The spotty dotty baby shower for Bethany went off smashingly.

Everybody twisted and polka’d, hula-hooped and waved their hands in the air like they just didn’t care. I even danced a bit myself! It was a royal dotty good time.

Of course there was a craft project. A party is not a party if we aren’t crafting!

I made up some dot-to-dot sheets and put out a bowl of brightly colored puffballs and some glitter glue. The kids had at it with wild dotty abandon. I had my doubts about the glitter glue. It was a bit messy but it did keep the children occupied for quite a while. And then it kept the host of the house vacuuming for quite a bit after that. (Though mostly I think the sandbox and the eight thousand kids going in and out the back door were to blame.)

Moving on to food! Everyone contributed. There were dotty salads and of course dotty candy. Bethany made delicious vanilla cupcakes with cheesecake-and-strawberry-preserve filling and then the kids decorated them with dotty candy! I know, the guest of honor is not supposed to bake her own cupcakes but this is Bethany we are talking about. She wanted them to taste good, which meant she had to make them herself. If she left the baking to me, she’d end up with very beautiful but not-so-great tasting box-mix cupcakes. I accept my limitations.

The decorate-your-own cupcake idea was all Annalie’s. I wanted to micro-manage the dot-decorating process (of course) but it turned out to be way more fun to let everyone do their own. Plus, it was a great way to use the candy bar again.

Those IKEA jars have more than paid for themselves.

Sonja made strawberry-mint—infused water. I was skeptical at first, thinking it would taste like watery juice, but it was actually really refreshing and delicious! Bug kept helping herself to glass after glass. I’m thinking I might have to try this at home.

Glug glug!

And my mom made napkins! I love her. She’s going to have these in her shop soon too! She’s selling them in her shop now so you can play along at home.

But mostly it was fun to hang out with a bunch of friends who are really good spots…er, I mean sports!

Happy Baby Shower, Bethany!

Bethany loves polka-dots so we’re planning a polka-dot baby shower for her this weekend. The preparations have begun and I have to say I’m really having fun with this theme.

I’m painting a polka-dot wall for us to stick our heads through for photos. We’ve got polka-dot games like twister and connect four and checkers, polka music for the kids to play freeze dance to, dot-to-dot crafts, circle garlands for decoration and of course lots of circle-shaped food and spotty cupcakes to eat. It’s going to be pretty fun, I think.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress!