Baby Shower Photos & Deets (Finally! Sorry...)

ABOUT TO HATCH BABY SHOWER

Alright, so the party was over a week and a half ago... but I finally got all of the picture together! [please remember- click on all photos to view them in higher resolution!]

The invitation:
I was really in love with the baby chick themes, and with Easter just around the corner... there were so many options for decorations. I decided on "She's About to Hatch" as the final theme and went from there... I made the invitation in photoshop.

Top Left: Prize Bags (complete with Victoria's Secret!)
Top Right: Close-up on the cupcakes Amy & I made
Bottom Left: Pacifier necklaces for "no baby" game
Bottom Right: Eggs & Chicks lining the path to my door...

Top Left: Homemade Cupcake Tower (2 bowls, dinner & salad plate)
Top Right: "Mom to be seat"
Bottom Left: Front entry
Bottom Right: Gift & Dessert Table

Top Left: "Take" Banner over the guest's goodie bags
Top Right: Cupcake Game (find the chick in yours and you win!)
Bottom Left: Food Station
Bottom Right: We've seen this before... oops.

Top Left: Bird Nests in process. (Thanks Michelle)
Top Right: Homemade Lollipop Bouquet
Bottom Left: Egg Garland on Stairs
Bottom Right: Goodie Bags for guests (Bird Nests & jelly beans)

Top Left: Modified my wall art with tissue paper.
Top Right: Up close and personal with chocolate goodness
Bottom Left: Better angle of the goodie bag tray
Bottom Right: Drink Station! (and my tiny kitchen-ignore)

BUT...
I bet you're asking how she liked my gift...
She LOVED it! Thanks so much to Cami from Bears and More, she was so easy to talk to and work out the extra details (pink ribbon) and fast shipping.

So, that's it folks. I would love to run a small party planning business... maybe some day!

This party has been submitted to:

Click to view other parties for ideas & inspiration!

i♥faces - dramatic black&white

[please click on image to view in higher resolution]

About the editing:
I removed the color then I messed with the brightness/contrast. I loved the picture how it was, I feel as though the men in uniform and the bride kissing her groom is dramatic enough without too much editing. The grain is actually due to the fact that my camera doesn't perform all that well at night (making editing a bit more difficult), yet for this challenge I feel as though it added to instead of taking away from the emotions of the photo.

A little more personal:

This was my husband's Gunny and his wife was our FRO, recently PCS'd. I took this photo November 14th, 2009. These two had gotten married in Hawaii at the courthouse, they never had a real wedding. Her father has a terrible form of cancer, and she (like most women) longed for her "daddy" to walk her down the aisle before he passed on. So, they held their wedding in the Norfolk Naval Hospital where he is being treated, he wore his dress blues and escorted her down the aisle via wheelchair. While those were dramatic photos, I didn't capture them well. I did capture this- if you aren't familiar with military weddings, the Arch of the Swords is a sight to be seen. Once the couple has walked through the arch, they stop for a kiss, then (in the Marine Corps) the Marine on the bride's side will gently "slap" her on the butt with his sword and say "Welcome to the Marine Corps Ma'am!".

Make Sure:
You check out all the other entries HERE.

I just want to sit, put my feet up, and zone out!

Man has it been a long week (and I still have Friday left, haha!).

Let's see... mainly I've been helping Ruth de-clutter, organize, and prepare her home for TMO to come. It is no easy task, she has FIVE children! One entire hallway of her house is currently devoted to garage sale items/donations. Not only is it cleaning and organizing but the 2yr old is generally home with us during the day, sometimes he goes to the CDC... but when he doesn't, things like my hair getting "styled" with lasagna fingers occur- ewwwwwwww!

On that note I would like to mention it is baby-making season here at the Fort (Needless to say, I don't drink the water). I am constantly telling my pregnant and mom friends that they are the best birth control for me. Seriously though, between their rants and raves about the horrid things their pregnancy is/has put(ting) them through, or what the little boy drug in and where their little girl painted the other day, I am in no way desiring children at the moment. I have also only been married for 4mo and would like some time for hubby and I to just be together.

Back to my week, Wednesday I did get to relax a bit. I drove my friend Michelle to the airport so she could visit her hubs who is away training. Then I picked up my other friend Erin and we went to the Commissary for groceries. After dropping them off at our houses we headed out to Lowe's and Wal*Mart to get a jump start on spring planting. I bought two small strawberry plants, yellow pansies, a green lily plant, and an orange/yellow tulip plant. Will they survive? That remains to be seen... that evening we enjoyed dinner at Erin and her hubby's house then watched the movie Australia, which I loved!

I also volunteered at church creating Resurrection Egg kits to be handed out at the Easter Extravaganza they are hosting this Saturday, it should be a blast. They are bringing in a former WFC wrestler and a Junior Heavyweight Champion to do "amazing feats of strength" and then share their testimonies. =)

Have a great weekend!

No words to be said...

THIS brings tears to my eyes.
Sadness to my heart.
...and fear.

Although I didn't know Mrs. Porto and may never get to meet her... she is a Marine wife going through things we all do (and more that I pray we never have to).

My prayers are with her, their daughter, her family, and his.

R.I.P. Cpl Jonathan Daniel Porto
March 14th, 2010

Spring is here (to stay I hope!)

Thursday at 1:25am our friends welcomed a little Marine brat into the world... sadly it was a rush procedure due to pregnancy complications and she must remain in NICU until her due date (May 5th) or they deem her healthy enough to go home. Please pray for our friends and the health of little Leah, she's so cute even with all those icky tubes and IV's!

In less pressing news...

The quarter auction was so much fun last night, numbers being called, people yelling in triumph or grunting in disappointment. When I won the Pampered Chef fluted cake pan I practically jumped up and ripped it out of the lady's hand. No joke, I feel kinda bad about it now, it was one of those spur of the moment things. We had placed bids 4 times for Pampered Chef before we won, haha... I seriously hope we raised a lot of money for the FRG, the holiday events are always so nice for us families. Personally hubby and I did very well for ourselves overall, we took $48 in quarters to bid with and came away with $100 in winnings! (Pampered Chef items, Tastefully Simple items, and Celebrating Home decor).

Also, the weather has been amazing this week. I told "Other" Tay it's all because of her, she brought sunny AZ with her. We've hit 70* everyday and not a cloud in sight! What a drastic change from last week's 6 straight days of rain and 40* temperatures.

Has spring really come to stay? I sure hope so... I don't think I can deal with much more inclement weather... three blizzards in a one month span for a Southern Arizona girl was quite the culture shock! Speaking of spring, the first day is tomorrow! March 20th. I just found out Rita's Italian Ice (which we didn't have on the west coast) is giving away a free regular size Italian Ice to all guests from 10am-Noon. I'm not sure if I'm going to fight the crowds, but man does that sound tasty and a great treat to enjoy on a nice sunny afternoon!

Baking!

So tonight hubby's battalion FRG has been deemed the "charity" that all donations from a local quarter auction will go to. Since vendors are donating the items to be sold at the auction, the battalion decided to have a bake sale there as well... this is where I (and many other wives) come in.

I was approached by Ruth, the Master Gunnery Sergeant's wife, and asked to come over and help bake. 1-I know her and like her. 2-she's the MGySgt's wife, you can't say no! So, yesterday... I baked 50 sugar cookies (luckily Lisa iced them), 50 chocolate chip cookies, and 50 oatmeal raisin cookies... whew. That was just at her house though, today I will bake something here at mine.


Speaking of her house, wow. Now... obviously her hubby is a MGySgt and they have five kids... so a large house is in order. But is was so pretty! I've heard horror stories about base housing, but for the upper ranks here on the Fort they seem pretty nice. Hubby and I don't need to live on base considering we don't have any children and it's acutally economically better for us to live off base at the moment. If that day comes though, I hope we can get at least get a nice base house.

Daylight Savings

Actual event from this morning:

*Yawn-glance at clock * ...oh good it's only 9:20am, church doesn't start until 11am.
*Grab cell phone* ...what?! 10:20am?! Oh crap, that daylight savings thing was today.
*nudge Q * ...get up, get up, we're going to be late for church!
*he glances at clock * ...huh? ...look at your phone! Daylight savings time started today.*commence rush to get ready*


Oh how I miss my Arizona Mountain Standard Time. None of this silly changing your clocks forward and backward. ;-p


In other news, we had a very successful surprise baby shower for Karen. I can't believe she's leaving for Hawaii in 15 days, closely followed by Vanessa, then Isabel, then Ruth. I hope we get some nice girls from this upcoming transfer season.


Other Tay (AZ friend) comes tomorrow night, well I guess it's actually super early Tuesday morning. We have rearranged the 2nd room for her already. I am so excited for her to be able to spend her spring break here with her fiance (he's in the Navy) prior to their wedding. AND of course have some Tay time as well!

I got this in the mail yesterday:I think Amanda is going to love it, I'm giving it as her baby shower gift along with a matching burp rag (among other baby necessities!). Speaking of Amanda... the details of her baby shower are coming along nicely, just a few more touches, a quick trip to the dollar store, half a day of baking, and rearranging the furniture downstairs and it'll work great! Haha.

It's going to be a busy week...