As a second (or third) time mommy, you still want your baby to be celebrated, but maybe you don't need all the baby essentials you did with number one. So, why not spoil yourself instead! Try any of these themes for the perfect mom-centered baby shower!
Girly Sleepover Baby Shower
Description: Turn the shower into a full-fledged girl's night and have a slumber party! This is especially good if you are having out of town guests.
Guest's Attire: Have your guests come in their frilliest PJs and slippers!
Decorations: These can include a makeover area where you can lay out different shades of nail polish, lipsticks, eye-shadows, various brushes, and lots of mirrors. On another end of the room, have a floor space filled with pillows and blankets set in front of a TV and DVD player with a large selection of chick flicks.
Gifts: Gifts can also be in a bedtime theme, with PJs for baby, baby monitors, or even pretty PJs for the mom-to-be.
Refreshments: Slumber party food such as popcorn, hot chocolate, and cookies are a must! For even more fun, bake some cookies beforehand and cut with baby cookie cutters, then have all your guests decorate their own cookies for a sweet treat that they can later take home.
Games & Entertainment: Play a variation of Tinkle in the Pot by having everybody stuff pillows down their shirts. The ladies should then place a quarter between their knees and race to the other end of the room where they should then try to dump it into a jar. Whoever gets the most quarters into her jar within a specific time wins. Aside from that, you could have a masseuse come in to give the girls all chair massages and if the budget allows, spice things up and host the shower at a local bed and breakfast or at a spa hotel.
Favors: For party favors give your guests personalized terry cloth slippers or personalized spa toiletry bags.
Girl's Night Out Baby Shower
Description: This is a great idea if the mom-to-be already has a lot of baby clothes and supplies or if she's a second-time mommy. Since this theme focuses more on the mom, host a party that is more her style. Consider having a girl's night out theme party.
Guest's Attire: Have the ladies come in their chicest outfits.
Decorations: Play some lounge-y music for the beginning of the party and dim the lights. Decorate with lots of pillows and throws, and have a designated spot reserved for dancing, complete with a disco ball.
Gifts: Guests can bring presents for the mom to use in the future, such as gift certificates for babysitting, housekeeping, restaurants, and play centers. Guests can also bring gifts such as bath products, candles, spa treatments, and other products that will help the mom-to-be to relax.
Refreshments: Serve them cocktails (and don't forget about the mocktails for mommy) and a variety of appetizers to get the lounge feel.
Games: Play a chick-flick version of Scene It. Later, test out each other's skills in karaoke and end the night by turning out the lights and having a dance party.
Favors: For the party favors, consider giving your guests some personalized lip butter and their favorite girly magazine, along with a shoe shaped bottle opener.
Picture Party Baby Shower
Description: Make the shower into a scrapbooking party so that the new baby will have a scrapbook ready for all his or her memories! Provide scrapbooking supplies and have each guest make a separate page for the baby's scrapbook.
Decorations: Your decorations should reflect the picture theme, so post baby pictures of the mom and dad-to-be. Hang these up with clothespins from clothesline around the room.
Gifts: The scrap-book itself would be a great gift for the mommy-to-be, but for a second-time mommy, consider having your guests pitch in for a professional photography session for the new family.
Refreshments: Serve a "collage" of refreshments, such as plain cheese pizzas to which guests can add their own ingredients or have an ice cream sundae bar with a variety of toppings. For the drinks serve your guests smoothies.
Games: For the games, have your guests each bring a baby picture of themselves, and have them guess who is who. The person with the most correct answers wins.
Favors: For baby shower favors, give your guests personalized cameras, yummy personalized photo rice krispy treats, or personalized photo mint tins.
Colorful Baby Shower
Description: Decorate and base the shower on a favorite color, or if you can't make up your mind, have a crayon box party. This shower idea can be a perfect theme for baby boys or baby girls by basing the colors on the gender of the baby. Deviate from the usual blue, pink and yellow by using more jewel tones such as purple and gold or lush colors like moss green and rose.
Decorations: If you choose to do multiple colors, decorate the place with lots of colorful streamers, balloons, and Crayola crayon cut-outs. Have coloring books on tables on one end, cookie or cupcake decorating on another end, and various white onesies on another where your guests can decorate them for the new baby.
Refreshments: Make your food fit in with them color scheme as well, by having a candy buffet with jelly beans, m&ms, skittles, and gummy bears, and have different colored juices for guests to mix as they please.
Gifts: Bring colorful gifts for the new baby, or for a second-time mom, bring gifts to her in her favorite color.
Games: Ask your guests to come in bright colors and give each guest a diaper pin. Forbid them from saying the word color, or any color name and whoever says one, will lose their pin. The person with the most pins at the end of the night wins. You can also have your guests create self-portraits of themselves as babies on paper plates. Allow them to get in touch with their inner Picassos or Da Vincis and have a variety of materials available. The more traditional artists will most likely prefer crayons, colored pencils, and water colors, but encourage the more off-beat ones by having lots of different beads, marshmallows, pebbles, sticks, and clay.
Favors: For the shower favors give multi-colored candy in mini candy dispensers, mini gumball machines, or mini wooden color pencils to match the colorful theme.