The Ultimate Baby Shower

With Katie's newest beastie getting ready to make an appearance in February, a few of her friends (me included) got together and decided to throw a shower back before Thanksgiving.  During one of our planning meetings, someone commented "I don't think I planned this much for my wedding!", so overboard might be an understatement.  Since Katie is so crafty, we decided that this shower better be crafty too.  I took some pics to share with you all, now that the shower has happened and is no longer a secret.  Here we go!

OBJECTIVE:  Crafty, Boy themed baby shower
THEME:  Owls (to play off all those super cute nursery details you've been seeing)
REQUIREMENTS: 
Food - Katie has been craving fruit the whole pregnancy, and what's a party without food!
Craft - to personalize the event
Game - a great reason to pass out prizes


Shannon was a wonderful hostess, and set up the space beautifully for the party, as well as preparing a lot of the food!


The Registration Table, featuring baby photos of the other two beasties, thank you notes, advice cards, a raffle basket and party favors.

We were so fortunate to have the super creative owner and designer of Paperlicious on our Shower Team!  Amy designed and created a whole coordinated package of everything we needed printed to make this shower great.  With the invites Amy included a great little card asking guests to talk about why little boys are great.  When guests arrived, they dropped their cards in this bowl.

To kick start Katie's diaper supply, we had a raffle for anyone who brought a package of diapers with them.  Amy designed and printed beautiful little tags to tie everything together.

Our guests put their names and addresses on envelopes so Katie would have her thank you notes pre-addressed.  Amy designed the Thank Yous to coordinate with the invitation and gave the whole package to Katie at the end, making the thank you notes as easy as could be!

After guests checked in, they got to do a craft.  Mandi, the sewer of the group, stitched up 14 of these flannel burp cloths (soft on baby's face) for party-goers to decorate with shapes.

Guests came to the cutting table to trace their shapes onto coordinating fabric, which Mandi had already applied fusible interfacing to so they were iron ready.

And with a little heat from the iron - appliqued burp cloths!  This was a different take on decorated onsies, because Katie has already been so blessed with gifts of baby boy clothes.  She won't need to add to Beastie #3's wardrobe for several years, so we wanted to provide her with something useful.

Here's our tree and clothesline with the finished burp clothes - which perfectly coordinate with the nursery fabric (we know they're used to wipe drool, and...other things, but now it can be done in style!).  Amy also did a great job with our tree to display the finshed pieces!

After guests finished their assignments, it was into the kitchen for food.  Since Katie has been craving fruit like a fruit fly, we decided to do chocolate fondue.  We had strawberries & blueberries...

Pineapple, Bananas, Pretzels, Marshmallows...

Brownie Bites & Cheesecake Squares.  Lots of good things for dipping!

We covered our savories too, with cheese and cracker plates, a veggie tray, Yellow Pepper Cheese dip, hot artichoke dip, swedish meatballs, olives, baby pickles & mixed nuts (can't have a party without mixed nuts!).

We all ate well that day.


For dessert, we had homemade Cherry Pie (by request from the guest of honor)...

and a homemade Owl cake.  Kandi's cake decorating talents floored us, with all of her elaborate piping and frosting tints.  Not only was it beautiful, but delicious too!


After food, it was gift time.  There's Katie with Beastie #1, who came to share the festivities for her new baby brother.  She is an expert gift opener.

Our game tied in with gift time - "Katie Said It...Bingo!"  Again, Amy brought us these beautiful Bingo cards, and the tag to tie it all together.

As Katie opened her gifts, guests covered the squares on their Bingo cards according to Katie's response.  The blank spaces were for guests to fill in themselves what they thought Katie would say.

And the winner got a prize!


We sent guests home with an edible party favor - Owl Cake Pops!  They perched on the registration table in a nest (foam block) covered with sheet moss.  The Owl Pops were my creation, which I'll detail in another post, since this was the first time I've taken on cake pops of any kind and I want to share the fun.  And of course we tagged them with coordinating tags, made by Amy! 

This shower was so much fun to throw for Katie, and we're all very excited as we wait for Beastie #3 to make his appearance in February.  Feel free to grab ideas and make them your own, we'd love to see what you come up with!