Alyse's Baby Shower

This weekend I hosted a baby shower for my sister, Alyse, who is expecting a baby girl in March (hooray!). I took the job of ushering in my first little niece very seriously and thought the whole affair went off marvelously. Sure, a few hiccups here and there - like not being showered or dressed when the guests started to arrive - but our guest of honor looked great and our guests were spirited. Here is the breakdown:

The theme. Currently their first choice in names is Ruby. After getting permission to use this top-secret information, the party scene was set with all things pink, red and sparkly as we celebrated Alyse's 'little gem'. Acrylic gems adorned the table top, sparkly cardstock signs announced the obvious, ring pops shimmered in candy dishes and pomegranate jewel ice cubes provided practical garnish at the drink station.

The menu. Standard Midwestern finger foods were the fare of choice. Small croissant sandwiches, a fruit platter, dip with an array of veggies and a cheese and cracker tray rounded out the savory portion. For sweets we had pockets o' lemon cake and mini cupcakes in vanilla with buttercream icing, sea salt caramel with dark chocolate icing and chocolate with buttercream or chocolate icing. For drinks the guests could select from baby bellinis, ruby punch (a random mix of orange juice, 100% cranberry juice - the tart stuff, and ginger ale in a sugar rimmed glass), decaffeinated iced tea (all pregnancy friendly so far) or wine (for our non-pregnant adult imbibers).

Games. All showers must have games, it's in the rules book. I stayed away from the 'guess the baby poop' candy bar game (yup, its a real game) and kept things tame with a few pop quizzes. A fill-in-the blank birthstone game was a nod to the gem theme and guess the belly size is obligatory (46 inches!). To keep people engaged in the goings-on we played baby shower bingo and awarded prizes to the gift giver if a timer went off when their present was opened. I also created a game by morphing pictures of Alyse and Joe with each other and celebrities and the guests had to guess which baby was Alyse and Joe's (turns out that always selecting the cutest baby was the way to win the game).

Decor. I really obsessed over the decorations...what can I say, its my nature. I was hell-bent on making some kind of garland to hang above all the food. I went through several iterations of pathetic looking little flags until I struck upon a nice balance of festive and sweet, if I do say so myself, using patterned scrapbook paper and stringing the flags on simple, white ribbon. To personalize the garland, I ordered small prints of Alyse and Joe as youngins' and attached them randomly in front of the flags. The magnetic wall in the hallway showcased pictures of Alyse and Joe posing together (my sister is the queen of self-shot portraiture) that I downloaded from her flickr. I added a sign below the collage stating, "baby makes 3" in sparkly pink paper to help tie in the baby theme and alleviate any stalker feel the collection of photos (may have) had before. At the end of the day, all the photos came down and went home with Alyse as a parting gift. Oh, and I made little paper flags like I was Betsy Ross - the sandwiches had flags, the cupcakes had flags -but I stopped short of making flags for the veggies.

Tips from the pros. I scoured the Internet for theme ideas and menu options and took away a few good ideas on remembering the little things.

• Be sure to have pens or pencils at the ready if your games require writing.
• Near the gift table have trash bags, paper and pen ready for the gift opening.
• Give the guest of honor thank you cards stamped and pre-addressed with the attendees information. This makes getting the thank-you cards out a lot easier, which every momma-to-be needs.

Alyse has shown so much love and affection in her role as an aunt that I know this little baby of hers is going to be loved, loved, loved and Alyse is going to make a wonderful mother. I am so thrilled that we are going to be able to share our experiences as parents and raise our children together. Last, but not least, I am going to have a little niece to spoil...bring on the cute clothes! Ahem, and also science-y stuff so she isn't pigeonholed into girly things.