Baby shower recipes

This weekend I threw a baby shower for a good friend of mine. My husband was very patient with me all week as I was preoccupied coming up with games and running errands and looking for recipes and cleaning. He did an awesome job deep cleaning last weekend, and helped me hang some lanterns and move some furniture for the party.

The party was jungle animal themed (inspired by some cute giraffe and animal things she had on her registry). It was from 2-4, so I decided to just serve some finger foods, punch, and cupcakes. Everything was a hit!

Decor:
Baby shower animal banner I picked up at Michaels, paper lanterns left over from my sister's wedding, pink, yellow, and light green tablecloths with baby animal confetti, some little rubber squeezie animals I picked up at Walmart for $1, and a little giraffe stuffed animal that I couldn't resist. We also had some cute animal plates, bowls, and napkins.

Games:
I made up the games myself... baby shower price is right and baby shower outburst. I purchased some "baby essentials" like diapers, diaper rash creme, wipes, shampoo, Dreft, etc and made up prices for them. The mom-to-be was to say whether the actual price was higher or lower, with the help of the "crowd" of course. At the end, I gave all of those to the mom-to-be as her gift. For outburst, I just made up some categories and did some online research: 10 most popular girl names, 10 most popular boy names, popular nursery rhymes, why babies cry, most popular baby shower gifts, baby milestones, and common names for a pacifier. The games were actually pretty fun!

Food:
Crackers and cheese cut out into elephants, giraffes, and lions with some mini cookie cutters
Fruit kabobs with cherries, grapes, cantelope, and pineapple (with a little giraffe sitting in the middle of the platter)
Whole wheat pita wedges with guacomole goat cheese spread
Sparkling punch (I liked this because it wasn't as sugary as a lot of punches are... this was more tart)
Chai latte cupcakes: Betty Crocker french vanilla cake mix mixed with 3-4 tbsp of instant chai tea latte mix, and then follow recipe on box for oil, eggs, water and topped with the most delicious whipped cream frosting ever. I think this will become a staple for me... it is not as heavy as traditional cream cheese frosting, but doesn't melt/fall over like traditional whipped cream-- a win-win!

Favors:
Box of Barnams animal crackers tied with some stretchy ribbon to a small safari animal calendar and a little "thanks for coming" tag