I don’t have any kids. Nor do I have any plans to have them. But I do have two adorable nephews whom I love dearly, and I love playing “Auntie J” to both of them, as well as all of my friends’ kids.And I love throwing parties.
And that is how it came to be that I threw a baby shower for our friends Rob and Nicole this past August. The baby we showered is now here (her name is Brooklyn, and she is adorable), so I suppose this blog post is a little past due. (Pun intended.)
But in the event any Aunties are planning a baby shower (or any brunchy party for that matter), hopefully you can use some of these ideas.
The THEME… Pancakes and PJ’s: Much like the bridal shower I threw for my friend Kim in SF, the theme of the shower revolved around the FOOD. Big thanks to my friend Angela for taking over the decor, which is not my strong suit.
The MENU… brunch! On mama’s request, I made pancakes. To be fair, that’s really the only thing Nicole cared about having on the table, but me being me simply couldn’t help myself, so I also made fried chicken bites, bacon skewers, deviled eggs and asked for some help from a few friends on other items.
Fried Chicken Bites: Yes, we could’ve ordered them from Shake Shack, but that’s no fun and I’m forever an overachiever. I adapted a previous recipe I did but cut the chicken thighs into bite sized pieces instead of strips.
Mini Pancake Stacks: Of course, mama-to-be got full sized pancakes for herself, but I made mini stacks for everyone else. I always use this recipe from All Recipes, except I sub fresh lemon juice for the vinegar it calls for in the recipe. (Or, you can sub with buttermilk…. but I would still add a little lemon juice for that fresh lemony flavor!)
Deviled Eggs: Rob and Nicole are originally from the Bay Area and adore the Park Tavern Deviled Eggs just as much as I do, so this seemed like a natural way to work “eggs” into our brunch menu.
Bacon Skewers: You can’t have brunch without bacon. That’s an actual fact. I skewered these and cooked the day before to help cut down on prep (and reheated day of.)
(Pasteurized) Cheese Plate: My friend Marisa put together a killer cheese board… with all pasteurized cheese of course!
Donut Holes: My friend Mandy picked up a couple dozen donut holes from one of our faves… Donut Pub in NYC! We used cute heart skewers from Amazon for serving both these and the pancakes.
The DRINKS…. Cold Brew Bar: Justin made a giant batch of cold brew (with some decaf for the pregnant ladies), and we served the milk in baby bottles for a fun touch.
Brunch Cocktails: Our friend Brian is conveniently the National Ambassador for Belvedere Vodka, so he volunteered to mix drinks all morning. (He even made some mocktails for Nicole!)
The GAMES… “Squares:” Nicole would’ve been fine with no games at all, but requested any that we did do “weren’t dumb.” This is why we’re friends. Most of the things we planned were actually just small activities, so I think everyone was happy…. even the boys. One of the things we did was a version of super bowl squares to guess the date and size of the baby. (Disclaimer: we have no idea where this board went and no money was actually collected, but I still think it’s a great idea!)
Onesie and bib decorating: One of the other activities brought out the creativity of our guests. Our friend Marisa ordered a bunch of plain white bibs and onesies from Amazon, along with fabric markers so that we could decorate some fun gear for the new parents. (Hopefully to make them laugh while dressing baby after a sleepless night.)
“My water broke” ice cubes: This was an easy game, as we just ordered these creepy babies off of Amazon and froze them into ice cubes. Each guest got one, and whoever’s ice melted first to release the baby “won.” (What did they win? Absolutely nothing, but it was fun and weird.)
Overall, it was a fun afternoon showering the mama to be! (And somehow the boys managed to escape a group photo….)
Congrats to Rob, Nicole & Frankie on the new addition!
