Now that I’ve covered the decorations and the food for the Ahoy It’s a Boy baby shower I threw my cousin, Allison, it’s time for how the shower actually went down.
The mom-to-be/cutest preggo person ever!
As guests entered the shower, they mingled and stopped by the sign-in table to write some advice for Allison. Guests who brought diapers for her dropped their raffle ticket in the jar for the Diaper Raffle. I also had a basket full of diapers on which guests wrote funny messages so that Allison can get a good laugh when she’s up late at night!
As guests were just starting to arrive, we made sure to take a few photos with Allison before things got too busy.
Aunt Lynn, Allison, me and my mom.
Daughter and mom.
Allison with her fun mother-in-law, Mindy and adorable sister-in-law, Rachel.
My mom and Aunt Linda chilling before the shower started.
Chatting it up.
Allison and the lovely Marsha.
This was Allison’s third (or fourth?) shower, so for this one, the guests were an eclectic mix of family, Allison’s friends and Lynn’s friends.
Allison with Rachel and her friends from high school, Nana and Whittney. At one point, Allison, Whittney and I started talking about strollers and other baby-related items, boring Rachel and Nana to death! It’s funny the conversations that just come naturally once you have kids.
After giving everyone some time to eat and chat, we gathered in the living room for games. Our first game was Baby Price Is Right. I held up different items, like diapers, wipes, a board book, baby shampoo, etc., and guests had to guess what they thought the price of each item was. Whoever’s total was closest to the actual total of all the items won.
There were some tough ones in there…I never would have guessed a 20-pack of Pampers diapers cost $8.99. I’m so used to buying huge boxes of 192 Pampers in bulk from Amazon that I’m kind of out of the loop.
Our next game was called, Daddy Knows Best. I had emailed Zack (Allison’s husband) prior to the shower and asked him to answer a series of questions. Guests were shown the questions and had to guess whether or not they thought Allison would be able to match Zack’s answers.
Then, I asked Allison the same questions. If her answer matched Zack’s, any guest who had already marked that they thought her answer would match got a point. The one with the most points at the end of the questions was the winner.
The questions were a mix of factual questions (How many hours does a newborn sleep per day on average?) and personal questions (Who will cry more when the baby is born? What feature of Allison’s do you hope the baby will have?)
Winner!
Allison matched an impressive number of Zack’s answers–they should go on a game show together. We all got a kick out of some of Zack’s answers!
Question: What feature of yours do you hope the baby will have?
Zack’s answer: Height (Allison is very petite!)
Question: Who will be the first to hear the baby cry in the middle of the night?
Zack (and Allison’s!) answer: Cooper (their dog).
The question, “How old will Baby be when he goes to his first U of A football game?” caused quite the stir among the grandmas as both Allison and Zack answered three months old. “NOOOOOOOO!” protested Allison’s mom and mother-in-law. “It’s too DANGEROUS!”
The rest of us thought it was hilarious.
For the next “game,” I drew a name out of the diaper raffle jar and the winner received a prize, as did the other game winners. We then adjourned for cake (yay!) and treats.
After everyone was sufficiently jacked up on sugar, we convened on the couches for gift-opening. While Alison opened her gifts, I handed out Bingo cards to the guests, who wrote in what they thought Allison would receive. Any time she opened something they had written down, they could mark an X on their Bingo card. The first one to cross out five in a row won a prize.
I’m in love with all the boy presents she received!
Samantha and Amelia got their cousin some clothes and holiday stickers like “My First Hanukkah” to put on his onesie for photos.
During the shower, Zack, Jake and the other boys had been hanging out at our house. They flocked in to devour what was left of the food as the shower was ending.
Gerin family photo.
Great Grandpa stopped by the after-party as well.
Samantha was really confused as to whose party this was. WHAT? THIS ISN’T ANOTHER BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR ME? BOO.
Amelia was happy to join in the fun, no matter whose party it was.
Cousin Jack, Jake, the girls, and their twin cousins, Eleri and Rhys.
After presents, guests grabbed a favor (bath salts) on their way out. The rest of us started packing up food and taking down decorations in record time.
The shower was so much fun to put together and it seemed like everyone had a good time. Allison threw me the most adorable owl-themed baby shower last year before the twins were born, so I wanted to make sure she had a cute shower as well!
Me and Allison as babies. We are four months apart. I look like Godzilla baby compared to her!
While we had fun putting everything together, I was so glad to finally get my house cleaned up from its disastrous crafting-and-baking-in-progress state.
A behind-the-scenes look at the kitchen pre-baby shower:
No more parties for a while!
Lots of love,
