Four Fabulous Baby Shower Games & Activities

For the baby shower that I recently hosted, the hardest part of planning was coming up with some fun games and activities that hadn't been done a thousand times over and weren't completely hokey. You know what I'm talking about - guessing what type of baby food is in the diaper, guessing how many squares of toilet paper it takes to fit around mom's belly.... we've all been there, done that. The games and activities for the shower that I hosted won't blow you away with their creativity (they were all fairly simple and easy) but they absolutely made for a great time at the shower and resulted in some special mementos being created for the mom-to-be!

Game/Activity #1: Name That Baby!
For "Name That Baby", I e-mailed all of the guests prior to the shower and asked them to bring a baby pic with them to the shower (and not show it to anyone!). I added a number to each of my refrigerator magnets, up to the number of guests coming to the shower (I simply typed the numbers in a Microsoft Word document in the font and color of my choice, printed them out, cut a circle around each number, and stuck the numbers to the top of my refrigerator magnets with glue dots):

Once all of the shower guests had arrived and I had collected their baby pics, I hung the pics on the refrigerator with the numbered magnets:

Each guest took one of the "Who's That Baby?" cards that I had printed out and they wrote down their guesses for each baby.   

The shower guest who correctly IDs the most babies wins! It's a great low-key game to play at the beginning of a shower because guests can wander over to look at the pictures in between grabbing a drink and munchies and/or catching up with friends. 

Game/Activity #2: Daddy Knows Best (via video)
When searching online for baby shower games, I came across a game called "Daddy Knows Best". Prior to the shower, you ask the expectant dad a series of questions and then at the shower, the expectant mom tries to guess how he answered them. I decided to take this game up a notch and videotape the expectant dad answering the questions that I came up with, which are:

• What has been {expectant mom's} biggest food craving during the pregnancy?

• What’s the one word that would best describe {expectant mom's} mood while pregnant?

• Do you think your baby will be born with no hair, a full head of hair, or in between?

• How many diapers do you think your baby will go through in the first year?

• What are you going to be most worried about if the baby is a girl?

• What about if it’s a boy?

• What parenting skills are you bringing to the table?

• What percentage of the time do you think you will get up with the baby at night versus the percentage of time that {expectant mom} will get up?

• Are you or {expectant mom} more likely to be the parent who says “no”?

• Which grandparent will spoil your baby the most?


• Besides you and {expectant mom}, which family member will be your baby’s favorite?

• What year do you think you will buy your first minivan?

• How many happy hours do you expect to go to the first year after the baby is born?

• How many times a month do you think you will hang out with your friends who don’t have kids?

• From 1-10 how prepared do you feel for the baby’s arrival (with 10 being most prepared)?

• What are you most looking forward to about being a dad?

At the baby shower, I played the video of the expectant dad answering my questions, pausing it after each question was asked so the mommy-to-be could guess what her husband had answered. It was VERY entertaining! The video will also make a great momento for the couple to get some laughs out of years down the road.

Game/Activity #3: Wishes for the New Baby
Prior to the shower I created a "Baby Wishes" tag for each shower guest (for a printable PDF of my "Baby Wishes" tags (3 tags per page), click {here}).  Each of the shower guests filled out a tag at some point during the shower and all of the endearing baby wishes were given to the expectant mom at the end!

Game/Activity #4: Late Night Diapers
For "Late Night Diapers", the shower guests were each given a few diapers and some Sharpies and were asked to write a message to the new mom on the front and/or back of the diapers. These diapers are to be reserved for late night changings by mom so the point is to write something funny or encouraging to give her a little pick-me-up in the wee hours of the night! I bought a basket for the decorated diapers at HomeGoods and created this "Late Night Diapers" sign to attach to it (click {here} for the printable sign):

My shower guests came up with some fun messages for their diapers!  These are a few of my favorites:

A few important tips: make sure you are using PERMANENT markers or the color will run onto the baby's clothes when they get wet! Also, fine point markers work best. Use a brand of diapers that has a more cloth-like feel on the outside such as Pampers Baby Dry rather than diapers with a more slick material.

No doubt that these (and a few of the other funny diapers that were a bit too PG-13 to show!) will give new mom a few laughs during those bleary-eyed middle of the night diaper changes. There were also many diapers with sweet, encouraging messages that I know she'll appreciate such as "Enjoy me, I'll grow up fast!" and "Don't every doubt what a great mom you are". I can't wait for the little guy/gal to get here - given that ALL twelve kids on our cul-de-sac are girls, I'm dying to know if our girl count will go up to 13 or if we'll have the first boy born on our street in over fifteen years!!

Have a great day,