Baby Baylon is expected to arrive September 26, 2014. He is and always will be loved “to the moon and back” — a saying that I love. And as my niece prepares for the birth of her firstborn, I am preparing for her baby shower. Part of that involves ordering the invitations, thinking of games, finding favors, and creating prizes for the guests.
The co-hosts and I agreed immediately on the theme “I Love You to the Moon & Back.”
The invitations were a piece of cake. Etsy offers a number of options from independently owned businesses, where you find a design, email the details, and they send you the jpeg, which you print or have printed. This was a lot cuter than store-bought generic baby shower invites, and I must admit that I did not want to write out all the details over and over and over. In addition, I (personally) did not want to address the darn things, either. Here is where Excel comes in handy. Type each address (one item to column) and print out the labels. I could not be happier with how the invitations turned out and am a converted Etsy-invite-buyer as well as an address-label-printer-outer because of this experience.
Games are still in the making. However, we have settled on simple, but sweet, ones: 1) How Many M&Ms are in the Baby Bottle? (I do not think I need to explain this.) 2) Guess What Baby This Is? (I will have family baby pictures all in frames, and people will number them out and guess who is who.) 3) De-Scramble the Words (Again, this game is self-explanatory.) 4) Cannot Say “Baby” or “Boy” or “Baylon” Game (Although this is a common game that is played, we thought it was a classic. Upon arriving, everyone receives a clothespin, and if s/he is caught saying a banned word, the pin will be snatched. The guest who collects the most pins, wins.) 5) Mom Advice and Baby Wishes Scrapbook (Guests simply offer either advice or wishes to the new family.)
The scrapbook fills itself at the shower, as guests will write loving messages on the stars. Any pages not filled can become spaces for pictures from the event. Also, the book is easy to assemble with the help of your local craft store, buying a 6×6 scrapbook, some pre-cut 6×6 pages (buy a book of double-sided scrapbook paper, so it is color coordinated and so it fills both sides of the sleeves), and some pre-cut stars (which can be found near teacher supplies, think bulletin boards). I doodled the first star in order to explain what guests should do. You may even decide to insert an invitation to the shower in those first pages (so mom can keep one to share with baby one day). And of course, mom can play with the look and arrangement after the shower, adding anything that she’d like in the book.
Each game will, of course, have winners. And I especially enjoyed creating their prizes. With permanent markers, I designed sayings and images related to the theme directly on cheap plates bought for a dollar each. I only used the black permanent pen, as it gave a cleaner look, although the internet indicates that other colors could be used. However, I have also read that black stays on whereas not all other colors do. So with contradicting information, I did not want to chance it and stuck to black. You may want o experiment and try different colors. Regardless, after creating the designs with permanent pens on your plates (or cups), heat the plates (or cups) in the over at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. (I actually did 35 minutes — to be on the safe side.)
After they cooled off, instead of wrapping the gifts, I simply used some of my brown rope and tied a bow around each. I am pleased with the look and am happy to be able to give one of a kind items that will (hopefully) become a memorable keepsake that people can connect to both baby Baylon and my niece.
While the shower is about a month away, this moon-related theme is coming together with the help of inspirational designs online, Pinterest arts-and-crafts posts, and my permanent black markers.
[Originally published on previous blog in June 2014.]