Baby Girl Shower

My husband and I are currently preparing for the arrival of our first child this fall. If all goes well, our baby girl will be arriving in October. We couldn’t be more thrilled and are knee deep in baby registries, furniture assembly, and Daycare tours.

While I was home to see family last week my dear mother threw me a baby shower. As I am usually the person who is planning/decorating/executing the party, it was such a joy to show up and attend. I am also a little embarrassed to admit that I learned a few things from her. Whenever I am planning a party, I am thinking about all of the details that will make it look cute. The theme is blown out of proportion and no detail is left unattended. Whether it’s later useful or not is unimportant. My mom’s shower, however, was simple yet practical, with all of the decorations serving another purpose. She choose one thing to spend a lot of time on, and it doubled as the party centerpiece as well as a beautiful gift that we will get much use out of. Even the game we played was used as decoration, fun for all who attended, and ended up being very practical for myself. Overall it was a huge success, and I walked away overflowing with gratitude for how many people already love our little girl.

DECORATIONS: The main decoration at the shower was this stunning diaper cake, created by my talented mother. Everyone was impressed with the detail that she put into it, and everything in it can be used by us later. I had seen diaper cakes at showers before, but usually they consisted of just…diapers. This one was stunning- pink ruffle ribbon was used on the 3 cake bases, and the outside of each tier was covered with baby blankets and bibs from our registry. Coordinating ribbon in pink, while, gold and mint was wrapped around each tier, and small gifts from our registry were tucked inside. The elephant cake topper was the perfect addition to tie everything together. Eventually I am going to have to un-assemble it, but not anytime soon.

Another decoration was part of the game we played. There were 11 tiny gift bags that each had a letter spelling out BABY DOWNING. They were out on the table until we played the game later that evening.

GAMES: I have a love-hate relationship with shower games. Sometimes they can be really fun, and sometimes they are super cheesy. I told my mom we could play one game, and she did a great job choosing something that was fun and practical. Each of the tiny 11 gift bags had something inside that started with that letter, and were useful for a baby. Guests were given a sheet of paper and had to guess what all of the items were. Once time was up, I got to open them one by one and guests marked how many they got correct. The items included B-Butt Paste, A-Applesauce, B-Baby Bar, Y-Yellow Ducky, D-Destin Cream, O-Orajel, W-Wash Cloths, N-Nasal Aspirator, I-Infant Ibuprofin, N-Nuk, G-Grip Twist Cover. Some of them were definitely more difficult than others, but I was surprised how many people guessed correctly. After the shower I got to keep all of the items, which will definitely come in handy once baby girl arrives.

FOOD: This was another area that was simple and yet perfect. Since the shower started at 7:30pm, punch and dessert were served. I had requested a Chocolate Kahlua Trifle, and my mom was able to find non-alcoholic amaretto syrup, which made the perfect substitute for the pregnant people attending and myself. Seriously, if you have never had this dessert I would highly recommend making one. You don’t even need to have people over- especially if you are currently pregnant :).