Buttons and Bowties Baby Shower for Our Little Boy

When I was pregnant with Gabby in 2009, my cousins threw us the cutest pink and brown birdie baby shower. It was the first "crafty" party in our family and the start of many more themed events. It was no easy fete considering we had a guest count of over 100 people!

This time around, my cousins truly outdid themselves with a buttons and bowties theme for our baby boy. Everything from the invitations, food signs, water bottles to the place settings, party favors were all handmade. 

It was such a wonderful afternoon surrounded by amazing friends and family. Our little growing family is definitely blessed. 

Invitations: The invitation had a blue felt bowtie attached to the top and placed inside a hand-sewn fabric shirt pocket sleeve. It was designed to resemble a man's button down shirt.   

DIY PVC Sign Holder

Games & Prize Gift Bags

Signs for Gifts & Reserved Chair for the Mom-to-Be

 Prize Gift Bags

 Candy Quiz Game Pieces and Prizes

Place Setting: Wrapped Utensils, Personalized Water Bottle, Game Card & Thank You Gift

 Thank You Gift: DIY Fabric Bowtie on an Alligator Clip

 Table Setting: Chair Covers Convert to Large Drawstring Bags (Another Gift for the Guests)

 Button & Bowties Personalized Water Bottles

 Game: Guess the Number of Buttons in This Jar

 DIY Bowtie Onesie Clothesline

Button & Bowties Dessert Table

 Lifesaver Mints in Matchbooks

 Mini Hershey Chocolates Wrapped in Colored Paper

Reese's Peanut Butter "Cuffs" 
Chocolate Button Lollipops

Buttons & Bowties Cake

Button & Bowties Cake & Mini Cupcakes

Dum Dum Lollipops in Orange, Blue & Green

Carrot & Cucumber Buttons with Ranch Dip AppetizerMen's Ties in a Jar as Centerpieces: Ties were used as a game - who can do a tie fastest while blindfolded 

Photo Booth PropsPhoto Booth Circle Dot Background

Opening Gifts with Gabby

Surprise Lego Party

What do you get a person who can buy anything for himself and does? After many texts and emails back and forth, my brother's girlfriend and I decided to throw my brother a surprise birthday party. He's a big kid at heart and is an avid Lego collector so we thought he would get a kick out of a Lego themed party. Who says themed parties are only for kids?

My brother was definitely surprised we put this all together for him. He had come over the night before and we had nothing out that made him think something was going on. The morning of the party, we hustled to get everything ready in time. I'm lucky to come from a large extended family so got a lot of help preparing and setting up. My cousins came over early and helped bake cupcakes from scratch. My mom and aunts made some of the side dishes and prepped the fruit plate. My cousin Q helped make the food signs that very morning. It was a whole family effort.

Lego Party Dessert Table:

My brother has so many Lego sets that he left some at our place. We used these as part of the dessert table display:

• Lego Carousel (retired set)
• Lego Ferris Wheel (retired set)
• Lego Mini Modular

I made my brother a personalized birthday card from Tinyprints with pictures of Gabby and him together over the years. He absolutely adores Gabby. I could probably say that he may have more pictures with Gabby than I do. We wanted to give him an annual pass to Legoland but didn't want to actually buy it too early in case he doesn't have time to go right away. So my husband designed this 4x6 gift certificate and we placed it inside the card. We incorporated the Lego surgeon mini-figure since it is his profession. When he opened his card, he thought this was a real certificate from Legoland. 

We thought it would be fun to do a few easy games that everyone could play. 

Game 1: Guess How Many Legos are in this Vase:

Game 2: Guess How Many Legos are in this Mini-Modular Set:



Game 3: Lego Memory Game:

I laid out and labeled 25 Lego pieces on a board. Everyone had a few minutes to memorize as many pieces as they could and whoever could jot down as many as they remember wins. I even had a hard time remembering all 25 pieces and I made the game!

The winners of the games received a party favor bag filled with mini M&M's or peanut M&M's along with a Lego mini figure from this Lego Birthday Party Pack. I also gave a bag to some of the people who helped with the party as a thank you.


Lego Party Favor Bags:

I purchased a set of 13 gift bags in primary colors from Michaels for $3.60 ($5.99 plus 40% off coupon). Using this free Lego font, I printed and punched out 2" circles and affixed them to the bag using pop dots to make the bags look like Lego bricks.

Lego Party Favor: Mini M&M's in Ikea Spice Jars:   

Lego Party Favor: Peanut M&M's in a Clear Blue Box:   

I also wanted to do a little something for everyone to take home so transformed Kit Kats into a micro Lego box. I used red double-sided tape to place square Lego Bricks all around my Martha Stewart cake stand. You could try regular Scotch double-sided tape but it may not be as strong and tacky as the craft double sided red tape. That stuff is amazing and easy to remove from the cake stand.

DIY Lego Kit Kat Party Favor on Lego Brick Cake Stand:

DIY Lego Kit Kat Party Favor on Lego Brick Cake Stand (Another View):

As for food, we served dim sum, salad, spring rolls, Asian-style chicken wings as well as a variety of desserts. We borrowed Gabby's Duplos to make this utensil holder.

DIY Lego Utensil Holder:

Fruit Platter with Lego Food Sign:

Girl Scout Cookies with Lego Food Sign:

Rainbow Cupcakes with Lego Cupcake Toppers:

Mini Rainbow Cupcakes:

Jumbo Marshmallow Lego Heads:

I was lucky enough to come across jumbo marshmallows so used those as the base of the Lego head. I cut large marshmallows cut into thirds for the nub on top of the head and they stuck on easily. The Wilton Candy Melts were the perfect shade of yellow for Lego heads. The candy melts taste like vanilla flavored chocolate and melted quickly and are so easy to use. At first I bought Wilton Edible Food Write Pens, but they didn't work on candy melts. I was able to draw on one Lego head and that was it. Frustrated, I bought this AmeriColor Gourmet Food Writer Pen from Amazon and they worked well. It felt like writing with a Sharpie - dark and smooth.    


Lego Birthday Cake with Fondant Lego Bricks: 

This was a fun and fairly easy party to put together since there are so many things you can do with Legos. You can even narrow it down and do Lego Star Wars, Lego Superheroes, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. The possibilities are endless.

DIY Baby Sock & Washcloth Cupcakes & Lollipops

I was excited to go shopping for baby shower gifts last month because it meant looking at newborn clothes. It's been awhile and it makes me nostalgic. There is something just so sweet about those tiny little baby socks.

I ended up picking out staples like everyday onesies, baby socks and washcloths as opposed to going out clothes. As cute as those little girl dresses and little boy cargo pants are, I know they won't get much use. In the first few months, Gabby went through so many onesies even in a single day. You really can't have enough.

If you have a Carter's store near you, consider yourself lucky. They have the best deals and coupons that you can use on top of it all. I rarely buy anything without having at least a 20% off everything coupon in hand. The main reason I love Carter's is that there is no time limit on returns so I was free to hoard baby clothes up to a year in advance and return if not needed. I would venture out to say that Gabby's first year wardrobe consisted of over 80% Carter's.

A pack of Carter's baby socks comes with three pairs of socks and a pack of washcloths comes with six. The combination was perfect to make these delectable yet calorie free cupcakes and lollipops.

DIY Cupcakes Using Baby Socks & Washcloths:

I Taking one sock, fold it in half and roll it into a small ball. Fold a washcloth in quarters and wrap it around the sock and secure it with a rubber band. Wrap a piece of wide ribbon around the cupcake and use glue dots to hold the ribbon in place. Place inside a cupcake wrapper.

I picked up a package of three plain white Wilton Cupcake Boxes from Michael's (about $3-$4 after 50% off coupon). You could opt to get boxes with designs or in different colors, but I just kept it simple.


Cupcakes Boxed Up:

For Baby Girl:

For Baby Boy:

Since a cupcake box only fits four, I was able to make two lollipops with the extra socks and washcloths. The technique is the same as the cupcakes except you fold the washcloths more to make it thinner. Place in a square plastic bag and secure with a rubber band tightly to help hold its shape. Insert a lollipop stick into the rubber band and tie it with a ribbon.


DIY Baby Sock and Washcloth Lollipops:

It's a simple and sweet gift that is also practical and useful. Even to this day, Gabby still uses her washcloths. I ended up not using the onesies as part of the "sweet" gift and just wrapped them inside a gift bag. Next time I'll have to figure out a way to turn the onesies into something else - maybe a cake or ice cream sundae.