Baby Shower Goodness

This past Saturday, our friend, Christina, and I showered my sweet Sarah and her little baby girl.  I am ridiculously excited to meet Sarah’s little girl next month, but, to hold me over, a baby shower would have to do.

We had the shower at Sarah’s house because it has a more open floor plan than mine, and we were expecting over 20 people. Plus, her house is so light and bright. It’s such a pretty place for showering someone!

Christina and I decided to set up different little stations for the shower. We had a purse station in the dining room on a window bench for people to drop their purses and coats. We had a gift station on the dining room table. We had a “thank you note” station (more on that later when I talk about games) and a “baby bib message” station (more later). We had a food station and a drinks and cake station. I thought it worked out really nicely, and kept the house from feeling crowded.

FOOD:

I served a cheese tortellini and vegetable bake casserole that I found on Pinterest. It was a Better Homes and Gardens recipe, so I figured I was safe. But it turned out to not be very good at all! I picked it because it was easily made into a vegetarian dish (Sarah is a vegetarian) and because the picture was pretty. When I made it, though, I was not impressed. It has a cream cheese base that is just too thick for the pasta and veggies. If I had to do it over again. I’d use the vegetables and tortellini, but I’d just mix it all with Italian dressing and make it more of a pasta salad than a casserole.

(Recipe modifications: I skipped the chicken and used vegetable stock instead of chicken stock to make it vegetarian friendly. I also used edamame beans instead of snap peas because I couldn’t find them in my grocery store.)

The only other thing that required baking or cooking was the baked brie wheel. This is my sister’s recipe, and it is as delicious as it is simple. You buy a wheel of brie cheese (I remove the rind), a refrigerated can of crescent rolls, and a jar of apricot preserves. Unfold the crescent rolls into one large sheet of dough. Place the wheel of brie in the center and cover it with heaping spoonfuls of the apricot preserves. I used about half of a small jar. Then, fold the crescent rolls up around the wheel and pinch and seams shut. Bake for 12-15 minutes in the oven, then serve hot with fruit and crackers. It is a hit every time I serve it.

Along with the casserole and brie wheel, I served cucumber and cream cheese finger sandwiches and chicken salad sandwiches. There was also a veggie tray and a bowl of pub mix style peanuts. I also decorated with little tins full of Jordan almonds and cheese straws.

For drinks, I went back and forth on what punch to serve. I really don’t like punches that have sorbet in them. I don’t like the froth. So, instead I decided to just serve plain, old fashioned lemonade. I put out mason jars and a pitches of lemonade. I also found cardboard striped straws, which were super cute. And I put frozen strawberries in the bottom of each mason jar with ice for a little something extra.

Without a doubt, the star of the shower was the cake Christina found. It was beautiful! It was vanilla cake with strawberry filling. Delicious!!!!

GAMES:
We had a few activities and a few games. The activities were things people could do while they were mingling before the games and gift opening began. The first were the thank you notes. I asked guests to address a thank you note envelope to themselves, so that Sarah didn’t have to address all the thank you notes for shower gifts. When we sat down to play the games, I drew one envelope out and the person whose name I randomly picked won a prize.

Another activity we had was the baby bib message. I found this kit at Party City for $6 and it ended up being really cute. You string a white ribbon up, and then there are all these little cards in baby shapes (carriages, onesies, baby shoes, etc.) that you can write on. We asked guests to write Sarah, Scott, and Baby a message and then hang it on the line. By the end of the shower, there were lots of sweet little messages for the family strung up there. It was both a decoration and an activity, and it worked out nicely.

(This is a terrible picture, but you can see the string with two little messages hanging there. By the end of the shower, the line was full of notes!)

The two actual games that we played were lots of fun. The first one was where guests had to guess how big around Sarah was using measuring tape. It was super funny to see how big people thought she was! Actually, maybe that was only funny to me. Might not have been too funny for Sarah… (Be sure you check with the mommy-to-be first before you play to make sure they are okay with the game!) The person who guessed the closest won a prize.

The other game we played was the most fun. I bought these sets of Baby Shower Bingo at Party City. They were $7 a pack, and totally worth the cost! Guests were given blank bingo cards, and they got to fill in their own cards with whatever gifts they thought Sarah would receive when she started opening presents. So, for example, if you thought that Sarah would received four onesies, you’d put “onesie” on four different spaces. Then, as Sarah opened her presents, guests got to play Bingo with their cards. It made the gift opening part a lot of fun! Sarah would open diaper cream, and random people would yell out, “YES! DIAPER CREAM!” because they needed it on their bingo cards. One mistake I made was that I said the winner only had to make one line on the card in order to win. That meant that the game was over kind of quickly. In hindsight, I would have had them play “blackout” style, where they had to cover their entire cards. It would have made the fun last a lot longer.

My favorite part of the games were the prizes. Christina found these on Pinterest, and made them herself. She just bought plastic baby bottles, glued them to wooden blocks she found at a craft store, and then spray painted the entire thing gold. They were a huge hit!

FAVORS:
As guests left the party, we had a small table by the front door with their party favors. I thought this idea was AMAZING. It was another Pinterest find by Christina. It was a bottle of pink nail polish with a little card attached that said, “It’s a Girl!” Such a fun gift! So cute, very pink, and even useful after the shower!

It was a really cute shower, if I do say so myself. I think everyone had a great time, and I know Sarah was so glad to have a house full of people welcoming Baby into the world. Now, all that’s missing in their house is the baby!!!!!! I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!!!!!