Big Top Baby Shower

My sister-in-law is having a baby this fall. When I heard the news my first thought was "I'm going to be a real aunt!" quickly followed by "Baby. Shower." I called up my partner in crime in the spring and started hatching this plan. My neice's nusery is circus themed so we decided to run with that. The nusery colors are: "Lot's of pale pink, bright red, cocoa brown and rich cream (like french vanilla ice cream) as well as mixed metals (pops of gold, silver, oil rubbed bronze, etc)." Pretty. Much prettier than the primary colors most people use for anything circus related.

I was party planner and co-host for this shindig. I was hosting with Bekah my favorite crafting buddy. I went through a wide range of overcomplicated design ideas for invites (pop-up baby elephants, mailing a box of animal crackers with messages attached, etc), but in the end simpler was better.

The tent doors open to reveal all the party information in circusy font. They were a hit. Mama-to-be framed it and hung it on the nursery wall. I secured a talented friend to do photos early on (all photos in this post were taken by guests/me). We agreed a circus menu of corn dogs, popcorn, cotton candy (we rented a machine) and sundae bar were the way to go. As for decor the one thing I wanted most was to make a big top in her living room.

For that I enlisted Daddy-to-be and his ladder. I used pink and grey table clothes to match the adorable popcorn buckets Bekah made.

The last one is one of my favorite pictures so far. Mama-to-be rocking her guest of honor top hat. I asked Bekah to make it and she cleverly re-purposed her hat from my Mad Hatter Bridal Shower. She covered it it animal print paper and added red buttons of varying sizes as accents for a pop of color. It also had a sign on the front that said "Mom to Be". Perfect! Standing under the big top with her top hat in a sea of pennant banners. Just how I wanted it to be.

Bekah and I both made pennants in nursery colors (mostly her), but I did make one special one with the baby's name on it.

I borrowed Riley's circus animals and such for decor on the sundae bar. I also made circus signs for toppings. We had all the usual goodies (sprinkles, hot fudge, etc) and I insisted on a large jar of pickles as well. I used my left over peanuts to make a border on the table and velcroed little stuffed circus animals to things. I even borrowed antique ice cream scoops which we put in a polka dot bucket. The toppings were in alternating pink and grey bowls. It looked so nice when it was done.

I scored a vintage circus alphabet book to serve as a guest book from Etsy. I also made these "Welcome to the Circus" (for guestbook table) and "The Greatest Show on Earth: Parenting" signs.

For entertainment I had everyone guess the number of peanuts in a container, gave them 5 minutes to make as many words as they could from the baby's name, guess the belly circumference with yarn, we put celebrity parent/baby names on everyone and had them find each other, they did Mad Lib advise/congratulations pages for the new parents and played circus themed charades. For prizes Bekah picked up circus themed stamps and stationary.

I declare this party, a success! Go team. Congratulations, Mommy & Daddy!