Princess Olivia

My friend, Lisa, is expecting her second child (and first girl!!) mid-September!  I absolutely love Lisa, so when it came time to plan her baby shower, of course I jumped at the chance asked politely if I could help!  (Especially since Clover says she is going to marry Lisa's son, Michael!)

They are naming their sweet baby Oliva and Lisa loves the Oliva the Pig series, so we decided to use that as the theme for the shower!

Here is the banner I made:

I also made tissue paper flowers for each corner:

I was trying to think of how to hang the letters, and my Mom had a brilliant idea of using mini clothespins that she uses for knitting.  I painted each clothes pin red and then scorched my fingers hot glued clear marbles to the tops.

Since the co-host was making the large diaper cake (pictured below)

I made 3 little ones! (PS the red flower topper on the first one is a hair clip I made for Olivia !)

One of my favorite baby shower 'games' is BINGO.  I think it's a great way to keep everyone involved in the gift opening process.  When each guest arrives, the person taking the gifts (I normally designate someone to do this) tapes a number/letter combination to the bottom of the gift.  Before the guest of honor opens each gift she reads out the number/letter and each guests marks it off of their "bingo card"

At this shower, instead of playing BINGO, I made OLIVIA cards:

I do a lot of internet shopping and could NOT find red and white lollipop favors (for a decent price) anywhere! So I was super excited when I found these at Michaels!  They already come with stickers that say 'thank you' and then there are also blank stickers included.  I wrote Olivia Hope on the blank ones.

I also made the cups that I put the lollipops in.  I cut the top off of two tall plastic cups, hot glued leftover ribbon from the diaper cakes, and put some red marbles in to keep the cups from falling over.

I LOVE to plan parties (I mean, duh, I have a PR degree), but I'm not a fan of the food preparation.  I don't really like cooking in general.  So when the co-host said she would handle the food, I knew right away we would make a good team!  Here are some pictures of the food table (she did a great job!)

Oh, but I did make some white chocolate covered pretzels!

Besides couponing (more later), my new obsession is Thirty-One.  If I could afford to buy an embroidery machine, everything I owned would be embroidered. I use one of the Thirty-One large utility totes as my diaper bag, and love it, and thought Lisa might too (plus, it was a lot of fun to fill the pockets with presents for Oliva and Lisa!)

Here is a picture of my gift to Lisa:

Last, but not least, here is a picture of the stunning Momma-to-be:

Be on the lookout for pictures from our other good friend, Jackie's baby shower (next week!)  I have quite a few special things planned for her, and her sweet baby girl that I can't wait to share!

2010 Baby Bowl

My best friend, Jessika, and her husband Matt are expecting a baby boy in early July! Of course I couldn't resist throwing her a baby shower!! It was a co-ed shower, so in order to incorporate the boys, we decided to do a super bowl theme and call it "Baby Bowl".

Here are some pictures of the football theme diaper cake I made for them! They are doing a lot of guitar type things in his room, so I added a mini guitar to the cake!

Jessika’s friend, Laura, helped me plan the shower and took care of all the food! We had wings, mini-egg rolls (Jessika’s favorite), several dips and chips, fruit tray, veggies trays and more!

For the decorations, we kept things simple, yet detailed. The diaper cake was the center piece of the food table. I also found two football flags at a craft store. I originally could not find any table cloths that I liked, but immediately fell in love with the flags and decided to use them as table cloths!

One of my biggest philosophies is “why buy something if you can make it?” So for the Baby Bowl sign I searched and searched for some great cardstock paper with footballs on it. I finally found some at a scrapbook store and cut it down for the background of each letter. I then printed green letters and mounted them to the football paper. The roman numerals represent Jessika’s due date. 

I love the way the sign turned out!

Being a co-ed shower, I didn’t want to bore the boys with too many games. So when they guests arrived, I had a piggy bank set up near the food and drinks for people to donate to baby Hudson’s college fund. It was a cute way to involve the guests from the beginning and start the little one’s college savings off right! I also made a “Guess the Kick Off Date and Time” calendar for everyone to guess when Hudson will be born. 

The first “real” game was an instant hit. I bought 6 bottles that Matt and Jessika had previously registered for (so they could take home after the shower), and also brought 7 others from home. We filled 12 bottles with beer and 1 with sprite (so that Jessika could play the game too). The goal was to see who could drink all of the beer out of the bottle first. Everyone was a little apprehensive about playing the game at first, but once I went around and handed out the bottles, they were excited to play. 

What guy can resist a challenge? The game was hilarious and a lot of fun.

Jessika, and the winner: 

(that's right, all the competitive guys got beaten by a girl!)

Next, we had everyone group off into groups of 4 or 5 people. I had Matt and Jessika head into the living room where the present opening would soon take place (and this allowed a nice little break for Jessika to prop her feet up!) Back in the kitchen, I gave each group a plain white bib. I then set out a bunch of fabric markers and different iron-on pictures. I told each group to design a bib for Hudson and afterward Matt and Jessika would choose their favorite bib and that team would win. Each team member was required to write their name on the back of their team’s bib. This was a great way to not only give the parents-to-be a bunch of bibs, but they were also bibs that their friends had designed AND it was a good remembrance of everyone who came to their baby shower!

After the teams were done decorating their bibs, everyone moved into the living room. Matt and Jessika picked a 1st and 2nd place bib and each team member got a football water bottle as a prize.

The last game was Baby Bingo. This game is my favorite way to involve everyone in the present opening, and prevent glazed over eyes during the process (especially for the boys). Prior to the shower, I printed out BINGO cards and randomly wrote in numbers 1-6 under each letter. I then printed out little pieces of paper with B1-B6, etc. on them. When each guest arrived with a present, my “assistant” (Laura’s son), took each present into the other room and taped a number/letter on it. Before each present was opened, Matt called each number/letter out until we had a winner! The guests were so into the Bingo game that they wanted to continue to play for a 2nd place winner!

Overall, the shower went smoothly, everyone had fun (even the guys) and Matt and Jessika had a blast! I can’t WAIT to meet their little Hudson!

If you're looking for a party planner (specializing in children's parties and baby showers), send me an email for more information! 

JillMDaugherty@gmail.com

Also, I designed the invitation, but for professional graphic design:

JVanMat1@mac.com

And lastly, for event photography, please contact:

md@theothermegan.com

Ahoy! It's a Boy!

One of my best friends, Amy, is expecting a baby in less then two weeks! I had the honor of throwing her a baby shower! For those of you who don't know me, I LOVE throwing parties! I love the planning, the research, the details, the shopping, making things for it... and most of all, the success of a good, well-planned party!

The theme of her baby shower was sailboats, as is the new baby's room! I made sailboat invitations, and with the help of the Grandma-to-be, we created a sailboat baby shower!

Here is my very first diaper cake!

(Clover got a hold of the "B" and added a little teething charm!)

 The sailboat onesie I made:

 

Amy's Mom made all the food (so I can't take credit for it!) and it was adorable! It was a little bit of a relief not to have to worry about the food! I can usually come up with good ideas, but lack in the cooking department!

The table was complete with little sailboat deviled eggs! (I made the flags) The best part about the eggs, was that they slid around on the plates like real little boats!

When the guests arrived, I had them write their name on a calendar and guess when Bradley would be born (a game from my baby shower!)

I also had the guests write a few words of advice, for example "newborn babies make lots of weird grunts and noises when they sleep - they are okay!" and then a few words of encouragement for the parents-to-be for those sleepless nights when they need a little pick-me-up to get them through.

I wrote "enjoy the endless moments of rocking, singing and nursing...because you WILL miss them".

(the picture is a little blurry)

We played a few games - most of which came from this great web site.  In the first game, I passed around a roll of toilet paper and everyone guessed how big Amy's little belly was. For the next game, I brought out the diaper cake I made and let everyone get a good look at it, then I took it away and the guests had one minute to write down as many items as they could remember from the cake! The third game was the "spare change challenge" where everyone (who wanted to participate) took all the spare change out of their wallets and put it in a piggybank for Bradley. Whoever had the most change, won! The last game, and the favorite amongst this group, was a baby shower version of BINGO. When the guests arrived, I put a number and letter combination on their presents. As Amy opened the present, she called out the number and letter on the present and the guests marked that one off of their BINGO card.

The party was a success, and I can't wait to meet little Bradley Wayne!