Tag Archives: party planning

Baby Shower #2

Since Mike’s family is so large and we had quite a few friends RSVP to my mom’s shower, my mother-in-law decided to throw a shower for her side of the family. They decided to make this shower a co-ed shower, which was great since Mike hadn’t seen some of his family in a few months due to chemotherapy treatment.

Mike wore his first Daddy T-shirt some friends gave him for Father’s Day. Here’s some pictures of him being silly before cutting the cake.

One of Mike’s aunties made this fruit baby as part of the lunch display:
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Michael had a good time trying on the baby’s onesies:
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Thanks to Mike’s parents for hosting such a lovely shower!
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Lil’ Slugger Baby Shower!

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On Aug 1 my mom and my sister Teresa hosted a baby shower for me. It was a baseball themed shower since my husband played baseball all through childhood and into college. They did such a great job, it was such a cute shower!

We played a couple of games that I hadn’t played at a baby shower before. In the first game, the guests were given a piece of bubble gum and they each sculpted it into a baby! Then I got to choose which baby I liked the best and that guest won a prize.

My sister also had a basket of baby socks, the person to match up all the socks with its partner the fastest won!

Me with the winner of the baby sock matching contest.

Me with the winner of the baby sock matching contest.

It was so wonderful seeing so many of my friends, especially since Mike’s health has prevented us from getting together as much as we would like. All of my friends and family were so generous and we had a really wonderful time.

Superhero Themed Baby Shower!

In January 2015 I helped my mother-in-law throw a Superhero themed Baby Shower for my sister-in-law. The idea came about when she asked her 5-year-old daughter what she thought they should name the new baby, to which she replied “Batman!” We thought that was so cute and funny that we decided to do a Superhero themed shower.
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Decor
I had to get a little creative with the decor. The shower was going to be held in a restaurant that wouldn’t allow us to hang or attach anything to the walls. I ended up buying a cute printables set from a seller on Etsy (that has since closed up shop :() that I used on a lot of the different items.

The Cupcake Table
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Instead of a cake, we ordered some adorable cupcakes. The baker made Superhero logos out of fondant that were placed on each one. I placed the cupcakes on top of a shoebox I had wrapped in a printable from the set, just a bunch of comic book art like “Pow!” “Bang!” etc. For the background on this table I made a city scape posterboard. It was just a regular project board I got at Walmart. Some even come with colored backgrounds, I couldn’t find a blue one and plus the set had a cool ink background printable I printed on blue paper to give the sky some texture. The buildings were just black and yellow construction paper I cut into squares with a straight cutter. I got the grandmas to send me some baby facts about the parents and put those into speech bubbles that were part of the printable set. I got some baby pictures of the parents as well as the older sister and put the speech bubbles next to the babies. I also cut some capes to attach to some of the babies, to make them look like little Superbabies!

The Activity Table
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I made another poster board backdrop here. Both posterboards had some superhero clothing and bibs hanging from them to add a little extra pop. This table had the items needed for the games and activities we had for the party. I pinned the bunting to the tablecloth. The bunting was made using the printable set and mini clothespins!

The Gift Table
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This was the table that guests would see as they first walked in. There was a sign (part of the printable package) welcoming them to the baby shower and also displayed the diaper cake. This was such fun to make; I bought an extra wide blue ribbon and narrower yellow ribbon and wrapped around each layer of the “cake.” Then I stuck in various superhero themed bibs, onesies, socks, shoes, etc as well as some brightly colored washcloths to finish it off. I loved how it turned out!

The Games
I had a hard time coming up with Superhero-themed games so in the end I just gave up on that, lol. We played “The Price is Right” where everyone guesses the price of baby items displayed on the activity table. We also played a Baby Facts game, basically a multiple choice quiz of baby facts with some Superhero facts thrown in. Lastly, I had each guest sign or doodle on a square of muslin with fabric marker that I later assembled into a Superhero/Rocket Age themed quilt for baby.

Other touches
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At each guests’ place setting, I had brightly colored envelopes with thank you cards inside. The envelopes were stamped and return addressed. I had each guest fill out their name & address and collected these for mom. All she had to do was write a thank you note, seal and stick in her mailbox, making thank you note writing as easy as possible for her. I also used some baby food jars (cleaned out and decorated for another shower I hosted) and stuck some fun paper straws in those. Lastly, we gave each guest a candy bar wrapped in a printable from the set thanking everyone for coming.

The shower was a huge success and I was so happy with how everything turned out. It was a lot of work, but I saved a lot of money printing a lot of the decor myself instead of buying superhero themed merchandise. And having it at a restaurant was so nice, not having to worry about the food and beverage freed me up to concentrate on the fun parts! Hope this gives you some ideas for your Superhero party!

Baby Shower Playlist

I made a playlist for my sister’s baby shower and I thought I would post it so others could use it for inspiration for their own baby showers! I took songs that had “baby,” “kid” or “child” in the title from all types of genre: pop, hip-hop, country, oldies, etc.

  1. “Baby, I Love Your Way” by Peter Frampton (Frampton Comes Alive!)
  2. “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes (single)
  3. “Cry Baby Cry” by The Beatles (The Beatles [The White Album])
  4. “My Baby” by Britney Spears (Circus)
  5. “Babyfather” by Sade (Soldier of Love)
  6. “Baby” by Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris (My World 2.0)
  7. “Baby Love” by the Supremes (Where Did Our Love Go)
  8. “Baby, I Love You” by the Ronettes (Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes featuring Veronica)
  9. “Angel Baby (Don’t You Ever Leave Me)” by Stevie Wonder (Down To Earth)
  10. “You’re Just a Baby” by Belle & Sebastian (Tigermilk)
  11. “Baby I Need Your Loving” by the Four Tops (Baby I Need Your Loving)
  12. “Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)” by Christina Aguilera (Christina Aguilera)
  13. “American Baby” by Dave Matthews Band (Stand Up)
  14. “What Will Baby Be” by Dolly Parton (Slow Dancing with the Moon)
  15. “Don’t Worry Baby” by The Beach Boys (Shut Down Volume 2)
  16. “Too Busy Thinking About My Baby” by Marvin Gaye (M.P.G.)
  17. “Ooh Child” by Five Stairsteps (The Stairsteps)
  18. “Always Be My Baby” by Mariah Carey (Daydream)
  19. “Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf (Steppenwolf)
  20. “Kids” by MGMT (Oracular Spectacular)
  21. “Kids in America” by Kim Wilde (Kim Wilde)
  22. “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen (Born in the USA)
  23. “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses (Appetite for Destruction)
  24. “Baby Baby” by Amy Grant (Heart in Motion)
  25. “Take Good Care of My Baby” by Bobby Vee (single)
  26. “Baby” by Devendra Banhart (What Will We Be)
  27. “Ooo Baby Baby” by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (Going to a Go-Go)

The playlist lasted about an hour and a half and everyone liked the idea.

Teresa’s Baby Shower: Ready to Pop Theme

When my sister told us this past Christmas she was pregnant, my first thought was BABY SHOWER! OK, maybe that’s an exaggeration, it was probably more like HOORAY! Nevertheless, I couldn’t wait to get planning with my mom for the PERFECT baby shower.

Ready to Pop Invitation

The first thing I did was research baby shower themes. I didn’t want to do the typical pastel themed baby shower, I wanted to do something unique and different. That’s when I came across these Ready to Pop Baby Shower Invitations from CandlesandFavors.com. I loved the saturated colors and since my sister and her husband love movies and movie going, I thought it was perfect. It’s also gender neutral if your guest of honor has chosen not to find out the sex of the baby until the delivery day.

Food/Beverage table

I carried the theme into the decor of the food/beverage table in a few ways. I grabbed some yellow napkins, utensils and red plates from Target and Big Lots! that went along with the theme. I had some red party cups for beverages, which fit in perfectly with the theme. I bought a couple yards of the red and while polka dotted fabric from Joann’s and made a table runner to give it a punch of color. I really wanted red/white stripes, but I couldn’t find any, unfortunately. The fruit arrangement went in a cute red bucket found at Joann’s. I placed condiments for the popcorn bar (more on that in a minute!) in baby jars I covered with red ribbon. All of the food and beverage items were labeled with place cards that I made by mounting yellow scrapbook paper on to an existing place card, and then writing the name of the food on red ink on white index cards. A friend of Teresa’s made the gorgeous diaper cakes that went on each table as a centerpiece. Finally, we added red, white and yellow balloons for a finishing touch.

Tea sandwiches and other appetizers.

I decided to save on money and do a light lunch/appetizers rather than a full on meal. My husband is a caterer, which also helped. He made some tea sandwiches and other appetizers, as well as the fruit arrangement. Thanks to him I also didn’t have to rent any table linens, they all came from our garage.

I also came up with the idea of doing a popcorn bar to add to the light lunch offerings. I had a bowl of regular popcorn and a bowl of kettle corn, with an assortment of toppings in the baby jars with red ribbon glued around them. Condiments included kosher salt; cheddar and nacho cheddar cheese powder; red, white and yellow M&Ms; and chocolate chips. I originally planned on using these favor boxes from CandlesandFavors.com, but unfortunately I didn’t read the description closely enough. So when the boxes arrived I was surprised to find how tiny they were! Instead I went out to Target and got some of those plastic popcorn boxes from the dollar bin. Beverages were simple: water, iced tea, coke and diet coke.

Onesie table

Instead of games, I wanted to focus on activities the ladies could do during the shower, while visiting with Teresa and each other. One of the ideas we came up with was this Onesie decorating table. We supplied iron on designs, stencils and fabric markers and blank onesies and bibs and had each of the ladies decorate them. They really enjoyed it and now Teresa has PLENTY of onesies for baby!


Click each image to make it larger!

I also had a picture frame with a white mat so the guests could sign it with wishes for Mama and baby. This table also had a photo album with baby pictures of Teresa, and some assorted pictures of her husband as a baby.

Picture frame

I made little rosettes for the grandmas and guest of honor. They were really simple, actually! The rosettes came pre-assembled from Michael’s. All I had to do was attach a pin to the back and write the sentiment on a sticker and put it on the front. I also added a ribbon to the Mom-To-Be’s.

Mom-to-Be and future grandma!

After playing ONE game (it wouldn’t be a baby shower without at least one game of baby bingo, right?) and opening presents, we called it a day. My sister had a wonderful time (and got a little teary eyed when she opened the baby quilt I made for the baby) and all of the guests had a good time as well. I loved seeing everything come together and I loved how the theme carried throughout the shower!