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This past weekend, my daughter and her husband flew out from their home in Colorado so that we could celebrate their soon-to-be baby boy, Oliver. It’s hard living so far away from her, particularly during these moments when we want to be a part of everything. She has been great about keeping us involved in the pregnancy, sending pictures and videos and video chat invites to ultrasounds. We really wanted to celebrate with her, so I bribed her with a baby shower to come back out and spend some time with us. She still has three months to go, but we wanted to celebrate early before traveling becomes too uncomfortable (and risky) for her. We were all so happy to be able to spend some time with them, and see that adorable baby belly! Isn’t she the cutest?
Maurina wanted something outside the baby boy box for a shower theme. We’ve already done the bow ties and mustaches for other family members, and I came across an idea for a circus themed shower that I thought was too adorable to pass up. After all, Oliver is joining one heck of a circus with this family! Maurina loved the idea of a circus shower. My other daughter, Aubrey, wanted to help put this all together; she is over-the-moon excited to be an auntie. We put our two heads together and came up with some really cute ideas for the shower, which I am now sharing with you!
Decor
To start with, we had originally planned on an outdoor shower. We live in Southern California-the weather is pretty good the majority of the time. As luck would have it, this was one of the two weekends out of the entire year that we were expecting rain, so we had to move the party indoors. It wasn’t exactly how I had envisioned it, but we made it work (you know…the whole making lemonade thing). Overall, I think everything looked great. I was pleased with how it all came together and it was a lot of fun to do!
I was so pleased with the centerpieces that I came up with! I hot glued the tickets onto a clear, Dollar Tree vase, stuck Styrofoam in the middle and arranged the flowers. The shower is over, but I still want to admire my centerpieces! I need to find another use for them.
My Aunt Sharon was such a great help to us! She helped me decorate the day before the shower and she spent two days with me at her house making decorations with her cricut machine. We came up with some really cute décor, including these adorable cupcake toppers.
We also made this sweet banner that says “Oliver’s Circus”. We cut it all out at Aunt Sharon’s house and Aubrey put it together at home.
Popcorn
A circus is not a circus without popcorn! Aunt Sharon and Uncle Tim brought over their popcorn machine and Uncle Tim was our popcorn man during the shower. Of course we used the cricut to make these cute labels to attach to the popcorn boxes that I found online (link at the bottom of the page)! It was the perfect touch and set the tone for the afternoon.
Cake
My talented sister-in-law, Natalie, made the cake. My mom was always our cake decorator and it’s sad that she isn’t here to do it anymore. But Natalie did a beautiful job!
I also made some gluten-free cupcakes for those of us with bodies who rebel against us (ha ha). I found the most adorable cupcake holder-it’s a ferris wheel!! Way too cute to pass up!!
Food
I wanted to keep the food simple. I tend to overdo it and stress myself out, and it was also a mid-afternoon shower so I figured a lot of people would have probably eaten by the time they made it over to the shower. I bought croissant sandwiches at Costco and corn dogs (they even make gluten free corn dogs!) We threw in some chips, fruits and veggies and that’s all we really needed! It was simple but good!
My other talented sister-in-law, Amber, made this adorable veggie platter and Cameron brought my vision to life of the watermelon elephant. I just can’t get over all of the cute details of everything. It all turned out perfect!
Party Favors
Aubrey dipped nutter butter peanut cookies in white chocolate (which we dyed blue) as a party favor for guests. We made these cute little labels to stick on top.
Games
We had a few games that ended up being quite funny. First, we made a questionnaire about mommy/daddy and people had to guess which person fit the question. For example, “Who will change the most diapers” or “Who got lost at Mt. Rushmore when they were a toddler”. Some of the questions were pretty funny and we had a few good laughs. We had a couple other guessing games: How many circus peanuts does it take to wrap around Maurina’s belly? and How many peanuts are in the jar?
The most talked about game was the Poopy Diaper game. Basically, we smashed and melted different chocolate bars/candies and then spread it into diapers. People had to guess which chocolate was in each diaper. Some guests were grossed out by it (my mother-in-law refused to play, ha ha) but I thought it was pretty funny, especially when people began sniffing the chocolate!
Gifts
Maurina and Cam made out well with gifts. Our family spoiled them and baby Oliver is going to be a very dapper baby. It was my first time making a diaper cake and it was super easy and a fun decoration to add to the gift table. Rather than a sign in book, I had guests sign a book for Oliver; of course it was a circus book. We also had some diapers for people to write funny “late night diaper change” messages for Cameron and Maurina. I wish I’d gotten pictures of the messages; some of them were pretty funny.
Aubrey is Harry Potter obsessed and she recently got Maurina hooked on the series as well, so when Aubrey saw a cute Harry Potter outfit, she went a little crazy. Of course I had to get the outfit, “from Aubrey”, so she can take a sweet picture with her nephew when he arrives.
I had to make my grandbaby his blessing suit. In our church, babies are “blessed” (other churches might call it a dedication) and traditionally they wear white (although they don’t have to). Maurina had been looking online for an outfit but wasn’t crazy about any of them, so I was excited to make this for them. It seemed only appropriate that Grandma should make it!
I had too much fun making other things for little Oliver; a binky bib, a little sensory blankie, a little “lovey”. I make a lot of these things for customers in my etsy shop, and now I’m excited to have a grandbaby to make things for! I can’t wait to make him a birth announcement blanket after he’s born!
And here we are: the grandparents-to-be! I know, we look way too young to be grandparents 😉 I ran into an old high school friend a couple of weeks ago, who was about to have her first baby. I shared with her that we are expecting a grandchild (explaining our story of adoption-she knows I didn’t have a baby in high school). Her response was a bit odd to me. Two times, she said to me, “Yeah….I wouldn’t be announcing that to anyone.” But here’s the thing; I am not one bit ashamed that we adopted and raised an older child. I know she got married young, but she is doing well and is happy with her her life. She isn’t a young, teen mom (even if she was, we’d still love the baby); she is married. She is happy and excited with this new adventure of motherhood, and so I am excited for her. She has overcome some amazing odds and has turned out to be a fine young woman. I am going to wear this Grandma badge with pride!!
All the time spent planning and prepping…and it’s over in a flash. I’m so glad that we have pictures to look back and remember the fun we had!
If you like anything you’ve seen in this post, here’s where you can find it all!
