The BABY SHOWER!

Well, we made it to the Baby Shower and beyond.  That's right, just this past Sunday, July 10th we hosted the most amazing baby shower if I say so myself.  It was only able to reach that "AMAZING" status because of our wonder family and friends who came out to support Shamara & Ken and the whole Smith/Iwebema clan.  Have I ever told you all that we have the MOST AWESOME FRIENDS who are so much more than friends to us because they are FAMILY and we love each and everyone of them so much. So to each of you from all of us ~ MUCH LOVE & APPRECIATION!

Okay, well you know that I took tons of pictures, over 300 this time and so there is no way that I can line them all up individually so I'm back to slideshows - which I have broken up into different sections.  And remember you can always stop the slideshow if it's moving to fast and flip thru each picture at your leisure.

SETTING UP
Here we are Saturday afternoon getting the ball room ready for the shower on Sunday.  Lots of work but we had a great team and they all worked really hard until it was done.  We started about 3:30pm and left about 8:30pm only to head back the next morning to complete the rest. But even with all the work to be done, we laughed, took a dinner break and Ken even provided a little entertainment before heading home - see if you can tell which pictures in the slideshow are of Ken entertaining us...

DECORATIONS
Shanel designed all the center pieces and I have to say that they came together really nice and set off the tables very elegantly. Also in these pictures you will see a seating area with pillows, poufs, benches... it was set up as a lounging area for our guests to sit and watch the video of Ken & Shamara's maternity photo shoot.  The theme of the shower was Moroccan and hence comes all the colors and this seating area. You will also see here shots of our "Game Center" and the gifts to be won by those who played the shower games.  A pink box with a label on the top will flash thru the pictures, this was our FAVOR BOX to be used at the Dessert Bar (see slideshow below) and the little poem read:

The memory of our baby shower will always be a treasure.

Thanks so much for coming, it was such a pleasure.

Here's a little something that's simple and sweet,

Please fill up your box with the finest of treats.

The Dessert Bar was just our way of saying thanks for celebrating with us today.

FRIENDS

THE FOOD
Ummm, AMAZING! Catered by MARK's... keeping true to the Moroccan theme we had to have Moroccan food and so we found some Moroccan receipes for our Chef and Ta-da here you have it: crispy pan fried shrimp w/a tamarind glaze; stir fried chicken w/cumin & peppers, moroccan chicken w/lemon and olives; steak kabobs, spicy rice pilaf w/peppers & tomatoes; veggies - peeled, chopped & tossed w/vinaigrette dressing; fava bean salad w/olive oil & spices; orange salad w/cos lettuce & oranges...


GIFTS & FRIENDS
These are a few pictures of Shamara opening some of her presents with a few friends before they had to leave the party. There was not enough time at the shower to even attempt to open all of the gifts that they were blessed with, but she did squeeze in a few... You might want to definitely pause this slideshow to see the beautiful custom made crib set (comforter, skirt & bumper pad) designed by Sister Shanel for the nursery. The other Sisters gift is the matching chair cover for the rocking chair (will post pictures when the chair is in & it's all done) The colors are amazing and it turned out beautiful, the girl has some good taste. Not to be left out Sister Shannon made her the most gorgeous, softest hot pink and black blankie (MiMi's favorite & I haven't even seen them all yet.).

AROUND THE ROOM

THE CAKE
Awwww, what do I even say about "the cake" WOW, AMAZING, DEFINITELY UNIQUE, BEAUTIFUL, ONE OF A KIND... once again following our Moroccan theme we selected a picture of a pillow cake and ask a good friend of ours Mona Guarino ~ Cake ARTIST ~ if she could make this cake for us. Did she EVER!  The only thing I don't like is that we took most of the pictures of the cake against our hot pink back ground and it is taking away from showcasing exactly how GORGEOUS this masterpiece really is. Thank you, thank you, thank you Mona, you really went over the top.


THE DESSERT BAR
Okay, so one of the most popular things to do right now for all types of parties are "dessert bars" so of course we had to have one and after the response from all of our friends and family today I would have to say I definitely see why these are so popular.  When I say it was a hit, what I really mean is IT WAS A HIT!  Everybody and I mean EVERYBODY LOVED the Dessert Bar. As mentioned earlier, the dessert bar was our FAVOR (thank you) to all of our guests for coming out and celebrating this wonderful blessing with us.  It was filled with cupcakes (strawberry, vanilla, funfetti, red velvet), chocolate chip & snicker doddle cookies, rice krispie treats, white chocolate covered pretzels, sour watermelon slices candy, cake pops, rock candy, jelly beans, MM's, dessert shots from Season's 52 restaurant where Shamesha works... and of course the center piece of it all was the custom PILLOW CAKE!


SHOWER GAMES & WINNERS
and who says that "BABY SHOWER AREN'T FOR MEN?" Well we are here today to tell you and show you PROOF that that is simply an old wives tale or it's just simply so outdated.  Take a look at all of these amazing MEN who not only showed up for the "Baby Shower" but played the "Baby Shower Games" as well.  They were definitely giving our women guests some serious competition for the prizes too...

GAMES: Baby Price is Right - we had a basket filled with all sorts of things that babies will need and our guests had to guess the retail value of the entire basket.  Daddy Knows Best - Ken was interviewed prior to the shower and asked certain questions then Shamara was interview at the shower and had to guess Ken's answers. Whomever guess how many answers Shamara would get right would be the winner.  Don't Say Baby - Sabriya made certain that each guest receive a clothes pin when they arrived and gave them the instructions that they couldn't say "BABY" or someone else might take their pin.  The guest with the most clothes pins at the end of the day would be the winner.  Paper Plate Door Prize - we stuck a sticker of Shamara & Ken on the bottom of one of the dinner plates, the guest who was lucky enough to have picked up that plate would be the winner.  Sweet Sweet Baby - there was a list of names related to babies and our guests had to match the names with a candy that best fit the description. (ie: hosptial bill - payday or 100 grand). The guest with the most correct matches WINS!  Our final game of the day was the Back & Forth Birth Story - all guests who wanted to participate had to stand in a circle, we gave a gift to a random person in the circle and the story began.  Each time the words Left or Right was heard, the gift had to be passed either to the left or to the right.  At the end of the story, whoever was holding the gift was the WINNER! I think we had at least half of our guests stand to participate in this last game, it was hilarious.


THE FAMILY
My favorite part of anything we do ~ pictures of the family. I could sit here and watch this slideshow all day long.  I love each and every one of them so much. Trey & Boston joined us at the end of the shower during the clean up time, they got to run around and eat candy - LOVE IT!

Being a family means you are a part of something very wonderful.

It means you will love and be loved for the rest of your life.

No matter what.

Thank you God for blessing me

much more than I deserve.

OPENING THE PRESENTS
After the festivities and getting the ballroom cleaned up and cleared out, we loaded up all the gifts which I believe took 4 cars to transport and headed over to Shamara and Ken's.  Exhausted, totally worn out and ready for an early night yes, but we would never have missed the opportunity to watch Shamara open their gifts.  All I can say is that they were BLESSED!


again MUCH LOVE & APPRECIATION to each and everyone who came out to celebrate with us.

"A child's love is like the dawn unfolding...

bright, new, and full of hope."