Show Us Your Life - Baby Showers!

I have had the great pleasure of hosting/co-hosting 3 baby showers just this year, and have really had some practice at the refined art of paying attention to the party details. The first shower of '09 was in January for Ashley and Baby Audrey. At the time we didn't know she was a girl, which makes a hostess be a little more creative with the theme without being too boyish or boring neutral. The next shower was for an employee at work - Christa and Baby Sabra. Carrying a large diaper cake up three floors in an old Army records warehouse leads to its own set of challenges. The last was for another friend, Ashley, and Baby Beau who has not yet arrived (but soon!).

Here are some fun ideas I've thrown into baby showers this year and others I've thrown in the past that can make a shower memorable.

The Almost Perfect Diaper Cake

The diaper cake makes a great centerpiece or decoration and is so useful to the new mommy. Best of all, it's easy to make. I like to roll up each diaper, rubberband them, and form the tiers around a cardboard tube. I use an empty gift wrap tube and ideally set the whole cake on a cardboard circle (like a cardboard cake round) for stability.

Christi and Peyton's cake in April 2008 - my first attempt.

Ashley and Audrey's monstrous cake. Becca and I had a great time making this!

Christa and Sabra's - post re-construction after the whole bottom layer fell apart. That's where the cardboard circle comes in handy.

Ashley and Beau's cake with ribbon that I love!

Not that this is a diaper cake, but this is the cute rattle cake that Carrie made for Beau's shower with the ball pan and a (sanitized) drumstick from Rockband.

Ducks in Punch
You can turn any basic punch recipe into a beautiful creation by adding rubberducks to the punchbowl. This is an especially good idea for the neutral shower when you're trying to spice up the decorations.

Hey, green ducks were all we could find the night before. But it still worked.


This duck really looks like he's taking a bath...right in our punch. Yuuuummmm.

Favors

For Ashley and Audrey's neutral shower, I made sugar cookies in the shape of hands and feet. One of each was put into clear bags and tied with pastel ribbon with feet on it and guests took one on their way out the door.




Games
You can't go wrong with a rousing game of Play-Doh Baby! Give each guest half a container of Play-Doh and give them 5-10 minutes to make their best baby. The mom-to-be chooses the winner.

Winners!!

Ice-Cube Baby is a great conversation starter at a shower where not everyone is acquainted with each other. The night before, freeze little plastic babies in ice cube trays. You know, like the baby you would find in a King's Cake? You can find packages of them in the Wilton aisle at Wal-Mart or Michael's. Give each guest a baby in a styrofoam cup and ask them to guess their baby's "birthday" and write it on a post-it. These babies will take anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour to be born, depending on how fast guests accelerate the birth by breathing in the cup, etc. Kinda weird, but kinda fun!

Other Details
We framed Audrey's sonogram pictures on some cute scrapbook paper and displayed these throughout the house. We also had name tags in the shapes of ducks and had every guest sign an autograph frame.

Hopefully this has given you some good ideas for your next baby shower! Happy showering!