Baseball Baby Shower

Last weekend a dear friend, Stephanie Johnson and I threw a baby shower for our mutual friend Angie Tower at her mother-in-law, Carol Tower's beautiful home. This was a very exciting shower for us since we knew that Angie and her husband Jason were going to have a baby boy and that they both enjoy baseball so it was a perfect theme for the shower. We asked the mother-to-be what she wanted and she has been craving ice cream so we decided on an ice cream sundae bar. Check out my baby shower specific Pinterest board for our inspirations. From there I like to make collage of all the things that I want to do with the party...I usually go overboard here and have to pair it down, so what you see here is my revised collage.

First of all, we used TinyPrints for the baby shower invites. Their site is really easy to navigate and quick to get the invitations, they even will mail them for you if you upload a mailing list. We didn't do that though because we wanted to have everyone bring a book instead of a card to help build a library for baby Cameron which is an idea that came off of Pinterest.

We decided on a variety of toppings for the sundae bar, but especially sprinkles because that is what Angie requested.

We had Oreos, strawberries, chopped peanuts, cherries, blueberries, sprinkles, chopped Heath bars, baby blue M&M's and caramel and hot fudge sauce.

In addition to the sundae bar, we made cake balls using my Baby Cakes cake pop maker and dipping them in melting chocolates and using red gel Wilton icing from a tube to draw on the 'threads' of the baseball.

And we had Stephanie Hotsenpiller with Sweet J's Cake Decorating make us sugar cookies in the shape and design of baseball jerseys which were amazing and VERY reasonable in price. Stephanie is located in Drexel, MO and does all sorts of cakes, cookies, etc. I encourage everyone to check her out at her Facebook page.

The decorations were all ideas from Pinterest as well, but we were fortunate that Carol has such a beautiful house and we didn't require much. Mrs. Johnson made an awesome banner using papers that were baseball or red and blue themed to hang along the island and mantel. She also came up with questions to ask Angie about motherhood that she had blown up into balloons which we stuffed in presents and as she came to a present she had to pop the balloon, read the question and answer it or complete the task on the piece of paper in the balloon. Carol also has a ceramic dog on her front step that typically is decorated in Buffalo Bills attire, but after her husband left she decked porch dog out in baby attire and he was perfect and set the tone for the whole shower.

We had so much fun and now can't wait for the arrival of baby Cameron in early June!

The whole crew!

Celebrate Beef Month

May is national beef month and I'm pretty excited about it, because I really need another excuse to eat beef! Over the past few years I've posted some recipes and information about beef and will try and post some more over the course of the next 31 days. It really is a perfect time of year for beef considering the weather is warming up outside and you can pull out the grill...I am not sure if there is a smell I love better than beef on the grill! It is also almost Cinco de Mayo and what better way to celebrate than with some steak fajitas or if you want to be really bad loaded ground beef nachos!

If you are thinking about beef tonight or planning your weekly meals, I encourage you to check out the site http://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/. They have awesome nutritional information about beef, details about BOLD (Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet), tips on how to purchase beef and recipes on how to cook beef.

If you don't have time to visit the Beef it's Whats For Dinner site today but still want a recipe check out these two below. Two of my all time favorites!

Heart Healthy Beef Filets
Grilled Dr. Pepper Tenderloin - From the Texas Cowboy's Cookbook