I have been planning a baby shower for the past couple weeks and now I can post all about it without fear that Brittany will read this. :)
Now when Brittany found out she was pregnant her ultrasound looked like a baby sea turtle which is where I got my idea for her shower. I went into ultra drive collecting as many turtle items as I could find. Also if you are looking for turtles not very easy. I found one turtle stuffed animal but it was pink! Frogs on the other hand are EVERYWHERE! So in this post I am going to go step by step in planning a sea turtle themed baby shower- everything from food to games!
Games:
I have 3 games planned. You don't want to do too many but have just enough to keep your guest occupied. Games are also a very good conversation starter if you have a lot of guests who may not know each other. The first game I planned was Animal Baby Names. For this game you make a list of any animal you want and your guests have to name the name of their baby counter parts. ( Example in link #25
http://www.babyshower101.com/index.html) The second game is very simple but super fun. I bought 5 jars of baby food and peeled the labels off. On the bottom of the jars I wrote numbers 1 through 5. The guest then have to smell or taste the baby food to guess what they are. They write their answers down on a sheet of paper and the guest with the most correct win a prize. Make sure to write down the answers before peeling the labels off so you know which is which. The last game was a fill in the blank nursery rhyme game. You can use my example or create one of your own. I listed a link below that has TONS of baby shower games if you want to use different ones. It also has great ideas for party favors.
http://www.babyshower101.com/index.html
Nursery Rhymes
Fill in the blank:
1) Mary had a little lamb, it's _____________ was white as snow.
2) Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any _____________?
3) Mary, Mary, quite _____________, how does your garden grow?
4) Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub, and who do you think ____________ ___________?
5) Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, _________________ ________________!
6) Little Jack Horner sat in a corner, eating his ______________ pie;
7) Little Miss Muffet, sat on a tuffet, eating her ________________ and _______________.
8) Peter Piper picked a peck of ____________ _____________.
9) One, two, buckle my shoe, three four, _____________ the door.
10) Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater, had a wife but couldn't ____________ her.
11) Old Mother Hubbard went to the _______________.
12) There was an old woman, who lived in a _______________.
13) Jack Sprat could eat no fat; his wife could eat no ___________.
14) Hey diddle, diddle, the ____________ and the fiddle.
15) Rock-a-bye baby, on the __________________.
Prizes:
With any set of games comes prizes! Since I had 3 games, I needed 3 prizes. I also had scratch off tickets in their goodie bags (I"ll show you those late :) ) So I really needed 4 prizes. For these I went to my normal spots..Michael's and Bath and Body Works. For anyone who knows me, I live in these stores. Not only did Bath and Body have great prizes...they had TURTLES! For my prizes I got a large candle, Strawberry scented hand cream, a TURTLE candle holder and kitchen soap with a TURTLE topper!
Favors:
Bath and Body Works always has such great deals and coupons! The staff is always so helpful..I definitely recommend going there for any party prizes or favors. Which brings me to my next step: Goodie Bags! Continuing with my turtle theme. I filled the bags with..scratch off tickets (Party City), anti bacterial along with TURTLE holder( B&BW), TURTLE hand towel (B&BW), TURTLE mirror (B&BW), nail file (Dollar section in Michael's), Mini frame (Dollar section in Michael's), grow TURTLE (Party City), and mini pinball game that has a TURTLE in background (Party City). I used yellow bags since we wanted to be gender neutral. I tied yellow and green plastic pacifiers on the handles with green ribbon again wanting to be gender neutral.
Food:
Many different factors play into food. Number 1: location. If you are having your shower at home there are no limits to all the crazy, themed, creative ideas you can come up with. If you are having it at a restaurant things are a little different. Pick a restaurant that wont mind you sitting for awhile. Go early enough in the day so that the restaurant wont be too loud or busy. Also calling in advance to let the restaurant know your plans helps BIG time!! We choose to have the shower at House of Brews in Turnersville. It helped that boyfriend works there :) but I did let the restaurant know how many guests, what kind of decorations I would have, etc. We went early enough that we weren't waiting for food long and it was crowded or loud. Number 2: guest. How many guests plays a major factor in food. If its a large group you might want to consider renting a hall or going to a restaurant with private rooms.
We only had 5 guests so we were able to ordered individual meals and have pitchers of drinks. This was also help because some expecting mothers might be sensitive to smells and tastes of certain foods. I made TURTLE cupcakes for dessert to finish off the TURTLE theme.
Now they didn't come out quite as good as the recipe found on disneyfamily.com. Squirt Happy Turtlecakes
You can use the recipe on the web site or you can use your own cupcake recipe. I used my vanilla cupcake recipe with vanilla frosting.
What You'll Need:
Vanilla Cupcake-
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Frosting-
Store bought :( I know, I know but seriously who has time.
Turtle Decorations-
Peach Rings
Spiced Gumdrops (red and green)
Spearmint Leaves
What To Do:
Preheat oven to 375
Cream butter and sugar. Add one egg at a time. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt. Alternate adding flour mixture and milk into butter mixture. Add vanilla. Add cupcake mixture to liners and bake 13 minutes. Let cupcakes cool about 20 minutes before icing. I split icing in half and added blue food coloring to one bowl. I then alternated icing in my cake decorator to make the icing look like waves.
Meanwhile prep decorations. Cut leaves in half. These will be used for your turtles front legs. To make back legs cut leaves in half and then half again. After frosting cupcake place peach rings in center of frosting. Place red drops in peach ring hole. Use green drops for head and cut leaves for legs.
Not as good as the original but still perfect for the baby shower!!
Overall, the shower was a success! Brittany was surprised and that's all I wanted!
Whats for dinner tonight?
Grilled Chicken with Chili Lime Corn on the Cob.
Next party idea:
Easter Brunch- serving
honey cupcakes with honey cream cheese frosting.
If you would like help planning your next event please contact me through my blog or email me at
breedy87@gmail.com.
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