Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Baby Shower

My little sister is due with her first baby in October so this past weekend my cousin and I threw her very first baby shower. My sister is very classic so I knew early on I wanted the theme to be the same, classic and sweet. I landed on the theme Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for a few reasons, but it also reminded me of the many years the two of us shared a room growing up. We had cloud bed spreads, which we thought were the most amazing thing ever and we had those glow in the dark stars on our ceiling which we just loved as well. 

To plan a party, you obviously  need a theme, then comes the invitations. I LOVED these Twinkle Twinkle Little star baby shower invitations from Basic Invite. Basic Invite has a wide variety of invitations (and more) to choose from. I was so excited they had invitations to fit the theme of the baby shower. In fact, they had a whole page of Twinkle Twinkle Little star baby shower invitations, making my job easy.

I didn't want to go overboard with the star theme, but it was a fun and easy element to play with since as a Mom of two little ones I didn't have time to go crazy with the decorations. I made a star banner to hang on the fireplace, made some star "wands" to put in mason jars filled with Baby's breath, found a free printable and put it in a frame and let Sam's club do the cake. We also played a guess the Nursery Rhyme game and I found a Wishes for Baby on Etsy for each guest to fill out. I am going to make this into a book to give my sister.

The menu was not themed unless the theme was YUM. But I did use a star cookie cutter to make some of the fruit into stars because I just couldn't help myself.

It was so fun to be able to celebrate my sister and her new baby and to finally get some bump pictures together! Looking forward to seeing her again in less than a month for her next shower!

If you are looking for a place to order invitations, here are a few things I loved about Basic Invites:
-I loved the original invitation, but wanted to change the color palette to make the invitation more of a light blue verses a navy blue. Once you select a design it is easy to change the color of EACH element on the card. I loved this feature! 
-They will also send you custom samples if you want to check out the paper quality or actual design. -Lastly, I loved the foil element. I think a little sparkle adds a lot of interest to an invitation...especially when stars are involved. :)

Basic Invites also offers other items including professional business cards and if you are already thinking about Christmas...holiday photo cards! Right now they are offering 15% off with the code: 15FF51

*I did receive the invitations in exchange for my honest review, however all opinions are my own.

Diaper Backpack Now Required

With my first baby, I had no idea what I was doing when it came to purchasing baby stuff. I relied on Lucie's List and the few friends who actually had babies before me. I bought a very basic diaper bag mostly because I liked the Chevron print and it worked just fine for us back in the days when we only had one child to cart around.

Fast forward to today and I now have two kids who both need their own compartments in the diaper bag. That makes a Diaper Backpack a requirement for us! About 6 months ago, we discovered this, but couldn't find any diaper backpacks that were big enough for us. I am a type A Mama who packs everything but the kitchen sink when we go out so my husband ended up ordering an actual travel backpack used for camping by Osprey and it has been our go to bag. It has done the job, but I haven't ever loved it. Mainly because it's big and bulky and not very cute (I can be so vain. Haha) So when Soho contacted me about trying out their new Kenneth Diaper Backpack, I gladly accepted.

You guys. Honestly when I got this in the mail, I thought to myself there is absolutely no way all our gear is going to fit in here. Well, I was wrong! When I started loading up the bag, I was pleasantly surprised by all the compartments inside. It was like Mary Poppins' carpet bag, things just kept fitting in it magically. It managed to hold everything that my former Osprey bag held and it is way more comfortable (and cute) to carry!

Want to know what I fit inside it? It has an outer pocket perfect for those things you need easy access to like hand sanitizer and boogie wipes, then it has an inner pocket with lots of compartments. I fit a wet bag, diapers/changing pad, a change of clothes for both boys, sunscreen, dinosaur figurines a small board book AND a bag full of snacks just in this pocket. Then there is a smaller compartment on top for your wallet and phone. Plus the back has an extra zipper pocket that I usually put some extra wipes in because I always need wipes. 

Other features I love about this bag:

• The cup holders on the side are big. We use Contigo water bottles for the boys and we have one bottle that doesn't fit in any of our other backpacks. Happy to report, it fits in this one!
• It is so comfortable and lightweight!
• The fabric is splashproof! Big Mom win! 
• This bag also comes with 5 more accessories...5! A changing pad, stroller straps (which I've never had before), a personal purse that I put my wallet and the kid's snacks in), a diaper bag dispenser (for those spur of the moment poopy diapers that you don't already have a bag for) and 30 refill bags.

*I was sent this backpack to review, but all opinions are my own and I highly recommend this bag!