How to Throw a Memorable Baby Shower

One of the best things I remember about my pregnancy with my first child is the shower that my sister threw for me. Having all those family and friends attend and celebrate this soon to be arrival was priceless. I had friends I hadn't seen in years travel into town for the event. I think for any woman and especially a first time mom a memorable baby shower can lay the groundwork for a happy road ahead. With this guide I hope to share some tips from my own shower as well as from those I have attended.

The first thing any good shower needs are decorations. The gender defining blue and pink are great for those soon to be mothers that know the sex of the child they are carrying. For those mothers deciding to wait until the birth, a neutral pallet of yellow and green would be best. The cheapest store I have found and one that also carries a wide variety of styles and colors is Party City. They can blow up balloons in the store for you, free of cost, and carry a great variety of "It's a Boy!" or "It's a Girl!" balloons. They also carry plates, cups and napkins in every color you can imagine. It's really easy to mix and match their items to create a personalized theme.

No baby shower is complete without games! There are quite a few good books at any large book store you can purchase with ideas. But if you're looking to save a little money here are some suggestions of good games. For the first you'll need about 6-8 jars of different flavors of baby food. It works even better if you buy all the bottles in the same colors (greens and yellows, for example). Before the party starts peel off the labels and write numbers for how many bottles you have (up to 8, if you buy that many). Then write the numbers from the label onto the corresponding bottle. You then pass around the jars, one by one, have each person put some on a plate and taste them to guess what they are. The person that gets the most correct wins a prize.

There are two easy games to play that all you'll need are pencil and paper. You'll need to generate a list of 12-15 animals and have the party guests write beside them what the name of each animals baby would be. For example, write cat as the number one animal and the correct baby would be a kitten. Another fun game is to write the brand name of 10-15 items and see how many guests can correctly answer what it is. For example, write pampers down as number one and the correct answer would be diapers.

Another easy, fun game is to purchase a roll of yarn and have each guest cut off a strand for the length they think it will to take to go around pregnant mom's belly. Then have the new mom go around the circle and have each person wrap the yarn around her. It's hilarious to see how big and little people think your belly looks!

There are a few options I have found go over well as far as gifts for the winners of your games. Simple things such as a nice candle or body products please almost any guest. The gift I find is the nicest though are small things that the guest wins but really go to the new baby. Ideas for this could be a toy, washcloths, an outfit or something small like these items.

There are two things I have found very helpful for any shower. The first is to have guests address envelopes as they walk in the door and drop them into a box before leaving. This helps when writing thank you cards for any gifts received. Mom to be doesn't have to track down all those addresses and doesn't have to write all of them out either. The second thing is to have someone designated to write down who buys each gift. It's nice to have a list to go back to and remember who purchased what and it will help too when writing the thank you cards.