Isn't it A Small World?

Everyone just keeps having babies and we are always dreaming up new themes for the Shower.  This one was inspired by the ride from Disneyland, It's A Small World.  We had a friend of ours make large flat wooden trees and flowers decorated in cartoon-like bright colors, then placed pinwheels from the dollar store all around to give the backdrop to our shower a colorful and festive feel.  

He was also kind enough to make a charming umbrella center piece for the game station.  Large party decorations like these are always great to have and make a big wow statement as the guests enter the celebration. To add color all around the yard several of us made topiaries out of brightly colored fabrics, ribbons, gum balls and sewing pins. 

 Our adorable scrapbook paper birds were simply made by rolling two mismatched strips of paper on a toothpick then gluing the circles together, then once they dried, we shaping them accordingly (we found the directions from a Family Fun Magazine). 

We adding fabric covered boxed to the table for even more color and to give our accessories and centerpieces height so they would not be lost in the many platters of refreshments.

 

Our food theme was "Things Skewered".  We had  Salad Fixins' sliced thin on skewers with dressing to dip; Rigatoni and Meatball Spears with marinara and pesto for dipping; Chicken and Potato Salad Lettuce Cups pierced with a toothpick; Fruit and Muffin Kabobs; and Cake Pops.

  I threw in Banana Pudding Filled Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Frosting and a Banana Chip on top last minute because the Mommy-to-Be loves banana.  I figured we could make just one exception to the food theme for her.

For our simple and sweet party favors, we used a heart shaped punch to create these edible flowers.  We just punched out four hearts and punched a small in all four at the point to slide the dum-dum stick through.  We simply held the "flower" up-side-down, arranged the flowers around the sucker and taped them together.  I printed the parents names on green paper and then cut each leaf out by hand, hole punched it, placed it on the stick then tied a small ribbon to secure the papers in place.  We then placed them in tin pails as arrangements and used them a center pieces on the small bistro tables around the yard.