"Baby fever" is the only thing I can call this phenomenon, but I swear, everyone I know is expecting, or just had a baby! At our church, there were (at least) 5 of us pregnant at the same time - with all of us due only weeks apart. It was crazy! One of the lovely side-effects of all of this new life is the ability to celebrate with baby showers! Baby showers are a mostly American tradition, but ladies all over are starting to do them more and more. I was very touched when a group of my friends from our church here in Ljubljana hosted a baby shower for Jocelyn and I. It was so nice to feel loved and supported, especially since we had recently moved here. When one of the sweet mamas who threw the baby shower for us found out she was pregnant, I knew that I wanted to return the favor. This particular mama isn't in love with the color pink - but is expecting a girl, so I knew I needed to find a tasteful way to make it feminine. We settled on a "Garden Party" theme, and it turned out just lovely. For center pieces, we bought potted flowers, and put them in terra-cotta pots. I loved how naturally beautiful it looked! I was able to then use them as door prizes at the end - perfect! This was the "activity" table. We had a guestbook, where each guest left a thumb print and their name on a bare tree. Then, I had clothespins out, to play the "baby" game (where you can't say the word baby), and little cards to fill out with "prayers for baby". I punched holes in the corner, and then had a ring to string them on. For food, we had cucumber sandwiches, sugar cookies, melon and blueberry "flowers" (melon, cut with a cookie cutter into flowers, then placed on a kebab stick, with a blueberry on top), breadsticks, and Danish lagkage - the recipe for which you can find here. We also had a really fun gardening station - I bought some dirt, five different seed packets, terra-cotta pots, and also the kind you can plant all in one - the ladies then to planted some seeds to take home; the perfect party favor! For dishes, I actually used these beautiful dishes my mom recently gave me - they were hers, but she didn't use them, and graciously passed them on. They're not my style for everyday dishes, but are perfect for something like this. I also used my great-grandmother's silver, which I adore. I put the cutlery in a terra-cotta pot, to continue with the theme. I used garden markers to label the food, and drinks. I set up a welcome table, with a bucket for cards. I also set out the board book, The Secret Garden, but sadly didn't get a picture of it. And of course, a "throne' for the mama-to-be. I love our apartment, but was especially thankful for the open floor plan. We flipped the couch around, pulled the benches out from around the dinner table, and changed up the sofa chairs, and it worked out great! Everyone seemed to have a lovely time, the food all turned out delicious, and I was thrilled with how it all looked!