JAN 2016
Pregnancy is a time for celebration, and to share the joy with friends and family. And a baby shower is a perfect way to mark this special time in your life. Ours was a double whammy because it was my birthday as well in January.
First thing I did was to design the invitation e-card! Obviously no one does invite cards anymore unless it’s a wedding. In fact, an invite these days is just via FB. But I wanted to make something special, and so I did. I used my Photoshop skills and made a card! I even learnt a few new Photoshop tricks in the process…
Since we knew we were having a baby boy, we did up the house in shades of blue: blue balloons, blue ribbons. One thing that I really liked (yes yes! All about me!) about our decoration was the pictures I put up – It was a mix of cute and funny baby quotes from Goochicoo and maternity pictures of me! I thought it added a very nice personal touch.
To make it memorable for the guests, I decided to have small return gifts. But at the same time, I did’t want to bust my budget either. I was looking for a keepsake that would be personal as well. And that is why I decided to go with chocolates and a hand-written ‘thank you’ postcard. I love postcards and I love writing, and I love hand-made gifts so this made sense. I got gift bags from the store, loaded them with different types of chocolates, and the postcard and tied them up with ribbon! Tadaa!
The cake by Crazy Kutchen (on FB too) was simply fantastic. The little blue baby boy shoes (which I still have now in May :P) and the design. I had a few suggestions which I showed her, and I was wonderfully surprised at how well she had done it. In addition to the main cake, I also had about a dozen cupcakes, obviously baby boy themes! Both the was everything I was hoping it would be, and it was super delicious too!
And since the start time was around 5.30pm, dinner was not on the cards. So we did the usual snacks route: parcels from Takeaway, dumplings from Three peppers, mini sliders and mini pizzas from Ima’s kitchen (can be found on FB), and tons of bubbly – and by that I mean soft drinks! Tsk what are you thinking?
I spent hours and hours figuring out the games. We had a gala time doing it too! I knew I wanted them to be personalized…So here they are:
- Baby Bingo – This took way too much time to prep! But I had plenty of time… especially since my co-workers were not giving me too much to do… I was busy organizing the games at office! Ha! So for this, I searched for blue themed images for the boxes, and then wrote little rhymes for each of the options. I used a bingo maker application from the net (link: http://bingocardmaker.sourceforge.net/) to make the actual cards. I probably took so long to get this sorted simply because I am pedantic about my lists and excel sheets and the like! If only I felt the same way about my room, the husband would be thrilled.You’ll need to have enough printouts for everyone. I printed 2 on an A4 sheet, and provided pencils for everyone.Playing the game is easy. I called out the clues, and everyone marked it on their cards and the first two people with all the boxes in a line – horizontal or vertical – won. My clues were fairly easy or so I believe.
Baby Bingo
- Pin the Baby – For this game, you will have to print a big cutout of a fully pregnant mommy and a baby. Stick the mommy onto a foam board, and keep a few pushpins ready. The game is to blindfold the player and let them pin the baby. Obviously, the winner has to pin the baby in the tummy.This game brought about quite a few laughs, as some of them pinned the baby on mommy’s butt and some were pinned far away from mommy.The funniest thing happening when I was getting this game ready. I googled ‘cute cartoon mummy’ and the cutest pictures came up. Only thing is, it was the wrong kind! Tons of cool Egyptian mummies….
- Clay Baby – All you need for this is colorful children’s clay. The clay needs to be colorful. Not the children. Ok! that was the lamest attempt at a joke but let’s laugh and move on…the game is simple enough. Everyone gets a ball of clay, the timer is set to 5 or 10minutes during which they have to make a baby. And the person with the best baby wins…At the end of the time allotted, we had some human babies, some onesies and sleeping bags with heads and some alien babies. Oh my! Babies are sure tough to make. It was a lot of fun!
- Mommy’s Measurements: The focus is on the belly! And in this game, the guests need to guess the measurements. So, we pass around rolls of ribbon or string and ask each person to cut the ribbon to fit perfectly around mommy’s belly.You’ll need scissors and rolls of ribbon for this. Make sure you have quite a bit of ribbon, so that everyone can cut to their heart’s content.
- Unscramble Me: This was quite easy to prepare for. Google was my savior. There are various options available online, with some easier than the other. Different themes, and different colors. The one I chose had blue polka dots for the baby boy theme, and it was a little on the tough side. After all, most of my friends work in the journalism business! I figured they’d guess the words, but it did take a while! And yes yes, the number one complaint was that high chair was too words. Boohoo…And all you need for this are enough printouts for everyone, and pencils.
To make the games exciting, I did have presents for everyone (well almost everyone). For every game, the first and second place winners took home presents. To make sure most people took home prizes, my rule was that if one person wins at two games, he will only get the prize for one of them! I found the Saturday MIA Bazaar and Qgrabs.com to be great for interesting bargains for the prizes.
All in all, it was a wonderful day! One which I had a gala time, and I know for sure that everyone who attended enjoyed too! And this one will definitely be a cherished memory!
