there, family information (Married? Kids?), etc. Really anything that you feel like sharing about this person so that we can get to know him/her. Oh! If they have a favorite type of baked good, let us know that, too, so we can ensure that they get at least SOME of that thing. :)
As for all of those who baked last time, thank you again, and I hope you’ll consider joining Team Heather Drive for Round 7. I will post sign up information as soon as I have it.
Stay tuned!
Tonight, I am extremely saddened to learn of the death of actress Natasha Richardson.
Natasha Richardson dies after ski fall
I honestly am not all that familiar with her. When I heard the news of her head injury earlier this week, I knew who she was, but I have only ever really seen her in a couple of things (The Parent Trap, Nell). I’m also a huge fan of Top Chef, and she served as a guest judge on one of the episodes earlier this year.
From what has been said, it sounds like she was a wonderful person. Someone who, despite her background (famous family), her celebrity, and a “Hollywood marriage,” somehow managed to stay grounded. Her focus was on family, and it seems as though she had a healthy and happy marriage. I am even more heartbroken to learn that her sons are just 12 and 13 years old. What a devastating blow to her entire family; she was only 45!
I think there are three things that strike me most about this story:
1) It’s a reminder of how easy you can lose someone you love. She was on a bunny slope, for crissakes. It really can happen at any place, any time, and in any way.
2) It’s amazing how actually uncommon this type of thing is. When I heard rumors on Tuesday that she was likely brain dead, I thought to myself–Wow, freak accident. As it turns out, it’s not so “freak” at all. In fact, had I been less lucky, this could have been me about 5-6 years ago.
3) This was so preventable.
I have been skiing since I was about 9 or 10 years old. I’m not the best skier out there, but over the years, I’ve gotten to the point where I can ski down pretty much any slope… sometimes it’s just a matter of how fast and how well I can get down it. :) Anyway, in January 2003, I went to Vail, Colorado for the first time. My mom and her coworkers were in Denver for a conference, and when it was over, they all stayed on for a few extra days to drive up to Vail. I flew out to meet them all there.
If I remember correctly, we only skied for two or three days. On our last day, in the afternoon, we skied over the other side of the mountain to run the back bowl. The back bowl is generally less groomed than the front side of Vail, so trails aren’t as easily marked. It’s pretty much an open mountain covered in snow, and you can cut and ski down at any point.
I was following my mom and we cut down a part of the mountain that had very few tracks. I was loving it, but after a few days of skiing, and having skied all morning, my legs weren’t as “fresh” as they had been. On one of my turns, one of my skis got caught in the deep snow, and since I had been going pretty fast, my ski stopped and the rest of me kept going. I ended up in an all-out yard sale situation, and when I landed, my head snapped back and I pounded the back of my head on the slope.
I’m not going to lie. It hurt like a bitch.
Not only did my head hurt, but my ego was bruised a bit as well! Some of my mom’s coworkers, who had been skiing behind me, stopped to help me gather my equipment and get back up on my feet. My head hurt, but I felt OK. Everyone asked if I was OK to keep going, and I said I was.
We skied for another couple of hours, and by the end of the day, I started to feel pretty out of it. My head just felt strange. The only thing I really remember specifically was when we were getting into the car. I was standing at the back of the SUV with the trunk door open, and I was holding my skis waiting for my mom’s coworker to load them on the roof rack. He turned to me and said, “You don’t look so good. Why don’t you give me your skis and just get in?” I, very seriously, said, “No, thanks. I’d prefer a seat, thank you.”
In my messed up state of “out of it,” I THOUGHT HE WAS TELLING ME TO RIDE IN THE TRUNK. Um, hello!
In the end, I am about 98% sure I had a concussion, and I definitely had whiplash (I couldn’t move my neck for 2-3 days after that). What I know now is how completely STUPID it was for me to not go to the hospital. But thankfully, I was lucky.
What I’m saying is… I can understand why Richardson didn’t go to the hospital. You fall and hit your head, and you think, OK, that hurt. And wow, how embarrassing. But it never crossed my mind that my fall could have killed me, and I was on an advanced trail and was skiing with quite a bit of speed. I’m sure that in a lesson and not skiing with much speed, Richardson never gave it a thought, either.
What really bugs me is that she wasn’t wearing a helmet. I’m not blaming her, because there are a lot of people who don’t wear ski helmets. And even those who would wear helmets wouldn’t necessarily think to wear them on the bunny hills. But after my crash landing on that slope in Vail, I made sure to ask for a ski helmet the following Christmas. Now, I wear it every single time I ski.
The thing is, I think everyone should be required to wear them. In smart most states, it is against the law to ride motorcycles, or even bicycles, without a helmet. Can’t a law be put into place for ski resorts as well? It seems to me it would be pretty easy to enforce. They don’t let you into the lift line without a ski pass, why don’t they just expand that and not let you in without a helmet? Skiing is a dangerous sport, and you can hurt yourself in many different ways. I’m just shocked that more people don’t protect the most vulnerable part of their bodies–their HEADS.
Interestingly enough, my mom and I were just talking about this on Tuesday morning (prior to hearing about Richardson’s accident). This past weekend, one of my mom’s ski buddies crashed on a slope that he’s been down a thousand times, at a ski resort they all go to every single weekend during ski season. His bindings released, but he kept flying, and he slammed right into a tree. Broke his ribs, ruptured his spleen, bruised his lung. He had to be airlifted to the hospital.
When she told me this, the first thing I asked her: Was he wearing a helmet?
The answer was no. In this case, a helmet wouldn’t have helped him avoid the internal injuries he suffered. But what if he had flipped around slightly differently? What if he had landed a foot to the left, or a foot to the right? His HEAD would have hit that tree.
My mom says that some of their friends (including my mom’s boyfriend) won’t wear helmets because they think it makes them look stupid. These are people in their 50s, still concerned over what they look like while skiing. My response to that has always been–Better to look stupid than to be dead.
Natasha Richardson’s death is a terrible tragedy, and I am absolutely crushed for her family and friends. And the truth of the matter is, you can’t walk around your whole life wearing a helmet. This could have happened anywhere. You can roll out of bed, you can fall in the shower, you can slip on some ice. Accidents happen, and unfortunately, death can result. But I really, really hope that something good can come out of this.
Yesterday, on the Today Show, the doctor was talking about Richardson’s injury (before she had passed away), and Matt Lauer asked whether a helmet would have prevented this. The answer? Absolutely.
All of this (if you’ve gotten this far) to say: If you can prevent it, you should. To all my fellow skiers/snowboarders out there… Please. WEAR HELMETS.
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
