For this Throwback Thursday, I’m rewinding back to the first baby shower I ever threw. Please excuse the photo quality as I had to dig these out of the vault. This project was a nice way to customize the games and activities and add that personal touch!
The stations:
- How Many In The Bottle? (table top)
- How Big is Mommy’s Belly? (table top)
- Wishes for Baby (table top)
- What Will Baby Look Like? (table top)
- Tinkle In the Pot (physical activity)
- Candy Bar (table top)
I highly recommend the table top stations as they were easy to manage with minimal supervision. Corralling ~50 people who may or may not want to play the games outdoors can be a challenge. Plus introverts like me appreciate an activity where we can participate without being put on the spot ;).
One of the things I miss in these coronavirus times is definitely our big family gatherings. We had this one at an outdoor park. Parties like these were a staple of my childhood. Food, family, loudness, a bit of chaos, did I mention food?
How Many In The Bottle?
This one’s pretty self explanatory. Guests took their best guess at how many pieces of candy were in the giant baby bottle (plastic coin bank from Party City) and submitted them on paper slips. I made the slips in a word document to then print on resume paper and cut out. There is a line for the guest’s name and guess.
For each of these games I painted a premade paper mache box from Michael’s. Something like this. For each box, the lid was propped up and showcased the name of the game with instructions. The bottom half of the box sat behind the lid for collecting the filled out paper slips. This design made transporting everything simple, especially since the boxes could nest inside another.
The outsides were spray painted white while the inside of the boxes were painted a sky blue. The paper mache soaked up a lot of the paint, and with each coat, new fibers would pop up adding to the surface texture. I did at least 3 coats of paint for the white and 2 for the sky blue. The blue went on easier perhaps due to the fact that it was a glossier finish? More pigmented paint?
I painstakingly wrote the text on the box lid with black acrylic paint and a detail brush. I remember not wanting to deal with printing text out on computer paper and gluing the paper on for some reason? Maybe it was the look of computer printed text? I’m not sure. It did take a while but was satisfying. I was really pleased with the outcome. Painting the letters also made them more smudge proof in case it rained.
How Big is Mommy’s Belly?
The goal of this one is to guess the circumference of the mother-to-be’s belly. A painted paper mache tissue box cover acted as the yarn holder. Guests would cut the yarn to length then anchor and wrap them around printed cards with their name. For prizes, we gave out gift cards for different food places. I opted for gray text on this lid to match the softness of the hand-painted momma image.
I liked this game because it was simple and no measuring involved for the guests. I thought it would be cute to use a measuring tape as decor around the box. This was the same measuring tape I used to translate all the guesses into numbers. Efficiency!
Wishes for Baby
I drew and cutout my own star stencil out of computer paper. I painted a glowing blue star on the lid and silver star outlines on the sides of the box (you can barely see them on the top of the box in this photo).
For the cute animal cards, I bought a pattern for ~$5. I can’t remember the site I got them from as this was several years ago, but there are similar forms on Etsy. Just search for baby animal wishes/baby wishes/wishes for baby. If you’d like to make one yourself, the fields on the form I printed are:
- I hope you learn to…
- I hope you love…
- I hope you become…
- I hope you grow…
- I hope you aren’t afraid…
- I hope you never forget…
- I hope you get your Mom’s…
- I hope you get your Dad’s…
- I hope you dream about…
- I hope you always…
What Will Baby Look Like?
I took a high res photo of the mother-to-be and one of the father-to-be and blew up their faces to the size of a computer page (8.5″x11″). I cut out their faces by hand and divided each face into 4 horizontal sections. Guests were to mix and match facial features to try and guess what the baby would look like.
For a couple adopting, you could substitute several celebrities’ faces or fictional characters’ faces for the parents -to-be. If you’re feeling daring, having the guests draw their guesses out could be a fun and entertaining alternative.
Tinkle In The Pot
Though this was not a table top station, it was a ton of fun. This hilarious game involves two lines, two small 3″-5″ wide containers set on the ground, and two ping-pong balls. The first person in each line places a ping-pong ball between their knees and a balloon in their shirt. The objective is to waddle over several feet to the small container and drop the ping-pong ball into the container (without touching it with their hands). Even though we gave each person 3 tries, there were only 2 or 3 people out of 10 who made it in. Each got a gift card as a prize. It is much harder than it looks! Ah, the struggles of being a pregnant woman!
Candy Bar
We also had a candy bar on the side. Several sizes of fishbowls filled with candy and goodie bags so guests could take home some treats. I learned that candy is EXPENSIVE! By far, the candy bar was the most expensive station to setup for the shower. The kids loved it and ate or took home all of the candy. Not sure how the parents fared after that day though…