Been to any super-cool baby showers lately?

[JoyNChrist]

I'm officially hosting my first baby shower!

I've helped with friends' showers before, but my cousin's wife is due in early January and this will be the first shower I've put together all by myself. I've got the invitations picked out and printed, but that's about as far as I've gotten, so I need to get to work. I'd really like it to be a great shower. Any cool ideas you've seen lately? Fun games, cute decorations, good food?

TIA!

edited cuz I can't spell

[wencit]

My best friend's all-time favorite board game is Cranium, so for her baby shower, I downloaded some baby-themed Cranium cards from their website. I used Photoshop to create a few of my own questions, cut out the cards, and laminated them. It was a huge hit with everybody (co-ed shower, so I needed something that wasn't too cutesy), and also solved my problem of "how am I going to entertain 30 guests for a few hours?"

[Twoboos]

This is probably not going to be what you're looking for. :-) But my shower was no-wrap. By my request - at 8mos pg I couldn't imagine sitting in a chair for however long to open everything! Plus, everyone got time to eat/mingle/look at the gifts. It was a lot more laid back, more of a party atmosphere.

We laid the gifts all around the house on extra tables, chairs, etc., with the cards out so everyone could see who got what. Honestly, people still talk about the shower, and many friends/family have done the same since. There are only so many times you can say, "OHHH how CUTE!" :-)

[hazel]

I like the idea where the hostess has a couple of small door prizes (scented candle, $5 - 10 gift card, etc)... Get the mom-to-be to give you the envelopes that match her thank you notes... as each guest arrives, have them address an envelope to themselves. Then a couple of times during the shower, say during the gift part, you pull an envelope out of a hat and that guest gets a door prize!

and the mom-to-be has all her thank you notes addressed!

[KBecks]

A friend had a very elegant shower and the favors were cutout cookies like baby rattles that were in little clear flat wrappers with a ribbon and bow. The best part is that she made them herself and did them with pretty icing and crystal sugar.

Now, if you have that kind of inclination, I'd recommend it! I'm not crafty / cooky / decoratory, but I really admired what she did!

[Jenny_A]

I've done several and made either a diaper wreath to put on the front door or a diaper cake as the center piece on the table. The wreath especially was a huge hit. It's super easy to make. Here's a link. I used satin ribbon as opposed to the curly wrapping ribbon but I think either would be cute!

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Diaper-Wreath

Google diaper wreath or diaper cake and you can look at pictures and get some good ideas.

Jenny

[Clarity]

I had two wonderful baby showers. One was a book theme where everyone was asked to bring a book in lieu of a card. The room was beautiful - each table had a specific book theme and was coordinated with that theme's plastic tablecloth, plates, the books and a stuffed animal or two. So...we had a Curious George table, a Frog and Toad table, an Elmer table, a Velveteen Rabbit table, and so on..it was amazing! And, we have a wonderful library of books to read to our daughter.
At my other party, we didn't really have games, but we did have everyone bring a baby picture of themselves and we asked people to guess which baby picture belonged to whom. The person who identified the most pictures correctly won a prize. We also had people sign a matted picture frame with thoughts and well wishes for the baby. When our baby came, we added her picture to the matted frame. The last thing we did I was really worried would be tacky but it was bff's idea and it did turn out to be a lot of fun. Bff provided gifts which were absolutely beautiful homemade jewelry, scarves, cards, etc. Then, she provided tickets that could be bought by filling out a card that promised a service - babysitting, food, advice, ect. OR they could be bought for $5.00. (Participation was voluntary.) People put their tickets in containers next to the gifts they wanted and then she drew names. People got the gifts, and she gave the donations to us to redeem for services or the cash for diapers and whatnot.

[roysmom]

Been to and given a ton of baby showers. A fun game to play is to type out a sheet with the Mother's full name at the top. Set a time limit of say 3-5 minutes and let each guest see how many baby names they can make out of the Mother's name. The guest with the most names, wins a prize.

Petit Fours, rather than a cake, are the latest thing in my area. Publix makes excellent ones and they are not too expensive. Count on two per guest. This will leave the hostess more time to mingle rather than cutting a cake. Serve the petit fours on a tiered server if you have one.

You can really decorate a room with balloons and nothing else. The last one I gave was for a set of twins, one of each sex. We did balloon bouqets on the table with pink and blue mixed. The weights were baby bottles filled with candy in the shape of various baby items. We gave the weights to the mother and the balloons went to the children in attendance. I think I ended up letting about 25 balloons go, but DS loved doing that.

[almostmom]

I went to one recently where the host bought a lot of white onesies, and fabric paint, and we all got to decorate onesies. It was just set up on a side table. Now when I see pictures of the little guy, it's fun to see that he's wearing these - and they turned out really cute and original.