My Surprise Board-Game-Themed Baby Shower

My friends are the best!

For the past several months, I was just a teeeeeny bit bummed that I likely wasn't going to have a baby shower before baby arrived. Both of our families want to throw us showers, but since we didn't really have time to travel to east Tennessee or Rhode Island during the 2nd trimester and I reeeeally wasn't comfortable traveling that far during the 3rd trimester, we decided showers would have to be on hold until after baby arrived. And they'd be more like meet-n-greet-the-baby showers than getting-ready-for-baby showers. Our families are so sweet to have these parties in the works for us, but that didn't stop me from being a little sad panda about not having a traditional baby shower, where I get to show off my huge belly and we play silly baby games and we get some gifts before baby makes an appearance. I'm a diva sometimes, I know.

Well, while I was off in a corner sulking, little did I know that my friends were actually secretly planning the shower I'd always dreamed of. 

My friend Kaitlin, who's so super sneaky, apparently had this plan back in December. She's a seriously good liar, folks. Or a least a good poker-facer. 

Around the end of January, she asked me if I wanted to do a Chopped competition against her, where our husbands would be the judges. Now you all know how much I love a good Chopped competition! So of course I said yes! And I didn't even find it weird that she wanted to do it one and a half months after she originally brought it up, at a very specific time on a very specific date in March. I guess I was distracted by the prospect of another fun cooking competition. 

But then the plans got foiled by John having to work that Saturday afternoon. So instead, Kaitlin, being quick on her feet, said we should still just have a girls day together. And she mentioned that her mom had just bought her a bubble tea maker that she wanted to try out together. She knows how much I seriously love bubble tea. That trickster. So the plans stayed in place. 

March 14th, 3pm at her place. Got it. 

Little did I know...

Little did I know there'd be a crowd of my closest gal pals and my sweet husband (who was supposed to be at work!) waiting for me on the other side of Kaitlin's door that afternoon. 

SURPRISE!

And all the attention to detail, the love and thoughtfulness poured into all the handmade decorations and games and treats surprised me even more. My friends seriously are the sweetest.

Here, allow the pictures to do the talking.

I give you, a board-game-themed baby shower!

First, the gorgeous Life-themed cake...

And a little game, also Life-themed. 

We each had to start by wearing three pins, but if we said the word "baby," one of our pins got snatched up by whoever caught us saying that b-word. The player with the most pins by the end of the shower won a prize. It was cutthroat! 

Candyland decorations...

Scrabble decorations...

Friends!

Rachel, who hosted the shower with Kaitlin, waited by the door for me to arrive.

The first look on my face was apparently a pretty angry one, but luckily that picture was out of focus, so it will not be shared here or ever, thank you very much.

My anger face quickly turned into a beet-red face with lots of smiles. I was genuinely surprised!

We just had to figure out if baby Schweitz is a boy or girl, aka beau or bow, so Rachel created this handy dandy chart to come to a conclusion once and for all. The outcome?

We're apparently having a GIRL! But still, in real life... no idea.

Then Rachel whipped out these diapers that she melted chocolate bars into and made us sniff them to identify the bars. It was pretty... gross.

But also fun!

We soon followed that game with PREGNANT TWISTER! I randomly picked three friends, not knowing what for, and then Rachel and Kaitlin made them put these HUGE balloons up their shirts and play a round of Twister. Poor things! But hilarious. :)

And then it was gift time! Kaitlin set up two chairs, one for me and one for John. But in order to figure out who sat where, we had to flip up these Guess Who signs. So cute! And PS - I used to love this game!

This drawing of John is spot on!

She made me look like a Disney model!

Kaitlin's mom knitted us baby blankets!

And we got our first cloth diaper! Actually, we got 3 at our shower. Awesome!

We also got some cute little baby onesies and lots of bath-time supplies. Awesome, awesome gifts!

Posing with my friend Katie, who brought the beautiful cake...

Parents-to-be + cake...

In the back of the room, shower guests could make their best guesses for baby's birth day, height, weight, and gender. They could also give name suggestions too.

Of course, none of my friends took this seriously, so we're apparently going to have 4 foot, 123 lb baby boy or girl in early May named Hermione or Bugaboo. Thanks, guys!

Balloons! Prob my favorite decoration.

And look at this little ham who decided to join us. My friends make cute babies!

The lovely shower guests, minus two who had already left...

I still can't get over it! They surprised me, for sure. They got me good. I felt so showered with love the whole afternoon. I couldn't be more lucky, honestly. To have great friends, to have this beautiful shower thrown for me, to be blessed with our little baby. For the longest time, I never thought this would be my life. But oh how wrong I was. We truly are blessed to be enjoying these special moments.

Thanks for a fantastic shower, friends! You spoil me!