We went back to the Roundy's house where we put a movie on for the kids and socialized. The kids socialized while watching the movie. It was nice to have that time together.
Friday evening Sterling watched all the kids and was joined by some of the Roundy's too for dinner. They got pizza.
Mom, Alissa, Eliza and I went for a girl's dinner out. We ate at the Pizza Factory and had a great time.
After dinner the Boren group I was with went to Salt Lake to spend the night at Eliza's. Sterling and I went to the annual West family Jane Austen dance. Denise is a Wilde and the West's are are part of her family. I bought a cheap used choir dress from D.I. thrift store and added a new ribbon around the torso. Sterling wore just regular modern clothes. We did not have time to put together outfits for the correct era.
We danced together and with others. We learned some dances and found that it is a lot of fun! I have taken Sterling to modern dances that our stake throws for the parents and we did not enjoy learning new dances. Austen era dances are much more fun than modern dances!
I was surprised Sterling had a fun time at the dance! But he did! He said he would take me again another year if we get the chance. :)
We socialized with those we know. Abi attended as well.
We snacked. We danced. We took pictures. We had refreshments too.
We stayed about an hour then went home. It was enchanting and wonderful to me. I have always wondered what it would be like to dress and dance like that. I never thought I would experience it!
Eliza's Baby Shower
All week I spent time creating the decorations and cake for Saturday's baby shower. I set myself a budget for the decorations, cake, take home goody bags, games and prizes. And I was pretty close to it in the end. I think I went over a few dollars.
I asked Eliza ahead of time to choose colors and themes for me to go off of. She chose an orangish shade of light pink and aquaish blue. She wanted slightly rustic style. She wanted tree branches. She wanted birds and books. So I planned, shopped, cut and created.
Dad Roundy was trimming his tree which created branches for me to choose from. Sterling helped by spray painting the branches white. Then we left them outside in the rain for a couple of days which created a more stressed and more natural look to the paint job.
I created tissue paper flowers. I baked the cake and froze it. Made strawberry frosting and sliced strawberries to place on top of a icing layer. I baked white and chocolate cakes and layered them.
The cakes froze a couple days before Saturday morning when I built the cake and did a crumb coat frost of it. I waited until we were in Salt Lake at the church before decorating the cake with frosting rosettes.
I met Mom, Nephi, Eliza and Chubbz and Alissa with her kids at Eliza's apartment. Then we headed to the church to set up. My plan was to start set up/decor and cake at 10:30am. The party would start at 1pm. Sterling said "Do you really need that much time to get the party ready?!" I said "Yes! It takes hours to set up a baby shower...and that's with help!" And boy was I right!
The building was awesome...old and beautiful. The relief society room was perfect for the party and decor. But it took us two and a half hours to get the party ready!
Alissa was there to help but she had to take care of her kids as well. Mom was there to help but I had to send her to the store to buy me the correct cake piping bags and tip (I brought the wrong ones).
Eliza was there to help but she is pregnant so she shouldn't move or lift anything remotely heavy.
The guys were at the apartment and I needed their help. But they didn't get to the church until about 12:20 I think. We needed them to move the heavy chairs out of the room. Alissa ended up doing it herself just before the guys arrived.
Mom had to work on food prep. So I tried to put Alissa and Eliza to work in the party room as much as I could. The work load however was not made for a single person...so I worried I would not get the party decorated in time.
Mom brought me the correct tools for decorating the cake and I quickly piped it and threw the homemade white chocolate birds and hearts decor onto the cake.
But we got it all together just in time! lol
We had a great turnout! So many wonderful family and friends attended. The luncheon was delicious and the room looked beautiful! We socialized, played games, ate, watched Eliza open gifts and ate cake. The cake was delicious too!
We played a memory game. I put dollar store baby items on a tray and covered it with a towel to see who could remember every item under the towel after observing. I am terrible at this game. So I asked for volunteers. Aunt Mary said she has a decent memory so we started with her. She remembered all ten items! She won a prize. Then Eliza's friend gave it a try and she too won a prize. Nobody else seemed confident so we moved on to more social time.
We also played a baby animals match game. Did you know that a baby grasshopper is called a nymph?! So interesting.
It was a hard game. I made it myself because I didn't find a free one online. And I worried nobody would care what you should call babies animals of different kinds. But in the end I think it was interesting and fun to learn the different names.
As Eliza opened gifts I had mom write down who gave her what. And had Ann Frederickson hand Eliza the gifts to open.
I cut the cake and served it as Eliza opened gifts. I also took moments to stop cutting and snap photos with my camera. lol. Multitasking!
Chubbz joined the party halfway through. He had family arrive to spend time with us!
Chubbz and Eliza are so happy to be expecting!
I had two clipboards going around the room from the beginning of the party: 1) name suggestions for baby (we don't yet know the gender)
2) Time capsule for baby. "What we imagine you will look like", "What we imagine you will do in life" and "What we wish for you in life".
I read these aloud later in the party. Then I placed the time capsule paper in a baby bottle for Eliza to keep for her child.
The last activity I provided was a baby onesie art contest. I supplied 6 newborn sized baby onesies, white and short sleeved. I provided color sharpies and asked for 6 volunteers to draw on a onesie for baby. I did not tell them it was a contest. I had two prizes left to give out. I made Eliza choose her top two favorites. She hated that because she didn't want to choose anyone over anyone else. I knew she would feel that way. But she did it. She chose Alicia's bird drawing. Alicia is her friend/neighbor/building manager. And she chose Anne's bird hatching from egg as second place.
The take home goody was a little pull string bag Eliza already had filled with M&Ms. Some bags had peanut M&Ms with peanut butter M&Ms. And some bags had mint M&Ms with peanut M&Ms.
The party was scheduled to end at 3:00 but we knew socializing would go over that. It was about 3:15 when most of the party left. A few people stayed to help clean up. Felicia and Alicia did a lot of cleaning up. Chubbz and Nephi were helping too.
At 3:50pm Chubbz kicked us out and said he and Nephi would finish. Mom, Eliza and I had a massage appointment at 4pm! So Nephi and Chubbz set up all the relief society chairs and took all the party supplies and food from the building to their apartment for us! So sweet.
Alissa had to drive home to Cedar City that day. So she got ready while we were at our massages.
We had a beautiful relaxing hour! :)
And when we got back to the apartment Alissa was just getting loaded in the van to head home.
Mom and I joined Eliza's household (Nephi, Eliza and Chubbz) for dinner there. We ate leftovers. Then we said goodbye. Mom and I drove to Provo where we would stay one night.
Ster's siblings were at the house having a party. Mom and Dad Roundy were out of town. Gone to visit Jon's family. And my mom would stay the night at the house with us.
We ate leftover cake with some ice cream. I brought leftover M&Ms for my little family.
I organized our stuff downstairs for our trip to NV. Some things we would take with us and some we would leave at the Roundy's for a week. We'll be back.
Sunday morning the siblings came back over for breakfast: cinnamon rolls mom Roundy had baked for us previously. We loaded the van and took Ros with us.
We drove to Cove Fort where we stopped for the video and tour. The kids really enjoyed it! But it was freezing and so windy! So we ate lunch in the car as we "hit the road" once more. Drove to Cedar City to pick up mom's vehicle and some of her stuff from Alissa's house.
Then another two hours drive to mom's house in Logandale.
I gave the kids the gifts I bought a month or two ago. Luke received a magnetic license plate game for all 50 states. Great for road trips! Ty received a fancy kaleidoscope ...the first our children have ever owned. And Athena received a pillow that is a kitten. So soft and comfy! Cute too!
When I gave her the pillow I decided to read her the tag that talks about the specific pillow. I was surprised to find the pillow's name is....Tiffany! Her favorite drink is hot chocolate with heart sprinkles in it. She loves to play tennis and is looking for a tennis partner! Fancy that! I love tennis. haha.
My kids call me "mom". So it was weird to him them saying "Tiffany" when talked about or to the pillow.
Do you want to know what my kids did on Saturday when I was crazy busy in Salt Lake?
Sterling took them to Nickle City with their Roundy cousins. They had a blast!
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