I may have mentioned several hundred times in the last few weeks that I’m going to be an aunt on my side of the family because my brother and sister-in-law are expecting their very first baby! I’ve also probably mentioned that they live in Texas now, so we only get to see them once a year when they come home for Christmas… and it stinks. :o(
Anyway,
we knew that we wanted to throw a baby shower for them while they were here for
Christmas because it would be the last time that we would get to see them
before the baby arrives in June. Cheryl
(my sis-in-law) was only about sixteen weeks pregnant when they were here, so the
baby shower was a bit earlier in the pregnancy than most, and because it was
so early, they didn’t know the gender at the time of the shower.
So
my mom and I set out to throw a gender neutral baby shower, which is something
I’ve never done! My mom started by
picking the invitations, and then everything pretty much just fell into place
after that.
Before we get started on the decorations from our party, I thought I'd provide some shoppable links in case you want to throw your own!
Ribbon // Garland // Treat Boxes
The Invitations
The
invitations were just perfect for a little boy or a little girl – two cozy red coffee mugs with little white
snowflakes on them!
The Decorations
For
decorations, we kept it pretty simple.
The shower was at my house, which was already completely decked out for
Christmas, so there wasn’t a need (or room) for too many other decorations
because we already had the perfect backdrop for a cozy evening. We added a few snowflakes to the ficus tree
in the dining room, and then incorporated the red mugs and white snowflakes from
the invitations into the food table – plates, napkins, cups, gift wrap for the presents, and that gorgeous
cake!
The Menu
Chicken
salad on croissants
Pimento
cheese on croissants
Chicken
nugget platter from Chick-Fil-A (who doesn’t
love those?!)
Meatballs
Fruit
platter with strawberries, grapes, and pineapple
Potato
chips (regular and barbecue)
Cake!
The Cake
The
ladies at our local bakery used the invitation to bring my mom’s idea to life.
They put Chyler on the left mug because that is the name that Zach and Cheryl
chose for a little girl, and they put Tucker on the right mug because that is
the name that they chose for a little boy.
The cake was perfect, and it tasted as good as it looks!
The Hot Chocolate Bar
My
mom came up with the idea to have a hot chocolate bar, which is perfect and
cozy for winter.
Never
mind that it was almost eighty degrees that evening. ;o)
We
bought a multipack of different hot chocolate flavors from Sam’s, and all of
the flavors sound amazing! I’m looking
forward to trying them all now that it’s finally cold here.
Pumpkin
Spice
Chocolate Supreme
Arctic
White
Raspberry
French
Vanilla
S'mores
Salted Caramel
We
boiled some water and kept it in the crockpot on low all evening to keep it hot,
and we provided marshmallows and peppermint sticks as stirrers. I bought some plain Styrofoam cups and then I
found the cutest red and white snowflake clips at Hobby Lobby to clip to the
cups to keep with our theme. The
marshmallows and peppermint sticks were nestled in sweet little red bags
complete with a white snowflake.
The Party
Everyone
arrived at our house around 6:30 and everyone mingled and hugged and kissed the
guests of honor since we hadn’t seen them since July.
After
the mingling and conversing, everyone loaded their plates with all of the delicious
food, and then it was time for presents.
After
all of the gifts had been opened, Cheryl wanted to take a poll on how many
people thought it was a boy, and how many people thought it was a girl. Everyone made their decisions and then we
took group pictures.
 |
| The "It's a Girl" group |
 |
| The "It's a Boy" group |
 |
| The "Undecided" group |
The Surprise!
Cheryl
and Zach had told us that they were not going to find out the gender until
after the new year when they arrived back home in Texas. However, once everyone had given their
opinion on the gender, Cheryl announced that they had gifts for the
grandparents.
The
grandparents opened their gifts to find 4D pictures of the baby! Everyone was surprised because we had not
been told that they had been to a 4D ultrasound.
You
can probably guess what happened next!
Once
the pictures were open, Cheryl informed us that when they had gone for their 4D
ultrasound they had also found out the gender.
She then proceeded to open a large wrapped present, turn it around, and announce
that the baby is a…
BOY!!!!
So
the gender neutral baby shower turned into a surprise gender reveal party as
well!
Everyone
started hugging and high-fiving, and a few teared up – even my Daddy – and I’m
convinced that little Tucker is now going to be his favorite grandchild
because he will carry on the family name.
Hehe.
We
spent the rest of the evening watching the 4D ultrasound and looking at all of
the pictures of that sweet little life growing peacefully in Cheryl’s tummy.
It
was a perfect evening, and the perfect way to celebrate my new NEPHEW!!!!
