Bachelorette/Shower Post-Mortem Part 1

The wedding shower and bachelorette party were this weekend, and they were amazing!

My wonderful sister made all the arrangements.  She swooped into my house on Saturday, and sent me to go and amuse myself while she and my friend Kelsey cleaned and cooked and set everything up.

I went to get a shake from Lee's Dairy Treat, then hit a couple garage sales (found nothing), then drove over to the shopping center with World Market in it.  I thought I'd go there, but as I saw the other shops I realized I should get my ring cleaned at Gold Creations.  So I did that, took 5 minutes tops, then I went and sat on a bench near a fountain to finish my shake.  I walked into PetSmart after that, to look at the animals, and then it was time to head back!

When I got there, they had brought forth this wonderful, low-calorie, low-sugar California-themed spread:

The delightful finger food finery

There was homemade guacamole with chips, crackers and brie, white stilton with cranberries, apples, dried apricots,fresh berries and melon, chili-lime cashews, mini quiches, kale chips, popcorn, and chocolate-chocolate and lemon berry cupcakes from my sister's friend Beth, owner of Bethy's Cakes!!  Yummm.  I could have eaten about 15 of those mini quiches (I think they are from the Bisquick "impossible quiches" recipe).

People began to arrive: my mom, Super Fiance's mom, his aunt Juliette, and my dear friends Sarah, Caitlin, Bethany and Ali.  My sisters-in-law were unable to make it, unfortunately, but they had good reasons!

Once everyone was there, we played an ice-breaker game and then settled in for a round of trivia based on questions about me, Super Fiance, Milwaukee, and San Francisco.  Super Fiance had been a sneaky secret helper and had contributed some information about himself for this project.  It was very fun!

I opened the wonderful gifts they had all brought, and was dazzled by the array of San Francisco travel books, games to play on the train (mini Boggle and pocket Farkle!), financial assistance with which to feed/amuse ourselves, fabulous household goods, and a hilarious Journey Journal that asks the all-important question, "Do you like squirrels?"   You can tell a lot about a person based on their answer to that one.  Oh! And I was excited to receive my very own EOS egg balm (lemon flavor! delicious!) from my sweet and thoughtful sister-in-law Blair.  You can see her review over on the Irish Swedish Experience.  Those egg balms have become quite a favorite among the Larson women!

Here is me opening some gifts from Bethany!

After all the gift-opening, the mothers and Juliette had to get going.  The young ladies stuck around and busted out the scrapbooking materials!  Another surprise!  We all got to work making scrapbook pages to complement the photos from the night ahead.  The resulting pages are so lovely and I can't wait to put photos in with them!  After this I got dressed for going out and tossed my toothbrush in a bag...

... to be continued once my photographers for the evening have posted their pictures on Facebook so I can snag them all!