Thursday, August 13, 2015

Rustic Safari Shower - Food. Fun. Family.

Did you catch a glimpse of the cake in yesterday's Wordless Wednesday post?


Misty did her thang!  I sent the theme, color scheme, and a picture of a cake I found online.  When I arrived to pick-up, Misty confessed she wasn't a fan of the inspiration for a baby shower cake.  


Baby shower cakes are typically light, cute and gender-specific.  My request was for a brown silhouette?  Brown? On a baby shower cake?  


Misty took the inspiration and made baby animal silhouettes with tan polka dots.  She also added that scripture?! How perfect?!  She admitted she LOVED the cake and the idea once it was done... 


We surrounded the cake with elephant cookies made by Chef Joy.  They were super cute and super sweet!  Unfortunately, it was a little warm in the space and, by the end of the party, the royal icing softened.  


You can see we used the same wrapping paper for the cake backdrop.  Insider Islander confession: I paid a pretty penny for a photography backdrop... it's chevron (like the scripture area on the cake... you see my vision, right?).  Islanders, the backdrop is lovely.


Yep, it's fabulous.  In the rush loading the car, would you believe I forgot the skinny shipping tube with the backdrop inside?!  Now, we've discussed my anxiety so, you know I had a serious almost  meltdown moment when I realized it was missing.  

It's okay.  I'm okay.  We're okay.  

Seriously, I'll just use it when my nephew comes home to take beautiful photos of him :)  The wrapping paper got the job done AND unified the decor in the space.  I think I like it more.


I made large coffee filter poms to hang above the cake table.  They softened the cinder block walls and framed the cake area perfectly.


I will share all of my coffee filter projects (wreath, garland, poms and lanterns) very soon in an EXCITING new project but, for now, let's just enjoy their fluffy awesomeness!


I used a piece of art from my home and made a banner to make it function as the Grazing Station sign.  The banner instantly took it from art to party signage!


The menu consisted of pulled pork sandwiches, chicken and waffle skewers, deviled eggs, seafood salad, summer greens salad, and fruit salad.


The food was yummy!  In addition to the filling menu, guests really enjoyed the yumminess on the chocolate fountain a.k.a. Hippo's Mud Bath; it was such a nice touch!


I borrowed Sheena's three-tier serving platters and it was the perfect presentation for the mud bath sweets!


Next to the Mud Bath, we set up the watering hole.  My baby bro, Dave, came through with the Starbucks coffee and Amalia made some awesome punch, the Jungle Juice! 


I love that Pier1 elephant jar holding the paper straws; I found it at The Village for less than $3.00!  Oh, can you see that Lion King drawing and photo of the parents-to-be(P2B) in the background ?  Ryan's Mom took maternity photos and drew the picture!  It was awesome for the guests and P2B to see them framed and used as shower decor.  Islanders, you know how I feel about sentimental decor; gets me every time. 

Amalia and Jasmine hosted the games.  They kept it simple with three games - the Belly Measuring, Baby Name Game and the Daddy Triathlon.

Belly Measuring: we passed around scissors and twine for guests to cut the guess for the circumference of Ryan's belly.  The first person to cut had the EXACT measurements!

Baby Name Game: Guests had one minute to jot down as many song titles as they could think of with baby in the title.  The two people with the most songs listed had a lip sync battle.  The first performed her own two-steppin' version of "Ooh Baby" by Texture.  The second runner up, Ryan's mom, performed Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby."  I say performed because she wiggled, kicked, hip hop danced, b-boy posed, runnin' manned and, Islanders, I'll just have to share the video someday; it was definitely a performance for the books!

Daddy Triathlon:  This game is my tried-and-true recipe for guy involvement.  To add a spin on this match, we had three guys - a dad, the dad-to-be, and a wanna-be dad sometime in the future.


I explained the events and rules.  First, you must finish your bottle without hands.  Second, you must eat a container of baby apple sauce without utensils.  Third, you must successfully put a diaper on your "baby."  The guests helped me countdown from 5 and the guys were off!


They all started sipping the bottles by themselves but eventually, they all got help from the guys around them.



Despite clear leaders in the beginning, it all came down to the diaper change.


Islanders, we have a winner!!


Mike went around the room passing out high fives in celebration!  It was hilarious!


Ryan's mom tried to get a pic of the victor:


He clowned so much, are we surprised he was photobombed?


After games, we cut the cake and Ryan's mom got the guests of honor coming to cut the cake and looking like they were on a runway.


Doesn't she look dreamy in that dress?!  My brother swears he is SO handsome.  I can't... and sometimes, neither can Ryan - haha!


The best cake cutting picture ever.  Can you tell they had NO intention of cutting the cake?


Those are totally ahh-look-at-me-holding-a-knife-next-to-a-cake faces.  On the way back to their seats for gifts, Ryan was waddling and she didn't know Michael was waddling behind her.  They started waddling together and in rhythm with one another - haha!


They opened gifts for more than an hour.


We bought baby's carseat, I got a personalized (last name only) carseat cover and used the carseat like a basket filled with goodies (onesies Munch picked out, pacifiers, another carseat cover, carseat clip toys, leggings, bandanna bibs, a nursing cover, etc.) for my nephew.


They got everything they needed for baby's arrival and then some.  Ryan's mom gave a very thoughtful gift.


A small trunk filled with her baby items - the outfit she wore home from the hospital, her Nike baby booties, her favorite toy and more!  One of the gifts included a book Ryan wrote and illustrated as a child.  Everyone came in close as Mike read the story and it was SO cute!


We cleaned and loaded items in cars and made multiple trips to their home with gifts.  


When it was all said and done, you could tell the family needed more time to love on each other; people didn't want to go home!  We were hanging in the parking lot chatting and soothing our swollen feet by dancing on ice.


The shower was a success!  Mike and Ryan were ready for baby.  All should be well, right?!

Tune in tomorrow to see!

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