Baby Shower....HELP!!!!

There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name O.
I know you probably already hear about Baby Shower Bingo, but I thought I would tell you just in case. We did this at my shower and it was great because people were actually interested in seeing what was being opened.
Make a 5x5 or 6x6 (depending on the amount of people you invite) blank Bingo card on fun farm themed paper and mark the middle box "Free Space". Ask guests to fill in the boxes with gifts they think the mom-to-be will be given. This takes some time so pass it out about ten minutes before she begins opening gifts. Once the gift is opened and identified, the player marks that item off their Bingo card. Have many prizes on hand for multiple winners.
I had about 40 people at my shower and the key to the opening of gifts is to keep it quick. I had one helper hand me a gift and another take them away while a third wrote down the necessary info for thank you cards. I was able to get through all my gifts in about 30 minutes. Yes, a whirlwind but my guests really appreciated it.
Good Luck.

One suggestion I liked at a shower I attended was they had everyone bring the gifts unwrapped so that the parents just view everything and you don't take the time opening gifts. this way it is more of a celebration for everyone to enjoy versus everyone watching the parents open gifts.

If you want to involve the guys then I would set up games in the back like horse shoes, darts, volleyball, bocci ball, and so forth with some beer or beverages in a cooler...they probably won't want to watch the whole present opening thing...but a contest where the guys are blindfolded and have to change a doll's diaper might be hysterical. Give each man a babydoll with dirty diaper and a pile of little clothes. They have to change the diaper and dress the baby blindfolded.

Ideas:

Have everyone bring a farm animal stuffed animal with their gift.

Have everyone bring a book that involves farm animals for the baby's library.

Games that are always played in our family:

guess the number of jelly beans in the bottle...then you get the bottle (can use other types of candy)

Prize for person sitting in the chair with a sticker tapes under their chair.

Make little diaper corsages to pin on everyone when they arrive...the one with the poopie stain inside gets a prize.

Put wooden clothes pins on a coat hanger. Everyone takes turns grabbing the pins off the hanger with one hand. The woman that can grab the most pins from the hanger without dropping them wins.

Have each woman take turns holding a child on their hip, a phone on their ear, and a basket of clothes that they have to try to hang on a line at the same time. Time each woman and the one that can hang them all in the least amount of time wins. (they have to carry on an imaginary conversation as well)

Put about 15 baby type items on a tray (little diaper, diaper creme, baby food, pacifier...). Cover with a cloth. Each group of ladies gets 30 seconds to look at the platter and then they have to try to write down as many things as they can remember when you leave. The one that can remember the most wins a prize. New mom gets the platter of goodies when the game is over.

Pass around a roll of toilet paper to all the women and they must tear off a piece that they think will fit neatly around the pregnant mom from belly button around the middle of the back and back to the belly button. The one that gets closest to a perfect fit wins.

Make up a word list of baby related words that you scramble. Give a copy to each attendee and then give them so many minutes to unscramble as many as possible.

Every attendee gets a curly ribbon with a play plastic pacifier or saftey pin attached. Instruct everyone they can't use the word baby. If they hear someone say baby they can take their necklace. The one with the most at the end of the shower wins.

Make a punch with ice cubes. Freeze a tiny plastic baby in one ice cube...the one that gets the baby wins. A variation involves the cake. Have a tiny baby inserted in the cake before it is frosted. The person that gets the baby wins a prize. (make sure to warn everyone before they eat their cake)

Have everyone come dressed as a farmer/farmer brown style. Then have guests vote for the best dressed who will recieve a prize....(movie tickets, a gift certificate to a bbq place, or so forth...something kinda nice)

Prizes can be the centerpieces on the tables....The last shower I went to they had nice votive candle holders as centerpieces and gave those away as prizes to those that had stickers under their seats.

Make chocolate baby suckers, chocolate baby bottles, and so forth to give away in little chinese takeout boxes.

Use fresh flowers in cute little vases on the tables and give those away to guests that win games. You can also use little potted veggies, herbs, or even just little potted flowers. Plant them in little painted clay pots or just wrap the little plastic pots they came in with decorative tissue, wrapping paper or sit down in little chinese takeout cartons.

Give away nicely frosted farm animal shaped cookies to support the theme.

Decorations:

Make a gingerbread house but in the shape of a barn for the cake table.

Make a diaper cake out of disposable diapers for the present table.

Find a little hay bale and then decorate with a tiny wheelbarrel, some squash, corn on the cob, some of the stuffed animals that people bring.

Hope you can get something out of that....Good luck and have fun. I recommend doing a Google search with words and phrases like...."farm animal baby shower" and so forth.

I used a diaper relay game when I hosted my friend's shower a few years back. You'll need 1 baby doll, some diapers, wipes, and baby powder for each team. Each player has to do a complete diaper change (without skipping steps). The first team to finish wins. It should be competitive enough to keep the guys interested for a while. Witnessing this game in action is so much more hysterical than anything you can imagine, since the pro's want to show the newbies how it's done, but can't quite pull it together! LOL
Let me know how it works out.

I had a co-ed babyshower! At first some of the guys were embarrassed by being there but once they saw it was a casual thing they were fine! Break out the beer and chips and all went smooth!

We had baby bingo...we did not play it while opening gifts though- most of they men did not want to sit in and watch and listen to the ooohing and ahhing... my sister gave everyone a list and told them to fill in the blanks and she called the words.

We also played Dont say BABY! Everyone started off with a homemade pacifier on a piece of ribbon (or whatever you choose- maybe painted clothes pins in pink and blue). When someone would say baby you stole it from them. The person at the end of the party with the most wins a prize.

I have seen at lots of showers I went to, and wish they would have done it at mine, where everyone brings a bag of diapers and gets entered into a raffle. After all the guests arrive draw the name- or names of winners to whatever prize you choose. Great way to start parents off with tons of diapers.

The grossest game I played at a shower was "Name what is in that diaper"... was gross but got the most laughs and the looks on the guys faces is priceless!! LMAO Get 5-10 different diapers and lay them out. Melt different chocolate bars in a container. Then take it and smear it in the diaper. Each diaper is numbered and each guest gets a chance to look and sniff the diaper and guess what candy bar is in it- Hersheys with almonds, Reeses, Snickers etc... Person to guess the most correct wins a prize. The prize could be a basket of candy bars used in the game.

There are all kinds of fun ideas to do! We were going to wait to open gifts until later since it was co-ed but since a lot of the women wanted to see our reactions we had to open them at the shower. Do not be offended if the men do not want to be part of this!

We also did our food very casual... we catered with the typical beef and spaghetti and also made sloppy joes and a garden salad. Nothing fancy! We had chips and dip, cheese and crackers and veggies platters. Just dont forget the beer! lol

Good luck with your party- I am sure it will be great!

Hi, i am hosting a baby shower too and I found some help in some websites. www.babyshower101.com is one of them. Goggle "baby showers" and there are other sites that come up. It helped me do a lot of the planning. Have fun with it!

I planned the baby showers for my sister & the game everyone enjoyed the most was this:
A couple of days before the shower I took little plastic babies (I bought them at Michael's), put them in ice cube trays with water & froze them. After everyone had arrived at the shower, I gave them a cup with the ice cube in it. The first baby "born" won. There are no rules - it was hysterical to see what some people would do to melt the ice cube faster.

I did a rubber duck theme for her shower & had a rubber duck cake and gave everyone rubber duck favors. We kept it simple and definitely the food included the favorites of the Mom-to-be (especially if she is having a tough time keeping food down).

Good luck & have fun!!

Hi S.

I gave an intimate couples shower for a close friend a few years ago. It was pretty casual but some of the things that we did were all of the guys raced to see who could finish a beer from a baby bottle quickest, my twin daughters were one at the time, and the mom and dad competed to see who could get them dressed in a matching outfit the quickest, I sent them out in their diaper with a bag of clothes, some turned inside out and extra pieces thrown in there to throw them off - dad actually won. We also had the parents race to see who could change and clean a baby doll in her diaper the fastest. Everyone was cracking up, it was so much fun! The look on dads face when he took the diaper off of the doll and saw what was in it was priceless - I used dog food so that they would get the full smell effect. The guys loved harassing the soon to be dad about all the torture we were putting him through.

This ia a great time of year for a down on the farm/ backyard bbq. Maybe your gift could be some of the pieces they would use in the baby's room, which you could double up on as decorations..........

Good Luck!

depending on how many people you are having, you could look into having a pig roast catered! that would be different. I am not big on games, so I will have to leave that to someone else!

Dear S.,

Since they are going with a farm theme, maybe do a cook out. I would cook hot dogs and brats in advance and keep them warm in a crock pot. For my friends shower we did the little hot dogs with bbq sauce and then regular hot dogs in a crock pot. We also precooked brats in beer and onions and then put them in a crock pot. We had side dishes like potato salad and different things that we all ate when we got together on her parents farm during the summer. We also had printed out little pictures of babies and some animals and then put a sticker on three different pictures and people got to grab one each and who ever grabed one won a prize. We went to the dollar store and bought cute little presents like candels and holders and back massagers and things like that. We also put stickers on the bottom of some of the plates and who every got a plate with a sticker won. But my favorite was called the bloomers game. You take a box and put something in it and then wrap the present in different layers and then pass it around and when the music stops whoever has it takes a layer off. Keep doing this till the last layer. The last person to take the last layer off has to wear what ever is in side. We told the ladies that it was a pair of bloomers and then when the lady opened it she found out that it was actually a corsage. Maybe you could make it a hat or something related to the farm them. We also played bottoms up. Where you take three little babbies and roll them and see if you can get them to land on their bottoms. Each person gets to roll three times. Instead of babies maybe buy some animals. Good Luck. As for the Cake maybe get a cake with animals and precious moments together.

B.

Well you could have everyone dress appropriately for the farm.
Then you might set up areas like a petting zoo: Cows could have the beverages; Pigs might have a male baby changing contest using dolls; crops could be the food and a contest where the women have to eat a salad while talking on the phone and holding a baby(again a doll).... well you get the idea.

Good luck!

You'll either love this idea, or hate it and think I'm nuts. I've seen a game for a shower where you have a bunch of diapers labeled 1-5. Then you melt a different kind of chocolate candy bar and put it inside the diaper. Everyone has to guess what kind of candy bar is in each diaper. They can look, smell, or taste it to help them guess. It really is hysterical for the right group of people, but not for everyone I know.

We went to a couples shower years ago and one game they played that the men could actually play had to do with baby food jars and bottled beer. They took the labels off of about 7-10 baby food jars and bottles of beer. You had to guess what flavor/brand each was. Obviously for the beer, oyu might have to also put tape on the caps.
You could also do a matching the baby names to the appropriate mom game, ie horse-foal, cow-calf, with farm animals.
If it's "down on the farm," I would also make it a pig-raost/BBQ with pulled pork, beans, corn on the cob, etc. You could even tell everyone to dress in "farmer" clothing if they want. This way they can show up in jeans and be more confortable, especially the men.

When I was expecting one of my co-workers hosted a baby shower for me and both my boss and another male were there and it was the best shower I've ever been to! We played a game where there was a huge garbage bag filled with all kinds of misc. pieces of clothing...men's, women's, hats, shirts, pants, a little of everything. We were all seated in a circle and as the bag was passed around the room you had to reach in, pull something out and put it on. We continued til the bag was empty. It was hysterical! I still laugh when I see the pictures of my boss wearing this huge bra and me with my giant belly dressed in some ridiculous outfit. It definitely wasn't a traditional baby shower game, but if you're doing a farm theme you could throw in overalls, hats, bandanas and even some galoshes. (don't forget some fun undergarments!) I agree with the BBQ theme, definitely have cocktails and as long as your guys have a sense of humor you should have a great time!

I am acutally doing the same thing. It is the couple's first, so the husband wants to be involved with everything, he is a little nervous in a very cute way!!:-)
ANyway, we are actually going to have the guys go golfing while the ladies get everything ready, food, ect. and get all the goo goo baby talk out while the boys are playing:-). Then, we are just going to grill and hang out, then they can open gifts. The guys are all football coaches, so we could not get too "cutesy" with our party, just basically a fun adult afternoon, I am sure sharing lots of fun baby stories as well to get them excited!
Have fun planning!
J.

Hi S.!
I hope I'm not a buzz kill here but just this past weekend my husband and I were at a couples baby shower and the men could not have looked more miserable!
If I were you I would just keep it like a get-together. Let everyone visit. You could do it on a Saturday evening and just let it be a nice couples night out (maybe dress it up a little and have fancy cocktails) with good food and good friends. Keep the gifts for the couple to do in private and then they can send Thank You cards so everyone knows how much they appreciate their gifts. At then end of the evening you could make simple "thanks for coming" gifts.
Remember whatever you choose to do to keep it moving. Men don't usually have a lot of history when it comes to showers!
Good Luck!

For my baby shower everyone that brought a package of wipes or diapers was entered into a raffle for a prize (a basket filled with treats or a gift card, etc).

Hi,

I suggest an awesome book called "Themed Baby Showers" by Becky Long. You can request it from the library or buy it. I think it cost me $10. It gives a ton of themes including food and game ideas. I happened to look through it and there are "couples" shower ideas. HTH

S.

Hi S.,
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D. S
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