Baby {Girl} BBQ

In early August we had a baby BBQ at our house with friends to celebrate our sweet baby girl. Other than super hot temps and smoke that had recently rolled into our valley, it went off without a hitch! I knew right away when we got pregnant that I wanted to have an event that included my hubby and his friends. This is his first baby too, after all! I decided a low key summer BBQ was the way to go. I had lots of ideas, and my bestie Merry helped me bring it all together.

We picked up some balloons and pink flowers from Safeway to display on our front porch to greet our guests. I stuck the flowers in one of my favorite tote bags that fit the cause perfectly.

I decorated our entry table a bit and set out an October and November calendar with pencils for guests to guess baby girl’s birth date, as well as the guestbook and another notebook for guests to write their addresses. I love having pretty pencils for events like these, and the Target dollar spot is the place to get them! Also, our guest book is Flora and the Flamingo – an adorable picture book for baby girl.

Our invites were simple – I made them in Photoshop. I also included a diaper raffle ticket for those who wanted to bring a pack of diapers and be entered to win a prize. I had extras printed out for those who forgot.

Our fireplace became the gift area. I printed off these banner letters and used twine + little pink clothespins (from Walmart) to hang them. I didn’t get any pictures of the gifts really, which is a bummer because I’m such a sucker for sweet baby wrapping and gift bags.

For favors, I ordered watermelon saltwater taffy from Amazon and we bagged them up in little favor bags and pink ribbon from the Dollar Tree. Word to the wise, do not buy these taffies unless you plan to share them because they are good. And you won’t be able to stop eating them!

For every gathering I throw, I have to set up a cute little bar cart area. I used the floral E I made for baby girl’s nursery, and I also made the tissue banner following this tutorial. (Super easy!) We had paper straws (always a must, and you can get them at the Dollar Tree) plus a pitcher of sparkling lemonade with berries for garnish (not pictured). The sparkling lemonade was just generic lemonade + sprite.

I love decorating chalkboards. My good friend let me borrow hers for the BBQ so I could use the one I have for the menu. Both chalkboards are from Hobby Lobby!

Outside we had a table set up with drinks and a couple other activities. The BABY balloons were from Amazon, and they came with adhesive tape which kept them up. I loved them so much! Below them I used twine and clothespins to display a couple of baby girl’s onesies. We bought this baby swimming pool to fill with ice and beverages, plus we can use it for little E next summer! :) For drinks we had the most festive delicious Izze sodas ever, regular sodas, and then local beers and hard ciders for those not prego. ;)

We had diapers and sharpies for guests to decorate, plus twine and clothespins for displaying the masterpieces. I wish I had gotten pictures of them on display! We also had the “guess the size of the baby bump” game with pink yarn and the winner won a prize. (Our diaper raffle prize was an amazon gift card, and the bump size prize was a Starbucks gift card.) Making guys guess the size of my bump was hilarious… and believe it or not – my husband actually got the size EXACTLY right! He couldn’t win the prize of course, but I was still so shocked that he got it right!

We used my patio furniture plus my parents’ patio furniture for outdoor seating, and I also set up a photobooth in the corner of the yard. Twinkle lights were a must, and I bought pink carnations (one of my favorites) from Safeway to stash in mason jars for on the tables.

Our menu was delicious and simple. We had BBQ pulled pork with rolls for sliders, my mom’s delicious Greek quinoa salad and potato salad, a couple loaves of beer bread I made, and fruit skewers. For dessert I made a homemade lemon cake with the best cream cheese frosting, and funfetti cupcakes with pink buttercream frosting. We also had chips, brownies, frosted animal crackers, and candy. I made the bunting cake topper.

We had lawn games set out in the yard including ladder ball and yard pong. I made yard pong which was super easy. I just grabbed 12 of these buckets and a small ball from the Dollar Tree and filled them halfway with water. So fun, and I definitely plan to play it with actual booze next summer ;)