A Wild Baby Shower

My sister and her hubby are about to adopt a newborn baby boy! He is due any day now and we're all really excited for them. When they adopted their first, they had a big adoption party after everything was finalized, so K was about 6 months old. I decided Alisa needed an actual baby shower this time around! They hadn't kept any of their baby stuff, and this baby will be their first boy, so it made sense.

After pinning a bunch of ideas and consulting with my mom, we decided to go with an animal theme - "Born to be wild!" to be precise! I opted for lime, navy, turquoise, yellow and white for our colors and then we just ran with the theme.

Here are all the details of the "Born to be wild!" Party:

Invitations:

I made the invitations in picmonkey. I used my own fonts and found free animal clipart to upload. In the envelope along with the invitation, I punched out these little circles with the RSVP information on it. I made matching Thank You cards for her to hand out afterwards. I've added a blank invitation here so you can download it and add your info for your very own born to be wild party!

Right click to download

Food:

We had a large sub that we ordered, then cut it up ourselves and laid it out so it looked like a snake. We added olives for eyes and a red fruit leather tongue.

The lion is humus dip with pretzels, carrots and peppers around the edges. I cannot take credit for that, my sister in law made it. It's ridiculously cute, right?? I found the idea here.

I made pudding parfaits with french vanilla pudding and fresh berries. I layered them in a tiny glass jar. I made them fancy by punching out a scrapbook paper circle, gluing it on the lid, and then using hot glue to glue on some mini wild animals. They're sort of adorable I think.

In the trifle bowl, I made a "layered trifle" with animal crackers, chocolate animal crackers, and circus animal cookies. It was something I thought would just be sort of cute and maybe the kids would like it.

We also had mixed nuts in little cups, chips and salsa (one of Alisa's favorite snacks) and cupcakes. I added "balloon" cupcake toppers. I made them by creating a sphere out of a bunch of circles folded and glued together, then glued onto a toothpick.

Decor:

I made several different buntings for the party. 1) A wild animal bunting. I took mini plastic animals and screwed eye screws into their backs, then tied twine through the eyes. 2) A tissue paper leaf bunting. I basically folded tissue paper in half, cut a leaf shape and twisted several papers together in the middle folded section, creating a loop, and strung them on twine. 3) Several tissue paper tassel garlands. You can find the directions for this here. It's easy, but depending on the length and amount can be time consuming!

4) A "Born to be Wild!" bunting on burlap pennants with accordion folded medallions. I sort of LOVE how this one turned out.

I decorated the guest tables with white plastic tablecloths (keeping it classy) and burlap table runners. I used large rocks I had in my yard which I spray painted to match the theme and plastic animals I found at the thrift store for centerpieces. Some of them are carrying "balloons" which are just like the cupcake toppers, except on skewers. I poked a hole through the animal and stuck the skewer in. I decided to set the tables instead of having the plates and napkins at the food table because I thought it would fancy things up a little and look really cute. I used scrapbook paper for the placemats. Then a lime green plate I got at Partyland, then, I placed the wooden utensils I bought on Amazon, and I folded the turquoise napkin according style and used a tiny bit of ribbon held together with a glue dot in the middle of the napkin - so it looks like a little bow tie!

The food table had burlap over the tablecloth as well and I layered tropical leaves I got on Amazon. I used the crib sides I have used in the past as backdrop, and strung up the"Born to be Wild" bunting I made. I also hung up some short circle confetti garlands I'd made for a different party that matched really well to the sides of the table to add some texture and interest.

The drink station was a cute cupboard I brought from home that I long ago made over. I put some burlap on top, and we had lemonade and water with cute straws.

Putting it together:

At the entrance, we had this canvas I painted with the baby's name and some wild animals in a parade at the bottom. The note encouraged guests to pick a colored circle (which I'd punched out of scrapbook paper) and write their names on it. Later, I'll adhere the circles above the animals and draw lines down as if they are balloons!

On the other side of the table, when you exit the party, you see the favors hanging. I made wild animal keychains! I just screwed in eye screws (like I did for the bunting) and attached key rings. Very easy, but it took a while! I hung them up on a stand I use for my necklaces.

I set up two tables against the first wall where people could sit and do the activities. We had one for "design a block" (with pens and stickers so Everett will have a personalized set of building blocks!) and "advice and blessings for the baby" - cards that will be put into a photo album for the family after the party.

We played two games at the party. One was "The Price is Right" which my mom was in charge of. Guests had to guess the price of different baby items, then they all added up the prices to get a total amount and the guest who was closest to the actual total on the real receipt got the prize. And then we had a humongous jar of animal crackers that was "guess how many crackers" and the person who was closest without going over won a prize.