A Sprinkle for Paige

Maggie is napping. Evie is out with Nana. Taking a hot second to catch up on some blogging.

Saturday after Thanksgiving we had a small, family "Sprinkle" for my sister-in-law, Paige. They're expecting their second the beginning of February. Thanksgiving was the last week Paige was allowed to travel before baby Ellie arrives.

Since they live about 4-5 hours away, I wanted to do a little something for them.  It was also two days after Thanksgiving, so keeping it simple and light was paramount.

 Evie was my co-hostess. She absolutely loved being my helper. She helped get the table set, pour the sprinkles into the candle holders, clean the living room, and distribute the game supplies. She was giddy with delight.  Evie kept jumping with excitement to help with the next task "for baby Ellie's party, Mama!"

We did the party at 2pm.  I kept the "sprinkle" theme pretty literal. We served ice cream sundaes and used sprinkles and polka dots as the decorations.

I tried to keep this super budget friendly.

For toppings:  I chopped up leftover Halloween candy.  Shhh. I used sprinkles I already had.  We cut up some fresh strawberries (preggo's request!), crushed a handful of Oreos, and I toasted some almonds and candied them.  I also made Danielle Walker's dairy-free caramel sauce.

For ice cream:  I made two varieties.  The first was a plain french vanilla. I used the recipe that came with the KitchenAid ice cream maker.  The second was  Danielle Walker's dairy-free coconut cream ice cream.

For drinks:  Eric made some iced tea (this is the south, after all).  And we bought a few Cokes for those who might like a Coke Float (and because this is Atlanta, after all).

I kept the decorations suuuuper simple.  Which, is not like our family. Haha.  I reused the pom-poms from Evie's birthday.  I found the "It's a Girl" banner in the clearance bin at Hobby Lobby (now I can use it for photoshoots, too!).  The candles and candle holders were all bought new at Hobby Lobby during the 50% off candle & accessory sale.  I made sure to purchase things I could use again.  I used a coupon to get some large things of pink sixlets (to put in wine glasses) and nonpareils (to put in votives).

A baby shower isn't a shower without games. Love them or hate them, they're a must.  But I hate them. Ha. So I decided to go with games that would be more of a conversation starter.

I chose Old Wives Tales (free printable here)  because we had 4 generations of guests. I thought this would be fun to see what nonsense everyone had heard and which ones were "true" with the mom-to-be.

The other game I came up with about an hour before the shower (while I was in the shower!).  I scrambled through my girl's story books and took one or two random lines out of 12 different books.  I copied them on to a piece of paper and then read them to the party guests.  They had to guess which book the lines were from.  This was great for all the guests because even those without kids could remember the lines from their childhood or from babysitting.  I used a mix of family favorites (since this was a family shower) along with a few new popular books. This game made for some great laughs, story telling and debate!

And then wrestle mania broke out so it was time to switch to opening gifts.

Paige's sister lives in Oregon but sent a beautiful hand painted canvas for Ellie's nursery.

Paige and David already have a three year old boy, Zachary. Everyone was encouraged to bring a girly gift for the nursery, or to spruce up the baby essentials.

Paige received lots of goodies, like monogrammed Boppy covers, crib sheets, hooded towels and lots of frilly clothes.

It was a great afternoon showering Paige and welcoming baby Ellie. We can't wait to meet our new (and first!) niece in February.

Maggie is looking forward to a little cousin to laugh and play with :)