Focus on tricks, tips and treats the mom-to-be will relish and remember.
• Collect baby photos of your guests before the party, assign a number to each, and see who can match the adults to their younger selves the quickest.
• Baby showers bring out the kid in everyone. Buy hula-hoops, jacks, crayons and construction paper, and draw a hopscotch board on your driveway with chalk.
• Buy 15 flavors of baby food, peel off the labels, and test everyone's taste buds. First prize? More baby food, of course.
• Ask guests to bring five pink or blue note cards with their favorite mum secrets. Assign topics to get everyone thinking: simple, healthy snacks, potty training advice or tricks for getting baby to sleep through the night are always appreciated.
• Pass out miniature notebooks, divide guests into pairs, and ask each to compile a baby best-of list, based on their own little ones or childhood favorites. Lists can include everything from the best baby CDs to kid-friendly eateries and favorite toys.
• All mothers know you can never have enough onesies. Buy plain onesies in various sizes, and ask guests to decorate one for the baby. Provide paints, markers, rubber stamps and stamping pads, and a needle and thread for embroidering.
Keep the baby theme going with baby-size food. Mini quiches, tarts and tea sandwiches are all suitably sized main dishes.
Pair your entree with a fresh salad featuring baby carrots, cherry tomatoes and small, flavor-packed pomegranate seeds. For dessert, serve petits fours and mini cupcakes.
For nibbling throughout the party, put out bowls of tiny snacks like pastel-colored candies, olives, assorted nuts, grapes and raspberries.
Or hang a clothesline and attach onesies to it with clothespins.