Finally the Much Anticipated Baby Shower for Christy and Hector!

Tonight we had our small group baby shower for our dear friends Christy and Hector. They are having a little boy in just a few weeks and Pam and I have been putting together a shower for them in anticipation of their first child. I have had so much fun working on this. Although, I will say that there is a lot more that goes into planning one of these things than you would think at first glance!

Christy and Hector decorated little Cohen's room in a super cute safari theme...and so, in keeping with their theme, our shower had a safari theme as well. I have been coming up with ideas for their shower for a month or more, and it was fun to see them all come together tonight in a finished product.

Here is a picture of Cohen's super cute nursery
(Christy, I totally stole your picture...hope that you don't mind!)

I started out with the invitation. I made one out of card stock for Christy to put into Cohen's baby book and then I scaned it into the computer and emailed out the invitations because we were running short on time. I found a really cute mokey face flannel fabric when I was looking for fabrics for things to make for them and it was my inspiration for the invitation.


I thought that they turned out pretty cute.

Then I started thinking about table decorations and food for the shower. I found some really cute cupcakes online...I cannot remember exactly where, but I showed the picture to a local bakery and asked them to recreate them for me. I was a little dissapointed with them. They made the lions and Zebras the way I wanted, but the monkey and elephant did not look like they were supposed to. Oh well, I guess that they were still pretty cute...although, I have to say that they were not nearly as good as Carrie's "gas station" bakery lady's cupcakes.

The Monkey and Elephant Faces were supposed to take up the whole cupcake top like the lions and zebras did,
and the Monkey was supposed to look like the one on the invitations.

I wanted to use some of the colors from Cohen's baby bedding in the decorations, but I added in some reds and yellows as well. I found a brown table cloth at Hobby Lobby and some really cute Polka Dot fabric to use as a table runner. I also used some ritan place mats that I had gotten at IKEA as a back drop for the table because I thought that they looked kinda Safari like. I used some thin glass vases and put grass in them and then placed rice in them to hide the stems. These were placed on the table in front of the place mats. I thought that it turned out cute.

I had three of these little vases positioned on the table.
The only problem with them is because they were so thin they kept getting knocked over!

I also decided to paint a metal bucket to match the paper that I used in the invitations to hold the monkey pops that I was planning to make. I hot glued a little Zebra wooden cutout onto it.

I put the Zebra on the day of the shower...and I forgot to take a picture of it in its finished state.

I had gotten some other cute wooden safari animals (zebra, lion, hippo,etc) and I placed these on various serving dishes to give the table a little more baby safari feel.

My friend Andrea just had a baby shower and they had a really cute little banner on the table that had his name on it. So, I liked the idea and stole it for our shower. I found a pattern at Michel's and traced it onto cute coordinating paper and then printed the outline of letters onto paper and cut around them to make the banner. I think that it turned out really cute...and much faster than making it from fabric....which I had also contemplated. The only problem was the "N" is hard to see.

On the drink table I placed some roses and a sign for Cohen.


The menu was a little stressful at first...because I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to make (you know how I am about food), but I think that the end result was good. Here is what Pam and I came up with.

Our finished menu:

Chocolate covered strawberries
Oreo Truffles
Cake balls and cake pops (affectionately know as Monkey Pops)
M&Ms
Cupcakes
Sausage Wanton Stars
Teriyaki Chicken Wings
Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Pasta salad
Raspberry Tea
Cokes
water

I was inspired to make Monkey Pops (cake pops) by Bakerella. I just thought that they would go so well with the theme and hers are always SO cute. They didn't turn out exactly as I envisioned, but they still ended up being really cute, and for my first time doing anything like this I thought that they turned out as good as could be expected...and they were really moist and yummy. I made the little cake balls and put them onto sucker sticks. Then I dipped them in chocolate. I used M&M's for their ears and eventually decided to dip those in chocolate too. Then, I melted peanut butter melting chocolate and free handed the face and used chocolate to draw on the eyes, nose, and mouth. They were labor intensive, but I think that in the end they were worth it! At least our small group thought they were cute.

Here is an up close and personal shot of the little guys! :)

Here they are all packaged and ready to be displayed.

Pam and I knew we wanted to have spinach and artichoke dip there, because it is one of Christy's favorites, but beyond that we were not too sure. Pam decided to get some chicken salad for chicken salad sandwiches (yummy) and she made a wonderful pasta salad. I threw some ideas for food around in my mind for a while, but just couldn't decide on anything that I thought sounded good. I called my Mother-in-Law, Mama Sandy, to see if she had any ideas (she's really good at that kind of thing) She gave me a recipe for Teriyaki Chicken Wings that she had used at showers in the past, and then, I found a recipe for sausage wanton stars that looked good and would give some variation to the menu. I also saw strawberries on sale and decided to make chocolate covered strawberries. Pam brought all of the drinks including her yummy Raspberry Tea! It was definitely a joint effort...and a tasty success!

Here is the finished spread!

Teriyaki Chicken Wings

Sausage wanton stars

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Chocolate covered Strawberries, M&M's, and Oreo Truffles
(the Oreo Truffles were a hit!)

We had TONS of food left over!! Zack of course was excited about that. :)

Of course before I could really even begin all of the shower menu and decoration preparations, I had to make the gift! :) I had a really good time making the gifts for baby Cohen...as is usually the case, I would have loved to have been able to make more things to give them. But here is what I came up with:

The wrapped finished gift

I ended up making a swaddling blanket, an embellished skull cap and 2 jon jons...

This little blanket was made using my inspiration fabric.
It is backed with a coordinating flannel and measures approximately 42X42.
Caren gave me dimensions from her favorite swaddling blankets.
I trimmed it with quilt binding.

Here is the skull cap and one of the jon jons

And here is the other Jon Jon...of course he needed a monkey out fit!

...and then since Hector is in a band, baby Cohen, like any good Rock Star, needed some rock star attire. So, I embelished a little sweatshirt, t-shirt, and onesie for him! :) Hector for some reason really liked the "My dad Rocks" onsie..can't imagine why! :)

Cohen's rocker attire...I didn't get a chance to find him matching little jeans.

The front of the little sweatshirt.

Christy is so sweet. She got Pam and I really thoughtful hostess gifts for the shower. Thank you so much Christy, I love it! I cannot wait to try the scones or to find recipes to fill the little cookbook with, and of course I will quickly find a use for that cute little basket!!

She wrapped them so cutely.