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Sunday, July 14, 2013

A Children's Book Baby Shower

So when you tell an elementary teacher that she can throw you a children's book-themed baby shower, be prepared for her to go a little crazy.  Names like Eric Carle, Dr. Seuss, and Beatrix Potter send a teacher into a frenzy.  And don't get me started on Margaret Wise Brown... My sister had no idea how much fun we would have when she told my mom and I we could do this!

Here's a peek at the invite:
I just glued an off-white cardstock rectangle to a 5x7 piece of colored cardstock, used a clear sticker for the "Property of" words, and printed these personalized invite cards from Etsy onto blank 3x5 notecards to be slipped into the pocket that I had created.  So easy!  If you look at the invites on Etsy, you'll notice that our guests were encouraged to bring a favorite children's book in lieu of a card.  My new nephew got a GREAT start to his collection.  One of the reading teachers who came had the wonderful idea of going to the local used bookstore and picking out a great variety of picture books and chapter books so she could really expand this baby's library!  There are really too many great ones to just pick one.

And here's a peek at the shower:

The gift table




And then a different book theme for every guest table.  






Check out the fun, color-coordinating buttons my mom found for this table!



 And Wind and Willow dips for prizes.  YUM!!

Cute, right?  Now for the food...

Jam thumbprint cookies for Jamberry

Strawberries and chocolate dip for The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear

Blue and red goldfish for One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (They sell these for the Fourth of July!  How lucky is that?)

Deviled Eggs with parsley on top for Green Eggs and Ham (I could NOT have served green deviled eggs.  We have to draw a line somewhere.)

Carrots and herb dip for The Carrot Seed

Cheese in the shapes of bunnies and moons for Goodnight Moon (cause everyone knows the moon is made of cheese!)


And a caterpillar of veggies for The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Oh, and don't forget cookies and milk just in case the mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie drops by.

And if you think this spread looks crazy...

you should see our family at Christmas.

My mom helped me out by wrapping all the display boxes and picking up items for the guest and display tables that I didn't have among the kids' toys. 

We used squares of solid colored wrapping paper for the tables to give them a little extra color.

And you know the best part?  Since I've been crazy busy with the move, I got to pass on the ideas to my amazing mom, and then she took over and made all the food!  Talk about sweet deals!!!!

There's my beautiful mom.  And who is that adorable baby she's holding??  Oh, right.  That's my baby!!!  Clearly, she enjoyed the party.  And I think my sister did too.

Oh, and we played this game and a spin on Scategories where the ladies tried to think of a book title for each letter of the alphabet.  You want to know who won?  The two reading teachers in the room!  

And believe it or not, we had more ideas that we did not have time to get ready.  Oh well.  Next time, right?



18 comments:

  1. completely awesome! love it all!

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  2. Wow!! I love how the shower turned out! I am going to have to share on my facebook page because it was too cute. :)

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  3. On your clear sticker "Property of" -- did you order those or purchase? They appear to be personalized, so I'm thinking you ordered them. Thank you for a lot of great ideas.

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    1. Thanks! We used clear address labels that we just printed off at home using Microsoft Word.

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    2. Oh! Of course! I should have figured that out all by myself! Thank you so much. I'm excited to give these ideas a try.

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  4. Hi,
    What did you use to cut the cheese like rabbits?
    thanks

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  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  6. Replies
    1. I think most of the train cars are from an IKEA wooden train.

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  7. What were your drinks? I'm having a hard time connecting book titles to drinks for my daughter's 1st birthday. I've been searching everywhere.

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  8. Pretty pleased to know about this baby shower party. Recently, booked a graceful LA venue and arranged a tea party by making some lovely arrangements. Invited all my family and friends for this event and had good time there.

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