We all love a good get together and what better excuse to do so than to celebrate the pregnancy of a loved one- in the form of a baby shower! My sister in law, Amy, is pregnant with her third baby (hard to believe from how great she looks I know), so one of her lovely friends, Emma, threw her a surprise baby shower! A baby shower is a relatively new concept to the UK but has been very popular in the states for a number of years now, so when we found out what it was all about, we of course adopted the idea :).
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, a baby shower generally consists of playing light hearted baby themed games, the giving of gifts and of course having the obligatory cake and tea (or wine of course!). Typically it is only female family and friends that attend a baby shower as generally men run for the hills when they find out what it’s all about, so that also gives women the opportunity to let your hair down, have a laugh and a good natter! A great aspect of a baby shower is that it can be enjoyed by women of all ages, as was shown at Amy’s as we had women ranging from 22- 80, who all had an equally great time.
Amy was taken out on the morning of her baby shower, giving Emma time to decorate Amy’s house and for us to all arrive, ready to surprise her upon her return. Thank goodness she didn’t go into labour from the shock when she did arrive home! After Amy had recovered the games could then begin! One of the funniest games was to guess the size of Amy’s bump with a piece of string, and as you can see from the photos, some people got it spot on (no surprise it was her Mum :)) and some got it oh so very wrong! Of course everyone found it hilarious that it was more than double her size… but luckily Amy wasn’t offended (we hope!).
Another great game was the ‘guess who is who’ from baby pictures, where everyone brings a picture of themselves and you then have to guess who is who. Some were easier to guess than others and the winner got 12/14 right! It was a real giggle finding out what everyone looked like as a baby and how cute we all once were! I think most people could guess which one Amy is straight away with her blond locks!
We then played the ‘guess what is inside the baby’s nappy’ game which consisted of smelling 8 nappies containing mystery substances and guessing what they all were! I must say some of the nappies smelt better than others, the soy sauce one for example could actually give a real baby’s nappy a run for its money with the horrific smell it made! This guessing game was harder than it looked, and no one managed to guess them all right, although some people did come close. As you can see from the picture, it was so funny watching others taking a whiff of the not so fresh nappies, but you also needed a strong stomach when smelling some of them! That is something a pregnant women is not blessed with so Amy couldn’t spend too long smelling them :).
In my opinion, the best game by far was the ‘pass the dummy’ game where you had to pass the dummy round the circle only using straws! We split into two teams all had to put a straw in our mouth and transfer the dummy from person to person, which wasn’t easy when everyone was laughing hysterically. The first team to pass the dummy round the circle twice won and I am proud to say my team won, even though I spent most of the time giggling! The picture below sums up the game, and baby shower itself perfectly!
You can’t have a baby shower without cake, nibbles and tea, and we were not disappointed! A lovely spread was put on and Amy’s Mother in law, Lynda, made the beautiful pink cake you can see in the picture, which tasted as good as it looked!
Last but by no means least, Amy opened all the lovely gifts that people had generously given to her and the baby! The ‘nappy cake’, handmade by Emma looked amazing and would be sure to win the showstopper round in The Great British bake off, but be careful, only the small chocolates are edible in this one! Other gifts included beautiful outfits, from dresses to baby grows, a very special handmade knitted blanket and so much more! It is safe to say that Amy and baby (no names decided just yet!) were very spoilt. This was only my second baby shower I have been too but from the success of this one, I will be sure to go to many more :).
