Gone Fishin

I recently helped plan a baby shower for my nephew who is on the way an day now. I wasn't totally in charge of things, and I was very lucky that those colaborating with me were so willing to take my suggestions and then do all the work themselves. Haha. I suggested that the theme for the baby shower match the nursery theme. That way some of the decorations, such as little duckies and stuff, could be sent home with the new mama. Plus it let people invited to the shower know that "Pond" nursery items were welcomed. All I had to do for the shower was make the fondant toppers for the cupcakes. They even made and iced the cupcakes ahead of time for me. Made it really easy for me to just show up.

At the last minute I thought to arrange the cupcakes like an actual pond instead of just sitting them out on the table in any old order.

We used metal pails that had been used at my sister's wedding last year to float duckies in as centerpieces on the tables. Someone was nice enough to cut out lily pads to go under the buckets, and each table got a cute little wooden turtle that I think they found at Wal-mart for a dollar a piece.

I also whipped up some little dirt cups last minute. These really can be made last minute. It's nothing but instant pudding spooned into the bottom of a individual baking cup. Then sprinkle Oreo cookie crumbs on top, and place your gummy worms in the desired spot. It is best to do these last minute though if you are going to use these little paper baking cups because the pudding is a little to moist for this type of cup and it will make the paper a bit mushy. The cup will loose its shape. There are a lot of things you can do for a Pond Party. Cucumber salad could be "lily pad salad". The punch could be "pond scum." Little Smokey sausages on a skewer could be "cat tails." One of the delicious treats at our party were grapes on a skewer made to look like caterpillars. They were very cute but the eyes kept sliding down, and I didn't get a good picture of them. Chicken/Tuna salad sandwiches could be cut into butterfly shapes with a big butterfly cookie cutter. I mean really there are so many ideas. I was happy to be a contributor to this event, and I was really lucky that my sister has some other great friends who wanted to do so much.