Of course, I could have gone WAY overboard, and there were definitely crafts that either failed, or didn't happen. I loved the Eric Carle flashcards (via Amazon); great quality, wonderful colors, and a nice keepsake for the baby. In addition to the color, I loved how the flashcards incorporated all the different Eric Carle animals, which made it more general and easy to pull in different books, rather than just one title, like Brown Bear, or A Very Hungry Caterpillar.
I checked out ALL the Eric Carle books from our school library, and ordered a mini set as part of my entry way decorations. It was a really easy way to add color, and add to the theme.
I would have loved to add Eric Carle cupcake toppers, and matching stickers for tableware, but that didn't happen (at least for this shower). However, I did use the animals from Brown Bear for my menu:
Brown Bear Brownies
Yellow Duck Cupcakes
Red Bird Salsa and Chips
Green Frog Salad
Purple Cat (I planned on Purple Cat fruit salad, but didn't end up making it)
Blue Horse Blueberry trifle (again, planned on blueberry, but ended up make a tiramasu trifle because its what I had on hand.)
My craft fail was the chalkboards. I really wanted a cute menu sign in chalk, but the temperature had dropped here in Dayton on Thursday night, and it was rainy all day Friday, and both attempts to spray paint my items were a mess.
Winners: using small Mason jars for drinks (very easy, and I had them all on hand), easy pennant banners from my 1000000 million Trader Joe's bags, wildflowers (again, from Trader Joe's) in larger Mason jars, checkered runners (from the $1 section at Target).
I personally despise shower games, so one of my friends from church gave a great "charge" to Kaitlyn about parenting, etc...
I also recruited several junior high girls from school and church to help me with the set up/clean up. It was a HUGE help to have the girls greeting our guests, taking care of the gifts, and helping with clearing away dishes. The girls were also a huge help when it came time for Kaitlyn to open gifts; they organized things and folded all the tissue paper and gift bags.
Another HUGE relief was arranging for friends to help with the food. I couldn't have done both (organizing/decorating AND food) well, or without wanting to shoot myself. I highly recommend picking one area of the party planning and arranging for help in other areas. To keep things simple, I emailed a group of girls who had mentioned wanting to help, and gave them a list of menu items and/or, the recipe itself. It was great to finish setting up, and just be able to arrange the food once it arrived.
I also have a deep, deep love for beverage containers. They make party planning/entertaining SO much easier. I have a beverage container (from Sam's) that holds 3.5 gallons worth of a cold drink, and borrowed another one from a co-worker. Between both containers (one with lemonade, one with water), I didn't need to refill the containers throughout the 2.5 hours (and 25 guests). These beverage containers have an insert to fill with ice, so the drinks stay cold, without getting watered down.
Long story short; incredibly time consuming, but so worth it!
