Week 31

Today is my Department's holiday party so I ordered this little black dress on Sunday to wear during the holiday season. It actually is a size too big but I didn't have the energy or time to deal with an exchange so I am just living with it. At least it is comfortable and cheap. Last weekend we had a fun time bowling with our small group on Saturday. My center of gravity must be really off because I did terribly and Greg beat me both games. That must be it right?!?! He can't possibly be getting better at bowling in his wacky hurl the ball down the lane with tons of spin style right?! Then on Sunday I baked a double batch of my Grandmother's sugar cookies because we were hosting a cookie decorating party on Tuesday with our home group. Once a month we skip the bible study and just have fellowship time and this week we thought we would decorate cookies. I was a little nervous that there wouldn't be space for everyone to work (and I didn't want people decorating cookies on the couch!) but it worked out perfectly. The 7 girls all ended up at the table and the 5 guys gravitated over to the Wii and competed in archery. We had a really nice time and everyone made adorable cookies (and ate lots of them too!!!). Grace provided us with naked gingerbread to decorate along with my sugar cookies so there were plenty to go around. I should have taken a before picture to show the set up but after 2 hours of decorating this is what it looked like. And the whole group packing up their cookies to take home. So much fun and really pretty easy to throw together. We decided not to have our annual Christmas party this year for the communion team just because we are so short on time and I am so short on energy these days so this was an easy way to share the season with people on a smaller scale.

Week 30

Week 30! It feels like the home stretch with just 10 weeks to go. We had a very nice 4 day weekend. Our Thanksgiving was quiet consisting of calls home to the family, a cheesy teen movie, a yummy vegan dinner, and decorating the house for Christmas. We watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy over the course of the weekend while we worked which was fun. Those movies remind me of Christmas because they were always released around the holidays. We had friends over for dinner on Friday which was really nice. We used the weekend to get a jump start on Christmas so I can focus on my class final over the next two weeks. The gifts are purchased, wrapped and in some cases packed for shipping. That feels really good. We have some general ideas for a Christmas card (Greg is helping me this year which is fun) and need to plan a photo shoot for that. We made a few additions to the home decor this year which I will have to share later because it looks like Greg took them off the camera.

We ate lots of yummy food over the weekend. We are both so busy during the week that it seems we don't get a chance to cook much so when we have a little time we really enjoy getting into the kitchen together and whipping up great meals. We of course had waffles one day for breakfast (our favorite Chelsea/Plain waffles) and then leftovers over the weekend. I made a crustless Pumpkin pie that was delicious. Couldn't pass up the pie just because we didn't cook our own Thanksgiving dinner! I found some really nice brioche rolls at the grocery store on Friday so we enjoyed "chicken" burgers a couple days for lunch which were really good. And then on Sunday night I made "beef" stroganoff. Lots of delicious comfort food. I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend.

Week 29

TGITuesday! Because it is actually Thursday! We were a little late with our photo this week mainly because it gets dark so darn early. Usually we would snap the photo on the way to church on Sunday evenings at about 5:30pm but wouldn't you know, now it is dark by then and I forget to do it earlier (plus I am usually not so cute earlier in the day when lounging around on a Sunday). This week it worked out though because I stopped in at Macy's yesterday to buy a Christmas gift and found this outfit on sale at Pea in the Pod. I even had an old gift certificate in my wallet so it was FREE! Gotta love that. Feeling really cute in my new pants and top which is a nice change from yesterday where my pants were way too tight and I felt like a house. Greg was teasing me this morning because I kept saying "I love my new pants!" at weird moments.

Thanks for your prayers last week about my blood test. As expected everything is fine and I got my shot with no adverse effects. Koobie is getting to that size where I feel her every move and she loves to shift around all through the day to remind me that she is there and has an opinion about what I should be doing, sitting, wearing, etc. I thought when I got married that my life was not really my own anymore since I was now "one flesh" with my husband but truly now that concept it even more true. There is a little person growing in there and even when she comes out every decision I make will take on new meaning. I am already scolding Greg for things and saying, "you shouldn't do that, you are a father now. Think of your daughter!". Scary!!

I have some startling news. Last weekend we did not make waffles! I know what you are thinking "have you abandoned waffle winter already?". No way. I got a new recipe for quick and easy biscuits so we decided to make biscuits and gravy on Sunday instead of waffles. Greg threw together the vegetarian sausage gravy while I made the biscuits. His gravy turned out very good but unfortunately the biscuits were a disappointment. The recipe called for instant yeast but I only had rapid rise and now I think maybe those are not the same thing because my biscuits did not rise big and fluffy like they were supposed to. They tasted OK but were much too dense. We will be back to waffles this weekend for sure!

My goal this week is to complete all my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. I know you are wondering why I don't want to wait and take advantage of all the post Thanksgiving sales. Well 1.) I hate crowds 2.) the things on my list are not included in all those door buster deals 3.) I don't want to spend my precious days off dealing with #1 4.) I want to wrap all my gifts and prep them to ship over the weekend so I can cross that off my list. I did about 50% of my shopping in late October early November via the internet and now am just picking up a few odds and ends around town which so far I have been able to do after work on my way home each night. Yesterday it was Macy's and today Grand Central. Yesterday I even found myself humming Silver Bells so I think I am getting into the holiday spirit already.

But before jumping ahead to Christmas it is Thanksgiving week and there is so much to be thankful for (besides new pants!). I am so thankful for Greg who is such an amazing support to me and a gem of a husband. I am so thankful for a healthy happy growing baby, an immediate family in good health, and a plethora of caring and wonderful friends. My challenging job and home are also huge blessings at this point in the economy. I am blessed in so many ways and am trying to take extra time this week to reflect and give thanks to God for them all. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Week 28

These photos are getting tough as the temp drops! We tend to shoot and run back inside where it is warm and then hope we got a good shot. I really wish we had better lighting in the house (and a better backdrop outside the house!). Here we are finishing our 28th week. 7 months! Can't believe that. I have almost 3 to go and can't imagine getting bigger and more cumbersome but I know I will. I am actually starting to grow out of some of my clothes already and will have to do a little more shopping soon. The thought of shopping used to excite me but when you know that you will only wear something for a couple months and that you will have to pay full price because there are never sales on maternity clothes it steals some of the shopping joy. Oh well.

Baby Koobie is doing well. She is moving around all the time and kicking me regularly. I talked with our birth instructor about when she should turn around since I have been paranoid about this and learned that it is a little early to begin worrying or doing exercises to encourage her so I have stopped my obsessing. I am having some blood work done this week in relation to my having an rh- blood type so please be praying that there has been no sensitivity to my baby (if she is rh +). There is not a lot of danger to her but if I develop a sensitivity then it would make a subsequent pregnancy more dangerous and it would prevent me from using the birth center at Roosevelt which is where we would like to go this time around. I am not really worried about it since the possibility is really rare but a little prayer is never a bad thing.

We are looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday next week. Both Greg and I get a 4 day weekend and have lots of fun planned. We are doing a movie and dinner for the holiday, sort of a tradition over the past few years and our last chance probably once Koobie comes. The restaurant we like doesn't usually have kids in it for dinner! Then we will be decorating the house for Christmas which I always love as well as some researching of baby stuff that we have been putting off. I would also like to do some baking. So much fun stuff on the horizon. I hope you all have a great week!

Oops! Almost forgot my waffle update. As I have mentioned before we have settled on a favorite plain waffle recipe. One of the ingredients called for in the recipe is Barley Malt Syrup for the sugar. I didn't have any before so we substituted agave nectar (you can use maple syrup too but I think that has too distinct of a flavor). Anyway, I picked up some barley malt syrup during my last trip to the grocery store and we decided to give it a try. WOW! What a difference. They are EVEN BETTER than before. I was a little skeptical becuase I didn't like the way the batter smelled so much like the syrup but once cooked up the waffles have a subtle malted flavor. They were so good. Soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. I was going to take a photo of them coming hot off the grill Saturday morning but my battery died so this photo is from Sunday morning when we reheated the 2.5 frozen waffles in the toaster oven and enjoyed them as a quick breakfast. I love how well waffles reheat in the toaster oven. I wish we had made more of these but the recipe only made 7. Greg likes his with a little melted Earth Balance and Maple Syrup (bottom plate) and I of course prefer the melted "butter" with powdered sugar and a little fat-free whip (top plate). We are still loving Waffle Winter!

Week 27

Today we start our third trimester which is pretty exciting. Baby Koobie (that has been our nickname for her since we found out she was on the way) is moving and kicking me a lot. I can tell she is still breech at this point since almost all movement is way down in my low pelvis. Lately I have been doing some pelvic tilts to encourage her to flip around but so far she is happy as she is. She is a very good baby letting me work all day with no problems so I can't complain. Greg is finally able to feel her easily from the outside which he likes. Soon he should be able hear her heartbeat if he puts his ear up to my belly but not yet. We finished furnishing her nursery last weekend and have started organizing all the stuff people have been passing on to us. My sister recently sent a box of stuff from my nephew. So many cute things full of sentimental memories. Koobie is a lucky girl to have a cousin already. I hope they end up being good friends.

I have been busy at work with a large faculty recruitment project which has taken up a lot of my free time. Greg too has been busy at work with PR for his research center. Consequently we haven't done much else that is worth blogging. We do however make time for WAFFLE WINTER. We have found an awesome recipe. It is our favorite so far. Here is a photo from Halloween when we made Pumpkin Waffles for the first time.They are killer good and reheat so beautifully that I made a full batch last Saturday, about 12 waffles and we have been eating them as leftovers ever since. Yummmmmmmmmmmm. They are especially good with melted butter a little powdered sugar and whipped cream. They taste just like pumpkin pie but with a waffle texture. I noticed there is a recipe on the PPK website for pumpkin waffles so check it out. My recipe is fr Check it out!

Week 24

This was a busy weekend for us. Saturday our friend Jin came over to fix us a Korean feast. She had offered a long time ago to come and cook us dinner and said we could invite a few people if we wanted. She said 6-8 would be a good number. We decided to invite our communion team over for the dinner thinking that only a handful would respond (as they have to other social things we have planned). Well we had 13 people! Poor Jin. She was such a good sport. Greg picked her up on Saturday and they cooked for 4 hours straight with Greg as the sous chef (I was not allowed to help and instead they just fed me throughout the prep time). She made SO much food. We used every dish in my kitchen to either prep or serve the food. I love when I forget I have certain pans and things until we need a container. Everyone had a great time and the food was excellent. We sent everyone home with food and still have a refrigerator full of leftovers. Jin and I managed to wash and dry all the dishes and clean the whole kitchen by midnight. Such a great day. On Sunday we used the leftover ingredients and Jin's instructions to make more Korean fried rice and a noodle dish to eat with the other leftovers. Really really yummy the second day too. Jin HATES the camera and we never get photos of her but I managed to sneak this one of her explaining how to assemble a rice bowl using the different ingredients on the table. She also explained the Korean names for everything and some of the traditional aspects of the food. And here is the full spread. Great job Jin!

On Sunday we ran a ton of errands. First up though were WAFFLES!!! I had intended to make yeast risen waffles but they had to be prepped the night before and after the feast and the clean-up I just didn't have the energy so we made plain waffles using the recipe that came with the waffle iron. I will share it here since they post it on their website for the public.

Basic Waffles
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-3/4 cups reduced fat milk
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large eggs

The batter was very nice to work with and the waffles were good, however I think I like the vegan plain waffles from our Brunch cookbook better than these. We ended up with 2 extra which we froze and reheated this morning in the toaster oven for breakfast. They reheated really nicely.

After breakfast we went over to Babies R Us to start a registry. People have been asking us if we are registered so we figured we should take the plunge. It needs a lot of work though. We would get to a section and realize we wanted to research something so we would leave it off the registry. For instance I have a breast pump that was given to me by a friend but I hadn't written down any of the specs so I didn't know which accessories to register for. Need to look into that a little and that is just one example. We also ran to target where I got a couple pairs of maternity pants and some much needed maternity tights. So much more comfortable! Since we were sort of on a baby kick we worked a little on planning the nursery by measuring the walls and the items we already have and then headed out to IKEA in Brooklyn to look at some options and ended up finding a dresser that would work for the room and has a large enough top to double as a changing station for the upstairs. It feels good to have some concrete plans for the room and to soon have a place for all those cute little clothes that are currently sitting in bags. I will post some photos as we get the furniture put together and installed in the room. So far we have a bed, a rocking chair, a dresser, and a side table. We are planning to get some storage unit for the room as well and then we are done.

Week 23

OK, couldn't resist posting again this weekend. I had a great work week last week. My boss and my sub-boss were both out of the country which meant I got a TON of stuff done in a nice quiet office. So nice! Then this weekend I had a lovely brunch with some of my old co-workers, 2 of which have moved away from NYU and 1 I don't get to see as much since I moved up to the Biology office. We had a great time at Hundred Acres in SOHO. It was a cute place for brunch and the biscuits were to die for. However I would say skip this place, the non-biscuit brunch items were only so-so. In the afternoon I picked up clothes in Brooklyn from a friend of friend who recently had twins. She got baby clothes from my friend Karen in Kansas and is now passing them on to me. There was a ton of stuff in there. I think at this point we are set for 0-3 month old clothes for our little girl thanks to the generosity of friends!

On Sunday it was study day. I am pretty far behind on my homework for my classes so I spent some time trying to catch up. Of course first I had to make waffles! As promised Greg and I threw together Peanut Butter waffles from our new brunch cookbook. We substituted cashew butter for peanut butter which gave the waffles a more subtle nutty flavor. They were pretty good. I of course preferred the plain waffles but Greg favors anything with nut butter. Next week I am going to make yeasted waffles and I can't wait. I am loving waffle winter! Seriously, such a quick and easy but fancy breakfast, even when starting from scratch.

On the baby front I had an exciting development on Sunday. I was sitting on the couch when all of a sudden I felt a very strong concentrated kick. It was startling. Greg looked over and saw this shocked look on my face and asked me what was wrong just as the baby kicked me again and made me gasp. Greg came over and put his hand over the spot and she graced him with a wallop too and he felt her from the outside. It was amazing! I have felt her squirreling around in there for a couple weeks but that is more general movement while this was a very strong sensation in just one place. I got 4 kicks and then she was apparently in a more comfortable position and has been quiet since. It was pretty cool especially for Greg who doesn't get to feel any of the other stuff. She kicked me right here! I am sure in a few months I will be begging her to stop kicking me but right now it was a very special experience.

22 Weeks and Waffle Crazy

OK, back on schedule with my photo shoots. This week has been kind of uncomfortable which I think means our little girl is growing faster though you can't really tell from the photos which look a lot like last weeks. I have had a hard time getting comfortable in the evening and at night have been tossing and turning a lot more. I never realized this would start before the third trimester but here we are. In our birth classes which we started a few weeks ago we learned about how to best massage the mommy and Greg has been nice enough to practice on me at home on those nights when I am really restless. We also blew up or old balance ball and I lean on that while he rubs my back. Such a great guy. I also started back to school last week and have the 2 most boring classes of my graduate career to date. I have a really hard time focusing on the work because I really don't care for the material (Finance and Economics). Hopefully things will improve.

On a side note, we recently got a new cookbook in the mail from Amazon. I love cookbooks and this one looked especially tasty and is all about brunch. Greg and I eat breakfast together every morning ever since I got my promotion and we have 2 or 3 standard quick breakfasts but on the weekend we like to go the extra mile and make pancakes, cinnamon rolls or something else more involved. That is where this book comes in. We have been trying some of the tasty recipes and they have been good but I have been drooling over the waffle recipes. We had a waffle iron years ago but it was a really old one I had picked up at a garage sale. It was old, heavy and really hard to clean so we eventually got rid of it during one of our NYC moves. I suggested to Greg we get a new waffle iron and he of course said no. He has a deeply ingrained hatred of all appliances and thinks they are all a waste of space. I kept looking at those recipes and finally decided that this was going to be "waffle winter" and we were going to make waffles every weekend! So last Saturday I had to run errands and stopped at Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick up a new shower curtain liner and shower caddy and looked at the waffle irons. Sure enough they have a very nice and compact iron that was very reasonable priced. Sure it didn't make waffles in pretty patterns like the $70 machine I saw near work but round waffles are just fine and perhaps Greg wouldn't balk so much if it was pretty cheap and small. We put the iron to work on Sunday and made the first waffle recipe in the book (plain waffles) and darn it......THEY WERE SO GOOD!!! We were MMMMMMMMMing the entire meal and Greg admitted they were really tasty and better yet quick. No standing at the stove making batches of pancakes and taking turns eating so that no cakes get cold. We could whip up 4 waffles in no time and sit down and enjoy them together. And I love that you can control how crispy you make them. So, that was a really long way to say we are waffle crazy now! Next weekend, Peanut Butter Waffles!!! Greg says the waffle iron can stay but one appliance in and one out so now I am trying to decide who gets the boot. I am thinking it will be the soy milk maker. Hmmmm.......

Sensational Soda

For Christmas we received this as a gift from Greg's parents:It is a soda machine! I suggested it to them after seeing it at EveryDayDish.tv. Greg is absolutely addicted to seltzer (as am I) and this machine makes seltzer for about $0.15 a liter which is a great savings, you reuse the bottles so there is less waste, and it means no more trips to the store for heavy bottles. We usually buy cases of seltzer but we often run out and have to go to the corner store for more. It takes about 30 seconds to make water or soda. Just fill a bottle with cold water, attach it to the machine, press the button a few times till you get the desired amount of carbonation, and you are done. We like ours extra bubbly so we use the max amount of presses.
I also bought some consentrated soda syrups for the machine. Diet Cola and caffeine free Diet Cola. Not exactly the same flavor as Coke but I am pretty much used to it at this point. You just add the syrup to the water after you carbonate it. It couldn't be easier. We also got seltzer flavorings too. Plus you can make your own simple syrups using fruit if you want an all natural soda. WE LOVE THIS MACHINE!

December 17

8 Days till Christmas and what would I like to see

The motivation to get skinny

I am finally willing to share a little secret meeting I have been attending. At the beginning of the school year I blogged about the food challenges I faced eating 3 meals a day at work and being surrounded by bad food choices. Well, I actually took it pretty seriously and after a couple weeks realized that I had to take control of the situation or I would end up gaining the "Freshman 45". I decided to join Weight Watchers. And not the online version which I have tried in the past with no success but the actual in person meeting kind. The kind where you publicly weigh in (only public to you and the receptionist), the kind where they clap for you when you lose 5 pounds and give you a gold star. I needed the accountability and encouragement. I have tried dieting on my own about 1,000 times and while Greg is incredibly supportive and encouraging of almost anything I try, I find it too easy to cheat when it is just me monitoring myself. So I have been doing the Core program at WW which is actually pretty easy to follow and stresses eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are full, making healthy whole foods choices, and WW puts a cap on the amount of extra junk food on top of those 2 things. It actually works perfectly with my 90% vegan diet and the cap on junk has been eye opening for me as to the appropriate amount of "splurge" foods I should be consuming (my real area of trouble). I am in my 10th week on the program and so far I have lost over 16 pounds. Considering it is the holiday season I am thrilled. It has not been easy the last 2 weeks because of all the celebrating, for instance this week I have 4 dining out occasions in the next 2 days alone! But I think even Greg would agree that this has been an easy program for me to follow and easy for him to follow for me when he cooks and buys food. At first I thought it was crazy to try to diet while going to school and during the holidays but really it has been the best decision I made and I plan to keep going into the new year.

All that being said, I should mention that for 2009 WW is launching a new program that on the surface eliminates the Core program. The new program is called Momentum and has been introduced to us current members. If you are familiar with WW you will see that it is pretty similar with a few added changes. Since I don't want to fix what ain't broke I am sticking with the Core plan for now which my leader says is fine. I just want to make that clear in case you try to investigate "Core" since it probably won't be advertised anymore.

December 12 & 13

13 then 12 Days till Christmas and what would I like to see
A house full of friends to party

Friday and Saturday were filled with partying. Greg had a work party and then came down to NYU for my lab party. It was a lot of fun and included a Yankee swap gift exchange. I ended up with some truffles which I donated to the party. Then it was home to start setting up for our church party. All day today we cooked and cleaned.

It was all worth it though as we had an excellent turn out and most people stayed all the way through to the end. We enjoyed really delicious food, great fellowship, and even fun games. Greg and I cleaned up and now are enjoying SNL before bed. It was a great day and so fun to see our friends from the ESPM communion team and our home group! The spread of food. Lots of new recipes that were delicious! Then we moved onto deserts which our guests provided for the most part. A tour of our house with a stop in the studio to talk about crafts! Then we played Apples to Apples which was a lot of fun too! A couple recipes that were delicious and easy:

Walnut Red Pepper Dip
(From MyRecipes.com)
2 cups Shelled Walnuts
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 jar (12oz) roasted red peppers, drained
1 garlic clove
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Put is walnuts, cumin, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse until walnuts are finely ground. Add peppers, garlice, olive oil, and lemon juice and process until smooth. 1 TBSP has 59 calories, 1.1g protein, 5.5 g fat, 0.4g fiber, 51mg sodium. ***** 5 stars delicious and easy.

Stuffed Mushrooms
(from Becky Higgins Blog)

1lb. Large Mushrooms
1lb. pork sausage (I used 14oz vegetarian Italian Sausage)
4 oz cream cheese (I used tofutti brand soy cream cheese)
1/4 c. onion (I used shallots)
1/4c. stuffing mix
garlic salt (I used granulated garlic + salt to taste)
1 tsp. worcestershire sauce (I used Vegetarian style)

Remove stems from mushrooms and save about 10 stems. Brown sausage, add chopped onion and stems (I process everything in the food processor to chop finely and focussed on cooking the onion since my sausage was pre-cooked). Add cream cheese and stuffing mix (I added a little water since the sausage didn't render as much fat as meat sausage would). Season with garlic salt and worcestershire sauce. Stuff each mushroom cap with a heaping spoonful of mixture. Bake at 350 until water is released from the caps (about 10 min). **** 4 stars yummy and easy.

Chocalate Cake Cookies
(Becky Higgins Blog)

1 box chocolate cake mix
2 eggs (I used 1/2 cup egg beaters fat free egg product)
1/2 c. light flavored oil like canola
1 c. chocolate chips (we also used peanut butter chips)

Mix all together and spoon mounds onto a baking sheet. They do spread as they cook so leave some room. Bake at 35o for 8-9 minutes. **** 4 stars for being chocolaty and super easy. Whole thing takes about 10 minutes to make!

Hot Spinach-Artichoke Dip
(FoodNetwork Website)

1 (10 oz) pkg frozen chopped spinach
2 (13 oz) cans artichoke hearts
1/2 c. mayo (I used soy mayo)
1/2 c. sour cream
1 c. grated Parmesan
1 c. grated pepper jack cheese

Heat spinach in a microwave safe bowl for 5 minutes and squeeze dry. Drain artichoke hearts and coarsely chop in a food processor. Combine all ingredients except jack cheese in a large bowl. Stir well. Scrape into a prepared casserole dish (sprayed with cooking spray) and sprinkle jack cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 30 min. Serve piping hot or transfer to a chafing dish and keep warm. Serve with begal chips. ****4 stars. Guests loved this and it was prepped the night before and then baked when everyone arrived. Easy!

We also had stuffed tomatoes which were good but a lot more work, crudite, store bought mini quiches, store bought potato puffs, and an antipasti platter. Plus lots of chips and crackers for dipping and deserts that friends brought. It wasn't vegan by any means but a vegetarian party and everyone left full and happy.

October 10

Wow, what a long week. Work was really tough and draining. I am so glad it is Friday. I am studying tonight since I spent last night enjoying Thursday night TV in person (love that The Office is back!). Part of the reason I had to be home last night was because it was our CSA night and someone had to pick up the veggies. Greg agreed to go to church for a meeting and I picked up the produce. Here they are all washed and dried and ready for the fridge.
We are enjoying fall veggies a great deal. Though heavy to lug home we much prefer squashes and pumpkins and leeks.

October 2

This photos is entitled, Dinner at Breakfast. The one problem I am having with my new graduate student schedule is food. I often eat 3 meals a day at work and lets just say I don't always make the best choices. Especially when it comes to dinner with my study group. Peer pressure and a plethora of junk food, fried foods, and other delicious debacles available to me are not a good combination (a + and - of working in the village is tons of food options). When I am on my game I have been using Sunday to pre-cook some dinners to take to work. When that doesn't happen I am forced to cook dinner during my breakfast. Today I cooked up some stir-fry using tofu (in the photo), leftover veggies from the CSA and some rice I cooked up last night at 10pm when I got home from studying. This is 2 days worth, some for tonight's dinner before class and some for tomorrow at lunch since I don't think I will be studying tomorrow night. A girl needs a break!

Baby Shower Planning Part 2

Sorry, I realize now that there was no punch in any of the photos yesterday. I left it in the freezer until the very last moment. It is an orange-pink color when it is made. It seemed to go over well at the shower. Now, on to the party itself.

Games:
What shower is complete without shower games. Games are the thing most women dread about going to showers and who can blame them. Have you ever done a Google search for "Baby Shower Games"? Some of the games out there are 1.) disgusting (melted candy bars in diapers) 2.) embarrassing (diapering each other with rolls of paper towels) or 3.) Non-PC (guessing how big mom's belly really is). I looked high and low for some entertaining games to play at the shower that would not be gross, too embarrassing and wouldn't offend anyone. There were actually several games that fit the bill but here are the games I chose for us to play.

Game 1: Mystery Baby Items. I filled a bag with random baby items (you are supposed to use a diaper bag but someone had already bought that off the registry in this case and I didn't want to buy a 2nd one). I tried to get things that would be hard to figure out but not too hard. Baby comb, bottle, pacifier, aspirator, butt paste, baby lotion, baby powder, digital thermometer, diaper, travel wipes, bottle brush, teething ring, and rattle (baby food jar, baby spoon, etc the possibilities are endless). Let each guest reach into the bag and feel around at the items sight unseen for 1 minute. Then they write out as many as they can remember and identify. We only had 1 mom in our group so I didn't make it too obscure. You could get really specialized if you had more moms there. The person who gets the most correct wins a prize. The mom keeps the bag of goodies.

Game 2: Baby Items MSRP. I combined games 1 and 2. As I pulled the items out of the bag to reveal them in game 1, I had a friend put them back into their packages and place them on a tray. I handed out a card with the items listed (40 pack of diapers for instance, since only 1 diaper had been in the bag). Next we had everyone guess how much these items cost in today's market. Let them know that you have rounded the prices to the closest 25cents. I let them work for a while and then announced that no item was over $10. That created quite a stir since some people were way off base. Then I went through and read off each item and had people call out their guesses. Then I told them the real price. The one with the most exact answers won a prize. Mom of course still got the goodies. This was pretty funny since no one knew how much stuff really cost and their guesses were pretty out there. Our mom was the worst with 0 correct! Don't underestimate this game!

Game 3: Multitasking Mommy. I picked one game that was pretty funny and a little embarrassing. I bought about 15 pairs of baby socks (a few multi packs) in various colors. We unpaired them and put them in a big pile on a chair. Each playgoer took a turn trying to match up the socks as quickly as possible....but there's more. We gave them a baby (a bear) and a phone. All the guests made crying baby sounds while the "mom" tried to sooth her baby, hold the phone to her ear and match the socks together. It was harder than it sounded and really funny to watch people as the bear would slip from their arm or they would forget to sooth the baby and the guests would just cry louder. The "mom" with the fastest time won a prize. Great game!




Prizes:
Since this was a ladies shower we chose prizes that were from a local jewelry store that has inexpensive but nice items. I also threw in a few 1 month certificates to our lab coffee club. Definitely get a few extra gifts. We had 1 tie and not enough necklaces for them to choose from.

Gifts:
Gift opening time was pretty straight forward for us. Just make sure there is someone there to feed the mom-to-be gifts so she can stay seated (it keeps things moving along too) and pack items up once she is done. Another person to keep notes on who gave what and to keep all gift receipts in one place is also helpful. And don't be afraid to pass those items around. Everyone loves to hold the little clothes and toys and coo over them!



Favors:
What party is complete without a favor to send home with the guests to thank them for their attendance and gift. I put together some easy and inexpensive favors for the guest. I found these little pads of paper and tissues at Micheal's in the dollar spot that were black and white. I tied them together with a little blue ribbon (also from Micheal's dollar spot). At Micheal's I also found bags of colored M&Ms specifically for favors. I bought 2 bags each of blue and white, mixed them together and put them into little wax bags I already had. Trimmed with decorative scissors and punched for more ribbon. Next was a little thank you note that I made and had the mom-to-be sign. Lastly this was all put into a little white bag. These were also in clearance at Micheal's for 1.99 for 3 bags. They were meant to be decorated and I tried stamping them with paint but it didn't take so I left them blank. Super cute and kept with my color scheme for the party.


Timing:
Lastly a note on our timing. We started with mingling and punch. We had baby Lucy join us at our party and this mingling time gave everyone a chance to ooh and aah over the baby while the guest trickled in. Next we ate and talked, then games in quick succession. We followed games with cake and while everyone was savoring the butter cream frosting we watched the mom open her gifts. Here are some photos of the guests enjoying themselves.

Our Mom-To-Be, Indrani due in just 3 weeks

Baby Lucy and her friend Marcela

Managed to get one shot of me! And a couple guys did end up getting into the party!

Mingling and punch!

Overall, it was a huge success. Of course I had lots of help with setting up, food buying and transporting things to work. In the end not only did we get to honor our co-worker and her little boy on the way, I got to try out a bunch of party ideas I had been collecting over time. Hopefully some of these ideas can help you plan your next party!