LYNDALL STOUT'S BABY SHOWER!

Lyndall Stout is going to be an awesome mommy!

Meet my "NEPA (Northeastern PA) Girlfriend Trio" -- Lyndall and Diane. You are also looking at two of my future bridesmaids. You know what? Hosting a baby shower isn't too difficult! The key to it is: loving what you are about to do -- we all love Lyndall and are thrilled that her little baby boy will be here in less than a month! The other key (you can have multiple keys, right?) is surrounding yourself with quality people. ENTER DIANE LEE. (I must also give considerable credit to Diane's boyfriend, Kenny, and Big Ben who, between the two of them, made most of the food, ran to the grocery store, parked cars, served the guests, AND CLEANED UP!)

Immediately below is a quick video of the shower, some of the people there, and Lyndall's advice to women who just found out they are expecting and maternity ware... (Just hit the play arrow below and be sure to turn off my play list to the right.)

Here is a picture of some of Lyndall's friends from work. Pictured left to right are: Jill Konopka, Lyndall, Candice Kelly, and Lauren Williams. They all work at WBRE TV in Wilkes-Barre.

The theme of our baby shower was "literacy". So, in lieu of cards, Diane and I asked that guests bring a children's book inscribed to "Baby Y".

Here is a picture of all the books Lyndall received to start her baby's library off strong! I gave her "Corduroy" and "The Giving Tree".

Speaking of trees... I think you might recall that I am one of those people who keeps their tree up all year long. I just don't feel like taking it down , finding my way under the staircase (hello, it gets down to like 2 feet tall under there!) only to have to drag it out in a few months (I say "few months because by the time I used to get around to taking it down, it was usually around July 4th.) Anyway, we decorated my "Holiday Tree" as a Baby Shower Tree. It was adorned with prize gifts for the guests (who would win them at the various baby games) and some pacifier necklaces that the guests would also wear for another game. For that game, the word "baby" was banned from all conversation. Once someone slipped up and said "baby", then they would loose their pacifier...

The food was DELISH. We *thought* we were going to use the Joy of Cooking Chicken Salad recipe on page 91. Turns out, the book was left behind and anyone we thought we knew who had it, didn't. So, resourceful Kenny whipped some up from scratch. Mind you, Ben ran to Wegmans at some crazy hour the night before to procure the chickens! (Side note -- I finally got to use my Le Creuset bake ware and it is TOPS! Not that I would really know, this is coming from Ben. But I wanted Le Creuset because, if you remember the Cosby Show, this is the cookware Cliff and Claire Huxtable had in their fancy brownstone home. I only want my kitchen to look good. I have no intention of actually cooking!)

I did, actually, do a little baking. I broke open the Red Velvet mix and made the cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

SUPER - CALI - FRAGIL - ISTIC - EXPI -ALA - LICIOUS!

This was the perfect vehicle for me to use my purchased - last - summer miniature cake display domes. YAY! There may have been more cupcakes, but I tend to make things merely for the batter. So, to actually follow through and BAKE the batter.... that was a little unusual for me.

For drinks we served home made lemonade and Turkey Hill iced tea (the best iced tea in NEPA.)

Ben squeezed alllllllllllllll the lemons with a brand new reamer. Then, in perfect Martha Stewart fashion, he left some floating in the decanter for effect. Mmmmmmmmmm. A Good Thing.

Another trip to Sweet Eden (all about yum bakery) had us munching on far too many sweets for dessert. My favorite? The book worm apple cookies (complete with gummy worm coming through a hole in the apple.) I somehow managed to avoid eating the worm (yes, my worm phobia transcends to the gummy kind, too!)
Some of the other games we played were: Baby Bingo, and "How Big is Lyndall's Belly?" (You can imagine Lyndall's eye roll at the thought of standing smack dab in the middle of the living room while we each went up to her to see if the tape we cut was the closest circumference to her protruding bun-in-the-oven belly full of love!) Jill guessed to within less than an inch!

We also played a "Name that Baby Animal" game. Did you know that a baby otter is a whelp? Who knew? Candice did...she got 11 baby animals right! (They weren't easy -- name that baby (insert here) - oyster, spider, alligator, peacock, ape, etc.)

Some of my favorite things were Diane's oh-so-creative decor items! She strung a clothes line across the living room and hung a few onesies on it. By the time Lyndall was done opening her gifts, it was loaded down with the cuddly attire (not to mention some OK State Cowboys giddy up!) The other beautiful element was Diane's Diaper Cake! (This lent itself well to the "Guess How Many Diapers Game" (104)) Take a close look at this thing, but don't ask me how she did it. The Little Miss Epitome of Morning News Anchor got up at 5am on Sunday to put it alllllllll together! Send all inquires to Diane Lee at Fox 23 news in Albany!

Our guests left with a little baby bottle filled with candy rattles in them that tasted like smartees. (They had the texture of Runts.) We tied a little "thank you" note with yarn around the top. There you have it! Our most-distance-travelled guest was Lyndall's step mom, Marilyn Stout; She came allllll the way from Tulsa! Way to make the commute Marilyn!

Also, a VERY SPECIAL thank you to Ms America, Camille Zebelman, Bonnie Lawrence, Kevina Howard, and Debbie Hershey. These are just a few of the women I heard from (who left their names) and offered some wonderful shower ideas. You instantly made me feel at ease when you flooded my inbox with suggestions for Lyndall. THANK YOU!

And to Lyndall, Big D. and once - Little - but - now - passes - for - Medium - D ... We love you and are so happy for your upcoming addition ... Don't you have a name yet??? (Sorry, Jill put me up to it!)

XOXO - Kim Tooch