Showers of Books

On August 15 ladies from our church and friends of ours came together for a special welcoming party for Elena. We had not had an official baby shower for Elena before she came so we decided to have one after - it's more special having the actual guest of honor there for everyone to see (rather than being tucked away in a belly!)


The backyard was beautifully decorated by my sister-in-law, Anna. I'm sure others helped too, but I hear she was in charge of the decor. The theme for the night was...books! What child doesn't need books? Elena now has a nice library to start off with thanks to all the ladies that came out to welcome her.





We started off the evening by picking out what dessert we wanted to eat. The selections were amazing! Maria, my sister-in-law is a talented cook and that evening she delighted us all with her amazing desserts! A creme brulee, strawberry freeze, chocolate parfait and meringue were the choices. Thankfully, I got to try them all over the next few days so that I could taste how good they all were! Thanks, Maria!


Anna had planned for everyone to take part in a special activity in which they helped write parts of a book that would be later put together for Elena. It was the cutest idea! Each group had the chance to write two pages. When the book is put together it will be a random assortment of parts of stories but it'll be fun for Elena to see what different people wrote!



After that we worked on a crossword puzzle that Anna had put together. She is a creative one, alright!

As you can see, Elena wasn't exactly the best party hostess but I guess you can't expect much from a newborn. She slept through the whole shower. What a funny girl!

We were privileged to have Donna among us who is a friend of the family. She shared from Proverbs 4 about raising kids and how the best thing we can do is to teach them about God. A new mom needs all the wisdom she can get and the best definitely comes from the Bible!

Since it was a book-themed welcoming party most of the gifts that Elena got that night were books. Elena's library is off to a great start thanks to every one's gifts. Only a few books were repeats, which I thought was pretty amazing. During my years of teacher education I learned a lot about the value of reading to kids and starting early - even as young as newborns. I've read to Elena a few times but I definitely want to get into the habit of reading to her everyday. I want her to grow up with a love for reading. She got lots of storybook Bibles too, which is awesome!




All in all, it was a wonderful evening and I felt so loved by everyone who came. The Sandbergs and Morgans were probably the ones that came the farthest - thanks for making the effort! Here's a picture of all of us:

From our little family...

...A big thanks to the three ladies that helped make this possible -
Grandma H., Anna and Maria!