One of my favorite parts of any party is tying it all together with a common theme. In this case, it was transportation (because his nursery is based on the Plaidsportation fabrics), and then we used Lynn's favorite bright colors as a unifying element.
I apologize in advance...these are phone pictures taken as we did stuff, and then some of the pictures at the shower are dark. But you get the idea--I just wanted to show y'all what fun we had with the theme! Because it's Lynn, and I've had a lot of years of being spoiled by her, I wanted everything to be super cute and perfect for her. (Not perfect...but perfect for Lynn!) I think we did a pretty good job. :)
This is a good time to mention that Lynn's favorite color is red, and she prefers black backgrounds to white. Try it sometime--colors just POP! off of a black background, and everything looks a little nicer! And she LOVES polka dots and stripes together, which is a big part of her nursery fabrics, too. So, that was our starting point.
This is just a little glimpse of Lynn's shower so you can see the theme-y stuff. It was a beautiful party--Elizabeth and Ashley outdid themselves on the food, and Aunt Alice's punch was a*mazing. I told Debbie (Lynn's mother-in-law) that I'll definitely be calling on them next time I host a party...they've got it down to a science!
Invitations are important, I think...they should set the tone for the party. I think the invitations should be just as awesome as the party, and vice versa.
There are so many opinions on including registry information. Sigh. We didn't put it on the invite, but felt it was important to put it in the envelope AND carry on with the theme. I had to go with a white background because we printed those ourselves, but I was okay with that because James' car was so cool. Lynn's sister-in-law gave us "honk, honk! vroom, vroom! let's fill up Jackson's room!"...it was super cute!
Diaper cake...I'm sure James could have taken better pictures, but you get the idea. We used this as a game at the shower, but I wanted it to be cute enough to live in his nursery, too. This is the first time I've ever put the baby's name on the cake, and I think I like it.
Favors...this was a tough one, because I wanted them to be so fun for Lynn! At first we talked about car-shaped sugar cookies, but when time got short I was thinking that it would be better to have something we could do a couple days ahead of time. (Thank goodness we opted out of the cookies--we would have been up all night Friday!) When we went to Kansas a while back, I saw moon pies at Cracker Barrel (it's an inside joke with Lynn) and thought we'd go with them and put something on there like, "We're wheely glad you could come celebrate Jackson!"...but I couldn't get really excited about it. Then last week when I was really starting to get grumpy with myself over favors, I saw these ding dong-type cakes at Walmart and thought...that's it! But, alas, when I put together what I saw in my head, it was okay, but not okay enough. Sigh. (Note to self: great tires for monster-truck theme, James said!) I sat down with my Boy to talk through the favors, the ideas we'd had and what I wanted them to be for Lynn. He said if we were going with "fill up Jackson's room," why not fill up the windows of the car with colorful candies? Bingo...that was it! I *finally* learned how to use the print & cut feature on my Silhouette, and I'm so happy with the finished product! The key was specialty-sized ziplocs, if you're as
Lynn and I couldn't narrow it down, so some had Skittles and some had M&Ms, but they were all cute and bright! We put them in a fun polka-dot serving tray and had one of the little girls pass them out at the shower.
I didn't get a good picture of this hanging up at the shower, but here's the banner in progress. Did I mention how much I love, love my Silhouette? Those colors just jump out and make you smile, don't they?
We hung the banner in the doorway between the party room and where we were serving food, but I didn't get a good picture of it. Oh, well!
I made these for a second banner, but used them around as decorations, instead. Again, loving the brights and black!
Games are always fun, I don't care what people say! Sometimes people have a hard time knowing what to do with game prizes, so we made it easy this time. The red bags had fun stuff Liz picked up for Jackson (nail clippers, medicine spoons, all kinds of stuff) and we gave each winner a red bag with a "for Jackson" tag, so there was no mistaking that it was for them...
...and an Almond Joy to keep with a tag that said "what a joy to celebrate Lynn's little boy!"
I hope you get some ideas for your next party...see how much you can do with just paper??
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