Lil' Pumpkin Baby Shower

My next door neighbor and friend, Val, is having a baby soon, so I threw her a party to celebrate. It was "Lil' Pumpkin" themed. Many friends came to celebrate and it was such a fun party.

Here are the deets, but first I have to apologize for the crappy pictures. I snapped some last minute pics with my phone after the first guest arrived. Some are blurry. And some don't fully capture the awesomeness. Typical me!

Let's start with the food. We had a chili bar, (I made a white chicken chili and another friend so generously supplied another chili.), paired with baked potatoes and all the typical fixings, i.e. butter, cheese, sour cream, green onions, jalapenos, and tomatoes. We had apples and a delicious caramel sauce. (Check out the recipe here. It was a major hit!) I made a veggie tray with ranch dip. I intended to serve the dip in a hollowed out pumpkin, but ran out of time. I made my mom's cheese ball recipe, colored it orange and shaped it into a pumpkin. An apple pie and a pumpkin pie were perfect desserts for this fall themed party. I also picked up a party mix of coated pretzels and chex mix. For drinks we had bottled cream soda, orange cream soda, and water. I made pumpkin spice cupcakes and a yellow two-tiered cake with cinnamon cream in the middle and vanilla butter cream frosting. This is the first time in my entire life that I've made delicious cakes!

I wanted to keep the games and activities simple. I know several people are not into shower games, so I wanted to have activities that guests didn't have to participate in and that they could do on their own timing. 

In place of the traditional guest book, I made a pumpkin patch scrapbook page that guests would stamp their thumb on and sign to create a pumpkin.

The description card read: Stamp your thumb to make a pumpkin. Then sign your name to show you came.

Next was a game for guests to guess the size of Val's baby bump. Guests wrote their name on a pink tape measure to indicate their guess.

Guess how many candy corns are in this bottle! I am so not good at this type of game.

I had some revolting with this next game. Each person got a pacifier necklace and were instructed to not say, "Baby." If someone catches you saying the B word, they get to claim your necklace. You've played the game before, right? And you either love it or hate it!

 

Before the party I put an "It's a Girl!" stamp on the bottom of one of the plates. The lucky guest with the stamped plate won a prize.

The final game was played while Val opened gifts. The instructions read, "Pass me two to the right for every time Val opens a gift thats contents are pink."

 

The prizes were various pumpkin scented hand soaps I picked up at Bath and Body Works.

 

Shay made this cute photo prop because who doesn't like pictures?

Look at this cool baby with his shades!

The final activity was a headband making station. I provided flowers, ribbon, and headbands and the guests let their creativity shine. Plus Val got to go home with several beautiful headbands.

Presents were set up on the ottoman and I made a "Thanks" banner to display over the gifts. 

By the time all the guests arrived this was overflowing with presents.

I also made a diaper pumpkin that doubled as a decoration and a gift.

Between the food, games, and presents, it was a fabulous party. I hope Val feels spoiled!

I think Val and I had too much sugar!