Baby-Q

Yesterday we hosted a baby-q for about 40 guests. One of my closest friends Christine is due about the same time as me! She wanted a casual backyard barbecue without the usual pomp and circumstance of traditional baby showers. While the shower was at our house, there were 4 other hosts! Irene and Brooke took care of all of the decorations, Theresa and I brought most of the food, and Stephanie made the amazing cupcakes and delicious fruit salad. 

Ted and I love to host because it forces us to clean up! Well let me say, it's a fun motivation to clean up! We were picking up throughout the week, and on Saturday we went on one last trip to the grocery store, cleaned, prepared food, and hoped it didn't rain! 

At about 11:30 Irene arrived, and Brooke at 1:30. They tag-teamed the decorating and did an amazing job!

Here are Brooke and Irene with their "guess" board. All of the guests chose whether they think Christine and Corey's baby will be a girl (bow) or boy (mustache) and put it on their clothes. The activity was a hit with most guests choosing boy!

At about 2 I went upstairs to shower and change, and Christine and Corey arrived, along with the other hostesses! 

Our Honorees Corey and Christine (C & C)!

Here's C & C,  checking out the foyer table with the guess board, baby coupons, and diaper decorating!

I didn't take a close up of the coupons, but I found them from The Moments on Etsy! The shop owner was fabulous to work with, and customized the design to fit the red, white and black theme. I highly recommend!! The coupons allow the guests to sign up for babysitting, dinner, house cleaning, laundry, etc. to help out the new parents!

I saw this idea on a Baby Center board, and it was a big hit! Hopefully it will provide C&C with some entertainment during those late night diaper changes! All you need is a pack of Newborn diapers and Sharpie markers. Easy!

Here are the amazing cupcakes that Stephanie made! They were delicious! 

I didn't get a picture of the food table, and I know other guests took a ton of pictures but I was too distracted to capture all of the details! (Plus I wanted to make sure I did the post in a timely manner!) Someone got a picture of Ted grilling through the downpour, such a good host! We had hot dogs, hamburgers, brats, and traditional sides. 

It was great having the hosts and honorees at the house early! We got to take pictures together, chat, and when there was a sudden downpour, C & C opened our gifts!

Christine, Irene and I!

The three preggos! Stephanie (36 weeks), Christine (29 weeks), Monica (30 weeks). Many guests said, "There's so many pregnant women here!!" It was really just the three of us, but I guess our presence was overwhelming! (Notice the lovely tissue puffs before they wilted in the downpour!)

 C & C opening some gifts before the other guests arrive. 

 Hours later, C & C opening all of the other gifts while some look on, and some guests are outside. 

 The party was officially 3-6 PM, but here are some of the guests leaving at about 7:30 PM, so great to catch up and chat!

C & C stayed until 9:30! They were such good sports playing Memory and Uno with Hudson while some watched the Nationals Baseball game, and I made some dinner, thinking we should probably eat again! Hudson partied hard and fell asleep on the floor at about 9:20! This is way past his bedtime, he was quite the trooper and this made it very easy to put him to bed, Ted simply carried him up and we didn't hear another peep. 

A fabulous day, spent with fabulous people!!