Best Baby Shower Ideas!

I love planning baby showers... I think it goes hand-n-hand with being a teacher... You can use your creative teacher genes to make a shower tons of fun & something mommy-to-be will always cherish. Below I will list some baby shower planning tips, decorating ideas, food ideas, favor ideas, and much more. I even give you the option to purchase a baby shower packet, that I will customize for you.

Creative Food Ideas For Your Baby Shower

Baby Cookies - Cute round cookies in the color of the sex of the baby.
Michaels sells little bows in the shower section. The bows are places at the bottom of the cookie. Use dolies as bonnets. Too cute!

Check out the cute baby carriage fruit dish made out of a watermellon. Makes a great centerpiece. You can learn how to make this at:
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art4178.asp

Here are some of my favorite things to serve at a shower!

Greek Orzo Salad: http://www.recipezaar.com/39658

Broccolli Salad: http://www.recipezaar.com/9714

Strawberry Pretzel Salad: http://www.recipezaar.com/9714

Oreo Truffles (I like to dip the mix in white chocolate and drizzle pink or blue colored chocolate over the top)
http://www.recipezaar.com/87967

MORE BABY SHOWER FOOD TIPS:

-Note the napkins on right of the picture. I like to find napkins with the baby to be's initial on them. Just a cute little touch.

-Use a centerpiece : Flowers in pink or blue-Try to make the food table beautiful with fun serving dishes. People will think the food tastes great before they even eat.

-I also like to make cookies to put with the truffles. I like to add pink or blue M&M's to the cookies.
I stock up on pink and baby blue M&M's at Easter Time. Also valentine's day M&M's
include pink.

-For beverages, I like to serve water bottles and wine coolers.
Select wine coolers that match the sex of the baby. If you do not know the sex, get pink and blue wine coolers.

- Purchase premaid wraps at SAMS Club

-Create a veggie tray with asparagus, red peppers, yellow peppers, carrots, and sugar snap peas (make it colorful)!


Be creative with the cake! Here are two of my favorite baby shower cakes.

My Favorite Baby Shower Games:

This is the guess the number of M&M's in the bottle. There are 266 in this bottle. This is something fun for your guests to do when they arrive.
I usually give the guest their name tag and then give them a game slip to fill out. They fill out the slip that asks them to guess the number of M&M's and then
they put the slip in the box (I used the cute mailbox). Below you can purchase a packet which includes a sign for the game and slips for your guests to fill out.


The PRICE IS RIGHT GAME - Purchase 10 products mommy will use when baby comes (Dreft, Oragel, wipes, baby wash, mylicon, Balmex...). Number each product one to ten and note the price of each product. Guests must guess the price w./o going over. The closest guess wins a point. At the end of the game each guest counts up the number correct. The guest with the most correct wins a prize. It is fun to have Mommy to Be give the first guess of the price of things before you give the answer. Below you can see the game sheet that goes along with this game. The game sheet comes with the packet mentioned at the bottom of this page.

Candy Bar Game

List a display some candy. Players guess which candy goes with the pregnancy word. When going over the answers throw the candy bars out to the guests that answer first. Guests with the most correct wins a prize at the end of the game. I use a game sheet for this game. It comes in the packet below.

Baby Bingo:

Guest fill in the bingo card with items they think Mommy will get as a gift. Played like regualr bingo. As mom opens a gift, players mark their cards. First to call bingo wins! The game sheet for this is available in the baby shower packet seen below.

Links to More Baby Shower Games

http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/pregnancy/babyshowers/1613.html
http://www.geocities.com/showersdeluxe/Games.html
http://www.welcomebaby.com/baby_shower_games.htm - free printable baby shower games

Creative Baby Shower Gift Ideas


I love to fill laundry baskets with baby goodies. I always line the basket with a pack of newborn diapers.
I place items from the registry as well as some things I loved having for my babies.

 

(PICTURE OF BOOK BASKET)
As a teacher I feel it is my duty to give every child I come in touch with a great book. Every baby gift I give always includes at least one of my favorite books for baby!
Why not give one of your friends babies a gift that will help foster a love of reading... A board book basket.
Fill a basket with board books for baby. Stick in a lovey for baby to ready with. Attach the poem READ TO YOUR BUNNY.

Read to your bunny often,

It's twenty minutes of fun.

It's twenty minutes of moonlight,

And twenty minutes of sun.

Twenty old-favorite minutes,

Twenty minutes brand-new,

Read to your bunny often,

And...

Your bunny will read to you.

By Rosemary Wells.

Some of my favorite books to include in a basket. This includes a little of everything to get baby reading from birth to two.

Bath tub gift. If the baby bath is still on the registry, grab it. They are usually under $20.00 and you can fill it with all kinds of goodies. You can go with a bath & bedtime theme like above. This one happens to be for twins; so I included two of everything. Most came off the registry and some I added. The best touch is to make a bed time CD and a bath time CD to include in the tub for a personal touch. You can see the CD's I made below. Some of the other things for this basket are:
Two bath books, swaddle blankets, lovey blankets, bath soap, baby lotion, Balmex, two bedtime books, baby towels, bath toy, wash cloths, tooth paste, baby care kit, pajamas...

(Picture of CD's)


Fill a wagon with baby items.

Creative Baby Shower Favors

My favorite baby shower favor is to create a CD of songs that are related to being a parent. You can see the list of songs I used on this CD. Songs to honor daughters. I combine this with a candel and a poem I wrote. It's a hit. The poem comes in the packet discussed at the bottom of the page.

The finished favor - Always a hit!!!

More Cute Favors

Candy Bar Favors
Visit
http://www.teachingheart.net/babywrappers.html to see some birth announcement wrappers.
Email me & for the same price I can create a customized shower wrapper for you!

Make Candy:
Wilton makes the candy molds in all sorts of designs.

Decorations

My favorite decoration is to make a clothes line of baby clothing that can be given to the Mommy-to-be after the shower. You can do this yourself or ask family members and or close friends to supply an item for the line. Here are some pictures of one I did.

To make it extra special, I customized some of the onsies with iron on graphics I created on the computer.

You can purchase iron on paper for your printer at your local office store. Then you may create a gaphic for a onsie. You could make one that represents a favorite team. The one here says, "My Daddy Drools for the Steelers." It has a picture of a bear in a Steelers Cheerleader outfit (found the graphic online).

For some of my friends, I have done our college on a onsie. I have also done occupation onsies. - My Mommy is a Nurse. My hubby use to be in the Navy and some of his friends are still in, when they have babies I often make a onsie with the crest or logo of the boat the Daddy is on. It is endless of what you can do. I love the iron on transfers and use them all the time for different crafts.

My girlfriend makes these cute diaper cakes. They are always a hit at showers. You can follow the link below and learn how to make your own:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Diaper-Cake or if you want to purchase one click one below.

BABY SOCK FLOWERS
This was a center piece from a recent shower. The Mommy-to-be was having twins. Boys & girls
socks were used to create this centerpiece. Isn't this cute?

You can view detailed instructions for this centerpiece at
http://www.plan-the-perfect-baby-shower.com/baby-sock-rose.html

Baby Shower Printables
The program and games ready to print and use.

Other baby shower sites

http://www.babycenter.com/pregnancy/babyshowers

http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=channel3900355&site=kids

http://www.babybingo.com/freegames.html

http://www.babyshowerclub.com/babyshower-ideas.htm

www.teachingheat.net