Happy Monday my little chickadee’s. It’s time for our Week In Review, but I want to flip the script today, and since it’s my blog, I’m going for it. 
I’m still going to share with you some lists and things I accomplished in the last week, but instead of giving you everything, we’re going to hone in on one particular little item. You see, I along with one other lovely lady, hosted a baby shower on Sunday. I could go all baby, baby, baby on you, but that’s really not my thing, so instead you’re going to get a glimpse into the behind the scenes planning of said baby shower. We’ll forego the cutesy little outfits and awkward party games and jump right into the depths of my inner psyche, as I share with you my need to plan things down to the Nth degree (some may say control; I prefer the word plan).
By the way, if you thought I was crazy before, well you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Along with being a list lover, I’m a planner. In my mind, the two go hand in hand, so the idea of throwing a baby shower at my pad (I so don’t live in a New York City loftish apartment, but I always wanted to talk about my pad because it throws off a hip and cool vibe, two things I definitely embody)…Where was I? Ah yes, the idea of hosting a soirée of any kind allows me to revel in a world of lists and strategic calculations. Excellent.
For this shower, I had no fewer than five running lists at any given time, all which require careful planning and in some very delicate cases, cooperation since I had lists hinged upon lists. I get goose bumps just thinking about it.
Let’s talk about them, or better yet, let’s list them:
- The Menu (Dun, Dun, Dun)
- The Ingredients (needed to created everything on said menu (see above)).
- The Grocery Store List (needed to encompass the ingredients, plus regular food in case the Hubby and I want to eat past Sunday)
- Things To Do The Week Of The Party
- Things To Do The Day Before The Party
- Things To Do The Day Of The Party
It’s invigorating isn’t it? Don’t answer that.
The Menu was easy since the party was Cinco De Mayo themed. We had oodles of tortilla chips, guacamole, salsa, stuffed jalapeno, and for the main course, chicken and/or veggie fajita and a quinoa and corn salad, which we washed down with Tequilla Strawberry Lemonade (and a virgin version for the new mommy to be). Dessert was something I like to call The Mexican Cheesecake Ole. It was a spin-off recipe, and it turned out ridiculously good. Like people wanted the recipe good, but since it had a boat load of butter and sugar, I’m not at all surprised.
The Ingredients and the Grocery Store lists are pretty self-explanatory, so moving on…
Things To Do The Week Of The Party gets a little more interesting (in my mind anyway), so let’s switch back to bullet points.
- Create a Mexican themed playlist, until in a stroke of genius, you realize your cable service has music channels and lo and behold, there is a Mexican themed music station. Score.
- Work on party decorations, which loosely translates to tracing and cutting chili peppers out of construction paper and then switching to sombreros when you realize the chili peppers look like giant curved man parts; wholly inappropriate for a baby shower…except it’s going to be a boy, so maybe…
Side note: I failed to do this item earlier in the week and instead saved it for the morning of the party, so I said screw it and opted to stick all inappropriate decorations on the wall.
- Order balloons because nothing says baby shower like Fiesta balloons.
- Confirm date and time with the masseuse. Yep, you read right; instead of take away gifts, I like to give my guests a private twelve-minute chair massage because that’s how I roll.
Things To Do The Day Before The Party
- Fine tune The Ingredients and The Grocery Store Lists.
This is me fine tuning, in my sweat pants on Saturday morning, while sitting in a sun patch and sipping on beet juice. Mmm, beet juice.
- Watch the Hubby’s softball game, which has nothing to do with party planning. I just thought I’d sneak that in there.
- Go to the liquor store and buy booze. I’ll have you know, I was the only person at the liquor store toting a recyclable bag and despite whipping out my environmental friendly sack, the cashier still put my bottle in brown paper. Don’t worry I gave it back; they will not thwart my greenness.
- Go to the grocery store (Nature’s Bin) and buy all the food or at least the items on my Grocery Store list.
- Pick up party balloons. Ole. I used this joke already. I don’t care.
- Make guacamole, tomato salsa, quinoa and corn salad (excluding the green onions for the time being). Wash hands repeatedly until skin is like a lizard.
- Prep the strawberry concoction for Tequilla lemonade; overnight soakage was required. Pat self on back for reading that far through the recipe to know overnight soakage was required.
- Crash for the night; hard.
Things To Do The Day Of The Party
- Begin day by consuming mass amounts of coffee.
- Affix party decorations to the walls.
- Cut flowers from the yard for party ambiance.
- Vacuum anything and everything in sight, including the Hubby and felines should they stay still for too long.
- Realize you have purchased the wrong base ingredient for the dessert and call Da in a panic, only to be told, “I’m not sure that’s going to work,” before being given advice on how to Make It Work. Tim Gunn ain’t got nothing on my Da.
- Change hand towels in first floor bathroom. Get spare set ready because nobody likes to be the one using a damp hand towel three hours into the party. Also, stock bathroom with toilet paper because nobody likes to be the one who runs out and pregnant women pee a lot.
- Take out the trash and compost so we don’t look like heathens.
- Fill ginormous picture with ice, water, lemons and cucumber.
- Finish making Strawberry Tequilla Lemonade, which requires juicing fifteen lemons. Curse repeatedly for not having done this step the day before.
- Make spin-off dessert and decide to name it The Mexican Cheesecake.
- Chop up green onions and add same to the quinoa and corn salad.
- Remove dead chipmunk brought into the house moments before the party, by one of the felines, again so we don’t look like heathens. Disinfect the area.
- Shower, get dressed and make self presentable. Pretend everything was achieved effortlessly.
Before I conclude, I must give a special shout out to my fellow hostess Jen and also to the Hubby who made about half the above items possible. We would have been flowerless, sitting in a den of filth (or at least cat hair and dead chipmunks), and drinking nothing but booze if it weren’t for him. God bless the Hubby.
Alright enough about me. I want to hear from you. What amazing or mundane things did you accomplish in the past week. Do you go to similar lengths when party planning? Please tell me this level of preparation and list making is normal…
Oh, Boy…I have to get the hang of this week in review thing. Your’s is so much cooler than mine, Meghan! Photos…I need photos…and lists…need them…Hey it’s my first time and I’m so excited I am in the game! Have a great day, Cutie!! And, I’m number one on the list! I like it!
I don’t know about cooler; mine was way too long today, and I’m so excited to have you join the party!! Number One!!
Sounds like a great party! I bet mom to be was thrilled!! Did you end up making that dessert I told you about or no? Your pic looks like it so I was just wondering…
I did as a matter of fact, so THANK YOU very much. I swapped out the crescent rolls for phyllo dough, so it made for these crispy flakey layers and I also swapped out one package of cream cheese for Greek yogurt. It was a total hit and not a single piece remained. You are my hero.
Woooohoooo!!! That’s great–I am glad it was a hit!! Everytime I make it people beg for the recipe too–it is so simple but sooooo delicious!!!!
This has got to be the most epic WIR to date. I think before you showcased your love of lists quite well, but today? Today you went above and beyond and showcased both your list-making abilities AND your adherence to said lists for stellar results. And by stellar I do mean stellar. Meghan, the baby shower turned out fantastic! Will you plan mine in, say, 10 years? 😀
I love that you have lists that depend upon other lists. It’s like a tiered, dependent system that runs smoothly (sort of) and produces a nice little party at the end.
Someday I need to post the actual lists I make instead of just fake ones for fun. My lists include time and little check boxes. Bahah. It’s ridiculous and I normally don’t even follow the times completely, but it’s just so calming. No one can stop me! 😉
I’ve already confessed that I don’t like cheese nor cheesecake, but still I’m interested to see what your Mexican cheesecake entailed. Especially because it was a spin-off, which are the best recipes in my opinion.
Since you called my post epic, I would be happy to throw your baby shower for you whenever you are ready and by ready, I mean pregnant. 😉
It makes me super happy to know you appreciate the delicate balance of the tiered listing; it’s a system like Jenga. You pull the wrong block and it all crumbles.
I like doing things in timed boxes and I like doing things which calm me so you just keep on doing your thing. It makes you happy and that’s what matters.
Here’s the recipe I scored from a friend: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe-Tools/Print/Recipe.aspx?RecipeID=169305&servings=12
I swapped out the crescent rolls for phyllo dough and I swapped one block of cream cheese with Greek yogurt. There’s so much butter and sugar, you can’t tell a difference.
It’s great that you’re able to be motivated to do so much planning! I’m the same way in that I need everything laid out perfectly or I get stressed out. I think the party will be absolutely wonderful 😀
Thanks; I’m a planner and a list lover.
I’ll have you know I skipped over all the “here’s today’s recipe” emails in my inbox to come straight here and hear all about the party.
And you did not disappoint!
I wanted pictures of awkward games and stuff, though.
Excellent scissors skillz with the decorations–I’d hire you.
The mom to be said no games, so no games it is and certainly not the kind with crushed melted candy bars in diapers. How gauche. 🙂
I love you came here today hoping to hear all about the party; it makes me smile, and proves you know my nuerosis so well.
Er can I come for your next party? I’ll even bring dessert…although chances are you would have already planned for some ;)! This length of planning is definitely normal…at least I know I go into serious list-making mode and get beyond overwhelmed when I plan parties- sure is worth it though :)!
You absolutely can come, and if you bring a dessert, all the better. I’ll just make sure to cross that off my list. 😉
It was totally worth it and since I love listing, I was in my element.
Oh, I love lists! This is something I would totally do! I make lists within lists…it’s kind of disturbing, really, when I stop to think about it (as I stare at several of said lists). Glad the party turned out well. The food looks amazing!
Lists within lists make me giddy. You should do some lists and join my link up party. We could celebrate our mad listing ways together.
mmmmm foooood. Super cute! I’ll be linking up Thursday btw 🙂
Yeah!
Holy moly, can I please come to your next party?!?!!!
Yes, but only if you bring Bailey. I have a fenced in backyard and live near the park so she’d have a blast.
Oh my gosh…one time, while in undergrad, I cohosted a party with my roommate at the time. He was a lot more laidback and it made me BANANAS and I swore NEVER AGAIN, but then I got married, so, yeah.
As far as entertaining goes, I will host 1 or 2 people, MAX, for drinks/dinner/dessert, but anything more than that and my little brain starts frying.
“Pat self on back for reading that far through the recipe to know overnight soakage was required.”
MEGA PROPS FOR THIS. I almost never catch these things and it PISSES me off!
Ah man…a planner and a laidback person planning something together spells disaster. I would have totally lost it.
The Hubby and I have done a handful of parties together at our house now, and the largest one was my father-in-law’s retirement. We ended up with about seventy-five people. It was total madness with us working two grills and constantly replenishing food, paper products, drinks, etc so twenty people is like nothing now.
I was so proud of myself for catching the overnight soakage.
Rules are made for breaking! And parties are made for planning. I love a good plan–multiple lists galore! I also love Mexican-themed food for parties. Fajitas/tacos/etc., so easy to customize, plus who doesn’t love chips and guac?? And by that I mean corn chips, not a hip and cool reference to chipmunks.
Oh man those poor little chipmunks. I actually saved two this weekend from the jaws of my felines, but this last one…sigh…makes me sad. Lists on the other hand, make me happy. Same goes for things with waggley tails.
I don’t feel too sorry, but only because chipmunks have decimated various crops at different points in my gardening history. Down with chipmunks! Mountain Feists are squirrel huntin’ dogs…might mean she’d be pretty good with the chipmunks too…
your pictures make me want mason jars. lots and lots of mason jars.
I love mason jars too. I’ve actually been cleaning and saving my empty peanut butter jars. They’ve become my new water glass.
I wanna come to your next party and eat that spread of food & sip on some booze with you!!!
Ms Jessie you are always welcome.
If we ever threw a party together… the planing would be out of control. In an amazing way. I love a plan *almost* as much as I love a party.
Can you imagine?! Two planners put together. We’d be Martha Stewart esque.
I wish I could have come to that party..I would have eaten ALL that salsa and guac. I would have also drank all that water..it looks so refreshing.
Actually other than the stuffed peppers, you could have eaten everything. There was very little cheese (how odd for me, huh?!) and hardly any meat, which I of course passed over too.
That’s my kind of party planning! I love lists off of lists. Such serenity it brings when each item has its own place on a lined piece of paper. Even better when said piece of paper can be (neatly) folded and tucked safely into one’s pocket. Ahhhh….
Pocket sized lists; now there’s a clever concept.
Hahaha! Omg, I about died over the chipmunk thing!! Aww, chipmunk death…WHY am I laughing at that?! And vacuuming the hubby and kitties? Ugh, I have a cat sitting next to me right now that could use some of that! I swear I’m going to roll him out on a giant sheet of lint roller paper! I got up from the couch just a minute ago and noticed that my entire right arm was COVERED in cat hair! I’m freaking drowwwwwwning!! *curses cat under breath*
Looks like the party was a HIT! As it should be with all those lists going! Haha! Glad to see you put your new little serving dish to good use!
Ok, I’m sorry, but I have to add one thing…Red, Orange, YELLOW, Green, Blue, Purple!! WHERE IS THE YELLOW?!!? You’re making my eye twitch!!!
I’m amazed you remembered and noticed the new serving dish. How very astute of you, and I had to skip the yellow as much as it pained me to do so. It just doesn’t show up well on the blog. Believe me, I tried and didn’t like the outcome.
I followed this link from this weeks WIR and I have to say damn girl can you throw a party! (not that I’m surprised) everything looks amazing, especially the lists involved!