Showers!

About <mumble mumble> weeks ago now, my mom and Mark threw us a wonderful baby shower in New Hampshire, where friends and family were extremely generous in their efforts to prepare us materially for the arrival of the twins. (As for preparing us mentally and practically, most people just shook their heads sympathetically and chuckled, “Good luck with that.”)

My mom did a great job finding cute but not cutesy decor and accessories, including the invitation above, this delicious cake (which matched the design on the plates by nearly complete coincidence — she found the plates after ordering the cake) and M&M favors that said “Sparvey Twins!” on them. I would have included a picture of one of the 10 extra bags of M&Ms I brought home with me, but I…am not sure where they are right now.

I think this picture very nicely demonstrates my supreme comfort with babies. “Hello, small human, thank you for coming to the party. Can I…get you a beverage?” Usually my awkwardness around kids is not that big a deal, but it felt somewhat damning at my own baby shower.

Although you might be distracted by Joy’s rather inexplicable expression of pining for Sandy, the point of this picture is the cute ice-breaker game (and the only game played at the shower): Each guest had a label stuck to his or her back with the name of a famous parent of twins. Everyone had to guess his or her celebrity by asking other guests yes or no questions. Once you figured it out, you could move your label off your back. It was fun, even if I never did figure out Nelson Rockefeller.

The gift opening was great fun and included highlights such as handmade all-over clothing protectors (though I can’t think of how our clothing would possibly be at any greater risk of stainage with babies in the house) and Baby’s First Klan outfits. (If that is in poor taste, I apologize. And I tried to whip off the towel as soon as someone pointed out what it resembled, but the camera was too quick.) I’m sorry we don’t have more photos of the gifts, but I am sure that most if not all of them will make some kind of appearance in the coming months while being used by the babies!

Many thanks to Mark for taking the lovely photos, of course.

We also were very fortunate to have another shower thrown for us in Providence two weeks later, hosted by good friends of ours who spent the entire eight weeks leading up to the event threatening to hire strippers for the occasion. Our friends were incredibly generous and creative with their gifts. We have no photos at all of that shower except for this one I just took of the invitation, but again, I expect you’ll see the fruits of the shower highlighted in future posts.

This is the first of a trio of posts I have in mind regarding the great fun of acquiring STUFF in anticipation of the babies’ arrival. Stay tuned.

Filed under Baby Stuff | Tags: events, gear | Comments (2)