Showered With Mom-to-be Merriment
By Anita Chaperon, Fri Dec 9th

Your friend's having a baby. What an exciting time for her! You,the best buddy, have a little work ahead, however. You need togather together her friends and family for a baby shower. Youneed to determine who to invite, pick out some greatinvitations, choose the location, the date and time, thedecorations, refreshments and, of course, determine what you'regoing to do for fun while celebrating the birth of your budsfirst wee one.

Generally, you don't need to go out and rent a hall for a babyshower. You probably have invited 10-20 of the mother-to-be'sclosest friends and surely you, or someone else, can accommodatethe group in your home.

The step-by-step process for baby shower planning:

[+] At least two months prior to baby shower day make your listof whom you're going to invite. [+] Determine your party theme.[+] Buy or create and then mail out the invitations. [+] Planthe decorations, refreshments and games. [+] Enjoy your party.

There are no rights or wrongs in creating a baby shower theme.The idea is to bestow baby-to-be bounty on mom and to have fun.You might choose a theme around something that the mom-to-be isespecially interested in, such as tennis or classical music.Perhaps the baby's room is already decorated in a Raggedy Annand Andy motif. There is your theme!

Let's take the aforementioned Raggedy Ann and Andy as anexample. You could decorate with new or used Raggedy dolls. Youcould give miniature dolls as game prizes, provide Raggedy Annand Andy cookies or cake as refreshments, and let balloons thatlook like these two beloved characters run rampant.

Wouldn't it be fun, too, if you costumed yourself to look likeRaggedy Ann, and found a cohort to dress up as Raggedy Andy!

While you can, of course, get on the phone and simply calleveryone, or even e-mail the invitations, it's

probably best tomail out formal invitations. An attractive invitation may becomea keepsake for those close to the expectant mother.

While there are certainly a myriad number of local places topurchase pre-packaged greeting cards, such as Hallmark stores,Kmart, Wal-Mart and the like, it may be difficult to find cardsconsistent with any theme you've chosen for the baby shower.

If you or your helper is creative, however, you could write anddesign the invitations yourself. Plenty of low cost greetingcard software is available. Greeting Card Factory, at $29.95,for example, provides 5000 ready-made cards, 25,000 graphics tocreate your own customized card, 3400 already-preparedsentimental messages and more than 300 fonts. You can searchonline for greeting card software or make a quick trip to OfficeMax, Staples or similar suppliers and browse their many options.

Your invitations should include the following:

[+] Who the party is for (and don't forget to name dad too). [+]Your name as host, and your phone number for directions. [+]Your address. [+] The day, date and time of the baby shower. [+]The theme of the party. [+] RSVP card with self-addressedstamped envelope. [+] Do give guidance on dress - just a simple,"formal attire," "casual attire," "pool party," or "costumeswelcome." [+] You might even make gift suggestions. If, however,you have a theme, you could just suggest that theme-relatedgifts would be fun and let your guests use their imagination.

Don't forget to mail those invitations out early - at least sixweeks ahead of time is the rule of thumb.

About the author:Anita Chaperon is the editor of My Free Games - a free website resource dedicated toproviding information on tons of free baby shower party games, decorations,invitation, baby shower themes and much more.