Scenes from the French Countryside

How I wish I could tell you that I really was in Provence, but since I am grounded for a while, my friends just decided to bring the French countryside to me! BFF Mads, her (and my) sister Prits, and our good friend Mutya organized an absolutely lovely French-country-themed baby shower for me and le petit monstre. My amazing BFF pulled this off despite being yaya-less and nursing a newborn! I am incredibly lucky to have her in my life!

(Top) With Mads, who doesn't look like she just gave birth less than two months ago! (Above) With BFF Ching, who provided the prizes for the games, and party decorator/official photographer Mutya. What pretty friends I have, n'est-ce pas? (Incidentally, Mads speaks fluent French.)

Mutya decorated the tables with dainty glass vases filled with purple and blue flowers, and glass bowls with mini-chocolate bars. These were placed on top of white and silver doilies.

I think I overindulged. I absolutely cannot resist Crunch and Reese's!

It was a carb-filled afternoon, with yummy sandwiches, croissants, and quiche...

...a selection of delicious cheeses (my fave? The truffled cheese!)...

...and a crepe cake (so French!) with Nutella cream. (The eclairs were divine! The fudgy chocolate cake was from one of the guests.)

There were fun games, including a "compose a lullaby" one, which pitted my highly competitive high school friends against my equally competitive college friends. The winning lullaby (sung adagio to the tune of Justin Bieber's "Baby"):

...which led to me doing a lot of this...

Photo from Mutya

To go with the theme, I dressed in a doily-like lace dress, gold sandals, a turquoise-and-gold necklace, and a gold bangle. Mutya gave me a beautiful bouquet. I love getting flowers!  

There were gifts, of course (thanks, everyone!), and great advice from mommy friends, including Mads. (Her words of wisdom: "Sleep while you can!") To thank them all for their generosity, time, and love, I gave them the smell of the French countryside: lavender. I had lavender soap made, wrapped it in some tulle I had lying around, and included a little thank-you note from little monster. 

After most people left, some of us chilled with Mads's family, eating cheese and salami, and drinking wine (water for me). Ahh, to have had a glass of champagne would have made it perfect! Just a couple of weeks to go!