Mibin Adventures

Modern Lime Green and Gray Boy Nursery Layette 

The mobile I helped make. My first venture in sewing! Pam had to complete my project because of our early delivery. Turned out great!

Peak-a-boo slit in crib skirt

Contemporary Pelmet Valence made from foam board and fabric http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2009/09/easy-pelmet-boxes.html

Letters from Hobby Lobby that I painted lime green and accented the sides in gray.

Photo collage of family time and firsts paired with baby stats subway art birth announcement. Subway art from the winthrop chronicles at http://thewinthropchronicles.blogspot.com/2012/03/baby-stats-subway-art.html 

After weeks and weeks of searching online and in stores for nursery ideas, fabric, colors, patterns, and designs. We finally agreed on a color scheme and design for the nursery; lime green and grey with accents in black and white.

Pam, Mike’s mom, took me to the store to start creating the design. I knew the look we wanted but didn’t know how to execute it. Thank goodness for Pam! We started with the measurements of the crib and mattress and began computing the amount of fabric it would take to create the nursery we had in mind.

I love the modern look of the nursery we are creating. I’m so thankful to Pam for making the crib layette and for including and teaching me sewing 101.  I have a job, I’ll be sewing a throw pillow and animals for the mobile above the crib and Mike will be making two valance boxes and the mobile arm where the animals will hang. We are excited to get started! 

We’ll post pictures and update this blog once its completed.

Today, BananasOverMommy opened on Etsy to launch the sale of our first items, Gender Reveal Party Bows and Neckties. 

For 10+ years, I’ve been creating and executing parties on a grand scale for corporate events and now I have the opportunity to bring those skills to the private market. Check it out and tell your friends!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/BananasOverMommy

We received our first baby gifts and each one of them made me either laugh or cry and some both at the same time! I’m sure its my hormones/emotions, but I just can’t stop thinking about how truly blessed and lucky we are to have such thoughtful family and friends. 

Dani and Charley made the “My daddy is an Italian Stallion” onesie. This was great because it is a spoof on Mike and how he loves to wear his “Italian Stallion” t-shirt. Now, we’ll have to get a photo of the two of them, together, wearing their shirts! 

James and Jen gave us the “Babybook” (Facebook) onesie. James had said it could almost be a profile for Mike’s dad with the exception of ‘still living with my parents’. This was a roar at the party!

Jim gave us the University of Arizona baby socks. He is very thoughtful and we were so glad he could join us for the reveal. It was nice to have some family around.

The entire Michigan gang Jade, Chris, Adah, Tygre, Steve, Cash, Cindy, and Paul sent us “Bananas over Mommy” 3 - pack outfit with his very first book “Goodnight Moon”. We are excited to begin reading to him and I can’t wait for him to have the little monkey butt pants on!

Mike and I purchased our first gift for the baby - his baby monitor! ooooo! Its a video monitor and we tried it out last night. We were like two kids walking around in the house with walkie-talkies, practicing our “over” and using the night vision setting. It was awesome. 

Well the party went off without a hitch! I was hot (it was 107 outside) and I was sitting next to a fan in the A/C indoors. Lol! (I’m so glad that stretch is over with we hit 11 days over 100 degrees.) I think my prego hormones were working overtime in the body heat department. I was so nervous; it’s been a while since all eyes were staring at me.

For the party, we decorated tables with multicolored striped fabric and multicolored polka dot fabric I picked up. We chose to decorate the cake & sweets table with the stripes since the cake was polka dot and decorated the food buffet area with the polka dots. It looked great! Each of the seating tables we placed alternating stripes or dots fabric runners down the centers. I made signs that hung on the windows behind the cake & sweets table that said Team Pink and Team Blue and scanned and printed the ultrasound photos, glued them on colored paper circles and hung them with twine like garland. Almost everyone was looking at the photos to see if they could see if it was a boy or a girl. It was a great conversation piece. There was a picture of the baby’s spine, four chambers of the heart, the heartbeat, the femur, the leg, the foot, whole body, and thumbs up picture. I made ribbons for everyone to wear as pink flowers or blue neckties and displayed them on the cake & sweets table. The decoration theme was bright multi colors like lime green, orange, red, yellow, purple, blue and pink.

We picked up candies in both blue and pink from Mr. Bulky Candy in the mall. We had Jelly Belly Jelly Beans, Whipped M&Ms, Rock Candy, Sour Tapes, and Salt Water Taffy.

I made pink and blue chocolate pops that read “it’s a Girl and it’s a Boy” and pink and blue chocolate wrapped marshmallows on sticks dipped in candy pearls and coconut. Looked spectacular! Everyone was asking where I bought them; they couldn’t believe I made them! Made me feel really great!

I made display cards that read, “Put on a ribbon to cast your vote” and displayed that next to the ribbons, “Name that baby girl or baby boy! Please give us your best baby girl or baby boy names. Make them funny, make them sweet, or just make it the best baby name to beat!” and displayed that next to one pink and one blue dish with paper and pen (we had a lot of fun taking turns reading the name suggestions aloud to everyone), and “Cravings: Things that sound good! Cinnamon Glazed Donuts – Peanut Butter – Fruits and Vegetables – Quesadillas – Flavored Slushees – Greek Yogurt – Macaroni and Cheese”.  

Mike ran the grills outside with several fans pointing at him and never once complained. He was such a trooper. He grilled corn, hamburgers, brats and hotdogs. Pam (Mike’s mom) had an idea to spiral the hotdogs by putting them on a skewer and rotating it while she cut making spiraled hotdogs. It was a really cute idea for the kids that came to the party.

We had chips, salsa and guacamole, fresh fruit; strawberries and grapes with cream cheese and marshmallow fruit dip and multicolored sprinkles, watermelon stars and blueberries, and veggie and relish trays that everyone could munch on while we waited for the grilled meats to be finished. Once it was time to eat we served Macaroni and Cheese, Baked Beans, Grilled Corn and your choice of meat.

When everyone was finished eating, there were a couple gift surprises thrown in by two of our friends. Both were onesies, one that read “My daddy is an Italian Stallion” (which had me laughing because Mike likes to wear his Italian Stallion Tshirt) and a “Babybook Profile (like Facebook)”. Both were so cute and funny!

Next we read the name suggestions, some were really funny! 

We then gathered everyone for the Team photos. We took the signs down to hold for the photo and later hung them back up for the photos of cutting the cake.

Finally, it was time to cut the cake. This is what it all boiled down too. I had had a dream it was a girl so I wore a pink flower ribbon and Mike wore the blue necktie ribbon.

I had ordered a cake for Dad and Barbara as they were having a simultaneous BBQ in Indiana and we also shipped cookies to the rest of the family and friends that live out of town.

Everyone’s instructions boiled down to this point 5pm CST and my phone started dinging. We ignored it because we knew they were congratulatory and we hadn’t cut our cake yet! Everyone gathered around and Mike and I took our places behind the cake and held hands cutting the cake.

As the knife was cutting through the cake, I thought I saw blue but I thought it must be the black fondant with all of the multicolored fondant dots mixing so I wasn’t quite sure yet. Then we took the knife out and began to cut the other side of the slice. Mike reached in with the cake server and pulled out a blue piece of cake!

I thought I was going to have a heart attack! I thought for sure it was a girl from that dream I had (even though everything on the registry was pretty much green and blue). I started crying because I was so surprised and overwhelmed. It was no longer an “it”, it was a boy! Just the thought of that had me crying some more! All good tears though, I was elated! It’s what I wanted but thought with my genes it was impossible. I guess his genes trumped my genes. They have all boys!  Everyone was served a slice of cake and pictures ensued. I felt completely relieved at that point. All of the angst and the self-control I had to demonstrate to not open the envelope for the week and half I had to carry it in my purse to give to Bree (our cake and cookies baker) had paid off.  

After the party was over, Mike and his brother Jim, and the male friends’ filled dry ice in plastic bottles with water and put the lids on and threw them. They were dry ice bombs. So this is what I have to look forward too! Oh my, boys are different than girls and I can’t wait!

We are so excited to see everyone’s photos from the cookie deliveries and put them together in a video to send everyone, update our blog and make a scrapbook for us! It was so much fun to receive this one from my mom and Fritz.

A special thank you to Mike’s mom Pam who helped me prep all of the food the day before and decorate the day of. Even the men got in on the cleaning, Mike’s brother and dad were very helpful too!

Mike’s mom and Dad have offered to purchase our crib and Pam is making our bed linens and quilt. We are so excited to begin picking out fabric and decorating the nursery! 

Enjoy our digital scrapbook from this fun event!