Baby Showers – how to make it fun and relaxing!

by Emily in Life and Learning / 10.08.08

In late July, I added a different title to my name – auntie! My oldest brother and my sister-in-law had a baby boy! My sister-in-law’s sister, Miranda, threw a baby shower for them in early June, and it was the most fun I’ve had at a baby shower. I’m probably slightly biased since the shower was for my nephew, but I think the way the baby shower was organized made it fun, relaxing, and enjoyable for the guests. Here are a few things that stood out to me:

Cute decorations! The baby shower was held at the clubhouse at my brother’s apartment complex. All of the decorations made me “ooO” and “aww.” There were creative table decorations, balloons, and streamers. Miranda created the table decorations on her own. There were mini-4-tier towers and flowers inside of baby food bottles. The bottom tier consisted of diapers, followed by onesies outfits. Next, there was a bottle of baby lotion, topped of with a super-soft stuffed animal on the top of the tower. Miranda also combined 2 lifesaver mints with 1 jelly bean to make little candy pacifiers, which was a delicious, clever idea. Around the room, Miranda pinned up adorable little clothing items to ribbons, which really warmed up the room in combination with the other decorations.

Simple menu choices In a buffet style setup, I choose from five differently ingredient-filled pot pies. There were two kinds of chicken and beef and one vegetable curry. The meal was delicious, especially with the side of creamy mashed potatoes. It was smart that Miranda had the hot foods catered and bought the fruits on her own to make a fruit plate. Best of all, Miranda had Sprinkles cupcakes! It was probably the most icing-topped cupcake I have ever seen. Every bite had a glob of delicious icing with super-moist and tasty cupcake!

Fun/group interactive games After lunch, Miranda numbered the guests off into groups for games. I usually hate when I’m put into groups of people I don’t really know, but what is a party if you don’t meet anyone new? For one of the games, we were blindfolded and had to dig for safety pins out of bowls of rice grains. It sounds much easier than it is because it was really hard to distinguish the feeling of a safety pin from a grain of rice. For another game, we had to partner up and put diapers on baby dolls. The trick was each partner was only allowed to use one hand to coordinate your movements. By the end of that round, everyone was giving high-fives, which is a sure sign that people were having a good time. Putting family members and close friends on different teams was definitely a smart move on Miranda’s part because it encouraged conversation and meeting new people.

Gift opening time didn’t drag on and on and on…One of the things I’m really glad that Miranda decided to do was separate gift-opening into three different parts. At the past baby showers I have attended, gift-opening was usually all at once. Typically, gift-opening is only really exciting for the mother-to-be while everyone else sits around and watches. Miranda would interrupt gift opening with game time, then return back to gift opening. She probably learned from her 2^nd graders that it is hard to keep your focus, so she recharged our attention span by mixing gift opening with games.

A little note to any parents-to-be: making a baby registry (just like a wedding registry!) will get you 10% off of anything your friends and family didn’t buy you the day after the baby is born. It would be best to research which stores provide this offer.

When planning a baby shower, it is the most important to keep the mommy-to-be the happiest. All of the other things in between are the delicious extra toppings on top of a cupcake. Miranda smartly organized and timed the events of the shower in such a way that it kept the guests happy and attentive, which made a great shower!