NewlyWoodwards

an unconventional home

"Holy Cow," a barnyard baby shower

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Last weekend, I hosted a fun barnyard baby shower for my friend Shelly. Since she and her husband Luke live on a dairy farm, I went with a “Holy Cow” baby shower theme.

The momma and daddy farmer.

My friend Beccy designed the great postcard invitations and I had them printed at Vista Print.

It ended up being a gloomy day for a shower, but we had a great crowd filling our tiny little house.

Let’s be honest, any time I have more than 10 people in our home, it feels like a great crowd. We had about 20 people attend. Here’s the gals from our book club who could make it.


Food
It was a luncheon, so I went with a yummy, BBQ-inspired country meal. Barbeque pulled pork was perfect, and I could make it in the slow cooker. I also had vegetables and fruits with dip, chips and guacamole and Liz’s roll-ups.

We also had lemonade and cupcakes.


I found the little fondant cow toppers on Etsy. Aren’t they adorable? Or adorbs, as Shannon would say. (Sometimes I like to channel my inner Shannon.)

The boys stayed in the kitchen. Actually, they were forced there after I kindly let them know that I didn’t factor for them in the seating. 😉 They understood. And they were great kitchen helpers, and eaters.

Games
I am strongly in favor of baby shower games. So, I found the games on Etsy with the farm theme.

The Price is Right game was a hit. Highly recommended. I bought a bunch of baby items for Shelly and everyone had to guess the costs of the items.  Things like baby powder, a onesie, a baby toy, diapers…. we showed off the item and then Shelly opened an envelope with the actual price as Barker’s Beauty! I would highly recommend this as a baby shower game.

I also printed off my friend Lauren’s cute wish cards. Every guest filled one out for the baby and signed it and they went into a photo book to save. (I used the yellow version.) Aren’t these a great keepsake for a momma, and baby?


Decorations

I found lots of great ideas for barnyard parties online, and I decided to stick with cow prints, bandanas and country decor.
(The paper pennants with words were made in Power Point. Just printed on card stock and cut. How simple could that be?)
I borrowed the John Deere toys from Ryan’s coworker. (I practically had to sign for their safety in blood before I was able to bring them home. 😉 Don’t mess with a collector.)

The cow skin came from my in-laws. Isn’t it fun? Ryan and I brought the loveseat in the dining room from the office. We needed all the extra seating we could get. I made the pennants from a cow print bandana. Super simple and cute.

I love this great big barn star from my in-laws. It’s perfect on the fence my mom gave me.

This was the first diaper cake I’ve made. It was much easier than expected. I just used bandanas to secure the layers. I found the cute farm animals at Hobby Lobby. (The horse and boots are my in-laws.)

So that was the barnyard baby shower. A lot of fun was had. Can’t wait to meet Shelly and Luke’s little farmer soon. 😉

Pssst… Here’s some other inspiration for your own barnyard shower – 

What do you think?



Comments

  1. Super super cute… love all the details in how you worked bandanas and boots and stars in! Gosh, that’s adorable… so glad our shower at Sweet Iced Tea helped with some inspiration!

  2. I absolutely love everything about this party!! So cute. Looks like the mom-to-be loved it too which is probably the biggest reward for your hard work.

  3. I think you should quit your day job and just plan parties for a living. Seriously.

    You always come up with the best ideas and pull them off amazingly. Such cute ideas!

  4. This is soooo adorable!! I’m planning my best friend’s shower right now and am looking for ideas. LOVE the shower game ideas!! And the little wish cards! I was thinking of doing a “wishing tree.”

    Such a creative shower, what a great friend you must be to put so much work into it!

  6. Holy Cow! You went all out- it looks great. The Mom-to-be must have loved it (and all the quilts). I’m hosting a shower in a few weeks and I was worried I was over doing it….now I have the opposite concern. 🙂 I’m using the wish cards as well.

  9. Love it! So simple, but really looked great! You should really go into the party planning business!

  10. I think that all of your parties are amazing, especially this one! You did such a great job. Want to throw me a party? I’m not having a baby, but we could pretend. 🙂

  12. Holy Cow you have a lot of pregnant friends! You are getting to be a baby shower expert! Adorable as usual! 🙂

  13. Great ideas! I love the Price is Right game and the wishes to baby! Love love love the wish cards! I’m tired of seeing the same old tired ideas…this was great! Thanks for sharing!

  19. You do such a good job throwing parties, Kim!! And I have to agree about the Price is Right Game. I played it at a recent shower and thought it was really fun.

  20. Looks like fun!! I love all the baby showers you throw, they put a huge smile on my face! 🙂 So many freaking cute ideas!

    MY GF is planning on doing the Price is Right game at my baby shower – looking forward to it!

  24. I have been out of the country and just getting caught up on all of your post. You have been busy. I love the theme for this baby shower. We visited a Cheese farm last week when we were in Holland and I was shocked with all the work to live on a farm. Dairy cows will keep you busy. Hopefully it is now Spring for you.

  25. how fun!!! you are a party planning machine! everything looked great – and i’m sure the momma to be appreciated all of the effort and detail you put into it – what a great friend to have!

  27. LOVE!!! We are going to do farm animals if we have a boy, so this gives me some ideas.

    You should totally go into a party planner career

  29. Oh, very cute and creative, Kim! You must be the go-to party planner for your friends and it’s easy to understand why.

    I’ll definitely have to remember the Price is Right game. I like that idea!

    (And now I’m also craving some Sweet Baby Ray’s… yum!)

  31. The whole thing was positively adorbs! What an awesome theme, I’m sure everyone was totally impressed with your details. The little cow bunting and the barnyard dipe cake are my favorite parts…I think. It’s hard to choose a fave. And even the games look fun, and trust me, I’m no game-lover. It looks like you did an amazing job Kimmo!