Party Ideas – Adoptive Child’s Baby Shower

baby-shower-ideas

Although adding a special member to your family through adoption may be a nontraditional way to build a family, it still deserves a traditional celebration. Whether you already have your bundle of joy or you’re bringing home a 4-year-old child, a baby shower celebrates the beautiful life-changing occasion and the little one who’s your family miracle.

Since the adoption process can be a demanding and strenuous process, plan a baby shower as an exciting reminder for the happiness this child will bring. Here are ideas for how to welcome the little girl or guy into your home with a party, friends and family.

International Theme

If you’re having an international adoption, decorate the shower with the flag of the country of your child’s origin. Decorate the cake’s frosting with the country’s flag or stick toothpick flags into home-baked cupcakes. Make the home country the theme of your shower. Bake a heart-shaped apple pie with Antonovka apples for a Russian-themed baby shower. Cook up a South Korean spread full of white rice, noodles, kimchi, pickled vegetables, seasoned bulgogi and galbi for a little babe coming from East Asia. Plan a festive affair that honors the homeland of the child traveling so many miles to be yours. You can find a ton of international adoption themed baby shower ideasat Adoption Magazine.

Welcome Home

For an older child, use the baby shower as a welcome home party for introducing the child to friends and family. Focus on making it a warm and loving environment with items that would comfort the child. Decorate with a soft color scheme, stuffed animals and children’s books. Invite your closest friends and family members to make it an intimate gathering that doesn’t overwhelm or scare your new son or daughter.

Personal Gifts

Ask guests to include the name of your child on the gift or monogram the gift to provide a sense of permanence. A monogrammed quilted blanket or initial decorations to hang on the wall show the adoptive son or daughter that this loving home and family is for forever.

Belated Baby Shower

For a newborn baby, plan a traditional baby shower just like you would for a non-adopted child. The only difference is that the party may not be before the baby’s arrival, and the new babe may be the guest of honor of his or her own shower. Create a love theme and tailor the decorations to be for a boy or girl.

You can find blue and pink baby shower decorations online from retailers like PartyPail.com. Complement the baby shower favors, floral centerpieces and balloons with homemade decorations and desserts. Hang 3-D paper hearts with beads and bake confetti-frosted, heart-shaped sugar cookies using the Lofthouse Style Soft Sugar Cookies recipe from TwoPeasAndTheirPod.com. You also can bake a teddy bear cake and set clusters of teddy bear stuffed animals on the food, drink, dessert and gift tables.

Read These Next

It seems like every summer there’s a new crop of tank top knitting patterns, and what I noticed about a lot of the new releases this year is that they have fun little details that make them a little more interesting both to knit and to wear.

Like the Sailoress Top from Joji Locatelli, which has a pretty cable worked up the center from and back, with shorter sections of cable work on the shoulders. It uses DK weight yarn and comes in 10 sizes up to a bust circumference of 72 inches/ 158 cm. You can find the pattern on Ravelry.

Combine lace and cables in an allover pattern on the Mountain Laurel Top from Andrea Gaughan. This sport weight pattern is worked from the bottom up in the count and has 10 sizes. It’s available on Ravelry.

The Vienna Textured Tank Top by Sarah Hatton has wide ribs broken up by eyelets. There’s very little shaping so it’s a pretty easy knit worked in fingering weight yarn. There are nine sizes available and it’s a free download on Ravelry.

Make a tank with a boho vibe perfect for festival season with Mary Beth Temple’s Tropical Sunset Tank Top. Worked in worsted weight cotton yarn, it’s knit from the bottom up in pieces to make it more stable. The coloring changing yarn is perfect for this one, or you can make it solid or work in your own stripes. You can get the XS size free on her blog, and other sizes are available on Ravelry.

Looking for a cropped lacy V-neck top to knit for summer? Jessie Maed Designs has the Sundae Swirl Tank, worked in DK weight yarn in the round with a fun combination of lace and cables. The ribbing under the arms helps give it a great fit. There are six sizes up to a chest measurement of 62 inches/157.5 cm. You can find this one on Ravelry.

How about a tank top with buttons? The Ridge Tank Button Down from Bluebird Pine Shop could double as a vest in cooler weather. This one is made with light fingering weight yarn and comes in 10 sizes. Grab a copy on Ravelry.

An otherwise simple top can be made a little more interesting with the addition of a fun edging, like on Sarah Opie’s Seashell Tank. Worked in fingering weight yarn, it has a whopping 24 sizes and lots of customization options for making it fit the way you want. The edging is crocheted. Learn more on Ravelry.

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