A BUZZ-Worthy Office Baby Shower
The time is drawing near for my co-worker's baby to arrive!
We decided to have a pizza party to celebrate at work, and I volunteered to make dessert and come up with a few fun games and decorations. The baby's gender is going to be a surprise to mom and dad (see my gender neutral shower gift here!), so we wanted to pick a theme that made sense for either. Since her husband drives a race car that's yellow and black, we thought a bumble bee theme would be really cute.
Let's do dessert first. I had a bunch of leftover ice cream cones from a cookout a few weeks back, and decided to try making cupcakes in them. I topped each of the cupcakes (cone cakes?) with a cute ice cream-like swirl of fluffy yellow frosting, and adorned them with some edible sugar bees and flowers.
For funsies, I hid a plastic baby inside one of the cones before baking. Whoever finds it gets to be the "honorary dad". We three gals work with about 20 men, and they all are staking claim to the baby. Ha ha!
One thing I didn't consider, though, was how the heck I was going to transport two dozen top-heavy, delicate little ice cream cones filled with cake and frosting. I ended up building a tray out of foam core with little compartments to hold them all upright.
I also printed out a big calendar for us all to guess the baby's date of arrival, gender and weight. We'll have to wait a few weeks to hand out the prize on this one!
This one took some work... I gathered up as many little baby pictures of my co-workers as possible and printed them out in black and white. The idea is to guess which baby is who, so obviously, the more pictures the better. I cut them into hexagon shapes (little honeycomb holes!), numbered them and hung them up on a chicken wire frame, then printed out guessing sheets for everyone to fill out.
The winners of the games receive the coveted #1 Dad mugs... which are GW Boutique specials with custom vinyl decals. I was looking for some old gaudy World's Best Dad coffee cups or something, but I guess I didn't spend enough time and effort thrifting to really find the treasures I was hoping for. St. Vinny's probably would have been my best bet, but I was on the other side of town and didn't have the time to drive all over. I think these are pretty sweet though.
I designed the frames and cute wood letter, had them cut out on the router at work (it's so darn handy! But I think the router programmers are a bit sick of me...) and I rounded the edges, sanded and painted them by hand (well... spray can, really). I'm thinking that Ashley can take them home with her for nursery decorations or photo props when the baby is born.
I also wanted to make her another little something. I saw that she had posted a cute rustic height ruler on social media somewhere, and since I've done them before I wasn't afraid to take it on. It didn't even need personalization, so it was pretty simple. I'm not sure I love the size of the big numbers, but I hand-drew them on 4x6" photo paper so they'd all be the same size, then cut them out to make stencils. I really need to invest in a new printer for at home.
What do you think? Would you ever attempt to throw a baby shower with a 90% male workforce? An abundance of pizza definitely increases participation. :)
We decided to have a pizza party to celebrate at work, and I volunteered to make dessert and come up with a few fun games and decorations. The baby's gender is going to be a surprise to mom and dad (see my gender neutral shower gift here!), so we wanted to pick a theme that made sense for either. Since her husband drives a race car that's yellow and black, we thought a bumble bee theme would be really cute.
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| I'm short. The ceiling is high. This was a struggle. |
Let's do dessert first. I had a bunch of leftover ice cream cones from a cookout a few weeks back, and decided to try making cupcakes in them. I topped each of the cupcakes (cone cakes?) with a cute ice cream-like swirl of fluffy yellow frosting, and adorned them with some edible sugar bees and flowers.
For funsies, I hid a plastic baby inside one of the cones before baking. Whoever finds it gets to be the "honorary dad". We three gals work with about 20 men, and they all are staking claim to the baby. Ha ha!
One thing I didn't consider, though, was how the heck I was going to transport two dozen top-heavy, delicate little ice cream cones filled with cake and frosting. I ended up building a tray out of foam core with little compartments to hold them all upright.
I also printed out a big calendar for us all to guess the baby's date of arrival, gender and weight. We'll have to wait a few weeks to hand out the prize on this one!
This one took some work... I gathered up as many little baby pictures of my co-workers as possible and printed them out in black and white. The idea is to guess which baby is who, so obviously, the more pictures the better. I cut them into hexagon shapes (little honeycomb holes!), numbered them and hung them up on a chicken wire frame, then printed out guessing sheets for everyone to fill out.
The winners of the games receive the coveted #1 Dad mugs... which are GW Boutique specials with custom vinyl decals. I was looking for some old gaudy World's Best Dad coffee cups or something, but I guess I didn't spend enough time and effort thrifting to really find the treasures I was hoping for. St. Vinny's probably would have been my best bet, but I was on the other side of town and didn't have the time to drive all over. I think these are pretty sweet though.
I designed the frames and cute wood letter, had them cut out on the router at work (it's so darn handy! But I think the router programmers are a bit sick of me...) and I rounded the edges, sanded and painted them by hand (well... spray can, really). I'm thinking that Ashley can take them home with her for nursery decorations or photo props when the baby is born.
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| Raw wood- the backsides. |
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| A nice coat of primer... |
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| Finished paint! |
I also wanted to make her another little something. I saw that she had posted a cute rustic height ruler on social media somewhere, and since I've done them before I wasn't afraid to take it on. It didn't even need personalization, so it was pretty simple. I'm not sure I love the size of the big numbers, but I hand-drew them on 4x6" photo paper so they'd all be the same size, then cut them out to make stencils. I really need to invest in a new printer for at home.
What do you think? Would you ever attempt to throw a baby shower with a 90% male workforce? An abundance of pizza definitely increases participation. :)
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| Yeah, we have a bit of fun at work. Pizza or baby? |
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| Everyone was pretty kind with their estimates... except for whoever guessed 90 pounds! |
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| A fairly creepy last-minute addition... |
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| Our winner guessed 9 out of 13 correctly! Impressive! |
ReplyDeleteYour initiative to organize a pizza party at work with creative games and decorations for a gender-neutral baby celebration is truly impressive. The bumble bee theme tied to her husband's race car adds a cute and thoughtful touch. Now, if you're planning more for the baby shower, you might find this insightful article about when to send out baby shower invites quite helpful. Check it out for some valuable tips!