Help planning a baby shower
 

Would love some advice about an upcoming baby shower I am co-hosting. First off, I do not have children and thus, I have never had a shower thrown for me. I have been to a few of them over the years, so I get the general idea - food/drink, some activities, gift opening. This is the first one I've ever hosted/co-hosted.

To start, it's a bit unconventional. This is for a close friend who is already 44 and has 3 children (one in college!). The baby was a surprise, and she is really happy. It is her first boy! We're also having the shower at her house - we tried to choose a venue and she offered, she has a great house on a lake with great space to entertain. So, we'll be setting up at her house, with her there! It's also an evening shower, beginning at 7 PM.

She likes activities/games, but nothing super hokey. Anyone have suggestions on some "passive" games as well as some group activities? I saw one on Pinterest that is passive that I like, you all start off with 5 clothes pins on your clothes and each time you hear someone say the word, "baby" you steal on of their pins. The person with the most at the end of the shower wins a prize. I'd love some suggestions like that - things we can do throughout the shower, and then also some other short and FUN activities. Have you ever done any that you remember were very fun (not too long)?

Since it's an evening shower, I'm guessing we should plan to have more food? I was going to speak to the 2 other ladies co-hosting to discuss budget. I just have no idea what that should be - decorations would be a minimum, I was thinking some gorgeous flowers that she could keep after the shower. Maybe some well-placed balloons or something?

What else do I need to think about or plan for? I want to make it fun, I want people to mingle and chat and really just have an enjoyable evening, as I know this is what our friend would want. She loves to entertain!

ANY advice is greatly appreciated!!!

Ask each guest to bring a package of diapers, any brand any size, have a drawing and give someone a prize that has brought diapers.
PS New Mama will need the diapers.

I've played some games at showers that involve smell. The grossness is part of the fun. At one party, they melted different fun size chocolate candy bars in disposable diapers and passed them around -- you had to smell the diaper and guess which kind of candy it was. If you were brave enough to look at it - yuk!

At another party, they took the labels off of jars of baby food and you had to smell them and then guess what it was. Not as easy as it seems, and kind of gross.

I like the idea of calling it a surprise shower, because the baby was a surprise! It's really awesome that she's so happy about it! Have fun!

I went to a baby shower last week and they gave us each a piece of paper with numbers listed on the left hand side. They then held up a baby item (like a pacifier, baby lotion, socks, toy, bottle, etc) and described it (what brand, what store all of the items were bought at, etc). Each person had to write down what they thought the price of that item was (so price of the pacifier would go next to #1 on the sheet, baby lotion price would go next to #2 on the sheet, etc). Everyone adds up the total of what they think the items cost all together. After you've gone through all of the items then the leader lists off what the real price for each item is and gives the total of the items. The person who gets the closest to the real price (of the total of all the items together) without going over gets a little prize. You will be amazed at some of the prices!