A couple weekends ago, a couple of my dearest friends threw me the most beautiful baby shower for our second baby. After all the baby shower love we had received when we were expecting Mio, I really didn’t expect any sort of shower or celebration this time around, and I’d even read that it’s bad form to have a baby shower for subsequent babies beyond your first child. But my best friend Debbie insisted that she wanted to plan an intimate get-together on a small scale to celebrate the arrival of baby #2, especially since she wasn’t able to plan one for Mio’s birth (since we were in California at the time). She enlisted the help of one of my other closest friends, Hanna, and together they threw me a truly lovely storybook-themed baby shower! Everything was so beautiful and had so much detail and thought put into it, but at the same time the pace and tone of the shower was really cozy and relaxed, which I loved. Here are some snapshots from the celebration!

Loved the beautiful flowers and storybook display
Beautiful flowers and storybooks as decorations for the shower.

 

So much detail in everything!

 

Hanna, who I became close friends with while we were both studying graphic design in college, designed the lovely invitations and the printed decorations/labels for the shower.

Baby shower invitation
 The front of the folded invitation: I love the detail in it, like “Misono’s Recipes” and “Mio’s Schoolbox” incorporated into the books and boxes of the design.

 

Back of the folded invitation
Back of the folded invitation

 

The inside of the baby shower invitation... Gorgeous!
The inside of the baby shower invitation… Gorgeous!

 

A lovely bookmark to accompany the invitation.
A lovely bookmark to accompany the invitation.

 

There was no shortage of delicious food! Both Debbie and Hanna are amazing in the kitchen, and the refreshments and desserts they prepared were both beautiful and mouthwatering…

An amazing spread of delicious food!
An amazing spread of delicious food!

 

Very Hungry Caterpillar's Fruit and Cheese
All the food was labeled/named with children’s book references — it was so cute!

 

Strega Nona's Chicken Alfredo Pasta and Cloudy with a Chance of BBQ Meatballs!
Strega Nona’s Chicken Alfredo Pasta and Cloudy with a Chance of BBQ Meatballs!

 

Charlie and the Chocolate Green Tea Cupcakes
Charlie and the Chocolate Green Tea Cupcakes

 

If You Give a Mouse a Chocolate Chip Cookie with Miso Buttercream Frosting
If You Give a Mouse a Chocolate Chip Cookie with Miso Buttercream Frosting

 

The dessert table.
The dessert table with the chocolate cupcakes with green tea frosting, and chocolate chip cookies.

 

Complete with custom designed tags by Hanna!
Debbie is amazing at making homemade jam and preserves. She prepared these jars of orange cranberry preserves with grand marnier for the guests to take home as favors. Hanna designed the tags to match the invitation and the rest of the decor of the shower!

 

Catching up over delicious refreshments
Catching up over delicious refreshments

 

Supplies for onesie and bib crafts!
Supplies for onesie and bib crafts! My friends know me so well. This is just the kind of activity I love to do!

 

Baby shower crafts!
Working on handmade onesies and bibs for the baby.

 

The bib I worked on.
The bib I worked on.

 

Elisa's adorable strawberry bib
Elisa’s adorable strawberry bib

 

Pat and I at my baby shower
With Pat. So glad she could make time to come to the shower, even as a busy mama of two! I have much to learn from her as I prepare for our own second baby.

 

Showing off our creations.
Showing off our creations.

 

Hanna, Debbie, and I with our bibs!
Hanna, Debbie, and I with our completed bibs. Loved Hanna’s sushi bib and Debbie’s giraffe bib! So creative. 🙂

 

After the crafting fun, it was time to open gifts! Dan and I really didn’t need anything this time around, since we already have most of our baby gear and all the baby clothes from Mio (especially since we’re having another girl — the perks of having children of the same gender!), and knowing this, my girlfriends gifted us books for the baby. Such a great idea, since you can never have enough books! I love that we now have so many more books to add to the girls’ library.

Reading everyone's cards
Reading everyone’s thoughtful cards and opening presents.

 

So many thoughtful gifts!
Thank you everyone for the thoughtful gifts! The ladies also all chipped in to buy me a beautiful baby mobile that I had been looking at on Etsy.

 

The ladies at the baby shower.
A group picture together. Thank you everyone for coming!

 

With the beautiful garland that Debbie made!
The beautiful tassel garland that Debbie made! It’s definitely going in the baby’s nursery.

 

Thank you Debbie and Hanna for a truly lovely baby shower!
Can’t thank these girls enough for all that they do for me!

 

Thank you Debbie and Hanna for planning and hosting such a beautiful baby shower! I’ll remember it always. Our second baby is so lucky that she got to have such a lovely celebration of her own to welcome her into the world. I’m so blessed to have friends like you in my life, along with all the ladies that attended the shower. (Special thanks to Dan, too, for staying home and watching Mio so that I could have a relaxing time at the party!)