Just Whem and Osc: Dump Everything!

...and join us for Jenn's baby shower!

About a month ago I threw a little baby shower for my friend and co-worker, Jennifer. Her little guy is due ANY day now, and I was a little crunched on time, but I made it work! Jenn is such a good sport and just rolled with all of my crazy ideas, which is why I love her! =)

I have zero dollars in my Mighty Mouse piggy bank, Ladies and Gentleman. Because I was expecting help, but didn't ASK for it, I can only blame myself. So here is how I went about throwing a cute baby shower ON A BUDGET!!!

So if you remember correctly, I'm like Charlie Sheen at baby showers...WINNING!!! You can see some previous posts here:

Diaper cakes made by me =)
Diaper cake tutorial
Diaper cake supplies
Congrats Mike and Mandy!

All of the places around here to have a party, like the Fire Departments, Moose Lodge, Knights of Columbus etc wanted at least $400, all the way up $900 just for a few hours! Times like this, I wish my firehouse wasn't SOO far away!! No one else volunteered their homes, and I live with my parents and six dogs, plus I live the furthest away, so that wasn't going to work. The ONLY person who offered to help and have it at their house was Jenn, and NO WAY was I going to make her clean her house and everything to have company over!!!

So, I called the local Ledo's Pizza and I asked how much their party room was, and they said it was FREE!! As long as you order $50 w0rth of food! Perfect. I ordered 2 pizzas for myself, Jenn, and anyone else who waned a few pieces, and a pitcher of sweet tea, and they everyone else figured out their own lunch and paid for it. Sweet! They have delicious food and amazing sweet tea, which seems to be hard to do in Culpeper!

Think outside the box on your location! It doesn't HAVE to be a "fancy" restaurant, or someones house. Ledo's is a pretty inexpensive place, but it was nice not to have to clean up before OR after aside from what we brought in!

I did all of the invitations, naturally, that's my favorite part. I went with a construction/dump truck theme because she already had a "traditional" blue/teddy bear shower when she had Ryan, and a "typical" pink and purple one for Alayna...so I wanted something fun, playful and 100% boy for this one!! I put one invitation on a large white mat and had all the guests sign it for baby Chase :)

As far as decorations went, I would have liked to do a little more, including banners and lots of yellow and orange balloons, but the ceilings in there were around 12 feet...so that made it difficult. I also had to get everything in my car in one trip. You have to think about these things, especially when you are going at it alone =)
The Decorations that I DID included CAUTION tape around each table, a CAUTION tape bow on the back of Jenn's chair, and some cardboard construction signs that I got on Amazon.com. They were 4/$6. I got 2 packages and put them standing on the tables. I also used toy Tonka trucks on the tables to hold favors, cards and other small items.

As for favors, I used the orange swirly lollipops purchased at Oriental Trading. They came with Stickers, which I had them print with "Jennifer's Baby Shower!" I spray painted a foam block and set it down into a Tonka truck to look like it was hauling it.

The second favor was a game really. I bought these 24 ducks on Oriental Trading as well. They have little construction helmets on! So cute! I put them on the table, spilling out of the bull dozer. One of the duckies had a dot on the bottom. When everyone was done eating, I had them grab a duck. The one with the little dot was a 10 year old, she was SO excited!

The "real" favors are the Hershey's HE bars. I saw them a LONG time ago at a wedding where they made HE & SHE bars with their wedding date. These took a little time to come up with a pattern, but once I did, easy peasy lemon squeasy. Orange card stock, with a black card stock dump truck cut out on my cricut, and one yellow ribbon. Cute and easy!