For the Love of Literature

My mother and I hosted a baby shower for my brother, and as lovers of children's literature, we decided to do a storybook theme. 

My mom found the most adorable invitations on Tiny Links.  Check them out!  She also got matching thank you notes for the couple.

I made a book plate that we printed on mailing labels, and included one with each invitation.  We asked that in lieu of a card guests gave their favorite story book.  I chose Alice in Wonderland for the label, because that is a favorite of the mother-to-be.

Baby Shower Book Plate

We were so surprised that there was only one duplicate book!  This little girl is going to have a great library.


One of my favorite details at the shower was our storybook lantern.  The pages came from beautiful books we got from the dollar store!  After a lot of hot glue and cutting, our masterpiece was complete!

Baby Shower Lantern

My mom is an amazing baker, and she made over a hundred large cupcakes for the shower.  Of course, they had a storybook theme.

Baby Shower Cupcake Display

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Tiramisu Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting

Vegan Coconut Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

Carrot Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting

 

 

 

 

Limoncello Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Limoncello Frosting

I adore the chandelier cupcake stand my mom found at Home Goods!

Milk Bottle Centerpiece

Our centerpieces were made with old books and antique milk jugs.  I was unable to capture the true beauty of the table set-up.  Each of the milk jugs had a page from a Disney book Mod Podged around the bottle. 

Gift Table

Bootie Clothes Line

For our gift table, we made a ribbon clothesline attached to branches from the yard.  The base is a pillar from Hobby Lobby.  We attached little socks and booties across the line with nursery rhymes pinned in between.  These photos are from before the guests arrived.

Bookworm Party Favor

 

Finally, we decorated small bags and filled them with pink and green gummy worms.  We made bookmarks that thanked everyone for attending.

Storybook Baby Shower

My mom should've been an event planner.  We were all very impressed to see her vision come alive.  I hope to get better photos emailed to me soon, and will share the details I left out!

Thanksgiving

I finally received the permission slips to add my students photos, so I'm super excited to share photos from our Thanksgiving feast!

Having a multicultural class, I love Thanksgiving, because it's one holiday that everyone celebrates.  I do have a Jehova's Witness who doesn't celebrate any holidays, but her parents allowed this one.

We spent some time throughout November learning about the first Thanksgiving, and the history of Thanksgiving. To wrap it up, the students wrote facts they learned about on paper turkey feathers.  Then they cut out a simple circle and drew a face on it.  This was one of many turkeys we tried making together, and it was the simplest, because it was just a circle.  In my opinion, it was also the cutest!  I will never try to sketch the shape of a turkey again!  I love the personality each of them gave their turkeys with the big eyes.  The headband itself is made out of a sentence strip.

My room was long enough this year (and my class size small enough) to push the tables together and make one very long table.  The kids loved it!  I was nervous about having the table over the reading carpet, but thank goodness there were no spills.

Last year I ordered a ham and turkey from Stop and Shop.  It was completely prepared, but had to be baked for a few hours before serving.  The lunch aide was kind enough to stick them in her oven at the beginning of the day.  Cutting it was a nightmare, and most of the students were afraid to try it.  Who wants to EAT turkey after all the cute turkey crafts they've been working on?

This year I made my life much easier by buying thickly cut deli turkey and microwaving it.  Once again only a few kids tried the turkey, so I didn't feel too bad about not having "the real thing."
 

I bought an adorable cupcake kit, but realized the morning of that I never made the cupcakes.  I loved these turkey toothpicks, so I ended up sticking them in the dinner rolls.  Thank goodness I didn't make the cupcakes- three different parents brought in sheet cakes!

I'm so lucky to have parents who immediately find a way to help without any directions from me.

 Can't wait to read about the Thanksgiving celebrations of all my blogging friends!  December is here!