The Baby Shower Challenge

Three weeks after our friends, Ellis and Joy's wedding, we threw a baby shower to our beloved couple. 

The venue: The couple's house

The guests: Couple's closest friends and some of their way minor kids.

The Attire: Wear any shade of Green (Because most baby boy showers are themed in blue, so make it green plus it's the mommy's favorite color)

The challenge: How to throw a baby shower with guests who don't like games and with little kids participating in the program.

To be honest, I don't really know how to organize/throw a baby shower for a friend because majority of the baby showers that I've attended, I have nothing to do with the planning. I just make an appearance, bring gifts according to the couple's wishlist . The most I've been involved with is host the party as the master of ceremony, which I've done for at least a few times.

Let's not even go to the part of hosting (which is another story but of a different party) but what makes this shower challenging is, the fact that not only it's a co-ed baby shower (most baby showers are exclusively for the women and wives because this is their venue for tip-sharing for the mom-to-be...shucks, I did not even know that!), there are also minor kiddies in the party!

But God Bless the internet, everything is highly googable from the decorations to program flow to baby shower games! 

So here it is: Decorations (banner by yours truly and the pom-poms by Shom...all labor of love!)

Decorations

More after the jump!

Balloon drops

Pacifier Give away

Prizes

The most challenging part of throwing a party is how to throw a baby shower game for guests who hate/too shy to join in games.

The trick? Come up with games that are sure to be enjoyed by many.

Again, God Bless the internet. I came across this blog and got this game. It's actually called Pin the Sperm to the Uterus, but since we even have kids in the party and a mom threatened me to explain the anticipated "sperm-related questions" to her 7 year old kid ( Oo, ikaw to Shimoda haha! Oh no! The Stage-tita Kea will have to explain to kids The horror, diba? So I just renamed it - Pin Daddy to Mommy and let the parents figure it out. 

Then instead of squeamish tadpole-like sperm figures, I decided to personalize everything by putting the Daddy's face on every "sperm" (haha, I'm laughing already while typing this) and Mommy's face will be on the finale, which is the egg.

The whole instructions about this game is available here.

I drew the uterus! Haha!

Mommy Shom blindfolded soon-to-be-mommy Joy

The magic egg!

Mommy will pin the egg and the closest "Daddy" wins!

That's a kid's hand, by the way.

Shom's sperm wins! Hahaha! This sentence alone is so funny.

Next we had baby shower BINGO. I decided that the pattern would be a capital T. T for Torres, because this shower is for the Torres Family!

So each were handed out baby shower Bingo Cards and here's how to play the baby shower bingo: 

And I was the one doing the call out of the baby items:

And we have a Daddy Winner! Tito Marc Maligalig!

Marc with Mommy Joy. Look at our photo op. Marc holds his almost 2-year old kid, also joining the photo op is Joy's nephew, 3 year old Hammie!

I made personalized certificates too!

We played Baby Shower Taboo. I guess everyone knows how to play Taboo, right? To know more how to play baby shower taboo, click here.

But in a nutshell, there are words related to baby and pregnancy in the cards and there are words listed under the word to be guessed and you let your guests guess the written word.

In this game since we're just one big group, and the prize is allotted only to one person, I did all the call outs again and the person who was able to guess gets the card, and the person who gets most of the card wins!

And we have a winner! 

Second time, Baby Shower Game Champion, Mommy Shom, wid 7 year old Kaia, in tow.

Now let me tell you a little something about Mommy Shom. While planning the party and program, she was the most, if not the only one, against the games. In fact, she hates it but she ended up taking home two candy-filled goody bags to her daughter's delight!

The guys were already complaining that they can't relate to the whole pregnancy word guessing game related stuff.  So I told them, don't fret! We have the last and final game just for the guys called "The Diaper Genie".

This is actually the idea of Joy's sister, Ate Mia. Basically here's how it goes:

1. Melted chocolate are in separate diapers.

2. Guys were handed out papers to list down what chocolate brand/type is in the diaper (by smelling or tasting, whatever is your pleasure).

3. The one who guessed the most number of chocolate wins!

I love how these diapers were presented, because they were hidden inside the room, no one was able to check it out earlier.

The diapers with melted chocolates

Even though the game is for guys, we were all involved in the game. Everyone had an opinion!

We told them they can "taste" it, since it's chocolate after all, but they opted to just "smell" and determine  it from there.

Some of the boys cheated by going through the goody basket with chocolates in it! Huli ka Balbon!

 This is the longest we spent time on a game. Daddy Ellis started to get impatient haha! 

Tito Poch wins the Diaper Genie Game!

Hammie gamely posed for Tita Kea, not minding if the camera flash is blinding, just to show off all the chocolate in his mouth. What a cutie!

 Up Next: Opening of gifts. Look at the helpful kids doing the work! 

And what is with little and big boys and big boxes? Look how Tito Jan and Tito Dhoddie mentors the little boys:

Our group shot:

Special mention to our other friends who did not make it but sent support and well wishes and those who came late (from work-related trips): Tita Cecile, Tita Tin-tin, Tito Pi, Tito Yay, and Tito Rogus. 

See you soon Baby Joaquin!