Erin's Pirate Baby Shower

In my last blog post I shared pictures from my friend Amy's baby shower.  At the end of my post I mentioned another shower I helped to host for another friend Erin (who helped with Amy's shower, and Amy helped with Erin's....we're all pretty good friends :)   )
For Erin's shower we decided to take a more 'non-traditional' route.  Erin and her husband Will, decided not to find out the gender of their baby until he/she is born, just as they did with their first child, who turned out to be a girl!  Since we didn't know the gender we tried to stay as 'gender-neutral' as possible for this shower.  Since the shower took place in July, we wanted a summer-y kind of theme, and since Erin's daughter went as a pirate for Halloween, the pirate/ocean theme just sort of fell together.  For this shower we had five ladies (including myself) helping to put it all together.  Again, we divided up the tasks and took off!  Again, I took on the decorations.  :) 
Here are some pictures from the shower.  Again, I'll mention that you are welcome to copy any ideas you see, but please give credit where credit is due.  :)
*Also, again, I am NOT a photographer. :)
Erin was gracious enough to let us host the shower at her home on a Saturday night.  And again we included the boys and kids.  (Nowadays it seems silly not to include the guys...although they did spend a lot of time outside playing bag-o). Since Erin and Will already have another child, and didn't need all the essentials that you would for first-time parents, we requested that the guests bring diapers.  So I guess you could say this was more of a diaper shower.   
I didn't' get any pictures of the meal, but another hostess made lasagna, bread, salad, and dip for the adults and even had corn dogs for the kids. 

 Once again I provided diapers for the Diaper Notes activity.  I changed up the wording of the poem from Amy's shower, but it's still pretty much the same thing.  On the invitations I added what I thought to be a clever line..."Do your duty to help cover the booty!"  So I added that in for this activity.   

 I was so glad my mother had lots of ocean decorations for me to borrow so I didn't have to purchase a lot of extras.  This treasure chest was a perfect fit for the diapers. 

 Again, my mom came through with ocean Beanie Babies to use for decoration.  (Yes, she still has all of my old Beanie Babies...they come in handy!)

 This banner is similar to the one I made for Amy's shower.  I purchased pirate-style paper at Hobby Lobby (on sale of course), cut out pendents, then just using Word, inserted a circle, added word art (using the Blackadder font), and cut them out and glue them on.  Easy as pie.  I used a hole punch to help string the twine through and added a few pieces of ribbon to jazz it up.  'Ahoy Baby K' was specific enough since we didn't know the gender or name of the baby. 

 Amy came up with some really cute games.  For this one you had to guess how many pieces were in the treasure chest.  There were like 79 pieces hidden in there (lots of gold coins!).

  We tried to place little decorations everywhere in Erin's house!

 I found this pirate ship at a local party store.  It was perfect and even had room inside to place some sea-themed Little Debbie snack cakes!

 The cake and diaper cake table.

 Again, I can't take too much credit for this diaper cake.  My mom helped put it all together.  The topper is actually a table decoration I found in a set at a local party store. 

 Again, fellow hostess Trisha had her friend make this cute cake!  I've seen them all over Pinterest.  The cake was strawberry so as we cut into the baby it kind of looked like blood!  Haha!  A friend helped with some tips for cutting a round cake like this.  She cut a small circle in the middle of the cake, then just cut pieces like normal all around it. 

 The gift table with a couple more little pieces. 

 I really wish I could take credit for this, but I can't.  A guest dropped this gift off.  Inside was a box of diapers and a package of wipes (I believe).  Smart thinking to make the package look so cute!

 I can take credit for this though.  'Change Me Booty' on the bathroom door! :)

 I even placed a few decorations in the bathroom.  Why not have every room be decorated?

 Another cute pirate ship decoration!

 Another fun sign for the ice chest outside.  All I did was type up the sayings in Word, print them out, and glue them to a sheet of scrapbooking paper. 

 I just had to make this sign, but didn't really know where to put it, so I taped it to the microwave so everyone could see it as they got their plates.

Amy had another game that was so fun and we still don't know the winner....She had guests place bets to see when Erin would have her baby, the gender, and weight.  Each bet cost $2 (you could do more or less) and when Erin finally has her baby if anyone wins they get half the 'pot' and the Baby gets the rest.  If no one wins, the baby gets all the money!  

We had an awesome time at Erin's shower.  I'm glad we got to bless her with boxes and boxes and boxes of diapers.  Now, it's just a waiting game for Baby K to arrive! :) 

Amy's Pink Elephant Baby Shower

I have been meaning to blog about hosting a baby shower for my sweet friend, Amy and her husband Robert, for months now (it was in January and her baby girl is 5 months old now).  I had never hosted a shower before, so I was afraid I'd be in a little over my head, but thankfully, I had two other sweet gals, Trisha and Erin, to help me out.  Between the three of us, the event turned out amazing!  I was worried about finding pink elephant decorations, but things always have a way of working themselves out.  The three of us worked really well together.  We each took an area (decorations, food/cake, and games) and ran with it! 
We made it a couple's shower and made the boys come too!  They had their share of fun, right along with the girls. :)
Of course being the thrifty gal I am, I tried to keep things as cheap as I could.  Here are some pictures from the shower.  Feel free to copy any ideas you see, but please give credit where credit is due. :)
*I am in no way, shape, or form a photographer- keep that in mind. :)

We held the shower in my church fellowship hall (for free!) on a Saturday in the afternoon.

 I got some balloons to put out by the road and near the entrance so the out of town guests would know where to go.  They were only $1 at Deals!  These pink tissue pom-poms came from Hobby Lobby (using a 40% off coupon).  They are easy to make, but just as cheap and easy to buy.  Plus they can be reused.  I should have bought a bigger pink tablecloth, but I had nice white cotton ones underneath so that helped. 

 Since the parents-to-be have many different interests, I decided to make each table a little different to keep things interesting.  Plus, I kept finding cute decorations!  Those are mints on the table, also from Deals for only $1.  The tablecloth is from Wal-Mart and was so cute with the little bows on it!

 These elephant decorations were a great find!  I had no idea how hard it would be to find pink elephants for a baby shower.  A local party store had a few great items like this tablecloth and table decoration. 

 

Since it was a couples shower and both Amy and Robert love to hunt, I just had to do a camo table.  A local party store had this pink camo tablecloth and the sticks are from my backyard.  I painted one pink to help tie it all together. 

 Here is a closer look at the diaper cake.  I can't take much credit for this because my mom made it.  She loves making these and has the process down to a science now of how to build them.  The flowers came from Hobby Lobby, the pink one is a hair clip and the black ones can be made into them for when Baby Oakley gets bigger. Amy also told me she saved the ribbon to be used for something later on. 

 

I found the pink elephant at a Christmas sale at a local DaySpring store.  It sings 'Jesus Loves Me.'  It was a small miracle, I believe, to find a pink elephant!  

 

The 'crinkle paper' around the diaper cake is from Deals also.  A little goes a long way! 

 Part of my gift to Baby Oakley was this wreath made out of tulle.  The letter was already pink and glittery from Hobby Lobby and I bought it when it was on sale 50% off.  I also gave Amy a door hanger, I always think that is a good idea when giving someone a wreath because they might not have one.

 This was one of the activities.  Diaper Notes!  It is so much fun- you just provide guests with sharpies and diapers and let them write fun notes for the parents to read when changing diapers.  It does help to remind people to write high up on the diapers so the ink doesn't bleed through when the baby does her business.  :) 

I re-worked the poem found off of Pinterest (there are several versions found on several blogs).

 The gift table.  

I made the elephant banner by simply doing an image search for an elephant outline (I used the same one for the invitations) and then just printed several off on a few shades of pink paper and hung them up with tiny clothespins. 

 Trisha, another hostess, had a friend of hers make the cake and cupcakes which were delicious! These were pink camo since Amy likes to hunt!

 The amazing cake!  Trisha sent her friend a picture of the elephant I used for the invitations and other decorations and she copied it to make the cake topper!  This girl was amazing and just does cake decoration for fun.  :)

 For whatever reason I can't get this picture to turn the right way, but the cake topper also has a cute little 'Welcome Baby Oakley' tag. 

 It's amazing how things work out, we found these pink elephant cake plates at Wal-Mart!

 Trisha made some great little snacks. 

 The punch was a simple mix of pineapple sherbet and strawberry soda. 

 I made this banner as well using the same elephant outline, pink paper, and tiny clothespins.  I used a great tutorial to help get me started on the banner from justagirlandherblog.com. 

Erin thought up some great games and had amazing prizes for the winners.  

-The Clothespin Game: Everyone starts out wearing one clothespin and the taboo word is 'baby.'  Anytime you hear someone say the word 'baby' you can take their clothespin.  The person with the most clothespins at the end wins! 

-Bottles Up: The mother-to-be chooses a group of men to drink from a bottle as fast as they can.  The first one to finish their bottle wins!  We had 5 guys participate, you could have more or less depending on your crowd, and you could also draw names instead of having the mom-to-be pick.  A note of warning though, it takes a lot longer to down the drinks than you would think, so don't put too much in there.  

-Words of Wisdom:  Place note cards and pens at each table and let the guests write 'Words of Wisdom' or funny stories for the parents to read.  The cards can be placed in a photo album or on a ring.  

We had such a great time hosting this shower and blessing our dear friend.   Having a small group to help host a shower is ideal.  Just make sure everyone is on the same page about what their role is.  I love to decorate so I fell into my role naturally, and the other hostess were fine with that.  Just make sure you all talk and make any important decisions together, but also have the trust to make other decisions on your own.  

I recently hosted another baby shower for Erin, who helped with this shower, pictures of her event to come soon!