Come one, come all!

My fabulous, wonderful, exceptionally gifted and gorgeous nephew (can you tell I'm a proud aunt?) was born last August.  In celebration of his pending arrival, I threw a baby shower for my equally fabulous, wonderful, exceptionally gifted and gorgeous sister-in-law.  In asking her about her likes/dislikes, she admitted that she was not into the pastel colors traditionally associated with baby showers.  She wanted something bright and festive.  If there is one thing I can do, it's bright and festive!  I racked my brain, and eventually came up with it.  A circus-themed baby shower!

Prep for this shower took quite some time, as I wanted it to be perfect.  First of all, I shopped discount and used book stores for a variety of circus-themed children's books.  These books would serve double-duty as both decorations at the shower, and also a gift to go home with the mama-to-be.

I found these paper lanterns at a party store that worked perfectly with the color theme.  The great thing about paper lanterns is that they don't necessarily have to be hung to be decorative.  You can just sit them on a table or shelf for a dynamic look.

Next, I ordered the circus-themed onesies below from Cafe Press.   The great thing about Cafe Press is that you can pretty much find any image and have it put onto a onesie.  Again, they served as great decoration and mama could take them home with her for baby!

Next, the diaper cake.  I LOVE making diaper cakes, so I had a lot of fun with this one.  I found images of old circus posters, and made little mini posters that stuck out from all sides of the diaper cake.  I also found lots of circus animal toys and decorations for the cake.  The little stand that the lion sits on was made out of a Dollar Store red bucket turned upside-down, painted and adorned.  Easy peezy!  My SIL said she was broken-hearted to finally have to take the cake apart after baby was born because she was in a diaper crunch.

Next up was the food.  I decided to go as full-on theme as I could, so I themed out the food as well.  The shower featured mini corn dogs, caramel corn, circus peanuts, chicken nuggets with dippers, fruit kabobs (because what food isn't good on a stick?) and my absolute favorite, the Lilly Pulitzer edition animal crackers.  I saw these on a website somewhere and searched diligently through all my local stores to no avail.  No I found a seller online that had some boxes and was willing to sell.  They were SO cute and really added to the festivities.  I found the popcorn boxes as my local Hobby Lobby, which consequently is one of my happy places.  I also found the cute circus themed plates and napkins at my local party store.  They worked perfectly.

Another gift to the mama-to-be?  A potted tree.  We put the tree in the dining room and had guests fill out cards to tie to the tree.  Each guest received two cards:  one to write advice to the new mom, and one as a sweet note to the new baby.  Mama could then take the tree home with her and plant it in the yard as a symbol of baby's birth.  As baby grows, the sweet family can watch the tree grow as well.  (And it looked really cute with all the cards decorating it during the shower.)

For fun, before each guest left the shower, we had them take their picture in a circus themed face-in-hole board.  I think they all had fun with it.  At least my sweet mom did!

Lastly, as a party favor, each guest received a candy bar wrapped in our circus themed wrappers.  All the printables for the cupcakes, tags, banners, and candy wrappers were purchased through Hello Love Designs on Etsy.  All in all, it was a successful and fun shower for all involved.  Not quite "the greatest show on Earth", but close!