Shower the people you love with love + sprinkles

So, the southwest road trip was pretty much the best trip ever. Ever! I have lots of stories and pictures to share, but while I take my sweet time deciding which of the 889 photos to upload, I thought I'd give you a sneak peek at the carnival-themed baby shower Alyssa and I threw Jimaie two weekends ago.

We had a blast putting the party together from searching for the perfect pink/white striped paper straws online to making tissue paper poms with Morgan to collecting goodies for the dessert table. The goodies included lollipops, marshmallow kebabs, rock candy, animal crackers *and* animal cookies, popcorn, lemonade, root beer, Alyssa's cotton candy cupcakes, and my new favorite thing -- cake batter marshmallow squares. (And of course the table wouldn't have been complete without Morgan's oh so cute pinwheels! Or John's adorable signs that matched the snazzy invitations he designed.)

The recipe for the marshmallow squares, which is from HowSweetsEats.com, basically modifies the classic Rice Krispies Treats recipe by adding yellow cake mix and a bottle of sprinkles. I followed another blogger's advice to increase the cake mix to 1/3 cup. Hey, why not?!

I also added an extra tablespoon of butter (oooh! Bad!) and traded in the yellow cake mix for Betty Crocker's rainbow chip. (Hey, if you're going to do cake mix, you might as well go all the way!)

Here's what you need to do: Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan (or a giant pot will work too!) over low heat. Stir in 10 ounces of marshmallows. After they begin to melt, add in 1/3 cup of cake mix one spoonful at a time. Stir it all together and then add 6 cups of Rice Krispies cereal (of course a store brand will work too). Pour in half of a 1.75 ounce bottle of sprinkles and (you guessed it!) mix those in too. Press the mixture into a 9 by 11 baking dish and then sprinkle the rest of the bottle of jimmies on top. Wait 30 minutes before cutting into squares.

Confession:  Yes, I'm a vegetarian who just recommended a recipe with marshmallows in it. But I did it for Jimaie! It's all Jimaie's fault! Or maybe her baby's fault! Yes, that's it! Just kidding -- marshmallows are OK according to my vegetarian rules, along with leather moccasins and boots. I've never tried vegan marshmallows, but I'm sure they'd work just fine with this recipe. (Don't quote me on that though.)

Jimaie's baby girl will be here in less than a month -- and that's even more exciting than sprinkles, cake batter & marshmallows! Congrats, Maie! Love you lots! I can't wait to meet her! Yay! 

We'll totally toast to that! Three cheers! (I have no idea what's up with my face in this picture. I was probably in between laughs as I was being a complete loony on a sugar high from all of the goodies.)

 We will also line up like cheerleaders posing for a high school yearbook photo in honor of Jimaie & her girlie!

*Look out for more photos in an upcoming blog post from Jimaie*

p.s. I just have to add one more picture from the shower of my sister Amy and my nephew Theo. So, so sweet. I'm pretty sure Theo is the cutest nephew of all time.

p.p.s. I lied. One more picture just for fun. See what I meant by marshmallow kebabs?! (Johnny was hungry!)

Have you ever thrown a baby shower before? Did it have a theme? Also, what are your thoughts on baby shower games? Love 'em or hate 'em? We were tempted to play this game but went with another slightly less wacky option instead. I think it would have been a riot though!