Jersey Baby Shower

Finally, a blog about my New Jersey shower, thrown for me by the lovely Poggioli women that I'm lucky to have as family. Both of my aunts, especially, are fantastic party planners, and this party was no exception.

We'll begin at the beginning with the invitation



The food is always the central part to any family gathering, and my only regret is that I wasn't able to eat more of it! Here we have, from left to right, baked ziti, pasta salad hiding begind the basket of rolls, gramma's cavatelli and broccoli that she always makes for me (my all-time favorite!), potato salad for uncle Ray, sausage and peppers, and a variety of tasty sandwiches, including eggplant and mozzerella, turkey, ham, mozzerella and roasted red peppers, and roast beef. There may have been other types in there, who knows? I decided on a mozzerella and red pepper sandwich and it was awesome. All of the food was great.



Here we have the cake, which was ordered from "The Boys," a bakery that we've used for as long as I can possibly remember. Chocolate cake with cannoli cream filling, surrounded by chocolate covered strawberries. Yum!



Against my better judgement I'm going to post some pictures of the actual festivities, even though I think I look like a cow and I can't believe how fat my face looks.

This is me with my grandmothers - Gramma Julie in the first picture and Gramma Karen in the second





Here I am showing off the cutest book ever, given to me by my awesome sister - New York Yankees 101. Aunt Jeanne is on the right.




Oh NO she didn't! This is the look on my face when I opened the red sux world series bib that my aunt Jeanne gave us. Hope it doesn't accidentally get mistaken for a diaper! (that's her on the right, and she redeemed herself by including Yankee stuff to match)



Cousin Caroline, Sister Katie, and Sister's Awesome Boyfriend Collin



Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture with my Auntie Ann or my mom. There were plenty of other family members and friends there as well, all of whom are somehow missing from my digital camera :(

In a nutshell, it was a gorgeous baby shower and I'm so thankful to have such a generous and caring family. Even though we drive each other crazy at times, I'm so glad they're mine. Everyone came to celebrate, even the teenage boy cousins who I know had a million other things they would have rather been doing and Aunt Carol from down the shore. We got some incredibly thoughtful gifts, including a baby book that my cousin Caroline picked out for us and an awesome book collection from Katie and Collin, featuring the Yankees 101 book, Corduroy, the Pippi Longstocking Treasury, Yoga for Elephants with Babar, the Red Balloon, Avocado Baby, and Where the Wild Things Are. We also got a ton of Yankees clothes, both strollers, the high chair, pack-n-play, and tons of other random baby clothing and "things" that we'll certainly get plenty of use out of. Gramma Karen even managed to find some turtle towels and baskets that I don't already have :)

I'll raid my sister's Picasa for more pictures at some point.

21 Weeks and Imagine Whirled Peace

21 week picture:




I had my first "stranger comment" at Fresh Market on Friday, so I guess it's becoming more obvious by the day.

This week's ice cream flavor is Imagine Whirled Peace, a frozen tribute to John Lennon. From the Vermont guys: "When Ben & Jerry’s wanted to talk about peace, we couldn’t think of a better person to exemplify the message than John Lennon. Through his art and lyrics he imagined a world without war and asked us all to ‘Give Peace a Chance’. We hope this whirly mixture of toffee cookies and fudge peace signs enlightens your bellies and souls and makes you ask what you can do to promote peace in your lives."



Very appropriate flavor for the week, considering we watched the movie "Across the Universe" last night, a movie set to the music of The Beatles about the love, politics, music, and war during the Vietnam Era. Doesn't sound like something Charlie would like? Well, it wasn't, but I liked it anyway. Poor Charlie. What a trooper. I keep telling him it was payback for Beerfest.

To the point: My top 3 Ben & Jerry's flavors have been cemented for a number of years now: Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz, Mint Chocolate Cookie, and Half Baked. Given the introduction of this new flavor there may be a shakeup at the top levels in my ranking book. This ice cream is freaking phenomenal. It might finally make up for the loss of Deep Dark Chocolate and Holy Cannoli, two flavors whose time in my grocer's freezer was cut short far too soon. The toffee cookie chunks are plentiful and the chocolate peace signs provide the perfect textural opposition to the ice cream itself. I think it has taken the place of Half Baked in my all-time top three. Get thee to your local store and taste a pint yourself. (Pint, that must be a convenient size. Pint of beer, pint of ice cream. I guess I've just traded the former for the latter for the time being)