Crazy Cousin Cartwheel Karla's Babyshower

Some of you may remember me talking about my crazy, cousin, cartwheel Karla. That blog has a picture, but let me tell you about her. Karla is Chris's wife. Chris is Kevin's cousin. He is Jerry's sister's son. Karla is his wife. I met Karla a couple years ago. Chris and her and their family moved to Maryland.(That's where I live) :) Anyway, they came over to my in-laws for dinner. I remember that Chris knew how to talk to people. He kept the conversation flowing. Karla was very welcoming and easy to talk to. At first I thought it was just the southern accent (I just don't see how people can sound mean with a southern accent). Then I found out that she was a missionary kid stationed in The Philippines! Hey! That's where my dad is from! So we got to talking about that and this and the other. Their daughter got along well with Rory so much so that they were wearing the same shirt! They also have a son that Logan would gladly follow around FOREVER.
Rory went to their daughter's birthday party. Then Karla came to my first Thirty-One party. Then she had one of her own. Then she started teaching Rory piano. And we got close. They really feel like family, and I love it because duh...they are family. Then...late last year Karla told me that she's pregnant. Her youngest, her daughter is 10. It's been awhile. She doesn't have baby stuff anymore. I love her more than my luggage, so I offered to throw her a babyshower. I can hear the sighs now. For those of you that know me, my love language is giving things. I tend to bite off more than I can chew, so this was right on par with "me."
As the planning got started, Karla told me that her friends from out of town were going to take care of the food. They wanted to try Georgetown Cupcakes (ummm...I'm not going to argue when cupcakes are on the line.) Then her daughter wanted to take over the decorations. I wanted her daughter to be a part of it because it has to be hard being the youngest and then not being the youngest. So really...all I had to do was the invitations and flow of the party. I got the invitations and started googling baby showers. I got the idea to have everyone bring their favorite childhood book to build the baby a library. I've been to a few baby showers and can honestly say I really only like one game I've ever played at one. So I looked for other ideas, and then I found it...decorating onesies. I can hear the sigh again. I know...I know. It was a lot, but I could do it.
It actually wasn't that hard. Renee has a lot of fabric from her various projects. I just needed to get some markers, glue, and stencils. I got some iron-ons, and we were set. Then I saw the idea of a blessing tree. Some lady said she got some branches, put them in a vase, and had pieces of paper that people wrote blessings to the baby on. What do I have in my backyard? Two big trees! I went out and got some branches, got a vase and some sand, and voila! A Blessing Tree
I found some scrapbook paper that had these lovely little designs on them. A hole puncher and some ribbon, and here is The Blessing Tree. In the meantime of finding this idea, I started browsing through a cake pop book that Kaelyn got for some occasion. There was a picture of cake pops decorated like babies.(sharp inhale) "I could do that!" Rory was on board, and we were off doing a dry run and seeing if we could do it. Since I'm a last minute Lucy, (hehe...Lucy Bucy) I did them the night before the shower. And when I say night, I mean
That's PM folks! Kevin helped me. When we were done and had the flowers for their hair and the pops dipped, Kevin looked at me and said, "These are great, but we're never doing this again." Here they were that night.
The next morning I finished them off with candies from those necklaces, and some edible ink. Here's the finished product.
Kevin and I had a running joke the whole time because I kept saying, "I don't think they're that bad." I'm sure my voice was full of shock and amazement that we actually might have been able to pull them off. These were part of the goody bags. Don't get me started on the goody bags. It's a long, painful story. Here's what those turned out like.
Unfortunately I wasn't good at taking pictures at the actual shower. There were wonderful onesies made by Karla's friends. I managed to only take pictures of the one I made and the one Renee made. We used fabric from Chris's grandmother. I think he was touched. Here are those pictures. I'm sure Rory is going to kill me for not taking pictures of the one she decorated.
This was mine. It's a play on words, and that's all I'll say about it. The purple and yellow fabric is Chris's grandmother's. I love turtles. The end.
This was Renee's. She used Chris's grandmother's fabric too. She even put little flowers on the mitten part. And the bow in the middle? Too cute! All in all, I think it all went well, and Karla was grateful. She deserves it! I love you guys!