A Little Bit of Everything: "Little Man" Baby Shower

I cannot believe that it has almost been a year since I became an aunt! I love my little nephew and it is fun to watch the two cousins learn to play together. Since he came earlier than expected, I got to throw a shower for him (and his lovely mother) after he arrived. Though he hadn't come home yet, we wanted to celebrate and I ~~got a little carried away~~ had a blast putting it all together. Its fun to remember so I thought I would re-post all the juicy details! :)

(Originally posted 3/28/12)
I am a brand new aunt! I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. Almost as soon as I heard the announcement that my SIL was pregnant I asked her if I could throw her a baby shower. So yes, I've been stewing about it for almost 8 months... Thanks to the blog-o-sphere and Pinterest, I gathered some great ideas and made a few of my own for this particular "Little Man." I had so much fun creating this party and I am excited to share it!

Theme: "Little Man"
Colors: Red, Aqua, White, Black
Motifs: Neck ties, bow ties, and (you guessed it) Mustaches

The Invite:
We ended up emailing a digital copy of the invite to our guests because this "Little Mister" decided to come 7 weeks early... The party plans were changed and rushed a bit and we ran out of time to snail-mail the batch. (yes, I changed the information for the purpose of posting it here.) I think it turned out pretty cute.

The Food:
We had my favorite Corn and Potato Chowder served with the adorably fun Cornbread "pops" and honey butter. There was a spinach and bow-tie salad (made by a SIL), a fruit tray (provided by my MIL), and another SIL made the deserts. She made red velvet cake pops with blue sprinkles and eclair cake. After she swirled the chocolate on we decided it looked like a lot of mustaches...

The Food Table

Corn Bread "Pops"

A most delicious Eclair Cake

Little Man's Bow-tie Salad

"Wet Your Whiskers"- the straws were my favorite detail!

The Details:
I had the help of my other SILs (there's a lot of us...) in the decorating before the shindig. The youngest stuck mustaches on every surface she could find. I think it turned out great. I wish I had a better picture of the banner as it was my most prized detail. But its still hanging there to welcome the "Little Man" home when he comes.

The guestbook was another favorite. I looked up some "BroTips" on the Internet and found a few favorites. (there was a lot of junk so I had to choose a few good ones...) I typed them up and asked guests to write a note/message to either the parents or to the baby boy. Advice was encouraged.

I also set up little signs with mustache insignia on them. It took people a couple times before they found the humor in the quotes. It made them that much more funny.

Instead of games we did a diaper raffle. Guests were asked to bring 5 diapers for every ticket they wanted. This helps with the new mom's diaper supply and gets rid of the awkward "I'm not sure I want to play this game" moments...

Mustaches. Everywhere!

The "Welcome" banner.

The Guestbook: BroTips for the Little Man

My other SIL made this adorable motorcycle out of diapers! How creative and cute!

I made these to sit around the room. It took people a little while to catch on at first...

The Favors:
These were my crowning glory! I was busy the day before making and creating the chocolate for these little jars. As soon as I knew I was throwing a baby shower I started saving up the baby food jars (just the fruit ones that weren't stained...) that we went through. These are the 6 oz "2nd" foods from Gerber (in case you are interested). I created a little label for them with custom Nutrition Facts, ingredients, etc. We painted the outside of the lids to cover up branding and stuck a "thank you for celebrating with us" on the top. Inside was homemade hot fudge sauce that is to die for. My one SIL found out that I was making this for the favors and she claimed any extras we had at the end. It is that good.

Included with the hot fudge, I wanted to give them something to enjoy now. So I found a mustache mold online and made chocolate mustache pops to take with them as well. I admit, I snitched enough to fill at least one mustache as I made them, the chocolate was goooood. :)