travel themed baby shower

In Junior High I met one of my best friends. Each of us also has a sibling (her sister and my brother) 2 years younger than us....so in 8th grade my brother and Amy's sister began dating. They dated all through high school, continued to date while attending different colleges, and after college decided to move to NYC together. They both worked on wall street...living the dream. In 2005 they got married in Cancun, Mexico. After working in NYC they decided to take a break, travel around the world, and then came home to Portland Oregon...not really home but much closer to home than NYC. Then we were all so excited to hear that they were having a baby and Amy and I couldn't wait to plan the shower....travel themed of course. 

For the invitations I die cut brown paper for the envelopes, and map paper for the envelope liner. Then I assembled the envelopes. For the invitation I printed the info on a rustic looking brown paper. Then I printed a card (like a postcard) for guests to write a wish on and bring to the shower with them....my favorite part is the green baby stamp where the postage would go...so cute. Then I wrapped it all up and put luggage type tags on it with directions for the postcard. 

I wish I had a picture of each individual piece but I wasn't thinking that far ahead I guess.

I hand wrote all of the invites...very big and curly. 

We did a lime sherbet punch with 7-up in mason jars. The green paper straws had flags that said....."arrival date....and the date of the birth".

We decoupaged the letters of baby in the map paper. Thank goodness for Amy as she did this and this is not  a task I would have had patience for. :)

I die cut cupcake liners in the map paper and I printed cupcake toppers that said 

"precious cargo on board". 

Game gifts...travel size wine, different kinds of beers, and in the bag...a bag of travel size goodies. 

For one of the the games I typed a list the word baby in all different languages from around the word and the guests had to guess the language. It was harder than we all thought. 

Mom made homemade sugar cookie favors....and I decorated them to look like the earth. 

We put them next to this sign. Loved making all these signs. 

I bought a cute suitcase box for guests to put their wishes in. In this box I also put the thank you cards for Haley to write to her guests. A shape of the united states out of map paper with the words thank you. Each guest wrote their address on an envelope for her. 

I always love this part of any party I do...the food...yay! :) This is where I had a lot of help. Amy made a few things, my mom did, and Amy's mom did, as well as myself. We had such an incredible spread of food from different countries all over the world.

During this shower all of our men were downstairs watching the Seahawks game so I thought it would be a good idea to include them in a fun little relay game. There were 4 people on each team, and there were 4 different activities...put a diaper on the dolls (my cabbage patch kids....oh I loved these so much), dress the dolls, pick up toys that we spread out all over and put in the basket, and drink out of a bottle. 

Here's my brother pounding a "man beverage" out of a bottle and Haley's young cousin pounding water. They got smart and took the lids off. 

Here is Haley trying to dress the baby, and Richie. 

It was a great shower and what an incredibly fun theme. 

nautical baby shower

I did a nautical themed shower for a dear friend of mine. She has two beautiful girls that were the 7 and 3 when she surprisingly found out she was having another. She and her husband were both excited when they found out they were having a boy. Shannon and I were sorority sisters and right after our senior year of college Shannon and Matt got married and then moved to Oregon. A few years ago Matt's jog brought them back to Gig Harbor. I was so excited to get to spend more time with my friend and it was just in time for my wedding. I was also delighted to be able to throw a baby shower for her. 

We had the nautical themed shower at a Thai Food restaurant that had a nice back room area. It was small but we were a small group and it worked out perfectly. I borrowed some nautical items from two male teachers that have sailboats and love to sail....the boats, life ring, lanterns and some small figurines. They really helped with the decor. 

Each guest found their name in a jar of sand at their seat and a paper to write their wishes for Hudson. Each wish sheet was rolled it up and a ribbon was put around it like "a message in a bottle" (below) for Shannon to read to Hudson one day. 

The brick wall made for such a cool background. 

I found a wonderful alphabet sailboat book that each guest signed for Hudson. 

Salt water taffy for a favor...."Thank you for sailing the S.S. Hudson"

My mom has an embroidery business so I took advantage of that and had her embroider Hudson's name on the flags that we hung above the life ring. 

This picture was taken at Hudson's first birthday and going away party....missing my friend who is now living on the east coast....hopefully they come home soon.