Retro Housewife Bridal Shower! (And a prayer request)

The calendar says spring, but we're getting an icy snow and wind tonight....yup, there's snow on the crocus and the emerging hyacinths, daffodils and tulips~ and this last week we saw the bud covers on the big maple tree out front bursting with the promise of tiny new leaves to come. But winter's not giving up too easily, she's clutching on to her last month of being our most unwelcome visitor!

The Retro Housewife Bridal Shower invitations have gone out, the RSVP's look to be around thirty people, and I'm devoting most of my free time this week to planning and cooking and setting up for my sweet niece, Autumn Rose's wedding shower. I've planned the menu and I know my theme for decorating, and the games are my big hurdle right now!

MENU:

Baked potato soup with sides of green onions, crumbled bacon, cheddar cheese and sour cream

Chicken salad on croissants

Olive Garden's (copycat) House Salad with tomato wedges, red onion, black olives, banana peppers, croutons and freshly grated parmesan cheese and the special dressing

Deviled Eggs

Fresh Fruit

Decorated Cupcakes on tiered stands

Strawberry Mousse

(How does that sound?)

The theme is vintage household.

The saucers I've collected all have a floral theme and will be used for serving the cupcakes.

The food will be served on clear vintage snack plates, punch served in the cups that go with them.

I will be using vintage embroidered linens for each table, like the one shown here.

I'll use my vintage punchbowl that's been packed away for years.

There will be vintage household items in little vignettes around the room and on the serving table.

I'm going to put some big-band and old show tunes on the iPod for background music.

I'm inspired by MaryJane's FARMGIRL books for inspiration:

An ironing board decorated with vintage aprons,

Foods labeled with wood scrabble tiles in their wooden stands...

(If any of you have her books, you know what I mean. She's very inspiring!)

I just hope I'm able to tie it all together...

I'm trying to make it interesting, and to inspire memories and promote fun conversations...

Coffee and tea will be served in these cups...

These larger plates, below, will hold the croissants and the fresh fruits...

My hope is for it to be the opposite of your matchy-matchy bridal shower, but that we'll have a lot of Vintage fun!

Back to the games...I like paper and pen games and enjoy them the most, but I know I should have an action game of some sort to get people up, moving, and most of all, laughing.

I need your help with ideas on games and it would be nice, (but not necessary at all) if they were retro games, something played at a bridal shower in the fifties, sixties or even the seventies.

So, if you would, in the comments section, would you tell what two games you enjoy at bridal showers?

And, a prayer request....

If you would, say a prayer for my sweet daughter, Jamie. She found out last week that she's got a 1-1/2" x 2" cyst on her ovary. She seems to be doing okay physically, the pain of it has subsided in the last few days, but I'd like your prayers for comfort and a diagnosis that will give her some answers as to a health situation involved with this...

She called tonight and has an appointment in the morning and I would so love to be there with her to take her to that doctor appointment, but I'm 750 miles away and she was in tears on the phone tonight (nerves? and missing her mom a little, I think) and I held mine off until she hung up, but I'm missing her, too. If I could, I'd be in Alabama in the morning.

The happy times and the hard times are hard to go through without your family close by. Sharing in the joys and heartbreaks in life--those are times --especially-- when you want to reach out to your loved ones.

I know that it's not life-threatening, but I'd sure appreciate it if you would pray that she will feel our Lord will wrap his arms around her...because I can't be there to do it myself. You know us moms when we can't be there physically for our kids...it's hard. I know that He'll be there to comfort her.

Jamie with her cousin Sarah last fall...