Summer Recap

I wanted to post a few pics from some fun events we attended over the Summer. In August we had a great ArtPartners fundraiser supporting VSA Alabama. I didn't get to take a lot of pics because we we're working the event with the other Junior Patrons, but there was some fantastic art in the silent auction and we raised $75K for VSA!

My sweet friends Ellen and Jennifer helped work the event.

A good friend from college got married this summer also, so we headed up to Huntsville for Andrew and Mary's big day. The wedding and reception were at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. We had a great time with Collin and Michelle, Spencer, and Anne and Rob.

Babies Galore

This post is long overdue and part of a series I will call "Better Late Than Never: The Summer Recap."

Back in July we hosted a baby shower for my sweet friend, Anne, who is expecting her first baby in late November. We cannot wait to meet Baby Maggie and had the best girls time celebrating her soon-to-be arrival. A special thanks to J-Go's mom for letting us host the shower at her home and providing the hostess wisdom and all the Paula Deen strawberry cake and decorations that go with it to us hostess newbies.

We were pretty green considering this was my first (in what appears to be a long line) of baby showers to host. (Anne, hanks for being the guinea pig!) Ask me to host a lingerie shower or bachelorette party and I can do it in my sleep. Baby showers are a different story. But since then I've helped host two others with another scheduled in October. I think I'm getting the hang of things with the decorations, games, etc. I will have to attempt a diaper cake creation in a few weeks, so that may be a blog post of its own!

I added it up and I had/have nine baby showers to attend in a period of three months, and I am helping host about half. Keep in mind, these aren't for random friends. All are either for friends at church in our Sunday School class or for close college friends (think roommates and bridesmaids). It appears the baby bug has bit. We are so excited to meet all these new additions.

Now, for some pics from the shower....

Mom and daughter

With the grandmothers

All the guests. (Note five of the ten are preggers.)

Anne got so many cute, frilly, pink, ruffled things for Maggie. Baby girl shopping is just too much fun.

Roommate pic! These girls go way back. Long before husbands and babies.

Just call us the hostesses with the mostest!

And, I have to plug the amazing Icing on the Cookie iced cookies I got for the shower. Delicious!

Memphis

This past August we made a fun weekend trip to Memphis to visit our good friends, Alex and Sam. We don't get to see these sweet friends from college often enough, but I'm so glad they were willing to host us and show us around town during - of all things - Elvis week in Memphis. Only we would plan a trip to Memphis and have no idea it happened to be on the weekend the whole town celebrates Elvis' birthday in full style. Let's just say downtown was quite the scene on Saturday evening with all the Elvis impersonators and the many tourists decked out in Elvis apparel. Love for The King was live and well.


I do have to say that Alex and Sam know how to feed their friends. We had great food at Gus's Fried Chicken and later at Rendezvous. The latter is a Memphis legend for vinegar-based BBQ, and it was my first time to visit. The full rack of ribs did not disappoint. Neither did our hook up with a table since Alex knew the manager. No line. No waiting.

We also did some shopping on the town square in Colliersville, a suburb of Memphis. I scored a nice leather handbag and mirror for our guest room at an antique shop before we stopped by a coffee shop for some gelato. Had to take a pic of Alex with the Christmas Story leg lamp in the shop. It was hot, but luckily we had some pool time earlier that morning. We also learned to play Settlers of Catan.


After dinner at Rendezvous we headed to the top of the Peabody Hotel to catch the fireworks from the Memphis Redbirds game. The Redbirds had a dramatic, 9th inning, come from behind win that was really entertaining, even from the top of the hotel. And, we actually got to watch a live marriage proposal while we were up there, and of course saw the famous Peabody ducks.



Thanks, Alex and Sam, for a wonderful weekend! Can't wait to see you guys again soon!