Liam's Baby Shower

We thought simple was the way to go for our first attempt at a baby shower but with some great ideas and craftiness I think we came up with a beautiful and special day for Momma to be.

Most the garlands were handcrafted with cut out paper designs and ribbon. Easy to duplicate and fun to make.

We also took baby socks and just clothes pinned them to the ribbon and strung this as garland. A fun look and the mom-to-be gets to take the sock home for baby!






These beautiful pom-poms were super simple but sure pack a punch to any party. Great for a baby shower but also think about bridal showers, birthdays and of course weddings.

How to make Tissue Paper Pom-Poms

Choose the tissue paper color of choice.
Lay eight sheets flat on a table. Stack of paper should face you vertically.
Start folding approx one inch folds "accordian" style. Fold paper backwards, forwards and then backwards, as though you were making a fan. Once all is folded and you have it all accordian folded find the center and wrap with a floral wire. (in a pinch you can use a twist tie) Now the papers are held together in the middle you need to get sharp scissors and round the ends of the papers. This will give the pom-poms a more "fluttery" appearance. After that, you get to do the fun part, which is pulling the layers apart. Hold your pompom by the wire part in the middle and let each side fan out. Then choose one side and start pulling gently---very, very gently---on the first piece of tissue paper, so that it fans out from the rest. Pull it out from the bottom, as near to the wire as you can get; this will make for a pretty fluffy pompom once they're all fluffed up.



Once done with the one side you repeat the second side to create your beautiful pom-pom. Add pretty ribbon or use fishing line to hang the pretty pom-poms. These are addictive to make and can be made in smaller sizes (by cutting down your tissue) the more you hand the prettier they look. Beautiful for an outside party hung from low trees too!








The punch was fun with the addition of some adorable rubber ducks. Brought smiles to the table!

The ice cream melts somewhat and turns the punch a beautiful baby blue color leaving frothy blue and white clouds floating on top. Everyone thought it tasted great and asked for the recipe. Its also very adaptable to your taste.

You can adjust the recipe to change the color for a baby girl or even use this for a kids birthday party. The sky's the limit.

Here is the easy recipe:

• 1 (0.13 ounce) package blue, berry flavored unsweetened drink mix
• 1 (2 liter) bottle lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage
• 1 (64 fluid ounce) bottle white cranberry juice
• 8 scoops vanilla ice cream
• 1 cup white sugar, or to taste

Directions:
In a large punch bowl, stir together the drink mix, lemon-lime soda, and white cranberry juice. Taste, and stir in sugar to your liking. (I like to add the whole cup.) Float scoops of ice cream on the top. The ice cream melts somewhat and turns the punch a beautiful baby blue color with frothy white clouds floating on the top.

Besides keeping the food simple and delicious we thought a fondue fountain would be a fun gathering place for guests. We used beautiful strawberries ~ pound cake ~ pineapple ~ marshmallows to start but our creative guests were soon dipping all sorts of cheese ~ veggies ~ crackers and more in this delicious fountain of chocolate.

We did have a delicious cake from my Daughters favorite bakery, Publix. (I once flew from Orlando to Chicago to visit her and traveled with a Publix cake in my carry on.) The things we will do for our children! Anyway besides her cake I made favors for guests to take home a darling homemade chocolate cupcake with blue spray color frosting in its own little acrylic box wrapped with polka dot ribbon and a thank you tag from the baby-to-be. A lot of work but I thought they came out really well and tasted good too.

We had several fun games at the shower, this one was by far the most disturbing and yet the funnest!

POOPY DIAPER GAME

Buy 5-10 different kinds of chocolate candy bars and a package of baby diapers. Number the diapers and place about a third or half of each candy bar in the diaper. Be sure to unwrap it first and write down which candy bar corresponds to which diaper number. Then put them one or two at a time into the microwave. Try microwaving them for 30 seconds to begin with and increase or decrease the time, if needed. Be sure to watch them to make sure everything is going all right. You can smash them up with a fork a bit to make them seem more real. Have worksheets prepared for the guests with the names of the candy bars you used and a blank space for them to write which number diaper they think corresponds to each candy. Pass the diapers around and let the guests sniff or touch (no tasting please!) the mess in the diapers. They then guess which candy bar is in that diaper and write it down on their worksheet. At the end, the guest with the most correct answers is the winner. Part of the prize for this game could include one of each of the candy bars used. Be sure to have a camera on hand to catch some hilarious pictures of diaper-sniffing and apparently in our case tasting!!

MOM or DAD?

This game was fun and created by our own Alicia and her sister Parisa.
Each disk contained a trait, Sense of Humor, smile, color eyes, smile,brains, beauty etc. Guests had to choose who the baby would get this trait from. It was a lot of fun and as my daughter said almost caused a divorce ha ha!

Another great idea (not a game) is to have each guest bring a pack of diapers. They then drop there name in a box for a drawing for a great prize. We did gift card to a local restaurant. A fun idea and the mom-to-be gets a heads start on a diaper collection.

These cute little advice cards are made using cardstock.

I designed a template for a baby onsie and cut each one out with pinking shears. I then threaded lace through some at the neck, put buttons on some and others just left with the polka dots. I attached each one to a wooden skewer and placed inside a pre-painted plant pot. Guests were asked to fill out there advice for Mom & Dad and place back in the plant pot before leaving. I noticed on my visit to Chicago the pot with the advice cards was in the babys nursery and looked adorable. A very cute and inexpensive idea I thought I would share with you.

And finally...

We received so much love and of course gifts from our family and friends but nothing can compare to the bundle we received in May. Liam Matthew joined our lives and changed our world forever. We are truly blessed.



Well this is my first official blog. Hope you enjoyed. I am hoping I will get better as I go. I have some more fun stuff to share and so much more to learn.