Tuesday, June 25, 2013

My Neighbor Totoro Baby Shower

Hello everyone!

     I'm so sorry I have been MIA! Time has seriously flown by and I can't believe how soon Liam will be here. I have been busy nesting, as they call it. Calvin and I have been getting Liam's nursery ready for his arrival and I have been washing all of his clothes. We've just been busy, busy, busy!

     From the last post, I mentioned I would post about our baby shower we had at my mom's house with all our family and friends. Enjoy!

Mr. Stork greeted our guests for the baby shower!
We had a ,My Neighbor Totoro, book that we used as our guestbook.
We asked guests to leave a wish for Liam!
Some of our decor. My talented brother drew the onesies to represent our little family as Totoros.


My mommy hand stitched each Totoro plushie, 12 all together. I made all the topiaries.

We had four tables: two with blue topiares and two with green topiaries
It's a little hard to tell, but i made little "clouds with raindrops"

Calvin made the photobooth backdrop
We offered a variety of different foods. Now that I look back on it, the foods represent the different ethnicities our little mixed baby will be. Calvin is part Chinese, Hawaiian, and Filipino and I am part Chinese, Burmese, French, Portuguese, and British. I can't wait to see what little Liam will look like, my guess is.... Chinese.
Macaroni Salad from my favorite Hawaiian spot.

Hawaiian style BBQ Short ribs
Burmese Chicken Curry
Samosas
Burmese Shrimp Curry. My favorite!
Lechon. Poor piggy :(


We also had lumpia, Sotanghon, Turon, and another Filipino dish. Needless to say we had a lot of delicious foods. Yum!

After lunch, it was time for some games. My bestest friend, AJ, helped organize all the games and I'm so thankful for that! I believe we played a total of 5 games. There was: Guess the baby poop, Baby Bottle Beer Chug, Measure Mommy's Tummy, How well do you know the Mommy to be, and another game we picked up at Party City. I don't have many pictures of the games, but here are two.

This game was where our guests had to guess what baby food was on each diaper. After checking out the different kinds, I don't think I would want to feed Liam any of these!

The only game we could get the guys in on. Of course if there's beer, the guys are willing to play. 
The games got pretty competitive once the first winner of the the games was given their prize. My generous mother-in-law had purchased all the prizes and she was giving out Louis Vuitton items. I know one was a LV scarf and another was a LV money clip. So very sweet of her to provide such amazing prizes for our guests!

After the games, everyone had time to relax and mingle. We had a DIY photobooth outside and some of our guests took full advantage of it. My gorgeous friend, Jennifer, helped make Totoro themed props. They were completely adorable and I loved each and every one of them.

Here is me with my little Chibi Tortoro AKA Liam
My amazingly talented friend Jenn! Isn't she beautiful?
Me and Liam with his two grandmas!
Soon it was time to cut the cake! Calvin's cousin made our cake and let me tell you... it was seriously the BEST cake I have ever had! I'm pretty picky when it comes to cake and cupcakes. I'm not a fan of cake that is dry and crumbles. I love when the cake is moist and basically melts in your mouth. Our cake was mouth watering delicious and totally melted in your mouth with each bite. Oh man, I really want some of that cake right now! Our cake was two layers: Red velvet and white cake with fresh strawberries. Come to think of it, very similar flavors to our wedding cake hehe. We also had adorable cupcakes that his cousin made as well which were the chocolate Hostess flavored cupcakes. Yum!


Cutting into the delicious cake

Our ridiculously adorable cake topper! You know we had to add in a hint of Disney!
How cute are these?! So cute, it made it hard to even eat!
Lastly, it was gift opening time. We were so fortunate to have such generous family and friends! Here are just a few pictures.
My brother, Uncle Kyle, and Auntie Annie made Liam a Sulley themed diaper cake and AMAZING Disney themed letters!
I am in LOVE with this Giants hat from Calvin's best friend, Uncle Alex. It's so tiny!
Liam is going to look super adorable in this Sulley onesie thanks to Auntie Lanhee and Uncle Danny!
I wonder which talented person made this card for little Liam..... Of course my bay area beauty, Jenn!
My brother, Uncle Troy, and Uncle Cristian got Liam some little man clothes. SO CUTE!
Calvin's brother, Uncle Kevin, made these custom artwork for Liam's Monster's Inc. Nursery!

I wish I could post all the gifts we received on here, but it would be too many. We are so grateful to have such generous family and friends who gave such wonderful gifts. Words cannot describe how appreciative we are. Liam has some very special Aunties, Uncles, and Grandparents. He's one lucky baby. 

The day was quickly coming to an end as our guests slowly started leaving. It was such a great day! We were surrounded by lots of love and couldn't have asked for a better baby shower. It was a rough road with endless nights of making decorations and figuring out logistics, but it was all worth it in the end. Calvin and I couldn't be happier and hard work pays off! We want to thank all those who helped us in creating such a memorable shower. 

Grandma and Grandpa Tan: Thank you so much for generously helping host the baby shower. The food was delicious, our guests loved the prizes, the backyard looked amazing with the table and chair setup. Thank you for helping us set up and clean up. Liam is lucky to have such awesome grandparents!

Kimi: Thank you for helping us make the adorable favors! I wish i had a picture of them! They matched the theme perfectly and we appreciate all the hard work. 

Troy: My incredibly artistic and talented brother bear! You blow my mind with how talented you are. Never forget that! The invitations your made for us were absolutely adorable and the artwork you provided on the onesies were ridiculously cute! Thank you for accompanying me and mom to our countless trips to all the Michaels in San Jose and Party City. Thank you for staying up late at night with us trying to get the decorations done and giving your artistic views to help make things look coordinated. Thank you for being such an awesome brother and loving uncle!

Mimi: Thank you Moo for generously providing the food for us. I'm sorry there was a mix-up at the place, but thank you for helping us figure it out. Thank you for always offering a helping hand even though I know you have your hands full. 

AJ: Bestest friend. Thank you for taking on the responsibility of the baby shower games. You are such a sweetheart and I can't thank you enough. Thank you for buying all the stuff needed for the games and for leading them. I know how awkward and nerve wrecking it can be to lead the games with people you aren't familiar with, but you did a great job! I love you and Liam is very lucky to have an awesome auntie!

Jenn: My bay area beauty! Thank you for once again, helping me with another baby shower. You went over and beyond to help with our Socal Baby shower and you've come through to go to infinity and beyond to help with our Bay Area baby shower. Thank you for all your advice and being there for me like a true friend would. Your props were super cute and we all loved them. Thank you for coming early and helping set up, special shout-out to your hubby, Peter, for coming early as well even though he just flew in from China at midnight that morning! You guys are seriously one of a kind and awesome friends. We love you!

Priscilla and Nat: Thank you guys for coming early to help set up and helping to clean before you left! It really helped make the cleaning process at the end of the night a lot easier!

Calvin: My love. Thank you for putting up with all my BS as I tried to get everything prepared for the baby shower. Thank you for being my rock and staying up with me finishing decorations and organizing everything. I know it wasn't easy for you too and you were extremely stressed as well, but I feel it brought us even closer. It made us more united. I love you so much bear!

We seriously can't wait to meet our lucky little Liam!
Last, but certainly not least.....

My Mommy!!
Oh my goodness this woman is amazing. I could write an entire novel thanking my mommy for everything she has done for this baby shower. Thank you for staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning, hand stitching each and every one of the Totoro plushies. There was a total of 12! Thank you for driving me around to a million and one Michael's to try and find the materials we needed. Thank you for opening up your home to us and letting us have our baby shower there. Words can't describe how grateful Calvin, Liam, and I are to you. No matter how stressed the two of us were, you were calm and helped us calm down. We love you so much and Liam is a lucky little guy to have an amazing Grandma like you!


And that concludes this post! I know I've been slacking on my posts and am going to start working on my next update. We also finished Liam's nursery and will be posting pictures of that very soon! I am completely in love with his nursery. Calvin and I wish it was our room!