Having fun with a baby shower

I’ve been distracted the last couple of weeks planning a baby shower for DD#2. It’s been so fun! I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time on Pinterest looking for unique ideas. Both of my daughters and I are all researchers by nature. Before the internet, I would check out practically every library book in the state on a particular topic just to glean ideas. When I was planning DD#2’s wedding in 2007, in addition to books, I spent tons of time doing Google image searches for various details. For DD#1’s wedding in 2012, I added Pinterest to my Google image searches. Isn’t it wonderful, all the resources we have at our fingertips?

The girls and I like details, too. We believe that’s what makes all the difference! So, since I’ve spent the last several weeks having fun with the baby shower preparations instead of quilting, I thought I’d share some of the things we did.

Of course, it all started with designing the invitations shown above. I also created gift certificates that I tucked into little “diaper” covers. The gift certificates were for people who wanted to give the gift of cloth diapers from a local diaper service for baby Hazel.

Streamers have always played a prominent role in our family’s celebrations, but what could be more fun than ruffled streamers? Aren’t they perfect for a baby girl baby shower? They were so simple to make! I simply set my sewing machine stitch length to “5” and set the tension to “10”. Then I overlapped green and lavender crepe paper streamers and ran them through my machine as fast as possible. The machine automatically gathered the streamers with no effort on my part.

I made centerpieces with gift bags and silk flowers from the dollar store.

A dear friend made molded chocolate butterflies for the party favors.

We also gave each person a pennant to decorate. After the party, we’ll string them together and use them to decorate the nursery.

DD#2 loves Peeps. Fortunately, they are “in season” right now! To make them even more special, I dipped their little bottoms in white chocolate so that the baby bunnies would have “diapers.”

DD#2 loves marshmallows, too. Since I snagged several bags of Ghirardelli dark melting chocolate at half price, I thought I might as well dip some pink and white marshmallows. A little pretzel stick makes the perfect handle.

I used the extra chocolate to dip the last of the pretzels for people like me who don’t like marshmallows.

I also made little pretzel butterflies by using some royal icing to “glue” together two yogurt-covered pretzels, and then I glued a piece of chocolate licorice on top for the body and antennae.

The nursery is being decorated in green and lilac, so I wanted to use the same colors for the shower. It’s a fun challenge to think of all the different ways to use just those colors. We thought it would be interesting to feature green and purple fruits and veggies. DD#2’s mother-in-law made fruit trays of green apples, honeydew melon, green and purple grapes, blackberries, and kiwi. For the veggie trays she used cucumbers, purple cauliflower, asparagus spears, avocado, celery, and broccoli, all on a bed of ruffly, purple and green flowering kale.

For punch, we served a pale green Cucumber Limeade punch (1 sliced cucumber, 12 oz. frozen limeade, and 2 liters Sprite). Sounds weird, but yum!

Another friend went all out and decorated a special cake and a variety of cupcakes for us to enjoy. The cake was even three shades of purple!

DD#1 made a special banner for her new niece by decorating large felt letters and mounting them on a variety of green and purple polka dot pennants. She also made a couple dozen tissue paper butterflies for us to hang around the room.

One other friend planned the party games. Under the brown paper bags were seven baby items. Once the bags were removed, various items were revealed such as diaper wipes, baby cereal, etc., and the guests had to try to guess the correct order of cost from lowest price to most expensive.

The other game my friend organized was where she had a paper bag for each letter of the baby’s name. Inside each bag was an ordinary, baby-related item that started with that letter. We had to guess what was in each bag. There were some hilarious guesses! But the items were simple like a hairbrush for the “H” bag.

At the end of the party, we watched DD#2 open her gifts. There were so many beautiful gifts including adorable little girl cloths, some beautiful hand knit baby booties, a handmade sweater, two knit baby blankets, and many other creative and necessary things. Plus, enough gift certificates were given to keep baby Hazel clean and dry for six months! We are so thankful for our wonderful family and friends who are anticipating this joyous event with us!

The countdown is on! Baby Hazel’s due date is May 5. She has been given strict instructions to arrive on time since her daddy has finals the week before. 🙂