Invisapeeps 2.0

I should have put LOL after my first question. I know what they are and am acquainted with people that use them. Just never happened in my circle which I admit is small. Mostly we arrange for the needs for our own babies and welcome cute baby presents from people who want to welcome our children to the family. Both times my work gave me a shower. With my son it was a gift certificate for The Bay (really the Hudson's Bay Company like your Bon Marche or Macy's) For my daughter I got a tea and everyone just went out and got a gift. Mostly clothes but I got a puppet and a Baby Einstein DVD as well.

Hope your girl has a healthy pregnancy and of course her little one will be gorgeous!

Edited to spell "your" correctly. It was a typo, honest!

Bessie S wrote:

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 Can you repost the registry question? I'm in a cubicle so can't have this site showing too long or too often.

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 Daughter posted her Babies R Us registry info and a cousin asked if she would be willing to register at Amazon as well because of the free shipping. 

Well, when you register at Babies R Us you are automatically registered at Toys R Us as well so daughter feels like she will have three registries if she goes with the Amazon registry as well.

The question is: do you think three registries is too many?  After looking at the Amazon site we've decided to go with that one because the prices are better and the shipping is free.  But some people like to actually go to the store so keeping the Babies/Toys R Us registries is a good option for them.

Opinion

I'm so excited for you dqm! I am sure your party will go smoothly and everyone will get along. I don't think you are crazy for not wanting to spend all of your time with the younger crowd. I wouldn't either and i'm 30. Make sure to update us on the party!

dqm either wrote:

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Husband says the men don't need anything like that but I want the guys to feel special for coming and not overlooked.  Husband says the best way to make the men feel special is to make the food really good.  More on that later. 

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 LOL

Party starts at noon with guests arriving, signing the guest book, receiving the -wrong- name tag, dropping off their gift, having a photo taken in front of the fireplace,

Spoiler

and then off to have lunch.

No host bar in the lobby.   I can't bring my own food into the meeting room I rented so the food will be served open house style from the condos of the people staying the weekend.  Hopefully this will get them mingling and playing the ice breaker game.  They'll have a list of who is staying in which condos and what food/drinks can be found where.

Everyone will meet back at the conference room at 1:30

*Ice breaker game -no time limit

Make a list of all the guests and their relationship to the baby.  Make name tags for everyone. When they arrive, instead of giving them their own name, give them a random tag and put it on their back instead of the front.  Throughout the party people will consult their list and give you clues as to who's name tag you have.  When you discover who's tag you have you move it from the back to the front.  Once a tag is moved from the back to the front the the true owner can claim their own name tag if they have managed to guess who's tag they have on their back and move it to their front.  If you see someone wearing your name tag on their front you introduce yourself.  Take your tag and give them whomever's tag you were wearing on your front.
Needed for this game- Name tags, 50 pre printed lists of guests with their relationships to the baby.
-No prize for this game.  It's just a way to get people to mingle.

*Easy Games to get the party started

Guess the girth  -game should begin promptly at 1:30 to encourage people to come back down to the lodge.  Mommy and Daddy will have to hug for a long time while everyone gets to measure them so this game will end  even if not everyone made it back on time.

Guess the combined girth of the birth parents while they're hugging.
Needed for this game - String, scissors
-Small prize. 

Playdoh babies  starts after the girth game but can play concurrently.

Teams of two have to 'make' a baby out of two different colored playdoh.  Each person has one hand tied behind their back.

<<<<<<<BREAK>>>>>>>

*Stations no prizes for these.  Supplies left out and guests can participate at their leisure.

Pick a number between one and and 18 out of a sack.  Whatever number you pick write a letter to the baby to be opened and read to/by her on the corresponding birthday.
Needed for this- nice paper, pens, envelopes

Design a page for the baby book.
Needed for this- scrapbooking supplies.

 

*Games for after everyone is relaxed and having fun should start around 2:30

1. Assembly Line Changing Table

Two teams of six on opposite sides of a long table or several long tables depending on how many people play.  Consider making it three or four teams if there is lots of interest.  Teams line up with a clothed and diapered doll at the begining of the line.  Each member of the team has to complete one step of removing the onsie, then the diaper, wiping the butt, powdering it, putting on a clean diaper,  and a fresh onsie. 
-Team with the first diapered and dressed baby get their cake first.

2. Cooperative diapering

Teams of two attempt those same steps but one member of each team has a hand tied behind their back.

Needed for this game- 4 cheap baby dolls, a package of premie diapers, 4 bottles of baby powder, onsies
-Team with the fastest time wins.  Each member gets prize

Bobbing for Nipples

Nipples in a tub of water.  Time the guys to see who can get the most in a set amount of time.
Needed for this game.  A large tub for water, 2 dozen nipples
Prize- Pocket knife

<<<<<Open Presents>>>>> 

Raffle-every guest gets a ticket for coming, and then more tickets for playing games or for bringing diapers and participating in the stations and more tickets for people who helped out.  At the end, draw for a free weekend stay at the resort.
Needed for this game-raffle tickets  This should be promplty at 4:30

At 4:30 party's over.  People can go back to the open houses for cake and coffee or they can take off.

Once all the shower guests are gone it's POKER TIME!

 

 

Don't forget to bring:

Kareoke machine for bg music plus for the mic for announcements
2 balloon tanks
flowers
dollar store decorations
Cameras and video camera -charged/chargers
laptop/charger
SD cards

Ok the food threatened to become a bit of an issue as I rented a conference room

Spoiler

 The one I rented is MUCH smaller than this but this is what they look like.

  but outside food is strictly forbidden. They only allow you to use their catering.

The room was a bit pricey and I tried to bargain with the event coordinator since I'm renting SEVEN freaking condo's but she looked me up and she knows I'm using my points. The points go through another company so that was a useless bargaining chip. *huge sigh* I used all my negotiating skills and got the price knocked down by $100. I would have been thrilled with an extra $50 off that but in the end I think she did what she could and I saved some money so hopefully we're both happy.

Her negotiating point was she wanted me to use their catering. She was willing to give me the room for half price if I went off their menu. She sent me a copy of the menu and I about choked on air! The lunch options were $14 - $17.50 per person.

Secretly I wanted to tell her that if she's charging $17.50/person I shouldn't have to pay for the room at all. I couldn't afford those prices even if I wanted it but the sticking point is I don't. We have some excellent cooks in the family and it makes zero sense to have seven full kitchens at our disposal and not use them. That's when the idea for the Open Houses was born.
 

To keep it simple it's going to be a traditional Thanksgiving meal.  Everyone who's staying will make their specialty and husband is also going to bbq.

There will be (non alcoholic as there is a bar in the lobby) drinks in every house but after that each unit will have specific foods.  One for appetizers, one for vegatarian dishes, one for casseroles, one for soup, another for the meat choices, etc.  I'll have to give that more thought the day before.  I know if I try to pin down every detail now, I'll just drive myself nuts so I'm going to be very flexible about that part.  I'll also have the cakes set up in one unit on display.  There will be one fancy cake and one sheet cake.  Right before the raffles I'll have daughters #2-4 go back to cut up the cake, put a few slices in each house and start all the coffee pots.

I have a few friends that have mobility issues so they won't be able to do the Open House thing so my plan is to have them in the most 'popular' house so that while everyone is mingling they will have the chance to meet everyone.

I probably shouldn't have called the games silly.  This is a guy and he wants to come for the weekend but I think he wants to skip out of the shower part and go golfing Saturday afternoon. 

I have the authority to kick his butt so he better not but I'm inclined to NOT sell him the tickets so he has to show up and participate to get any tickets. 

But then after thinking about it for a while though I think it is -fair- to allow people another way to get tickets if they can't (or don't want to) attend the shower and play the games.  I have a friend that's a quadraplegic who won't be able to play any games.  He might want more chances to win. 

--When guests show up they'll get a ticket, if they bring diapers in additon to their gift they get a ticket.  If they give cash they will get a ticket(s).  If they play a game they will get a ticket, if they win a game they will get a ticket and the people who stay the weekend will get some tickets for helping cook and host the open house. 

I don't think it's any tackier to give someone a ticket for a package of diapers than it is to give them a ticket for the cost of the diapers.  If you have to -do- something to get the ticket it's not really -free- so no matter what I'm selling them.  I'm either selling them for stuff or I'm selling them for the cash that it takes to buy stuff.  Some people would rather give cash.

I like the idea of giving people more options to get tickets --unless it means they won't show up when they would have otherwise .  The only thing I don't like is once I put a monetary value on them I need to be less generous with handing them out because the people who pay for them might feel cheated if I give them away for no reason.  I wasn't going to do that anyway so that shouldn't be an issue.

So yeah I'm still stuck at deciding a value.

#2 broke up with her boyfriend this week. That girl changes boyfriends like some people change their socks! She asked for his $45 back and I told her no. That wasn't the deal we made. I love that kid but shemakes me so  sometimes.  I'm not being mean to her.  She's the one that got dumped (a first for her) so I'm trying to be sensitive but the deal was she was to pay for the entire condo not by the person.

Anyway that whole thing didn't work out anyway.  She only ended up with 10 people when each condo sleeps 6-8 people.  So she asked me if I'd take back one three bedroom unit and have three of her friends in with me since I only had 4 people that would make 7 in mine and 7 in hers.  I was inclined to do it but this was back when I realized that I don't want to spend my weekend with twenty something year old girls.  It was ruining my fun just to think about it.  It is rare to never that I ever do that on vacation. 

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to throw -more the merrier- type parties and I'll invite your grandma's 2nd cousin's best friend's neighbor's half sister.  I love people, love meeting people love parties but I also love my own space which is why I vacation/party the way I do.  Everybody book their own space or I'll freaking GIVE you space if I want you there.  I want you but I don't want you in my face.  That's not mean.  It's just how I cope.  She knows this.  Even #1 knows this.  I told #1 which three friends I was taking and she said:

-No Mom, we'll pay for you to get them their own place.  I don't want you to have to stay with them. 

Well that wasn't right.  It's HER party.  I don't want her paying so I sucked it up and said 'no' but the closer it got the more and more I couldn't stand the thought of staying with them and I was getting annoyed and they hadn't even DONE anything yet.  LOL.  Actually, I've known these girls since they were in the 6th grade and I know damn well it would be a bad idea.

So... I came up with another plan.  My friend Brian, had orignally said that he was going to go up a day early but then he called me back and said one of his kids had a dentist appointment could he cancel.  But it was past the cancellation date so I decided:

I'm going to go up a day early (Thursday) and stay in Brian's 2 bedroom condo.  Then on Friday when everyone gets there I'm going to move to my original 3 bedroom unit and give the three friends plus my two youngest daughters Brian's unit and I'll let Brian stay with me in the 3 bedroom. 

Brian does have three kids but they're young not young adult and I'd much MUCH rather spend the weekend with 2- 2.5 year olds and an 8 year old than with 23 year olds. 

SIGH I'm getting old.  Funny but that wasn't even what I wanted to write about.  I actually opened this to write about the photographer.

I've stated all along that this party is my compensation for not getting to throw my daughter a wedding.  So yes it IS a little bit over the top for a Baby Shower but it's it's not even close to being over the top for a wedding so it's a really nice compromise.

Of course at a wedding, flowers, photographer, music, catering, DRESS would have have been budgeted.

Since it's just a shower I saved on all of that which means that I did/do have some money left in the party budget and I really do want some nice pictures so I decided to go ahead and hire a photographer anyway.

Turns out that the other grandma was thinking the same thing.  Unbeknownst to me she's been trying to hire a photographer for about a week and a half but couldn't find anyone.  Well for one thing it's harder for her as she's further away than I am so getting someone to travel on shorter notice probably wasn't as easy for her and for another thing the guy I got to do it is a family friend (who'd already been invited) who's been photographing us for years so I just offered him a *free (in exchange for photos) stay for him and his wife the weekend of and he said yes.

Now staying with the 'substitute wedding' idea I'm wondering if this is something that I should allow the "groom's" parents to pay for.  There's not going to be a rehersal dinner or a groom's cake.  I'm not a bossy type *bwahahahaha* (ok I mean I'm TRYING not to be a bossy type) individual but I can see how the other grandparents might feel that they won't get a say in anything if they didn't pay for anything.

They might want a particular set up of photos but feel that they can't speak up for some reason.  I certainly don't want them to feel that way but I also don't know how to go about asking them to pay. 

If the shoe was on the other foot I miiiiiiight feel weird being asked to pay for a photog that I hadn't chosen.  Yet, if I knew I wanted a photog and couldn't get one and someone else was able to get one cheaper (no travel expenses) I might be happy to split the cost.

This is my first kid and I have zero experience in how to deal with the other parents.  I have met them a grand total of ONE time. 

Anyway, he's going to do her maternity shoot that weekend so hopefully I'll have some fun pics to share.

yeah, no. I'm not looking for them to pay for anything. I'm just looking for a way to include them but I'm not doing such a good job. I mean she was trying to hire someone so she does want to help but I didn't give her enough of an opportunity to ask me or she didn't feel comfortable enough to say 'hey, this is how I'd like to contribute'

And I went and hired someone without giving her a second thought and when my daugther told me the OG (other grandma) was trying I felt kinda bad for her because this is her first grandbaby too.

The other day I did a good thing though I asked her to get the game prizes and she was happy to be asked. With the exception of the pocket knife I have no idea what she chose so I'm excited about that.

I'm sure it's going to be fine.  And hey; even if it turns out that they don't like me/us, they love my daughter and treat her well and they're thrilled about Little Miss Hailey Mae. That's what's important. 

One more week.

I don't have many pictures yet. Waiting on the photographer, but I did take some of the soaps and of the specialty cake.  Both very cute.

It has been really fun chronicling this event here over the last few months.  The way I had it in my head way back when isn’t exactly how it turned out but everyone had a blast and that’s the important part.

The other grandparents and everyone really, were very pleased with the party.  The whole thing with the photographer worked out great.  It turns out that the OG was trying to hire a photographer for two reasons.  She needed her younger son’s Senior Portraits taken and she wanted some maternity photos.

Since she couldn’t get a photographer to come to the party she hired someone to come to her.  It’s funny because the lady she hired goes to my church which is not local to her.  They captured a REALLY nice one that I’m considering ordering for the Thank You notes.

To alleviate any bossiness concerns on my part I scheduled the OG’s  to go to the photographer first on their own.  I didn’t even show up until they were done or almost done.  So hopefully they got whatever poses and shots that they wanted without me there directing.  Then we showed up and took our pics, then we got some with both families.  It worked out well.

In my fantasy of how this party was going to go, people would arrive, sign the guest book, drop off their presents and then head over for the open house.

Bwhahahahahahaha!  I laugh at myself because people were EVERYWHERE!  I left instructions for everyone to come to the Lodge at noon but that didn’t work out because half the people were already at the open houses because they were staying the weekend and it made no sense for them to come down and then go back up and the other half of the people were arriving and going straight to the first condo.

That beginning part was a little hectic because my plan was for people to mingle from place to place but it seemed that all the guests arriving went to unit #101 and refused to budge!  You should hear me laughing because I had food spread out but no one would go to it so I ended up bringing all the food to one place and it was standing room only in there.

At first I was wondering if they thought that I didn’t plan ahead to have enough seats for everyone and I kept saying there are more condos, (we had the one DIRECTLY across the hall #102 and one around the corner in #108 and more than that but they didn't want to go to them) more places to sit and eat, more food.  But then I kinda got it that they wanted to be all together like a party party and not spread out so as soon as I was satisfied that everyone had enough to eat  we went back to the Lodge to start the party proper.

The room was nice and it had a stunning view of the golf course.

  It was decorated with balloons and streamers and stuff but I didn’t have center pieces for all the tables so I got a bunch of flowers for my daughter’s table and I got gift baskets for six of the other tables.  It think there were nine tables in all so it did look a little funny that two tables didn’t have anything on them but oh well.

So we got up there at about 1:30 and as soon as I walked through the door and saw that mountain of gifts I had to do some quick calculations in my head.  No joke it looked like it would take about 1 HOUR just to open all those presents and as much as I love my child there is no way I wanted to sit for an hour and watch her open presents. 

So we went ahead and played some games but what I did was play some concurrently.  I think I knocked a good half hour off the party which was about as much as I needed.  And then I made a mental note of what was half the pile.  Once she got half the pile done we stopped and played some more games and had some raffles and thank you speeches then we settled in for the 2^nd half of the present opening.

It was less tedious that way. 

After the presents then the grand prize drawing which was hilarious because I’m pretty sure word got out what it was so everyone was trying to win; the winner was a four year old little girl!

I had the ticket in my hand and I announced her name and everyone clapped and cheered and then she came up to me with this –face-  Oh My Goodness you guys the face.  She was looking at me like “what did I win?”  LMAO!  I picked the best prize I could think of but I couldn’t explain it to her so I gave her one of the props from a game and she was super happy.

Afterwards  everyone either took off or went back to the condos for cake and coffee. 

Party was over and my duties were done.  Then it was time for Mr. DQ to take over

Poker later that night.
The guys went golfing the next morning.
Everyone enjoyed the sports facilities.
A good time was had by all.

Now we get to wait for Miss Hailey Mae to arrive some time in early December.

Hmmmm, I wrote this post in story format with places to include photos but I can't figure out the security options on the photographer's web page. If I figure it out I'll come back and post pics.  If not I'll PM a link to anyone who wants to see them. 

PICTURES!!!!!! I might be a little excited! It looks like a blast dqm. I'm so happy every one had a good time and you guys liked each other. Your daughter is beautiful!