Elaine's Baby Shower

I hosted a baby shower for my sister Elaine this past Saturday and it turned out great (she's expecting a girl on 4/1)! I started planning quite a while ago to ensure that I’d have time to organize everything. Since Elaine loves Hello Kitty, the theme for the party was an easy choice. And since Elaine threw such a great shower for me, I wanted to make sure that her soiree was just as awesome!

First step was making the invitations. Besides the fact that I would never be able to find a ready-made Hello Kitty invitation for a baby shower, I knew I’d have fun making them! Luckily I love all things crafty, and making invitations is definitely one of my favorite things to make. In the past, I’ve made my own party, graduation, and even wedding invitations! So I made a few trips to my local craft store to pick up a bunch of supplies and started to assemble them during Natalie’s naps and feedings. They took longer than I anticipated (as does everything while caring for a two-month old!) but they turned out great (see below).

Second was finding a location. Since our place is much too small to host a party of more than just a few people, I wasn’t sure where to hold it. Then, one day when my mother-in-law was over, she suggested that I reserve the clubhouse at our condo community (which didn’t even cross my mind and would work perfectly). So I checked in with Elaine and reserved a date!

Third was organizing a few baby shower games. I didn’t want to do the same ones that she planned for my shower, so I scoured the internet and came up with two good ones. First, a “Memory” matching game where guests have to match word pairs on a poster board and then receive candy for correct matches. For example, “11-pound baby” with “11-pound baby” (prize: Whoppers) and “epidural” with “epidural” (prize: Lifesavers). Second was “The Price is Right” where guests have to guess the prices for various baby items and the person closest to the total price wins.

Fourth was finding inexpensive, but cool favors- which is not easy to do when you’re planning for 30 guests! With a budget of about $2 a favor, I managed to put together these awesome goodie bags that contained two chocolate truffles, a compact mirror, and lip gloss, complete with a custom Hello Kitty favor label and “It’s a Girl” ribbon.


Then came all the details: Hello Kitty tableware, “It’s a Girl” balloons, Hello Kitty decorations (that I made myself!), tablecloths, centerpieces, and of course food and dessert. I made all the food for the party, including chicken and pesto sandwiches on focaccia bread, a fancy spring salad with spiced walnuts, dried cranberries and feta cheese, a tortellini bean salad, and fruit kabobs. I also made a big chocolate cake that tasted great (but wasn’t as decorated as nicely as it could have been due to lack of time), and put together a pink sherbet punch.




It was raining really hard on the day of the shower and unfortunately Eric was mandated to work overtime the Friday night before the shower! I was counting on him to take Natalie for a few hours while I set-up everything and finished a few last-minute details! Luckily I was able to get everything done the morning of the shower and I was really happy with how everything turned out. Natalie even had a nice time with Daddy for a couple hours and took a bottle while I was gone! More importantly, I think Elaine had a great time and she received a lot of neat things for her little baby girl (like baby high heels that we had fun trying on Natalie)!