Baby Shower Fun + Ideas

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I went to a Baby Shower this past weekend.  One of my friend's is due next month and her shower was nothing short of adorable.

When I walked into Andrea's house everything looked like something I would pin on Pinterest.

*SIDENOTE: I joined Pinterest a little while ago, but haven't truly explored the site yet.  I know I will be addicted in no time and promised myself I'd wait until the New Year to do so when I have more free time. <--- Really?! Yes, I'm completely serious. ;)

Back to the baby shower...I think it's only right to start with one of my favorite parts, The Eats.

on the menu:

First up, this adorable baby boy cake which I just found out a friend of ours made:

Great job Nicole!!! I LOVE fondant cakes, and using bows to decorate, clearly.  Did you see my Baby Shower Present or my ready to ship Fall Giveaway?  We even incorporated a bow made from ribbon on our Wedding Cake. *SIDENOTE: I promise to post wedding pics soon...just be patient (as we have in receiving the CD of them!)

Once I got past the cuteness of the cake I noticed all of the other perfectly labeled food towers.  Here are my favorites...

Fruit & Cheese:

Cookies, made by the fabulous Emmy:

Cupcakes, 12-11-11 is her due date:

*NOTE: There were more wonderful and tasty dishes including a pasta salad, quiche, finger sandwiches, a fruit & veggie tray, cheese & crackers, etc. but I didn't get to take pictures of everything.

Last but certainly not least in the food area, the Sweet Treats Candy Bar:

Each guest was told to take a "Thank You" gift bag filled with assorted candy on their way out.  Okay...twist my arm, I'll take some more than I should.

activities:

We weren't forced to get in a circle and try to figure out what poo comes from which type of chocolate filled diaper, but instead were asked to create/participate in 3 things for the mom-to-be.

1) Make Your Own Onezie.

GREAT idea.  Newborns and babies goes through onezie after onezie, and all I keep hearing from new moms is you can never have too many of them.  When we walked in, there were blank onezies hung up on a hemp twine string by wooden clothespins.

Each guest was asked to decorate one for the baby.  You could draw or write whatever you want and were provided with different colored permanent markers.

*TIP: Andrea mentioned to me she's seen this done before with puffy paint, but sharpie markers seem to work a lot better. 

When your onezie design is done, hang it back up where it came from on the clothespins.

Of course, I was one of the first people to be all over this activity, which is why it's lonely in this picture.

2) Write Your Advice to Mom.

I've done this before at both Bridal and Baby Showers.  Ask guests to write down their "motherly" advice for the mom-to-be.  Since I'm not a mother yet my note to her had to do with "Mommy & Daddy time" and looked something like this:

Your friend will enjoy reading all of the messages, but you can take this activity one step further by making a scrapbook to display all of the motherly advice.  We did this at my friend Courtney's Baby Shower <-- click to see in-shower scrapbook and it is a great keepsake for both baby & mom.

3. Baby Shower Bingo.

There are different versions of what you can do with this Bingo sheet, but for our shower it served as entertainment while Kelly opened gifts.  Make sure you print multiple versions with variations in words and word order.  As she opened each present the guests circled whatever the present was, if they had it on their card.  The first one to get BINGO wins the game. 

Another version is to cut up a card square by square and put all of the Bingo words in the game in a hat.  Pull out a square one-by-one and play a more traditional game of BINGO.
 
shower pics:

I didn't go crazy taking pictures at this baby shower because not everyone there knows I blog and I didn't want to seem like a creeper taking pictures of everything.  I did, however get to snap a few more pics.

Let's start with the mom-to-be:
Kelly was definitely all-baby and looked so cute in her sweater dress and boots.  Here she's with our friend Brooke who made this darling Diaper Cake.

Here she is with one of the hostesses, and owner of the lovely shower hosted home, Andrea:

The nugget on the left is Kelly's niece Layla.  She's growing up so fast!  Here's the rest of the food set-up:

And another one of my favorite labels:

I loved that everything had a label.  Here is my all-time favorite:

Emmy also baked probably close to 500 cookies for our wedding.  Seriously. We passed cookies & milk shooters around 30 minutes before it ended for a late night snack. She's amazing and if she ever gets herself a website I'm promoting it like it's my job! ;)

What a talented group of friends Kelly has!  Andrea, Erin, Brooke, Kelly's sister and mom hosted the shower and added all of the little touches you see in pictures like paper lanterns, food labels and decorations.  Nicole made the cake, Emmy made the cookies and someone amazing made all of that yummy food.

For more baby shower food, decor, activities & ideas check out the baby shower I helped host last year, (I linked this earlier in the activities section).

Questions:

• What are some of your favorite shower activities?
• What are your go-to websites for shower/party planning?