Baby Shower

My sister, Laura, is expecting her first baby at the end of this month. When I was home in March I threw her a baby shower. I will not get to be there when the baby is born so I wanted to at least throw her a shower to help her get ready. They are leaving the sex of the baby as a surprise. . . which has been absolutely killing me because I like to plan and know this information ahead of time. Plus I also LOVE shopping for baby clothes and gender neutral clothes are almost impossible to find!!!  Anyway they are doing a jungle safari theme for the room which is still super cute even though we don't know if it's a boy or girl.

So I took the jungle safari theme added bright blue, green, and a splash of yellow with some zebra and giraffe prints to pull it all together! I did a bunch of pinterest and internet browsing for decorating ideas and yummy recipes to try. All in all I would say it was a success, BUT I have to say that throwing this shower was much more time consuming than I had realized.  I've done this before with friends helping and catering in the food, but I did this one pretty much on my own and it was a little hectic there at the end! I have to thank my aunts and cousins that helped me get all the food and tables set-up as I definitely underestimated my time needed before guests arrived. Consider this a lesson learned!!!

 Raspberry Lemonade Punch... a very delicious pinterest recipe find! 

Plus these little animal picture holders were great as Laura got to take them home for the baby's room.

 I snagged some of Katie's beanie babies to help decorate.

 Another pinterest recipe find. . .and they were delicious. 

I will definitely make these again!!

 The easiest of all my finds for food ideas, 

but my favorite as it just looked so cute and colorful!!!

 Another yummy find. . .who doesn't like funfetti cake?!? This funfetti cake dip was a super easy recipe! I also made a brown sugar fruit dip that was quite delightful as well! It also has an option to spice it up with alcohol! :) Of course I didn't do that for the baby shower, but I'm thinking I'll be trying it soon for my next party!

 I put a lot of love and hours into cutting out all these letters and I absolutely LOVE how it turned out. The creative gene doesn't come naturally to me so I am really proud of this one as it was all my idea!

Instead of the big diaper cake, I did mini diaper cakes on all the tables alternating between giraffe and zebra print ribbons and different jungle animals on each one. Believe it or not the jungle animals were an inexpensive Hobby Lobby find that were printed wood cutouts that you colored in yourself. Thanks to my sister, Katie, for coloring all of them!!

Here's my sister with the safari crib set they picked out for the baby room!!

If anyone is interested in any of the recipes I made for the shower feel free to leave me a note and I can email them to you. 

Anytime now I am going to be an aunt for the first time. I hate that I can't be there right away, but am looking forward to lots of pictures and skyping with everyone!! I can't wait!!