Rock-a-bye Baby Shower

This past Saturday our family celebrated the newest addition to our family... he will be making his big debut very soon!

I really had such a great time working on this shower for my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. Us four are the only family living here in Dallas, so we had tons of people flying in from all over. We had family coming from California, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia. Besides the two set of parents (soon to be grandparents) the rest of the family was coming for a very short weekend trip. I wanted to make sure majority of all the decorations and prep work was done way in advance so that we would be able to spend time with everyone and really enjoy a stress free weekend. I think the soon to be parents were really happy with how the entire shower turned out.  Here are a few highlights.

The theme of the shower was picked by my SIL. They knew they were having a baby boy, so she searched on pinterest and was immediately drawn to this "Rock-a-bye Baby" theme. Since my brother-in-law has a strong music interest and is a genius on the guitar, I think this was the perfect theme for their co-ed shower.

Once we knew the theme we just ran with it! We found a lot of inspiration from pinterest. The party was mainly being organized by myself and BIL's sister - Heena. Since she was all the way in California and I am in Dallas, so we formed a pinterest board to share ideas. We decided the best way to keep us both involved in the process was to divide up the tasks.  I was in charge of the decor and cake table and she was in charge of all the games and activities for the party. It worked out really well.

This was a pretty large baby shower with about 55 people. So, we hosted it at a small hall adjacent to an Indian restaurant. It was perfect because we didn't have to worry about catering the food over to another location and since the main courses were taken care of, we could concentrated our attention on the best part... the deserts and goodies for the cake table! :)

For the entry table we set up pictures from the baby announcement shoot and shower gifts on either side. SIL found this idea on pinterest... she pick uped blue mini shower items from Bath and Body Works, tied them up together with a blue ribbon and added a cute note that stated.. "From our shower to yours". In the middle we placed an old record with silver sharpies for the guest to sign. We had the invitation printed in a circular shape, cut it and stuck it on the center of the record. I love this idea because after the shower, I think this will perfect to place in a shadow box and add it to the baby's room as cute wall decor piece. 

  

These are the center pieces Chirag and I made for the shower. The inspiration for these came from this pinterest picture. I improvised quiet a bit. 

I had Chirag cut out these guitar from recycled cardboard boxes. I then spray painted them black, added some blue card stock paper for the insert of the guitar and painted the guitar string with white 3-D paint pens. I wasn't sure how to make them stand up in the middle of the tables. Chirag and I both put our heads together and we decided to use cake pop sticks. At first, I thought we would have to glue them and I didn't like that they would show in the back, but the cardboard was actually slightly thick and we were able to just slit a little hole and push them threw the middle. Next, we bought these black buckets and used regular canned food items and glue the cake pop sticks to the cans. We placed them in the buckets and just hid the canned items with some shred we bought at the dollar store. Next, we added some balloons and used these records we bought at Half Price Books for about 0.30 cents each and placed the buckets on them. Lastly, we sprinkled some confetti that says "It's a boy"... and the tables were all done! :)

This was the gift table. I wanted to share this because the guitars also looked super cute if you just placed them in a simple stemmed water glass with black napkins to hold the cake pop sticks. If I had only know it was this easy... I may have skipped the buckets all together. 

 

The Price is Right Game

Name That Baby Food Game

These were the tables we set up for the two different games we played. In addition to these, we also played 4 other games. We played a "baby" word puzzle game (similar) and "Pregnancy - How Sweet" matching game, "Hurry... I gotta Pee Game", and "Who's Traits Should the Baby Inherit" Game. For the last two, I don't have a direct link so I can try my best to explain. 

"Hurry... I gotta Pee Game": We had 4 men place a balloon under their shirt, then they had to place a quarter in between their knees. The object of the game was to run from one end to the other and drop the quarter in a bucket... just like a pregnant women is hurrying to go pee. It was a lot of fun to watch the men do this. 

"Who's Trait Should the Baby Inherit": We had my SIL and BIL sit in chairs facing their backs to the guests. They were given the signs to see above that say "Mommy" one side and "Daddy" on the other. Then we would read out a certain trait or characteristic that the baby would inherit from their parents... i.e: Who's nose should the baby have? or Who's musical talent should the baby have? Then the parents would raise their sign and vote for either the Mommy or the Daddy. The winner would be based upon the majority voted by the guests. If the guests said Mommy's nose and if they both picked Mommy they both would get a point. 

Lastly, here is the close-up of the cake table. I ordered the black fringe curtain, musical note decals, mini-popcorn boxes and blue and white swirl lollipops from Oriental Trading. We placed the lollipops in two black bucket with Styrofoam to make them stand up. I made chocolate covered pretzel sticks with candy melts from Micahel's , placed them in Mason jars and added a cute sticker with an "S" for Baby Sudra. In the middle we added Oreos because they looked like little records to me and in the center of course was this incredible cake. My SIL had it especially designed and made from a local baker. It really turned out better than I could have ever imagined. 

After weeks of preparation, I'm so glad that Avani and Ashish loved all the little details of the shower. They really had a blast and that makes me so happy! And I hope this gave you some inspiration, in case you are expecting a new addition to your family soon too!

I'm so excited and happy to be a mami (aka aunt) and looking forward to meeting Baby Sudra very soon! :)

What is your favorite part of the decor?