Sweet Pea Baby Shower

Date: Saturday, February 12, 2011
Location: Mom to Be's House, Toronto, On
Guests: 20
Budget: low
Special considerations: vegetarian, vegan, nut free and as eco-friendly as possible.

Menu:

• veggies and hummus
• crackers and cheese platter
• guacamole and whole wheat tortilla chips
• vegetarian quiche
• endamame
• vanilla and raspberry cupcakes with vanilla butter cream icing (not vegan)

Games and Activities:

Guess the baby food flavour: To play this game, all you need are a few jars of baby food in different flavours that look the same, some spoons, pencils and paper. For example, we had sweet potato, corn, peach, and apple/strawberry. I took the labels off the jars, but taped them to the bottom so I could tell them apart and numbered the lids 1 through 4. All of them are orange, and it's really hard to tell which is which. Guests tasted each jar and tried to guess what flavour they were. People had a really hard time with the peach and the apple/strawberry. The winner missed the apple/strawberry but got the rest.


Guess the nursery rhyme: For this game, read out one line from a common nursery rhyme, such as "hickory dickory dock" and have the guests guest the title of the rhyme. It's harder than you think.

How well do we know mommy? For this game, guests had to select characteristics the baby would have, for example hair colour or eye colour, but the trick was to guess what Mom-to-be would answer herself. The guest who had the most answers that matched Mom-to-be's form won. I played this game, and I actually won! Kind of funny really.

What was one thing your mom did for you, that really helped you blossom? This is sort of an advice question-guests wrote down their answers for Mom-to-be to read later. Collect them all and paste into a memory or guestbook.

Finger print tree guestbook: for this activity I painted a tree with watercolour on paper. I painted the design free hand, but if you google you can find lots of tree images you can copy and print out. The image I designed is small, about 9 by 11 inches. For alot of people, I would recommend a much larger design with lots of branches.

I found some "washable" ink at the craft store. The package claims it washes off easily, but we found out the hard way it stained a bit. Have the guests dip a finger or thumb into the ink and stamp their fingerprint onto the branches of the tree so it appears to be leaves. Sign your name near your print. It looks really cool with alot of prints.

For some reason-not everyone did one. Either they forgot or didn't want a green finger all day. I suggested Mom-to-be keep the supplies and have her family member and visitors add their prints to add to the design. Then frame and hang in the baby's room as artwork.

Decorations:

When I started sourcing the decorations for this party, I had a really hard time finding baby shower things in green. Everything is pink, blue, or yellow. When I started planning, it was unknown if baby was male or female, but shortly after Mom-to-be told me baby was a boy. So I was able to add some blue in with the greens. Since I couldn't find what I wanted in stores, I made a mobile, a sweet pea banner, a garland and felt pea name tags. The details of each project will be posted separately shortly. I did buy a balloon bouquet from party packagers, and it just so happened Mom-to-be was invited to a baby shower the very next day, so she was able to re-use the balloons. I was lucky in that the location was already so lovely and well decorated that I didn't really have to add much. Lots of amazing artwork and a neural colour scheme. The greens really popped and looked great.

Details for the projects to come!