Baby Shower ideas (help)

[denna]

Myself and a couple other moms are putting together a baby shower next month for a friend of ours, and I am at a total loss for ideas. I think I have great invitations picked out, but for everything else I have no clue. I have never been to a baby shower (except my own that was a co-ed shower/welcome home party). Any ideas where I can get great decorations online? I was thinking maybe a Disney theme (the girl loves disney). Anyone have any game, food, or music ideas? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much,

[SnuggleBuggles]

Gotta run this am and will post later (unless someone beats me to all the same ideas :)). But, I just wanted to make sure you have games or something else for the guests to do to interact. Last baby shower I went to we sat for *3* (maybe 2- really long either way!) hours and watched the mom to be open gifts. Even she was bored and tired! Something like a gift bingo or something, if you are expecting a lot of people and/ or a long gift opening. :)

Beth

[denna]

We are expecting about 20 other ppl. For games I was thinking of a blind-folded baby food taste test. I heard this was a great game, but any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[clc053103]

I am not a "game" person at showers- with the exception of gift bingo! It really does keep the guests awake during gift opening!

Will this be at a home, or at a restaurant/banquet facility?

One of the cutest ideas I've heard lately is a tea party- tea sandwiches, cookies, petit fours and of course tea. It could have a disney princess theme. If you are hosting at someone's home, these foods would be easy to make or purchase, would not really require silverware either.

[jgriffin]

My friend did a tea party theme for my baby shower that I thought was really fun. She had lots of different teas in teapots, and little snacky things such as you might have at a High Tea. It would be easy to combine it with a Disney theme.

We did a baby food test at my baby shower (we weren't blindfolded, the hostess just removed the labels...they all look the same anyway!)

There are a lot of websites with baby shower game ideas (not that I have them handy right now, though, just saying). One that I thought was fun at my shower was the "Don't say baby" (guests get a token at the start, if another guest catches them saying "baby" she takes the token away. Most tokens at the end of the party wins a prize.)

There are some pencil-and-paper games (like matching baby animal names to the adult animal), but in my experience they are a PITA to do with a larger crowd.

[Bean606]

At my baby shower, they did three things that I thought were really cute:

1) They asked everyone to right down suggested names for the baby (which of course, prompted some really outlandish suggestions), and they read them out loud to peals of laughter and put it up for a vote - Pomfiglio was the winner.

2) Everyone filled out a large index card with the following info on it, such as Favorite Childhood Books, Favorite Childhood toys, Baby item you can't live without, Advice to Mom, Advice to Dad, Advice to Baby, etc., which I kept and look at occasionally.

3) My friend made a CD with songs that had "baby" or "child" in the title, and a few other parenting-themed songs - you could do something similar and play it in the background.

4) As for food, we had a brunch at a restaurant, so I can't give you any ideas.

Enjoy!

[newnana]

My SIL got really cute decorations for my shower. When I asked her about them she said they came from the dollar store, the Dollar Tree, maybe? I was really impressed. She's very creative and crafty and they were great.

My MIL had clothes pins for everyone and did the "Can't Say Baby" game. Everyone was cracking up. It was an even playing field for everyone from my DH's grandmother to my friend's daughter. I was surprised how much fun they had with this one and my clothes pin was the first to go.

From being at other showers, I will agree that baby gift bingo is a good way to pass the time while the mom-to-be opens gifts.

One of the things I treasure most from my shower is a blank baby journal/book that the ladies all wrote notes in to the baby, DH, and I.

Another fun game, though cumbersome, that I've played at a shower is the "Guess that baby item" game. Different baby things are put in brown paper bags that are sealed shut and numbered (any kind of opaque bag would work). Guests are given paper numbered with as many items as bags. By feel they have to guess what is in the bags. Things like bibs, brush, diaper, nose sucker, etc.

HTH, and have fun planning!
Michelle

[SnuggleBuggles]

>One of the things I treasure most from my shower is a blank baby journal/book that the ladies all wrote notes in to the baby, DH, and I.


We used a really big book for our wedding guests to sign (not a typical guest book but a journal with blank 8.5X11 pages). Well, the guests for the wedding wrote great, long messages and we still had room so the baby shower guests wrote in there too. I had everyone write a personal message as well as a parenting tip. It was a great thing to go back and reread. :)

Now, every year on ds' birthday we have the guests write ds a personal message that could include favorite memory of ds for the year, changes ds has made, and maybe a prediction of what ds will be when he grows up based on what he has been up to. I love rereading them.

Beth

[SnuggleBuggles]

This site has printable games that could give you some ideas/ inspiration:
http://www.babyshowergamesatoz.com/cards/babyshowergamecards.html

Of the ones on that page Human Bingo looks kind of fun if the guests may not know each other well or you afraid that people won't mingle. Name that Nursery Rhyme looks like fun. They also have Disney crosswords near the bottom of the page.

This site has a great breakdown on planning a shower. Tons of ideas.
http://www.babyzone.com/pregnancy/shower/babyshowers.asp?PageNum=2


My shower was held at my MIL and the grandmas to be made tea sandwiches (with egg salad and chicken salad) and cut them out in shapes like gingerbread men/ women and ducks. Very cute. There was fruit salad, some other sides, punch and cake. The food went over well.

I read on one of the sites that you could make a playlist/ CD of music that has the word "baby" in it. :)

The only shower I did was 5 years ago and we held it at a restaurant and had high tea there. TDecorations were just jewel toned balloons. he only game I remember was the one where you had to guess what length of string would go around mom's belly. Closest one wins a prize.


Make sure someone keeps track of the gifts (I'm sure I didn't need to say that!).

I can't wait to host another shower. My SILs need to get cracking. :)

Beth