Saturday, April 23, 2011

Frog themed Baby Shower party

My best friend is due to have a baby boy early this summer (the same day as me, in fact!). I hosted her Baby Shower today, and the theme matches her nursery-- frogs.

Check out the shower invites I whipped up for her guests (and I say "whipped up" very sarcastically-- these took forever!):





As usual, I took my responsibilities as party planner very seriously. I got carried away with the frog theme, and spent countless hours handmaking and shopping for all the right things. Here are some photos that might inspire you.



Food
Most baby showers for boys are blue, but since the theme was frogs, I stuck with a green color scheme. I used frog-print fleece fabric (I used a decorative rotary cutter blade to trim the sides) as a tablecloth that the parents-to-be can reuse as a baby blanket later. The menu included green veggies & dip (snap peas, broccoli, celery, cucumber and pickles), green fruit (honeydew melon, pears, green grapes and kiwi), green Guacamole chips with green verde salsa and guacamole, and salad. I also created a green punch; here is the recipe--


1 - 2L bottle of Ginger Ale
1 - 2L bottle of Grapefruit soda (like Squirt)
1 - large can of Pineapple Juice
1/4 container of frozen Limeaid, dethawed
1/4 container of frozen Lemonade, dethawed
3/4 cups sugar (you may prefer a little more)
Lime sherbert
Decorations
For weeks I collected various stuffed frogs and frog toys that could be used as decorations in the nursery after the party. I also created a few things on the computer and my Cricut.



I saved the cut-out letters from the invitations (It's A Boy) and used them as confetti. I found cute green favor boxes at the Dollar Tree and stuffed them with green tissue paper and green bulk candy.


Games
I bought some premade games to start the shower, and then did two others. One was the Dirty Diaper game, in which various chocolate candies are melted into individual baby diapers. The guests pass the "soiled" diapers around and guess which candy made the mess. Some were easy like Hershey's Chocolate Bar, and other were trickier like Peppermint Bark and chocolate coins.




The most time consuming - but fun! - involved paper sacks with one letter on each bag. You can spell out BABY SHOWER, the baby's name, or whatever you choose-- I went with "Baby Cove's Shower". In advance, the host purchases one baby item that begins with each letter and stuffs it into the bags. Guests cannot touch the bags, and have to guess what items are in each sack. My items were all baby products, some used by the baby and others used by the parents. General or specific, and in some cases brand names, and of course the mom-to-be gets to keep all of the items after the party.



The items I used were:


B- burp cloth (handmade)

A- album (for photos)

B- bib (handmade)

Y- yellow duck

C- carrots (baby food)

O- onesie (handmade)

V- Vaseline

E- Enfamil

S- shampoo



S- socks

H- hats

O- Orajel

W- washcloths

E- Evenflo bottle

R- rattle


And what's a shower without a diaper cake! I used newborn diapers, and small gifts to create this one.


Of course we ended the shower with cake and presents. My husband even got the family a small aquarium with live pet frogs! I think the party was a huge success, and hopefully this gives you some ideas for a party of your own.