Baby Shower Ideas Needed

For my baby shower I bought cinammon rolls from the Wal Mart bakery. I wrapped them individually in pink saran wrop. I attached a ribbon and a printed note on cardstock. "Thank's from Jason and Lindee and their "bun in the oven".

First of all...let me say this...who cares about etiquette! It's all semantics anyhow! Second of all...I highly recommend keeping simple and for go the party games - everyone pretty much so dreads tham anyhow! Since you are hosting I would keep the food simple and order trays of lasagna or chicken parm from Olive Garden or do a deli tray with meats and cheeses and a friut and veggie tray. I think that EVERY child should be celebrated and they all deserve a SHOWER! Enjoy your time visiting with your closet friends and family because unless they come over to help you are going to really have your hands full soon! Relax and enjoy the day! Congratulations! We are expecting our third in October so I know how you feel about keeping it simple!

Simple Baby Shower

I have found most people want to talk and entertain each other so no more than three games.

Games

1.How well do you know me? -Type of questions about you and the answers. Whoever gets the most right gets a prize.

2. The toilet paper around the belly or they have this game at walmart and it's just some fancy paper.

3. You can either get clothes pins or pacifer necklaces that you can find at any party store and "No one can say baby." (Sometimes they play the do not cross your legs game instead of the do not say baby" When they say baby you take their necklace or pin. Whoever has the most at end of the shower gets a prize.

For gifts I have done home interior candles, bath and body works $5.00 gifts cards to Star Bucks, mani pedi kits, mugs with tea and sugar etc.

As for food so lots of raw veggies and dips, sandwiches, salad, pizza bites or some things that you are craving.. I always have to saw Sam's for the cake..

Have a great one!

Hi, N.!

I would use some simple tableware (plastic or not) and finger food with a small cake. For my friend's shower, I made soup and put it in a crock-pot to keep warm. It was one of the Bear Creek (?) soups that you just add water to- Potato Soup, if I recall correctly. It was DELICIOUS! Everyone loved it. I also had crackers with chicken salad and cheese cubes. Just make it as simple as possible. By the way, I have a GREAT chicken salad recipe if you want it.

Here are some of the games I've played and found hilarious at showers:

1.) Purchase a bag of balloons and fill with air (not helium...lol). Place the balloons in a large (trash) bag. Each person will take a turn filling their shirt with balloons. Whoever uses the most, wins! ---Be sure to take pics, because you won't believe how create people get. lol

2.) For this game, you'll need: Index card and pencil for each guest (not including the Mom-to-be). Each guest places the card on their heads and, when given the signal to start, draws a picture of a baby on the index card while keeping the card on their head. The Mom-to-be chooses the best "baby". ---These are cute for your scrapbook, too!

3.) Walking on Eggs. You'll need: - 1 dozen eggs, tortilla chips (in a bowl and hidden away from guests), blanket, blindfold for each participant. Ask for 3-4 volunteers (however many will fit across your blanket with walking room). Place the blanket on the floor and have each participant stand on one side of the blanket. Place eggs randomly on the blanket. Then, have them blind-folded (by someone else is better, because you'll be busy in a sec.) After they are all blind-folded, explain the rules- that each participant is going to walk across the blanket, blind-folded, and try not to crack any eggs. While explaining the rules, replace each egg (QUIETLY...lol) with tortilla chips and...GO! Just watch their reactions as they carefully walk across the blanket and try to avoid the "eggs", especially when they hear a "crack"! LOL

Some games are wrapping the toilet paper around the belly (guessing how many squares go around once). Another is giving everyone a notecard and writing little words of advise---but since you are already a mommy--you could have them write a little "funny" about your pregnancy or just about you in general. The baby will love to read them later. Foods counld be as simple as fruit/veggie platters, meat/cheese platter, punch and/or coffee. Hope this helps!! :) Congrats on the little one!

When my DIL's friend threw her a shower at my house, she suggested the BEST idea. She asked me to cut a sheet (we used pink) into squares (I believe 8x8", maybe 10x10"), and we gave one to each guest. I'd bought a bunch of different color paint pens and everyone took a few minutes (some really got involved in it!) to paint a picture, write a message, whatever they chose, on their own square. We collected them at the end of the party (some were sent back to us a few days later), and the friend sewed them all together, put a layer of batting and a backing on, and made a quilt wall hanging of it.

I was skeptical of the idea at first, but it turned out beautifully and everyone had a great time with it. Once she started sewing them together, she also added embellishments with ribbons, buttons, charms, etc., even plastic pockets to hold photos of the baby and her parents. It was really beautiful.

If you'd like to see a photo of it, I'd be happy to send to your (or anyone else's) e-mail.

A couple games and activities we did at my shower:

Take 5 or 6 jars of baby food and remove the labels. Each person tries to guess what is in each jar. We let them open and smell the contents - or even taste them, if they were brave enough. Despite that, no one got them all right.

Mix 1 cup of rice and 30-40 little safety pins in a small tupperware container. Without looking - just by feel - try to remove as many safety pins as you can in one minute. It is surprisingly hard! (We had 4 of these going at once so it didn't take 20 minutes to rotate through all the people.)

Buy a few plain white onesies and some fabric paint (Michaels, Hobby Lobby or the craft section at Walmart are good places for that). Set all the stuff out and let people decorate the onesies during the course of the party. Great keepsake.

IF you are wanting to do games this is what we did:
1. Do toilet paper thing- every person gets the roll and guesses the length that will measure around your stomach.
2. Letter A-Z give them 3 to 5 minutes to guess baby items that will go with each letter of the alphabet and whoever gets the most wins....
3. Write two sentences mentioning about how you are excited to be a mommy and about your sons being a big help and big brother... then the guests have to guess as many baby words out of the sentences... which they can go through and find letters to make words. EXP- mommy is the best in the world and is awesome..... words in that are MOM,BED, WOMB......

Then just go to the dollar store and get things that can be given to the winners... dollar candles, stationary, picture frame...

Also have each of them fill out on a plain envelope their address so that you can send thank you notes to them personally.... at the end of the shower mix them up and pick an envelope and that person will get a free gift as well!!!
(make sure you have someone there that will write down what gifts you got and who they were from)

Now as far as foods... go for plain and simple... veggie tray with ranch dip is always a hit. Also make a fruit platter... the dip is easy to make... just mix marshmallow cream with some cream cheese!!!
Hope you enjoy the babyshower and get all you want!!!

http://www.welcomebaby.com/baby_shower_games.htm
http://www.mybambino.com/baby_shower_games.htm

How exciting! And bless your patience... your own shower! You're a saint.

Food can be really simple; try those GIANT sandwiches they have at WalMart, usually close to the service deli - they call them footlong, but are usually closer to two feet! They're usually between $5-$6 and they have several varieties. A couple of those, sliced into 3" pieces, on a tray with some mustard, mayo, pickles etc. - small enough slices that people can choose a couple of flavors.

Of course chips, salsa etc. Fruit with a simple fruit dip (try allrecipes.com for a couple ideas, or buy a ready-made kind). Other than that, hit the frozen hor's doeuvre section at Costco... get a bag/box or two of whatever looks yummy!

Cake! Costco cakes are DELICIOUS and extremely reasonable. My favorite is the white cake with cheescake flavored filling and whipped icing (no icky buttercream!). With advance notice, they decorate nicely, too.

Games can be easy, too - my favorite thing (I've always done it by hand, but there might be ready-made ones out there)is make a 'baby gift bingo' set of game cards. Excel or something like that is your friend! Just make a grid (5x5 squares usually works out great!) and rearrange all kinds of things that you'll usually get (diapers, wipes, receiving blankets, socks, baby towel, onesies, hat), plus a few unusual or big-ticket type things on each card (stroller, pack and play, diaper genie, boppy, exersaucer). I usually make the very center square either a cute little baby graphic, or your baby's name, if you've decided. Each guest gets a card and they check off items as you open them... first one to bingo wins. I'd actually be happy to help with that if I've totally confused you! You could send me a private message with your email address and how many guests you expect, and I can email you back cards to print. It's fun to do, so I wouldn't mind!

Hope you have a wonderful party with your family celebrating your baby's arrival!

You need to get the memory keeper container from me. You have people journal on pieces of paper that are photo safe it is so precious and it can go in babys room after. it is 29.00 I sell creative memories. K. Curry

I think if you are throwing something for yourself, you are supposed to call it more of a "party" than a "shower," for ettiquette reasons. It probably doesn't really matter, just thought I'd save you some embarrassment in case you have an Emily Post in your group of guests.

Babycenter.com has a whole message board devoted to baby showers and parties. They usually reply really promptly and give good ideas and advice.

Good luck!