As many of you know, my dear friend, Kate, is pregnant with her first child, who is scheduled to make his/her worldly debut in late January of 2009.

Two weekends ago, a few of us (Michele, Aubrey, Mary [her Mom], and me) threw Kate a baby shower in her hometown of Earlville, Illinois (where we all graduated from high school). Mary, Kate's Mom, was gracious enough to host the shower at her home, and between her, Michele, Aubrey, and me, we were able to pull together all of the food, cake, decorations, favors, games, etc.

(I wish I would've remembered to get a picture with all of us girls in it before or after the shower, but the whole thing was such a whirlwind, it never happened. I'm super bummed. )

Michele took care of getting a PHENOMENAL cake from a local bakery (great job, Michele!) and helped me plan games.

Here's Aubrey's beautiful daughter, Maggie, standing next to the cake table with favors:

Aubrey made some wonderful sets of her famous handmade cards for the winners of the games. Everyone was so pleased to receive those gifts. She is so talented! 

Michele and Aubrey also worked together while Kate opened her gifts, taking meticulous notes as shown below. Life savers!

Another good friend of mine, Gail, who lives here in Michigan has become friends with Kate through blogging, spent one whole Saturday with me a few weeks ago helping make two of the major decorative features for the shower: the diaper cake and baby sock roses. I can't tell you how much she helped me with ideas and assembly. She is by nature much craftier than me, and I'm sure I would've completely ruined the projects without her calming influence and natural ability to make things beautiful. Thanks, Gail!

From diapers...

To assembly...

To a finished centerpiece.

From teeny baby socks...

To baby sock roses. (Again, I'm so sad I didn't get a picture of the arrangements we put together with the baby sock roses when they were complete. I think they turned out really cute, but you'll just have to take my word for it.)

Speaking of Gail, she made some absolutely beautiful gifts for me to bring down to Kate (I know, right? How thoughtful.). Here are a few pictures of Kate opening the handmade items...

A crocheted afghan...

A fleece tie blanket...

A super-soft hooded towel...

Here are a few more select pictures from the shower (Kate, I have more, and I am still planning to send you a disc with all of them soon)...

Virjean (and a teeny bit of Tara)...

Mary looks on proudly...Maggie helps with organizing presents...

All in all, I think the shower was a success! It was wonderful to spend some quality time with Kate and her Mom as well as Aubrey and Michele (though my time with them was much too short). It was also wonderful to catch up with Kate's good friend, Amanda, from college, who I don't believe I've seen since Kate's wedding more than three years ago! Amanda was also a big help with passing out cake and helping Mary fold all that gift tissue paper that we KNOW she'll be hoarding for the next 20 years!  (You know we love you, Mary.)

Kate, we all love you very much, agree that you look fabulous, and cannot wait to meet this energetic little person (hehe...Baby Madden) who has taken up residence inside of you (oh, by the way, I got to feel the baby a few times that weekend, too...sooo exciting!).We can't wait to meet your little one. Here's to a safe and healthy final few weeks of pregnancy!

-Em