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Time-of-Day Baby ShowerOne O’Clock, Two O’Clock, Three O’Clock, no we haven’t just landed on a rerun of Happy Days, we are talking about the many hours in a baby’s day. Maybe each hour should really be titled differently, not numbers but maybe things like Wake Up Time, Bath Time, Sleep Time, Feeding Time, Play Time and so on. There are so many times in a baby’s day and for that matter so many new times for a mother to adjust to. So let’s give her a hand and throw her a Time-of-Day Baby Shower.
Decorating for a Time-of-Day theme can be just that, using decorations for all the times of a baby’s day. You can quickly communicate the themed idea by simply adding some clocks to the room or you can go a bit more in-depth by creating little retreats of time in each region of the room. To do this, you will need to figure out what each time of day will consist of. Let’s take bath time for instance. You can take one part of the room and set it up like you were getting ready for baby’s bathtime: have a few towels draped around, a rubber ducky, some shampoo and soap. You could then add a few items to other parts of the room to create a feeling of distinct times. Since your guests have been assigned a time, don’t make the areas too intricate since you will be cutting in on other’s gifts if you use too much stuff and give it to the expectant mother. If you have balloons, find some helium balloons that are shaped like happy faces and draw a clock face on it. Table clothes and napkins could have circles on them to give the appearance of a clock face without being too overwhelming. So with a Time-of-Day theme, the sky is the limit when it comes to decorating and it is up to you as to how detailed you go with the decorations. Also: main decorations section Invitations A simple invitation could be a clock with a baby on it. Look at party supply stores for invitations that might fit the bill or simply design them yourself. Inside the invitation, you will want to include all the information on the type of shower that it is, when you are having it, and all the extras. You can either list the times of day to choose from (to mark on the RSVP) or you can simply assign each guest a space of time that they need to shop for. If you do the latter, please keep a few times and allow the guests a chance to swap out if they call you. I have found that if you tell someone what they are going to buy, they can become bitter very quickly so give them an option to switch their assigned time for a time that they would prefer. RSVP might be the safest way to go. Also: main invitations section
Although you can set the gifts for the specific time of day, as the hostess, I would suggest that you give the mother to be a gift of time for herself. Give her little babysitting vouchers, a few tickets to give to dad so he can watch the baby while she has a nice bath and maybe even a few packets of tea so she can enjoy a cuppa before baby wakes up. Another nice gift for just mom is a baby schedule book to keep track of baby’s day from feeding to sleeping to those wonderful bowel movements. She would be very grateful, especially during the first few weeks when every mother nervously charts every waking and sleeping moment of her new infant’s life. When it comes to gifting baby in general, here are some ideas for specific times of day: Bathtime: Playtime: Mealtime: Naptime: Visiting time: Bedtime: Also: main gift section & main favors section
Since we are going with times of the day, let’s make the menu the same way. Provide food from the beginning of the shower until the end and break it up like the different times of the day. For the beginning of the shower, or morning, provide breakfast-like things such as bagels and gourmet cream cheese blends, yummy muffins with butter, or fresh fruit, and then for the beverages have orange juice and coffee. The middle of the party will be your afternoon when you can provide things like veggie and dip or crackers and cheese. Lastly, for evening you can bring out bowls of chips, popcorn and lots of desserts for evening snacking. Have tea and coffee available at this time as well. Remember that you can keep the portions fairly small since you are offering a whole day of snacking in only a few hours. Just having a variety of mini muffins, fruit juice, coffee and fruit for the beginning of the shower will be more than enough to fill most people. With all the snacks available, you probably won’t need a main course at all. Also: main recipe section
Simple, simple, simple. Just stick with the timed games like Guess Baby's Time of Birth contributed by Andrea, Pudding Game contributed by Chaleia or Empty That Bottle! contributed by Sabrina. Basically, if it has a timer or keeps track of the time, you have exactly what you want for a game. One game that I would suggest is charades where guests have to act out a time of baby’s day. This can be a lot of fun and so people don’t figure out what each slip of paper has in common, slip in a few white herons to throw them off. Great prizes can be gifts of time. Things like movie passes, facials, books, gift certificates to various spas or even a few home spa gift baskets will really get people playing hard. Also: main games section Do you have an idea to add to this theme? Send it to us! |
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