I had the honor of hosting a couples baby shower for my sister and her husband.  Fun fact – my sister grew-up in Minnesota and my brother-in-law grew-up in Virginia (they currently live in Columbia, SC).  They wanted something casual, so in thinking of a menu I didn’t want just typical barbecue food (although it is delicious).  I decided to leverage their respective cultures and honor the sweet mix of Minnesota Nice and Southern Charm their future baby girl will have!

The menu had favorites from both the south and the north, but I had company in town so I wanted to still keep the prep work to a minimum.  Here is the menu (with some help from my Mom & Aunt Jan)!

The South:

• Smoked Gouda Pimento Cheese Dip
• Chicken & Waffle Sliders (Made the chicken in advance and froze it!)
• Mini Chicken Pot Pies (Made in advance and froze)
• Sweet Tea (just bought from the store)

The North:

• Mini Tater Tot Hotdish (only I put the recipe into muffin tins, a big hit! Also made in advance and froze)
• “Minnesota Sushi” (aka a pickle rolled in cream cheese & salami)
• Juicy Lucy Sliders (made these in advance and froze as well!)
  • Pepper Jack Stuffed Burger with Jalapeno Cream Sauce (only I skipped the fried onions)
  • Roasted Garlic & Feta Chicken Burgers
  • The Classic Juicy Lucy
• Bars – My Aunt Jan makes the BEST bars, and I learned when I lived in DC that bars are truly a Midwest thing.  We served her “and-then-bars“ and salted-nut-roll-bars

Other:

• Fruit with my go-to (and crack-like) peanut butter yogurt dip (2-parts peanut butter greek yogurt to one part peanut butter)
• Veggies & my mom’s famous dill-dip

My cousin, Haley and her boyfriend, Tyler ROCKED the activities!  We had a “draw the baby” game and even an obstacle course.  Then for those who didn’t want to actively participate we had a “late night diaper thoughts” station.  Here is how it worked:

Draw the Baby:

people had to put an index card on their forehead and draw what they thought Baby Lee would look like – the guest of honor (mother-to-be) then judged the drawings and the winner got a prize!

Obstacle Course:

Tyler put together an AMAZING baby obstacle course simulating giving birth and caring for a baby.  Here are the details:

Directions: Split into teams.  Decide who from the team is doing what, then whoever completes the tasks the fastest wins!

Equipment Needed:
– Balloons
– applesauce
– 1 roll of toilet paper for each team
– drink to finish the round

Here were the tasks:
1.) “Conceive the baby” (blow-up a balloon and tie it, put it up your shirt)
2.) “Induce Labor” (run around the tree)
3.) “Give Labor” (hand-off the balloon to a teammate – note balloon is no longer needed after this point)
4.) “Feed the baby” (feed a teammate applesauce)
5.) “Change the Diaper” (create a diaper using a whole role of toilet paper)
6.) “Put the baby to bed” (feed teammate a drink to finish the game)

So silly, clever, and fun!

Late Night Diaper Thoughts:

We purchased some newborn diapers and had guests write fun / funny sayings on them to help make the diaper changing process more fun!  This was a good activity for people who didn’t want to participate in an active game.

It was so fun putting this together with my family, and we can’t wait to officially meet Baby Lee in December!