An Elephant Baby Shower

My adorable curly-haired little nephew Max celebrated his birthday this week.  I don’t get the chance to see him as often as I would like, but when I do I always enjoy visiting and seeing how he has grown.  They change so fast and it is hard to believe it has been now been over two years already since I hosted the baby shower for my sister in his honour.

Décor
With Max, my sister knew she was having a little boy, so I decided right away on a green, blue and grey color scheme.  For the overall theme, I chose elephants because my sister had a stuffed elephant growing up that she was very attached to and I think still sleeps with to this day.  The main graphics I used were an “oh boy.” typographic image and a picture of a mom and baby elephant intertwined.  These were used on the invite, banner and food toppers.

I created a simple wreath for the front door and strung articles of baby clothing with elephants on them across the front window of my mom’s house.  Paper lanterns were put up across the food table with the “It’s a Boy!” banner and a felt elephant mobile I crafted up got hung from the kitchen light at the middle of the table.  I also found small paper mache elephants at Michaels so those got put out on the food table.

Food

The shower was help in the mid afternoon so I served a range of finger foods and sweets.  Savory items included spinach dip cups, pigs in a blanket, sweet and sour meatballs, bruschetta and garlic toast, stuffed mushrooms, and surprise dip with tortilla chips.

For the sweet items, I made fruit bouquets in green and blue flower pots, baked and decorated elephant shaped sugar cookies and made a mini cupcake display.  For the cupcakes, we had chocolate cake with mint frosting and white cake with a banana flavored frosting.  To keep with the elephant theme, they were all topped with a small marshmallow peanut.

One other fun sweet item I made was blue candy popcorn.  The labels were custom designed by myself and put on small wedding favor boxes, then filled with a basic sugar popcorn recipe.  I love the pink colored elephant brand popcorn when I was growing up, so I thought this was a fun twist on it.

Games

I know a lot of people dread the typical baby shower games, so I tried to come up with some fun games that wouldn’t  embarrass anyone or require my guests to eat disgusting mush.   I decided on two games – Baby Scattegories and a Price is Right style game using baby items.  I think the guests all enjoyed it and afterwards the mom-to-be was able to take the Price is Right items and put them to use with her new baby.

Favors

As guests left, they were given small bottles of hand santizer with custom designed labels I ordered from stickeryou.  They were quick and easy and I think they turned out pretty cute.

So there you have it.  Like any shower or party, I had a lot of fun designing and planning this special day for my little sister.  She is  expecting again this December and while I won’t be throwing another baby shower for this new niece or nephew, I am just as excited for their arrival.

You can also view my Elephant Baby Shower planning board on pinterest.