Real Party: Fiesta Owl Baby Shower

I helped a few of my friends throw a co-ed baby shower last weekend. It turned out really well, and we really lucked out on the weather that day!

Let me explain this wacky theme...The parents-to-be decorated the nursery with an owl theme.We decided to get a morjority of the food catered by one of the couple's favorite Mexican restaurants.  Putting these two things together and we had our Fiesta Owl Baby Shower.  Woodland touches, bright colors, and a few sombreros set the scene for this bash.  

Lindsay found these cute invitations on Etsy.  The invite helped us define our color scheme: aqua, lime, brown, and orange. 

Guests went straight to the backyard to enjoy the rare warm January weather. We had simple appetizers (veggies, tortilla chips, tater tots, and lots of dipping sauces) and drinks (margaritas, lemonade, assorted sodas, and beers) set up on the patio. 

Burrito fixin's and salad comprised the meal. 

You may recognize the centerpiece from my New Year's Eve party.  With the addition of some aqua and orange ties, it was transformed for this party. 

We used stump risers for the main dishes. And if you look closely you can see a few little yarn owls in the tree.  

My friend Lindsay made these little cuties following this tutorial, and then added felt features. 

Dessert was owl cupcakes, inspired by this.  We used cashews for the beaks, chocolate chips for the eye, and oreo cookies for the ears & eyes.  People went crazy for these!  If I made them again, I would put them together the day of the party rather than the night before to keep the cookies more crisp.  

Yarn owls wearing sombreros, perched by the cupcakes.  I loved the way the embroidery hoops and lanterns hung above the desserts looked. 

Since we had such a diverse crowd of invitees we decided to skip the traditional shower games, and have a few activities to keep people occupied. 

First, we tried to capture each guest in the photo booth and have them write some wishes and advice for the parents-to-be.  These things will be put together into a book as a keepsake for the parents-to-be to remember the day. 

First, the photo booth: 

We strung a sheet and one of my owl bunting banners in the backyard.  We had a few sombreros on hand for guests to pose with.

We had a little station set up near the photo booth for people to write their notes to the parents-to-be. 

The sign says "Be a Wise Old Owl and Share Some Advice with Bernadette & Kelley".  And of course, the wise old yarn owl was wearing glasses.  We found a cute little photo album at Michael's and cut papers to fit inside.  Later we'll add photo booth pictures. 

The other activity was a S'more station.

We had all the fixin's and guests roasted their s'mores over the fire pit. 

The sign reads: "Bernadette & Kelley are adding S'more to their family" 

After dark we served Mexican hot chocolate, a perfect end to the evening. 

Congratulations Bernadette & Kelley!