I did this backwards, but I wanted to share the invitations I made a few weeks ago for the gender reveal party we hosted this past weekend. If you're curious, I found the paper tape at Michael's, the silhouette stamp is from a Close to My Heart stamp set, and the wooden heart stamp is from a Stampin' Up set. I wanted to use graph paper for the background. I searched high and low for some, and then found a suggestion in a scrapbook forum for making your own. That's what I did. I like how it turned out.
I used the invitation in this week's Project Life layout. This week is my favorite so far. Are you doing Project Life? How are you liking it?
How was your Mother's Day? I hope you had a good one.
I found out the gender of our baby this past weekend. I couldn't have asked for a sweeter Mother's Day gift. :)
Jesse and I thought it would be fun to find out with family if the baby was a boy or a girl. We have 3 girls already as many of you already know. At our last appointment, we asked the ultrasound tech not to tell us the sex of the baby, but to put it in a sealed envelope. We had the envelope for 2 weeks before we found out!
The day of the party we took the envelope to a party supply place, had the lady look in the envelope (but not tell us!), and fill a big box with pink or blue balloons. We were very anxious to know! ;)
At the party, we went with lots of pink and blue decor. I mimicked this chalkboard I saw on Pinterest. (I have other pretty gender party ideas pinned, as well, in my Party Ideas board on Pinterest). I made blue frosted cupcakes and pink frosted cupcakes. Jasmine made the white and milk chocolate covered strawberries. Using white chocolate dyed blue or pink, she decorated the strawberries (the little arrangements were so cute!), pretzels, and waffle bowls for ice cream after dinner. I loved the waffle bowls:
At sunset, we opened the big box outside, and revealed that our baby is a . . .
girl! :)
Jasmine or Jennifer took these pictures.
The other day I mentioned that I was tracking points as a Weight Watcher member before my pregnancy- keeping track and being careful to not go over my points for the day (and the week) in attempts to lose weight. Obviously, my goals are not to lose weight right now; therefore, I am no longer tracking points. I am; however, attempting to make healthy decisions for myself and for the baby. I am hoping to eat well by continuing to food journal, which helps me to be mindful of what I eat.
During the first trimester of pregnancy, I looked high and low for a good pregnancy food journal, but I couldn't find one that suited me. I decided to make one. Now that I am in the second trimester, I bought a new journal (I was tired of the old one and I needed to update my daily food requirements anyway). Here's how I went about making one if you ever want to make one for yourself or for a friend.
I found a super cute and super inexpensive journal at Target. I printed labels with my daily food requirements on each label after personalizing a plan on choosemyplate.gov (recommended by my physician).
After printing the labels, I stuck them to the bottom of each page in the journal.
I also printed out a quick reference chart for what counts as a serving in each food group (bread/grains, fruits, dairy, meat/beans, and vegetables). For example, I require 7 servings of bread/grains a day. 1 serving includes 1 slice of bread or 1 tortilla or 1/2 cup of cooked rice, noodles, or pasta, etc).
I pasted the chart on the back of the journal.
Every day, I write down the food I've had and check off what requirement I've fulfilled at the bottom of the page.
Honestly? I just love how pretty it is. ;)
Whew- barely made it on time this month for my goals, but here they are:
It has been a whirlwind of activity around here. My sister Jasmine got married this past weekend. I was the matron of honor, my husband was a groomsmen, and my daughters were the flower girls. April was a busy month. I can't wait to share pictures when the photographer gets the pictures to Jasmine in a few weeks. It was all very beautiful. I am ready to tackle May, and have very high hopes for accomplishing all of my goals this month.
As always, thank you for stopping by!
My sister Jennifer, my mom, and I hosted my sister Jasmine's bridal shower. Her wedding colors are yellow and gray. We went with yellow for the color scheme. We kept the decorations simple with several floral centerpieces (yellow roses were the focal point. My dad used to be a florist, so he made all of the arrangements for us). We had two bigger arrangements on the cupcake table. They were beautiful.
We had about 30 guests. We kept lunch simple with a sandwich bar. We had turkey and roast beef cold cuts, various cheese options, assorted vegetables and spreads, and a few pasta salads. We served strawberry lemonade and personalized water bottles for the guests.
My sister Jennifer and I put together a few games. This is me on the left and Jennifer on the right:
During lunch, we handed out a crossword puzzle with trivia about Jasmine and her fiancee Oscar. Afterwards, we had the guests fill out a card with a favorite memory/adventure with Jasmine. We read the cards out loud and had the guests guess who wrote the card. That was fun! The day before the bridal shower, I asked Oscar to answer a series of questions and recorded him. I asked him things like "Where did you first meet?" "What is the last thing Jasmine does before she goes to sleep?" etc. I had Jasmine answer the questions, as well. After each question, I played back Oscar's answer to see if they matched. That game got a lot of laughs. Jennifer put together a purse scavenger hunt. Some ladies have interesting items in their purse! One of my favorite games involved handing each table a scenario from Jasmine and Oscar's past and having the group reenact the scenario. Here is an example of one of the scenarios: "'Accidental Figure
Skating:' Oscar, Jasmine, Oscar's friend Randy, and Jasmine’s friend Andrea went ice-skating
together. In efforts to throw Randy and Andrea off balance, Oscar and Jasmine
dashed towards them. The joke was on them when they slipped. Oscar trying his
best to keep Jasmine from falling held on to her hands. Jasmine spun around
Oscar several times. Randy and Andrea thought they were attempting an ice
skating trick." The final game included writing down my sister's comments as she opened her gifts. When she was done opening her gifts, we read the comments saying they would be her comments on her wedding night. "Oh, that's so cute!" "I love this!" It was so funny.
Jasmine, the bride-to-be, is on the left.
We had a really good time. :)
(Some of the pictures were taken by Jasmine or my cousin Marta).
