We started our weekend by driving to Lewisville on Friday. Vic took the day off work and we arrived mid afternoon. I had plans to go to Natasha's to help decorate and work on this amazing balloon arch idea she had. So, the kids swam with Charley and Vic in Ana and Charley's pool.
On Saturday morning, Mom, GG and Melbo came to Lewisville around noon and we loaded up to go to Natasha's to setup. The day before, Natasha and I had done this entire cascade of balloons across the top of the stairs and all the way down to look like bubbles. At the bottom was a giant duck. It was spectacular looking and so much fun to do with Natasha that day. I can not tell you how many balloons we used. We had a small helium air tank but we ended up splitting the duties with me blowing them all up and tying them and she would attach them to the plastic that wrapped around her banister. With both of us being so pregnant (I was 32 weeks and she was probably 37ish), I was pretty impressed with us. It looked amazing! And I love completing a good crafty project like that.
Oh and first Vic and I took a photo of us together with our little tiny baby girl inside my tummy!
We arrived and started working on decorating, game setup, and food prep. Actually, Mrs. Banos did almost all of the food prep, along with some last minute Erwin helpers. I'll show some of the decorations below. We made lots of them!
These are Baby Wishes - one of my favorite things to do for a mama at a shower. I had Atticus and Grace fill them out before, for Norah.
We started the shower with food, played some games, opened gifts and took a 1000 pictures to commemorate this occasion for Ana!
There were at least 30-35 people in attendance.
One of the games we played was "guess the baby picture". Everyone was supposed to text a baby photo to Natasha and she made a slideshow. When the photo popped up, you had to guess who it was. Above was GG! So cute! Ana was really good at knowing these.
And this was the most beautiful photo of Mrs. Banos.
One of our games/gifts we played was where each of the hostesses got gifts that started with a certain letter in Norah's name. Before Ana opened them, guests had to guess what might be in the bags. So, for example, I had N and O. I got her a car organizer, onesies, ointment, outlet covers, nursing pillow, noise machine, nail trimmers and no scratch mittens. I loved this idea because she got so many great items!
Charley's favotire book, when he was little, was The Big Red Barn, so Mom gave it to Norah.
Ana got some wonderful gifts for Norah, including "in progress" afghans and quilts from GG and Melbo.
And here are the hostesses (minue Mrs. Banos). We took this photo because in order, from front to back, everyone either has their baby or is pregnant. From 37ish weeks down to about 12 weeks! How fun is that!
Our Beautiful Ana carrying Baby Norah at about 24 weeks pregnant. It was the most wonderful day (but my pregnant body never sat down and I was exhausted at the end! 4th pregnancy, and during the summer, was no joke!)
Meanwhile, the Erwin & Banos men and kids were at Ana and Charley's swimming and playing the afternoon away.
The next day, Sunday, was Pop's 65th birthday. We played with the goats. Then, everyone came over for birthday celebrations for Everyone from March to August! With busy schedules and pregnant mamas, we either hadn't celebrated or wouldn't get to for awhile. So, we celebrated: Grace (5), Everly (2), Atticus (7), Pop (65), Grandma (65), Molly (34), GG (69), and Ana (31)!
We sang to every person and let them blow out their candles! Everly didn't like being sung to. ha!
The family around the table. I love it. It was a wonderful, memorable weekend!
