Part 2: Party Games.
As I mentioned before baby shower games usually bring on the uncomfortable cringe. They can usually be quite embarrassing and because of lack of organization, can leave the guest feeling bad as they don't know what's going on.
But wait! Party games can be fun. Kept simple + with an aesthetically pleasing presentation, you'll have everyone excited to join in. In planning party games, keep in mind a few things: what kind of attendees you have, how many people, how well the guest know the expecting mom+ the personality of the mom. A shy mom woul perhaps not want to have her belly "measured" in the 'guess the girth' (above, right) game. Some games don't work with a large crowd and other games, such as the 'character attribute' (above, left) would not work so well if the guest do not know the expecting dad so well.
Game no.1: How well do you know Mommy-to-be? I found this well designed + conversation inducing game off of the somewhat defunct blog, Nested. She re-did 2 classic baby shower games, well designed and in a printable pdf format. Sweet! Print off on coordinating paper (in the case of our bright + fun shower, I used a lovely shade of orange) and provide each guest with a sharpened pencil. The person who guesses the most of Mom's answer's correctly, wins!
Game no.2: Guess the Girth. Dorky title, yes. But when you have reached the later weeks of your pregnancy, well, you feel sort of "girthy"! This is one of those classic shower games that when presented poorly (think acrylic yarn in pastel hues, sloppily cut + handed out to guest!) preceeds the cringe. How to get your guest to surely exclaim you are the next Martha Stewart? Cut roughly 4 feet of neutral heavy weight string or lightweight yarn, neatly wrapping it to obtain a tidy circle of string. Then cut tabs of paper (roughly 1"x4"). Using a question-mark stamp, stamp the top portion of the tab, then fold in half horizontally. Next put the neat swirl of string into the folded tab + stapled to close (the open part of the tab will be at the top). Simple + to make 30 took me just over 30 minutes. When it comes time to play the game, here's the scoop: each guest gets a piece of string + using a pair of scissors cuts the string to the length she think is the girth (circumference) of the Mom's belly. After everyone snips their string, measure Mom. Whoever has the same length (or closest to) of string, wins!
A Prize for the winner/s: Does not have to be fancy or expensive and can certainly be something amusing, like $5 in cash. Depending on the crowd, universal prize ideas could include: Coffee, something interesting, iTunes, something sweet, or a Moleskine. I'd be happy to play a shower game with prizes like that!