I've mentioned many times that I have a large extended family and many cousins, many of whom I'm pretty close to. My cousin, Stefani, is one of them. My aunt Cheri and I were very close when I was little, we spent tons of time together both by myself hanging out or she and my mom getting together hanging out, shopping, going out to eat, etc. I was the flower girl in her wedding and Maggie was flower girl in
Stefani's wedding, so kinda sweet little connection there.
Anyway, Stefani announced her pregnancy on New Year's Eve (via phone to us in TN) and my family kinda keeps me on retainer for planning events, esp. showers, but I do enjoy it. Megan and I started planning earlier this year. Cousins Katie & Rachel joined in hosting as well and we all were in charge of something so it worked nicely.
Initially Stefani & Cameron chose an outdoor theme for the nursery which gave Megan & I so many ideas for the shower. They couldn't find bedding they really liked so they changed it to dinosaurs. We already had so many great ideas, we decided to keep the outdoor shower theme and sprinkle in some dinosaurs. They live outside anyway, right?! :) Plus there's no hard & fast rule to plan the shower around the nursery, just makes things easier since you know what they parents-to-be like.
Soooo, here's our outdoor/dinosaur themed baby shower to welcome little Sullivan James to the family!
Megan had a great idea to do a trail mix bar but surprisingly chose to do food & drinks when we were picking "jobs" so I ran with this.
I made several signs- this one says 'over the river and through the woods.' I promised Will 4 quarters if he found me some good wood I could use for the shower and he found a couple great pieces! I had some pallet wood in the garage, hand painted the words, attached string and hung over this wood piece- I loved it and was so excited! For the trail mix ingredients, I used bowls and containers I had on hand- wrapped some with paper where necessary. And when I ran out of those, I used paper lunch bags. I bought chalkboard labels from Hobby Lobby and attached them to clothespins then to the bowls/bags; each person could fill one or more cellophane bags with their own trail mix- so many options! I added burlap underneath and wah-la! I obviously enjoyed putting this trail mix bar together. One of my favorite things at the shower. :)
For centerpieces I had the idea to use something I had on hand and decided to use Camelbaks, travel mugs & other variations of thermos' which go well with the outdoor theme. I simply filled those with water and added fresh flowers. I surrounded the mugs with baby food jars (yes, I still have a bag full of these I use for crafts) and little tea candles I got at the dollar store. I also crafted some fill-in-the blank advice pages for the parents-to-be.
Megan & Katie did the food and it was so yummy! We had little turkey & roast beef sandwiches, veggies, fruit, crackers macaroni and little smokies (brought by Rachel). The table centerpieces here and below are decor I use at home for fall. Also below we have a 'guess the date' calendar that Katie came up with, so cute! And I brought the 'guest book' designed after an idea I found online. Each guest signed a circle and taped it to the picture of a baby dinosaur so it looks like he's holding balloons. I painted a canvas and attached the printed canvas to it but not super-stuck in case she needs to change the color of the canvas. Stefani loved this idea and teared up when she saw it. :)
The dessert table. Y'all know how much I love 'em! I brought in as many woodsy elements as I could- the lantern for camping, the block of wood, the frame with 'adventure awaits, the wood-like serving items, leaf plates. It turned out really cute. Rachel brought the table cloths and plates, napkins, etc. so that's how we brought in the dinosaurs for decor. As for the actual dessert, I had dinosaur, outdoor and baby-shaped cookies alike plus I made little acorns by attaching a mini nutter butter bite to a Hershey kiss with icing. I also made chocolate dipped marshmallows with graham cracker crumbs on top 'cause, you know, camping! For the cupcakes I wanted to do more than standard yellow and chocolate, so I came up with s'mores and maple bacon thinking both went with the theme and would be fun. I liked both, but the s'mores were more popular.
Megan found these pudding cups online and we decided to do those as well... they were very popular with the kids! I made the pudding and Megan brought the dinosaurs.
Party guests. Grandpa didn't stay the whole time but he did entertain the kids for a bit and eat. :) He sang 'big chief' to the girls, of course, and they kept saying "again, again!"
We decided to throw Stefani a surprise party. We haven't done one in a long time and thought it was worth a shot. Because of scheduling, we decided to host the shower on April 22 and she's due August 3rd, so being this early we felt we had a good chance. Looks like it worked. SURPRISE!
Then we had to get pictures of her with everything before playing games and opening gifts. The guests had already eaten when she and Cam arrived because they were late. Like later than they were supposed to be. But Stef got to eat while we played games then moved on to gifts so it all worked out.
Mmmm... Allie enjoying a cookie. And Maggie helping open gifts. :)
Stefani was surprised and loved everything. She was later than we originally planned, but it was still a success! Now off to Rose & Pete's for a bbq deck party. They love hosting those and why not let the party continue. :)
