Showered with Sweetness

Baby K has now been showered with sweetness all around! At around 34 weeks pregnant, we had a small baby shower with family, which was special and sweet and perfect. And then at 36 weeks pregnant (a little over a week ago) we had a larger shower with all of our close friends.

Because we moved into our new home in November and knew we wouldn't really be having a housewarming prior to baby's arrival, a couple of our wonderful friends kindly threw us a combination shower and open house! It was great to have all of our friends over to see the new house, ooh and ahh over the nursery, and help us celebrate Baby K's upcoming arrival! It was also great (and so very much appreciated!) to have fabulous friends do all of the prep work for the event because I've been so tired these days.

Everything was within a grey and yellow color scheme, and the table with all of the yummy stuff was so perfect!

One of the friends who planned the shower is a graphic designer, so she custom designed the invitations with a bee theme, in honor of my being a Weddingbee blogger and now a Hellobee blogger! The bakery was able to perfectly replicate elements of the design onto the cake.

Love this!

Let's just say that the Koo household has been on a bit of a sugar high lately because on top of that delicious cake, there were also cupcakes. Yep, you guessed it: the guests ate the cupcakes and we were left with an entire cake! Delicious but I'm sure I've been just packing on the pounds over the last week!

And, of course the cupcakes each had an extra "bee" touch!

Yummy nibbles were set out for guests...

...including these gorgeous rainbow fruit kabobs.

Guest favors were freshly popped popcorn and M&M's (that matched the color scheme, of course!), all drizzled with white chocolate. Absolutely delicious.

A "wish tree" was set up for guests to leave wishes for Baby K.

Now we have all of these fabulous wishes to incorporate in Baby K's baby book!

At the very end, we opened gifts! Because it was an "open house" style where friends could come and go over the course of 3 hours, there were people who had already left when we opened gifts. And I think this worked out just fine! Otherwise, we would have had to open gifts right as guests arrived, as some were there early and some later on.

(Note that our pup Charlie thinks everything is for him!)

We were so lucky to have so many fabulous friends and family who have shown their support and excitement for Baby K's arrival!

There were a few things we learned from having showers so late in the pregnancy (34 weeks and 36 weeks):

• We had to be patient and see what we were gifted before we could buy everything else that baby might need (including essentials like bath items, changing pad, and clothes). This was extremely difficult for me because I am a planner at heart. Immediately after the second shower, we placed a huge online order of everything else we needed!
• I was exhausted after both showers. At the second shower, I was just getting over a terrible cold and my feet/ankles were swelling a lot, which didn't help things either.
• On the flip side, people love to see a big bump! So for both showers, I had plenty of bump to show off.
• By 36 weeks, baby's due date is pretty darn close. We were relieved that Baby K showed no signs of arriving early.
• It was great not having to travel for either shower. The first shower was about 20 minutes from our house and the second was at our house. I obviously wouldn't have been able to fly for either, but even at this point I would not have enjoyed a lengthy car trip.
• Having so much leftover cake at 36 weeks was fabulous delicious!

Thanks to everyone who attended and made Baby K feel very, very loved!