Hats, Pearls, Tea and Me

My friend Tara is pregnant with their third child, a baby girl! Since I moved to Colorado there has been no shortage of baby showers in my group of friends. In fact, it's practically becoming routine.

Usually these are pretty low key and sometimes they are even joint showers because we really do have that many babies to welcome into the world. This one though, well, my friends went all out. This shower was an early afternoon tea on a friend's back porch. The required attire included summer dresses, pearls and hats. Yes, I said hats. I'm telling you, the things I do for my friends.

I don't know why, but I think everyone honestly expected me to show up in jeans. Although I will argue my way into wearing jeans and a t-shirt for any and every occasion, if we're going to do this whole themed shower thing, then we are really going to do it. Go big or go home, although I drew my line in the sand at the idea of wearing gloves. I had a few options for summer dresses and pearls so that wasn't the problem. The hat however, well, that was another story. I spent hours at multiple stores and found nothing. I was telling a friend about my frustration and then my friend's mom piped up and said she had plenty of hats I could borrow. The next thing I knew she had a hat box in her hand and was laying out hat after hat on the counter. What a life saver!

Hat, gift and my infamous truffles in hand (yes, I have a truffle recipe that is in high demand at almost every social function), I arrived at the shower. Even though it probably goes without saying that tea parties and doilies are not my thing, being surrounded by those sweet ladies certainly is my thing.

Tara, me and Kacy

Kacy, Tara, Amber, me, and a dress malfunction that made me look 4 months pregnant

And what do you know? I even won the prize for best hat at the party. There were plenty of hats much cuter than mine, so the win probably had more to do with the fact that everyone was so shocked I actually wore a hat, but a win is a win.

me and my award winning hat

Congratulations Tara! I can't wait to welcome your new baby girl into our church family...and by "welcome" I mean shake her little hand because holding babies younger than six months old (when they start to look like actual people and not breakable dolls) totally freaks me out.