My firts time throwing a baby shower....?

Question

I have a cousin who is expecting a baby in January. Her husband and her don't want to know what their having; he already has a boy and boys run in our family. Well, her family hasn't thrown her anything yet, and they're both coming up for Thanksgiving. I have been "appointed" to throw her a baby shower, which I don't mind. I recently helped run an wedding shower! My question is what to buy- the paper accessories of tablecloth, napkins, plates, cups,utensils, invitations,etc. What about games and activities? I don't want to splurge but I do want it to look put together and nice.I am only inviting family 10-15 women of all ages (16-70)! Any helpful websites or advice would be great!

Answer 1

I threw a baby shower that was a tea party. I bought pretty tea cups and saucers. I gave away the tea cups to each person who attended. We had finger sandwiches and salads (pasta, garden, potato). Since there are only going to be 10 or 15 woman there, Set a nice table. Use a table cloth with your cake as the center piece. If you can, think about having the cake made up of 15 or 20 little cakes that are decorated like gift boxes. Then there's no cutting. Make sure you have a vegetable tray and fruit since the expectant mom will want to be eating healthy. The finger sandwiches can be made with cookie cutters that children would enjoy.
There are so many games out there for baby showers, here are a few:
The Tray Memory Game
Before the game starts Put 15 to 20 small items associated with babies on a tray. These should be items such as a bottle, pacifier, baby sock, safety pin, baby's brush, baby oil etc.
Give each of your guests a piece of paper and a pencil to write down their answers.
To start the game bring the tray into the room and place it where all the guests can see it but tell them not to touch, leave the tray in that position for one minute and tell the guests to memorize the items that are on the tray, then remove the tray from the room and give the guests five minutes to write down on pieces of paper what all the items were. The guest who gets the most items correct is the winner.

The Guess the Baby Game
In your invitation ask each guest to bring with them to the shower a picture of themselves as a baby. It may be a good idea to give the guests a reminder before the shower to bring the photo with them as without the photo they can't be involved in the game.
Take the picture from each guest as they arrive and lightly pencil on the back a number, being careful not to damage the photo and make a list so you can tell later which photograph corresponds with each guest.
To play the game itself give each guest a piece of paper and pencil, show all the guests a photograph and tell them the number then tell them to write down whose photograph they think it is.
Then do the same with the next photograph.
If there are a lot of baby shower guests it may be necessary to pass the photographs around as they may not be able to see the photograph clearly.
The guest who identifies the most photographs is the winner.

Baby Shower Word Scramble
We have included a list of scrambled words , which relate to babies, gifts or maternity, in this section. Print out enough copies of this before the shower and give each guest a copy of this list and a pencil.
Get them to unscramble as many words as they can, writing the correct answer in the adjacent space, in a set amount of time say five or ten minutes.
The guest who gets the most answers correct is the winner.
Most of the scrambled words are fairly easy to solve, but if everyone is having trouble with any of them, them give them a clue to the answer.
Baby Word Scramble Answers
1 Bottle ____ tebolt
2 Motherhood ____ rodeomothh
3 Feeding ____ gefined
4 Formula ____ oralfum
5 Layette ____ teatley
6 Baby Walker ____ abby kwaler
7 Booties ____ toobies
8 Onesies ____ osneesi
9 Milk ____ kilm
10 Baby Bath ____ abby bhat
11 Teether ____ herette
12 Diaper ____ paired
13 Baby Buggy ____ abby gugby
14 Cradle ____ dacler
15 Rubber Ducky ____ ubberr yuckd
16 Stroller ____ rollters
17 Bassinet ____ sinbates
18 Mommy ____ yommm
19 Nursery Rhyme ____ unserry hemry
20 Teddy Bear ____ tyded reab
21 Pacifier ____ recipiaf
22 Shower Games ____ howser mages
23 Playpen ____ paynpel
25 Doll ____ ldol
26 Maternity ____ maneritty

Answer 2

How 'bout a "Baby Bites" theme for the food. Miniature finger sandwhiches, from chicken and cheese to smoked ham and mayo, little wiener dogs with toothpicks, stuffed mushrooms, a cheese, grape, and cracker sandwhich platter with more toothpicks, and cupcakes, have white and red wine, and lemonade or cranberry juice and more! I'm sure you can get more ideas from the other answerers.
Decorate the house with baby blue and pink ribbons, and the food table can be decorated with matching blue and pink table cloth, I'm sure you can get cheap ones with pictures of rattles and carriages on them at Wal-Mart or a Dollar Store. Basically you're on a baby blue and pink roll, so mind as well have baby blue and pink napkins, cups (except for the wine glasses), and plates.For the invatations, thin white parchment paper, decorated with more pink and baby blue ribbons and glitter, plus cheap stickers of babies in carriages, rattles, and milk bottles.
I'm not really good with activities, but you can always have some prizes, like gift bags filled with small bottles of soap and lotion. Then have a Baby cake, instead of cupcakes. If you have ever been to New Orleans, theres a thing called King Cake and inside a small golden baby, whoever finds the baby gets either lucky or has to buy another King Cake, I'm sorry it's been a while. But instead you can make a vanilla cake decorated with white, baby blue, and pink frosting and sprinkles, then place a fake, miniature baby, rattle, pacifier, milk bottle, whatever relates to a baby, and whoeve finds it, gets a prize. You can also play games like, "Guess the Pregnate Womans Weight", & replace "the pregnate woman" with her name.
Sorry I wrote a lot, hope that gave you some ideas though!

Answer 3

Well, potlucks are always the way to go when you are working with limited cash. If you don't like that idea, what about doing a brunch style shower on a Saturday or Sunday? Very classy and at least a little different than every other shower on planet earth. At my shower, everyone was told to bring a bead or charm which represents themself to be strung on a necklace to be worn during the birth. It was really special when each person presented their bead and explained it's meaning. Some were simple, and some complex but each one different. We'll always have that necklace.

Answer 4

I'd keep the cost low by using your regular dishes and spending more money on baby gifts! Keep the food simple, too; maybe finger sandwiches you can make yourself, a giant tossed salad with seperate cups filled with toppings like olives, pepperocini, nuts, shredded cheeses and several choices of salad dressings, a platter with grape tomatoes, mini mozzarella and spicy ham (capicolla) on tooth picks and a a hot dish, maybe lasagna, raviolis, sausage and peppers...but the gifts are most important...grab a camera and take pictures and buy an album to put them in...in the same album, have a section where all invited can add their thoughts on "raising" a child or simple good wishes, if they haven't picked a name for the baby, try playing "Name That Baby"....compile a cd of her favorite songs for her to listen to at the party and in the delivery room...

Answer 5

Look online for baby shower games like: Baby Scramble where you put a list of 15 words on a paper all unscrambled relating to baby and things, and then the one who gets the most right wins a prize.

Baby Bingo should be on there just like regular bingo but you have to find baby words on the card.

Guess the flavor of Gerber foods. Get some fruit and veggie Gerber jars and take the labels off. Then get the mom to be to taste it and guess the right flavor. she has 3 tries to guess.

Give everyone a piece of blank paper and tell them to look up at the ceiling. you wil tell them to draw first eyes, nose, ears, mouth, neck, body...etc all leading to a baby. Best drawing wins.

Guess mommy to be waste size.

Answer 6

For the eats, just buy some fresh fruit and veggies and create a colorful fruit tray and veggie tray. Buy a powder mix of lemonade. For decorations, just use pink and blue streamers and balloons. At your local party store they should have little books with ideas for baby shower games and little, inexpensive prizes. You can also get prizes and decorations at dollar stores. Make sure you get some nursery rhyme music to play in the background. Good Luck!

Answer 7

Have a word scramble of baby items (ie: pdarie=diaper)

Send around a tray with baby items on it for everyone to look at and then tell them to write down everything they remember.

Have everybody write down a piece of advice and/or funny baby story and put together a binder with all of them along with pictures taken at the shower.

Pin the bonnet on the baby.

Decorate in yellow and green - both can be boy or girl.

Answer 8

Baby shower games at the site below.
http://www.babyshower101.com/baby_shower_games.html

Guess the size of the belly...
All guests have to cut string to the size they believe the womens belly is. Then have the guests wrap their strings around the womens belly to see who's closest.
Drink from the bottle....
Fill baby bottles with apple juice and see how long it takes everyone to drink out of the bottles.
Guess the baby food....
Send different baby food around and have everyone guess what it is by smelling and tasting it.

Answer 9

hi my idea for entertainments are,baby bingo u could get it at the party city also have gifts for the winners something baby like.u could have a bag full of baby activities and every body take a pick and act it out,u could have them cry like a baby,eat baby food,talk like a baby and so on we did this at my baby shower and everybody had a ball

Answer 10

I haven't given, or been to, a baby shower in years. But, if I were, I would check in at sites like
http://www.baby-shower.com/
They have loads of information and advice.