baby shower

A Succulent Themed Baby Shower

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In May I was lucky enough to have the most beautiful baby shower. The party featured tons of green and white, lots of succulents and of course some pretty amazing food. The best part however was spending a few hours connecting with other women about life and motherhood while celebrating my third and final baby. 

My friend Jenni is a party planner extraordinaire and she put designed and but together the most perfect succulent baby shower along with the help of Lisa.  

 

One of the big features of the party was the create your own terrarium station. This was such a fun activity and what a wonderful gift to send home with guests! I’d share my terrarium with you but I have to say my black thumb shows even though I had easy directions to follow. That hasn’t stopped me from displaying it in my living room because it brings me so much joy to walk past it everyday and be reminded of this special day.

While Jenni designed the party Lisa was so gracious and catered the entire shower which included this amazing DIY Avocado Toast Bar and an amazing Vegan Cheese Board. The delicious food didn’t end there however we also had vegan chicken and waffles and a platter of veggies with Toby’s Tofu Spread. 

While all I really wanted this shower to be was a time to celebrate this baby and pregnancy Edith was pretty thrilled that gifts were also involved and she was thrilled to help open them. We were beyond spoiled by these lovely ladies and can’t wait for baby #3 to arrive so we can use everything.

A huge thank you to all the lovely ladies who were able to attend my shower and of course extra thanks to Jenni and Lisa who took time to plan, prepare and put on this amazing day. 

Photo credit: @jennibost
Party Planner extraordinaires: @jennibost & @thisbeautifulday

Review: Pure Sweets

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Pure Sweets is an organic, gluten-free, vegan, kosher bakery in Philly.  A few months ago I contacted them about doing a review and the sent me a few items to try which include one of their crisp bars –The Ladybug, a flourless cookie- The Ape, a trio of mini macaroons- The Poodle  and a bag of trail mix- The Camel. Neil and I enjoyed everything so much that we ended up placing an order for a few more goodies for ourselves and an order of mini macaroons for our babyshower.

For ourselves we ordered:

  • The Kitty: Organic citrus cardamom cookies made with organic citrus fruit. We both really loved the flavor of these cookies but unfortunately they didn’t travel so well and ended up having a strange consistency.  I blame the heat and humidity we have been having here.
  • The Kid:  Organic brown rice crisp bar topped with organic peanut butter, organic blackberry preserves from Italy and organic single-origin dark chocolate. After loving The Ladybug we had to order another crisp bar and let me tell you that this one was even better! Neil and I both wished we had ordered two because it was really hard to share (we fought over the last bite).
  • The Bat: Organic single-origin chocolate macaroons peppered with organic cayenne. This was one of my favorite macaroons.  It was chocolately with just a mild hit of spice.
  • The Sphinx:  Organic rosewater cardamom macaroons. These macaroons were really great, such an interesting flavor.  We both really liked them but after trying a number of other flavors at the shower they ddin’t end up being a favorite of ours.  Tip: Crumble and add to vanilla coconut yogurt with sliced strawberries- so good!
   
   

For the shower we ordered:

  • The Sphinx:  Organic rosewater cardamom macaroons.
  • The Elephant: Organic cashew butter macaroons with organic caramelized nuts. This was my favorite of all the macaroons that I tried.  The caramelized nuts really made this so delicious.  I plan on ordering more of these soon!
  • The Owl: Organic salted almond vanilla bean macaroons. This one was good but you can get it dipped in chocolate and I think that would have made it even better.
  • The Panda: Organic single-origin chocolate chunk macaroons. I didn’t actually get to try this one (sad face) but Neil did and he absolutely loved it!
  • The Poodle: Organic lemon lavender macaroons.(I just checked my order and this one must have been snuck in by the good people at Pure Sweets) These are my second favorite ( The Elephant being my first) of all the macaroons. The lemon and lavender is such a great combination.
Pure Sweets photo shoot at our baby shower featuring father-to-be Neil and our friend Laura
   

Other things I love about Pure Sweets:

  • They donate 5% of their profits to charity.
  • The “bonus” details that are included with their products–> example The Poodle: Bonus: immune booster, 60 calories per macaroon.
  • Their products are organic, vegan, gluten free and kosher.
  • They have an amazing and personable staff to work with.
  • I also love that they offer gift boxes and wedding and other favors.
Disclosure: I purchased the reviewed items from Pure Sweets. All opinions are honest and my own.
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If you haven’t stop over to our family blog, Naturally Family, then head over now and Meet The Family.  We have been discussing this weeks pregnancy ups and downs, our baby bucket list and my labor and deliver fears.

Weekend Wrap Up: Showers and Dates

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How is it Monday already? We had such a busy weekend that I could use another day just to sit around and do nothing!

Friday we had our midwife appointment in the morning and then headed off to our designated jobs before meeting back up for dinner at American Flatbread. After dinner we headed to Neil’s Studio 54 themed work party for a short time but ended up leaving after being evacuated from the party tent due to severe thunderstorms.  We managed to get a little bit of socializing in and a session in the photo booth but unfortunately a certain soaking wet pregnant lady did not want to stand around the safety shelter and wait for the storm to pass so we didn’t end up returning to the party and missed The Village People (yes the REAL Village People), oh well!

Saturday we woke up early and made our way down to the farmers market where we made our first stop at the juice bar, which is new this summer and is our new addiction. We decided to go with two different juices to share, the minty lemonade and the strawberry rhubarb, both of which were really delicious.  We also picked up a load of veggies for the week including garlic scapes, greens, strawberries, herbs and radishes.

After the market it was time to head home and get ready for our baby shower!

After the shower we headed home to re-open all of our gifts and get them somewhat organized in the nursery.  After that we decided to have a date night out at Babies’R’Us and dinner.

Sunday we headed out to another market which wasn’t great but we did end up seeing our juice bar friends again and this time I ordered up a Green Energy and Neil a Runners Remedy.  After the market we picked up a few groceries and headed home for lunch before walking down to the beach, where we spent most of the early afternoon.

After spending a few hours at the beach we walked home and decided to use our free passes to the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center. We decided to pay the extra and visit the special Our Body exhibit that is going on until September.  Our friends raved about it and it was pretty amazing.

(Source)

After ECHO we weren’t ready to head home yet so we stopped down by the waterfront to sit and have a drink and a snack before heading home to relax on the couch and eat strawberry-rhubarb crisp.

How was your weekend?