Ecuadorian Baby Shower

On Saturday my mother-in-law threw me a baby shower. She hand made just about everything that was at the party, from gluing small plastic baby bottles to the tops of toothpicks, to hand knitting mini baby clothing to hang from a miniature clothes line to put on the cake, to making little pins with baby name cards and pacifiers for each guest to wear.

The decorations on the front door.

The cake with the baby clothes (there are also some on the flower arrangement).

The crowd in the living room.

One of Chela's friends made small empanadas, she bought some small cookies from Fruitlados, another friend brought a nut and raisin cake and a coconut cake. My sister-in-law, Stephanie, made lasagna, and I made Mojitos (that I couldn't drink haha).

There were about 25 people that came. Most attendees were Chela's friends, but a few of my friends came as well and Stephanie and the kids came down from Quito.

Part of the crowd at the baby shower.

Ali serving drinks to the other half of the crowd.

Everyone showed up around 4:30 and as people entered they each got a small safety pin with a card with the baby's name on it and a small plastic pacifier. This was part of a game where if you crossed your legs or your ankles someone else could take your pacifier away from you. The person that ended up with the most pacifiers won a prize.

We also played the "guess how big around the pregnant lady is" game and the guess how many items are in the hospital bag game. Chela also put ribbons in part of one of the cakes and the person who pulled out the ribbon with the small plastic baby attached won a prize.

The self-esteem dropping game of "guess how big the pregnant lady is".

The pull the baby out of the cake game.

During the games we had cookies and drinks. After we went down to the formal dining room and ate lasagna and cake.

Dinner in the formal dining room.

Me with my friend Mena and my Goddaughter, Dana during dinner.

When people do showers here, rather than giving gifts they give a "quota" (a set amount of money). They put the quota in a card and everyone signs it. It was nice for us to have showers in the U.S. because people gifted us clothes, blankets, etc. The money will help us with doctor's bills and a few items we're still missing.

We got a few gifts as well. One of Chela's friends knitted the baby a sweater and a hat, Karen gave us a knitted hat/sweater/bootie set, and another of Chela's friends gave us sets of earrings for her when she's born.

It was a very fun night and I can't believe she's almost here!