Baby Shower games/Birthday Ideas

Ok, my fav...and no one else has said it is:
Freeze little plastic babies in ice cubes (you can find them at walmart or party supply places) and then give one to each person in their drink. When the ice melts the baby will float at the top of their glass. They then yell out "my water broke". First broken water wins! It was a lot of fun at the two showers I've done it at.

Its not really a game but you take a package of diapers usually the newborn or size 1 that the mother will be using soon. And pass a diaper to each person and they write an encouraging message on the diaper for middle of the night feeding and changes. Also you can get a scrapbook and everyone in attendance decorates a page for the baby in the scrapbook. I had a friend do this for me and my baby shower and I thought it was a really neat idea and great keepsake! They decorated each page as a birthday year. so all I have to do is add pictures from each birthday. You can also buy onsies and different things to decorate it with and your guests can make a onsie for the baby. I really like the different craft ideas!
For birthday ideas I also go for a theme that my child is really into at that point in time.

You can make up word jumbles using baby related words. When I threw a shower for my friend, the most popular game was finding the clothespins in the rice. You get a big bowl dump a bunch of rice (white of course, plus it's cheap and youc an throw it away when you're done) in there and about 15-20 safety pins. You're supposed to use the diaper pins (with the blue or pink plastic on the end) but I found that regualr safety pins were more challenging. Blind fold the person and gice them 30 seconds or 1 munte to find all of the pins.

My favorite baby shower game is "Baby Gift Bingo". Each person gets a blank bingo card. They write in each square what they think mom-to-be might get as gifts. If each person fills their own out that way everybody's is different. And while the mom-to-be is opeing her gifts they play bingo. I like this one cause it keeps everybody involved during the gift opeing part of the shower and even young ones (that know how to play bingo) have fun with it.

One of the best, most memorable things my sister did for me at my baby shower was to gather unique beads for a birth blessing necklace which I wore while in labor. Everyone in attendance chose a bead and passed around the string. As they strung their bead, each person said something (nice) about me, mothering, the baby, etc. It hangs today with the belly cast I made in my final weeks, and I will never forget the wonderful things my family and friends said as they "blessed" me. You could do the same thing as a bracelet or the necklace depending on what you think the mama would prefer and how many you have in attendance.

I love being the game planner at the baby shower. Here are a few that have gone over really good. This one is done alot but always fun, put about six different baby foods each in a different diaper. Then have the guest try and figure out what kind they are. Here's the fun part, pass out the remaining diapers to everyone. Also pass out sharpies to each guest. Have them write special messages to mom and dad. Such as daddy's lil stinker or I love my mommy. As for the three year old party. A friend of mine bought a big dump truck and put cut up chocolate cake in the back as well as other toppings. The kids loved it.

Check out familyfun.go.com or familycrafts.about.com for good game and snack ideas. Congrats!!

J.

At my shower my mom put uncooked rice in a big bowl and put alot of small safty pins in it, blindfolded the person and they had 1 min to get as many pins as they could.... Its harder then you think also pick up a few small bottles and fill them half way and see who can suck the drink out first. Very funny to watch.

I have been to tons of babyshowers lately. I feel as if I could throw one in my sleep. A few games we have played:

1. Write down as many movies with the words baby, kid, or child in them.

2. Sit a person in a chair blind folded. They hold a paper plate on their head and use a large kitchen spoon to spoon as many cotton balls onto the plate as possible. After two minutes, the most cotton balls on the plate is the winner. Ones that fall off do not count.

3. Put saftey pins in a bowl of rice, a blind folded person trys to remove as many safety pins in 2 minutes.

You can shorten the times too.

My son will be one in May and since the weather has been so great, we are having his party at the park. Don't have to worry if your house is clean enough, kids of all ages have fun, and my favorite reason... with everything else you will have to buy for the party, this part is free!!

Of course there are the traditional shower games like, the diaper pin game where every guest gets a diaper pin but if you hear someone else say the word "baby" Or "diaper" or "mom" or something like that you take their pin and whoever has the most pins at the end wins.
There is also the quickest diaper change game. You get some baby dolls (life size or small ones) and see who can change the diaper the fastest and best. This is great with veteran mothers!! You can create a funny scene if you put gross baby food like strained peas in one of the diapers on the baby!! that is fun and it is also fun with cloth diapers too because we don't use those so much now.
As for your son's birthday, I always say, less is more. As far along as you are going to be, I would really just focus on a small party at a restaurant (like McDonalds) and let them do ALL the work!! Don't do it at your house if you can at ALL avoid it. You don't need all the stress, extra prep time and clean up. Pick an easy them and let the kids just play. At that age kids just like to play and often parents want to put WAY TOO many activities in. BELIEVE ME, you will have plenty of time for major parties when they get to be teenagers!! (I have 2 teens, 1 preteen!) Enjoy their adjustability NOW because it does go away!!
GOOD LUCK. Let us now how it goes.
R.

One baby shower game that we did at mine that was funny to watch was you tie up a string like a clothes line. Get a few little baby items like some little socks, onesies, stuff like that. Grab some clothespins and have everyone take turns holding a "baby" (stuffed animal or babydoll will sufice) on one hip and a phone up to their ear. If you have all of the clothes in a little basket where they have to bend down and put clothes on the clothesline, it is so funny to watch and see who can do it the fastest! Good luck!

Okay, this sounds kind of gross, but it is really funny. We played this game at a friend's baby shower. You take newborn diapers and put different kinds of mini candy bars inside (snickers, three musketeers, milky way, etc.) and melt them in the microwave. Then you have to pass the diapers around and by smelling them figure out what kind of candy bar it is! Oh it is so hilarious to watch people's faces! Whoever gets the most candy guesses right wins a prize.

Hi M.,
we played baby bingo : we put BINGO across the top of the page and then made the squares on the piece of paper (then made copies for how many people would probably attend). we then made a list of words that had to do with baby things such as crib, diapers, babyfood, rattle and so on then each person got a sheet(her again printed of from te computer, you could make the sheet colorful if you wanted to also) for their bingo card and they wrote their words in each box where they wanted to and the center one was a free space. also to mark the squares we used stickers that had to do with babies. (you could use markers if wanted to) Then we made a sheet that said BINGO in big letters from the computer and printed it out and then cut these letters out and put them in a basket then each word we cut out also and then the person that is having the baby draws the letter and then the word. the letter you put back and the word you keep out. so you might draw "B" "BOTTLE" and then people would see if they put that word in the correct box to get a bingo. we also done this with xmas. hope that gives you an idea. W. mom of 4

Great responses on the baby shower ideas! This website might also help.

http://www.welcomebaby.com/baby_shower_games.htm

It is full of free, printable games, like baby bingo, word scrambles, etc. Might be good to combine one of these printable games with one of the other hands-on games, like the candy bar diaper game or the pins in the rice game. One of the other things we did at a baby shower I went to recently, was to see how far each guest could spit the pacifier out. Get some cheap pacifiers, and set up a long space, like a hallway or something, and then let each guest do their best. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Good luck!