"What Will It BEE?"

{A Rustic-Contemporary Luncheon}

The venue was True Food Kitchen-San Diego, in their private dining room.

{Rustic-Chic Lunch & Modern Bumblebee Table Scape}

{A Sea of Pink and Blue}

Guests were asked to wear either pink or blue to represent their best guess of what our new baby will be!

{Pretty Pile of Books}

As their gift to our baby, guests were asked to select a favorite baby book to help fill our nursery library. 

*************************

 {Mother-Of-Two-To-Be}

Me, after the shower in our backyard, at just about 36 weeks pregnant. Wearing pink AND blue because I don't have a feeling of what we are having!

This past weekend was my baby shower for our gender surprise arriving in about 3 weeks! I had such a wonderful time and the venue for our luncheon could not have been more beautiful. True Food Kitchen is one of my "it" places for a memorable meal. The food is outstanding and farm-to-table fresh. It's high-quality but not pretentious. The decor is modern, stylish, and just the right amount of hip. My turkey burger with sweet potato hash and a citrus-y kale salad was to-die-for. The shower was held in the party room of the restaurant with a fun view to the kitchen, and privacy doors that allowed us to relax and drown out the outside hustle and bustle of the other patrons. 

It was perfection. 

{I highly recommend booking this option for your next special event at a True Food location near you!}

Now, for the shower details....

The Theme:

The whole baby shower was inspired by my Tiny Prints invitation seen in the first photo set, and seen here on the Tiny Prints website. If you have been following this blog for awhile, you know that I am obsessed with this company. I gather so much inspiration for holiday photos and parties by browsing through their stunning and unique designs. I knew I wanted a whimsical gender neutral theme, and upon stumbling across the "What Will It Bee?" invite, I was completely sold on my concept. My color palette was a blend of yellow, white, honey, and orange. It was completely serendipitous that the funky yellow metal chairs at the restaurant matched our table scape perfectly. I used the idea of asking my guests to wear either pink or blue (to represent their best guess) straight from the sample invite on the Tiny Prints website. Genius idea, I must say. Requesting that your guests arrive in either pink or blue not only makes for a great conversation piece, but also makes your photographs look pretty because everyone coordinates! My first baby shower was very traditional and I was spoiled in every way a first time mother should be, with lots of baby boy paraphernalia everywhere and heaping piles of gear, clothes, and other fun gifts. This time around, I wanted to switch it up with a modern approach. With the help of my mother and dear friends, the private dining room at True Foods Kitchen became my dream setting for a contemporary baby shower soiree. No storks, no rattles, no bundles of clothes or expensive accessories. I asked that instead of a traditional gift, each guest should bring a baby book to help fill the nursery library. I LOVE this idea, and am SO happy I did it. Now we have a fresh new pile of beautiful books that haven't been worn out (or destroyed) by Jack for our new nursery bookshelf. It's a meaningful gift idea, and also very budget-friendly for your guests---perfect for a second baby shower.

The Decor:

I gifted handmade party favors using honey bear jars and Burt's Bees lip balm assembled with orange bakers twine. I attached a little scalloped paper tag that read "Thank you for BEEing here!" Not only are simple party favors a kind gesture, but also make the table scape look pretty and help tie your theme together. Since it was a sit-down semi-formal luncheon and my guests were a mixture of friends and family who didn't all know each other, I thought it wise to assign seating with homemade paper place cards written in yellow chalk pen, and a little inked bumblebee stamp. My dear friend Susan provided seasonal tulip mini-bouquets in bold shades of yellow and orange. True Food provided beautiful succulent plants. Each place setting had a fun questionnaire that was our one and only baby shower game---guests had to choose if certain pregnancy symptoms meant the mother was having either a boy or a girl. The winner was gifted a set of the Burt's Bees lip balms. The cake was one of the most delicious cakes I've ever had. Vanilla buttercream frosting with chocolate and vanilla marble cake, and a layer of amazing chocolate fudge frosting in the middle. The cake was inspired by my Tiny Prints invitation and was adorned with fondant bumblebees and yellow, white, black frosting.

All in all?

I felt so blessed and happy to have the opportunity to experience a perfect afternoon such as this one. For the first time in a while, I really felt special during this pregnancy---To be more specific---sometimes with your second baby you tend to be far less focused on it and pay the pregnancy less attention. You just sort of go about your day, with the birth always on your mind but not always front and center in your thoughts. It was just so nice to celebrate and shower this new baby with some love and affection all its own!

Mother's Day Moments

Mother's Day 2013

 Jack: {almost} 27 months old

Mama: {almost} 35 weeks pregnant (to deliver at 39 weeks)

We spent Mother's Day together as a family on a truly perfect day. We went to breakfast at one of our favorite local spots from our pre-Jack life, and then took a nice little stroll along the coast. As you can see from the second and third pictures, a sure fire way to get Jack to smile for the camera is to let him run wild. I love watching his adorable surfer shaggy hair flounce all around as he sprints for joy. John pampered me with such a wonderful and special day--no diaper duty and no cooking duties! Among my many spoils was a gift card for a couples private gourmet cooking class! How fun will that be?!

I am now in the final countdown until our second baby arrives. We hope to order a few pieces of furniture for the nursery this week (keeping the room very clean and simple until the gender reveal, and then I'll create something really fun) and deep clean all of our infant gear. I also need to pack a hospital bag within the next few weeks, and knowing that I'll be admitted for 3 days, it needs to be a pretty well thought out bag. Last go-around, I wasn't at all prepared for my 5 day hospital stay or the C-section recovery, so I'm relieved that I will have more knowledge this time.

Hope all you Mother's out there had a lovely Sunday and were made to feel very special :)

Floridians

{below set of pictures are from our little getaway to St. Augustine, the oldest settlement in United States circa 1513}

We are back home from a week in the Sunshine State! 

It was a pool-golf cart rides-grandparent time cycle on repeat. Actually, I should also insert lots of Dad time in there too and having his best friend with him all the time was super exciting for Jack. From about minute three of our arrival, Jack was already ordering Pop-Pop and Grandma to "sit!", "play!", and "walk!" with him everywhere. We were in Florida to visit my husbands family, and take a small babymoon to St. Augustine where my husband could golf and I could enjoy not running after a two-year-old for 10 hours a day. The weather was mild and pretty and Jack made some very special memories with his grandparents, who live in this great retirement community. It's the only one of it's kind in the world, actually. Everyone (literally) drives a golf cart as their primary mode of transportation, which is so cute I can't even stand it. There's a whole infrastructure just for the carts. Some people really go all out and customize them, for instance modeling theirs after vintage cars. I have this running term in our house that's in some of our books to describe old cars---"old-timer." On our first day, we spotted an old-timer-esque golf cart, and I said "look Jack, an old-timer!" From that moment on, every single golf cart we saw was an old-timer, or in Jack lingo "old-tima!!!!" We just had to be careful who was in our direct line of hearing when Jack would shout this...nobody, even retirees want to be called old-timers ;)

I'm already working on a post about traveling cross-country with a toddler. Whether you are 32 weeks pregnant like me or not, it's exhausting. New places and new faces for my little guy mean nearly non-stop energy. Jack comes even more alive with a large audience and new experiences. I think he took one official nap in 8 days, with a few cat naps here and there, never slept-in once, and went to bed late everyday. I can't even imagine what it would have been like if it was just John and I traveling somewhere alone with Jack with NO HELP, so a big thank-you to all the family who entertained Jack for us!

Now it's back to our regularly scheduled routine...

for now...

until it gets shifted once again when our baby number 2 arrives in 6 weeks...

Lush Spring

Acres and acres of dreamy brightly-colored Ranunculus flowers, cascading down and making a picture-perfect blanket of Spring beauty...that is what we saw today at the magnificent Carlsbad Flower Fields. 

We love going every year, as you may remember from this post. Jack was more interested in the enormous tractor that would drive by as part of the many added attractions to the fields, but he was pretty content to run up and down the rows of flowers or sit atop John's shoulders. Then there was this cute moment at one of the "photo areas" where he plopped down, sat right in the middle of a bed of flowers, and looked up adoringly (see the picture of him with the yellow flowers). My heart just about melted. 

Over at the Carlsbad Strawberry Company, just down the road from the Flower Fields, patrons can grab a big ol' bucket and fill with hand-picked luscious ruby red strawberries. They really are natures candy I tell you. Jack was oh-so-gentle and delicate last year with this task: he was patient, curious, and followed my instructions perfectly well. This year? Not so much---well, at first. He was much more into squeezing the life out of each berry, watching the bright red pulp slosh through his fingers and run down his shirt. However, once I convinced him that there was a "game" to be played and to help Mommy drop the all the big strawberries into the bucket, he was good-to-go.

Now...what to make with all my goodies?

{I'm thinking PIE}