Baby Mania

Well, I've got a big announcement....one of my closest friends is having a baby!! I couldn't be any more excited for Jess and Drew. They have a baby girl on the way, and is due for arrival on September 25th. If she is smart, she will arrive three days early to see the Auburn v LSU game. Funny enough, Jess and Drew were married on Auburn v LSU weekend.

Jess and Drew live in Tampa, and we don't get to see them nearly as often as we would like. When I heard she was preggers I just knew I had to throw her a baby shower. She would do the same for me! Her mom and dad were in town in June, so we started making plans. My mom came down with me, which added to the fun of our girls' weekend. It was so nice that Francine, Jessica's mom, could be there as well.

We rented out the clubhouse in their neighborhood, and started to get to work. Two of Jess's local Tampa friends helped me quite a bit as well. Allie and Rachel were life-savers. Not being close by, some things were difficult to do from far away.

Jess decided to do the baby's room in grey and yellow, and this gave us a great color scheme for the baby shower.

Silver tablecloths made for a great backdrop on all of the fun yellow bursts of color we planned on using. Lemons in a hurricane vase, surrounded by tulle, made a great centerpiece for the food table. A few ball jars that were covered in spray paint added a fun touch to the tables. My mom made some tissue paper flowers out of white, yellow and grey that filled those jars. The diaper cakes were Rachel originals, and really added a great touch to the room. Also, if you notice the lemonade in the top right corner, that is the Toomer's Corner Lemonade recipe. I knew we weren't throwing an orange baby shower, but had to add just a hint of Auburn somewhere!

Thanks to Pinterest on the baby onesies hanging from ribbon. Thanks to Carter's for deciding that their entire late spring line was going to be grey and yellow. Mom found a bunch of onesies that were the perfect color, and we added some tulle pom poms to the ones that didn't have anything on the front. 

Allie created the candy bar in all of the perfect colors. Jess isn't the biggest fan of cake, mostly because of the icing, so Allie decided to do something different. She made chocolate covered pretzel sticks, giant marshmallows covered in yellow chocolate, lemon heads, and lollipops. You name it, she found it. She even put out bags so you could take some home. Perfect!

I just wanted to add a picture of some of the tulle pom poms we had hanging around the room. I will add a tutorial for these at a later point, because these are so easy and so cute! I left all of them with Jess in case she wants to use any of them in the baby's room. 

Also, I didn't get a great picture, but Rachel made a chocolate covered M&M popcorn. Rachel, if you read this, leave the recipe in the comment box below so I can create a post for that. I am a HUGE popcorn fan, and I have never had anything like this. I couldn't stop eating it, and have been craving it ever since!

We had such a blast throwing this for Jess. I think, after meeting alot of her friends, Jess and Drew are some of the last ones to start having babies in their group of friends in Tampa. They are the first in mine and Jay's group of friends. I hope we were able to create something pretty special for them, I clearly haven't had alot of  practice at baby showers!

I can't wait to meet this little bundle of joy. She is already so loved by family and friends, and after this shower, she is very well dressed!!

Infiltrating the Man Trip

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to attend my dad's annual man trip to Indianapolis. Typically, there are a group of guys who go on Wednesday or Thursday, and spend the week shopping for classic cars at the Mecum Auto Auction and spend Saturday at the track watching they Indy 500 time trials. You may, or may not, know that I was born in Indy, and it is the only place that felt like home while I was growing up a corporate brat. (A corporate brat is very similar to an Army brat, yet the military isn't involved, just the corporate headquarters).

We have a tradition that started in our house when we moved to California, and stayed with us ever since then. My parents used to go to the race when we lived close, but California to Indy is quite the commute. We started getting Kentucky Fried Chicken and watching the race together at home. We still do this. I grew up in and around Indianapolis and had never been to the track before this year. I have watched it every year while growing up. The tradition that surrounds the race still give me chill bumps and make me teary eyed on race day. So, being able to go to the track for my first time trials was quite the treat.

I loved being able to see the bricks that make it the brickyard, and being able to sit high enough to see the entire track.

You truly can't appreciate how awesome this track is without being there. Besides the fact that it is enormous, it's just so pretty. There is a golf course that runs through the back straight away, and everything is just so wide open.

We spent most of the morning and early afternoon at the track, and decided to grab lunch before heading over to the fair grounds for the auction for the rest of the day. Now, if you are ever in Indy, specifically Speedway, at any point in your life, this bit of information will change your life! I'm not kidding, it's life or death! YOU MUST EAT AT THE MUG N BUN!!! It's is Indiana's oldest drive-in. Everything on the menu is a heart attack on a plate, they make their own homemade root beer, and all the food is either fried or covered in grease. IT'S AMAZING!! I decided to go with your traditional cheeseburger, root beer, and fried mac and cheese wedges. MMM... I can't wait for another trip to Indiana just to eat there!

Then, we finally arrived at one of my favorite places. The Mecum Auto Auction. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out the speed channel this weekend. They are constantly playing re-runs from the past shows. You may even see me on Saturday afternoon up on stage checking out some of the cars! We saw some beautiful cars come across the auction block. Almost every car was selling in the $100,000+ range, and almost all of them were meticulously taken care of. It's too bad they aren't made the same way anymore. There is something so elegant about a classic car that just can't be re-done today.

I think the pink one could really make Barbie look like a Bad Ass!! All muscle!

I have been begging to go on this trip for years. I love looking at cars with dad, and loved the idea of getting to go to the track. I can't believe I was actually invited this year, and it surpassed all of the expectations I had. It's very rare I get to spend that much time with big bad dad, but it was truly a blessing.

Now, I need to figure out how to sneak in next year! *wink*