baby shower in a snap!
Last weekend my daughter Alex and I threw a baby shower for her childhood baby sitter. When my kids were little Vicky essentially lived at our house and watched the kids. So as my daughter pointed out it seemed only natural that we should throw her a baby shower. As most of your know I am about to launch on a national book tour, so the timing was very crucial. Alex and I decided the only date that worked for both of us and the expectant Mom would be Sept 15th. The challenge? It was the day after one of the biggest holidays of the year, Yom Kippur and we are not allowed to work, and we fasted all day, and spent the day in temple. With 25 people to feed I had to come up with a plan. The menu and decor had to be able to be implemented on a Sunday morning. I know some of you have busy lives and still want to be able to throw a quick and easy and of course fabulous party so here was my course of action and it worked like a charm.
DECOR - 2 days before I put the decor together. The theme for the party was "onesies." I bought a onesie set to hang on a clothes line with clothes pins, wrapping paper for the dessert table, blue and white checked tissue to line dessert trays, baby bottles for drinks, blue and white striped straws, and sweet baby onesie cookies individually wrapped for guests to take home. I used vintage jars tied with blue and white ribbon, flowers from the grocery (baby's breath and yellow carnations with some greens). *Tip: buy flowers that are going to last if you buy ahead. Most flowers will last for 2 -3 days and still look great!
FOOD - 2 days before I bought ingredients for the Apple Walnut Salad (mixed greens, apples, walnuts, lemon, red onion), assorted cheeses, grapes, fig jam, assorted crackers,rustic bread, pimento cheese, fruit salad, and IKEA Swedish meatballs. For dessert I bought cupcakes, brownies (*tip- dust the store bought brownies with powdered sugar and place on a cookie sheet lined with checked bakers tissue in a polka dot pattern), cookies, chocolate popcorn (*tip- place popcorn in individual festive paper cups and mark the tray with "she's about to pop signs"), salt water taffy, and blue foil Hershey's kisses. We served pink lemonade in baby bottles with stripey straws and iced tea out of pitchers. By buying things that were easy to assemble and "heat and serve", I was able to put the whole shower together in 4 hours the morning of the baby shower.
GAMES - 3 days before Alex was in charge of the games: a "Trivia" game where the guest with the highest number of right answers about Vicky's childhood wins a prize. A "Guess the Girth" where guests guesstimate the girth of the Mom to be with lengths of yarn, and last but certainly not least: "My Water Broke" where tiny babies are frozen in ice cubes and the first baby to break free in the thawed ice cube placed in the guests drinks, wins a prize. Needless to say... a huge success! Nicely done Alex!
It was really fun to plan and execute a party with my daughter, especially for someone that was such a special part of her childhood. Next time you need to plan a party in a snap remember planning and organizing ahead are key, and IKEA Swedish meatballs can sometimes save the day.Stay tuned for a quick + fun party DIY...