Baseball Themed Baby Shower honoring a Grandpa!

Last week I hosted a party for a co-worker who was becoming a Grandpa! This man has been so good to our office with remembering everyone's birthdays with printouts of our horoscopes, planning the office parties and monthly lunches, sending cards when we're sick, etc. He does so much to treat us like friends as opposed to employees/co-workers, so I thought he deserved a party! After all, this was quite a milestone for him and he was so excited sharing details with us of his daughter's journey to adoption.

One thing you definitely need to know about him is that he is a HUGE Cubs fan! So even though baseball season was over (especially for us here in Chicago-lol), baseball was an obvious choice for a theme. We called it, "Celebrating Grandpa's Little Slugger."

Here was the invitation. I got the idea from Pinterest.

I actually created a board for this party if you're interested

in having a baseball theme party as well. 

The invitation was all done on the PC -

no fancy matting or anything. It was only given to him.

Everyone else was sent an email.

 This was a gift from me and the party "committee."

This gift also doubled as the game. Each item was wrapped

inside the Cubs bag and the guests had to guess what the item

was and guess whether Grandpa would guess it right. This

turned out to be a lot of fun. I used my Silhouette Cameo

to personalize some of the items. I purchased the bib

and blanket from fellow crafters on Etsy.

The winner of game received a book called,

"A Cub Fan's Guide to Happiness!" Too funny . . .

 

A close-up of the contents . . .

This was added last minute for an even 10 items inside the bag.

 Back of the "Grandpa's Diaper Bag" tag

What the bag and tag looked like before it was wrapped!

Here are my centerpieces, "concession stand" sign, &

some description cards for a few of the items.

Here is my "bat and baseball" favor -

Oreo balls and chocolate covered pretzels!

Certainly not professional-looking, but they were enjoyed.

The centerpieces were alternately filled with peanuts and

Baby Ruth fun size bars. The flag also included Grandma

on the other side since she was also invited to the party.

This is what our lunch room looked like

before the after-work party!

We catered hot dogs and fries to go with the theme.

How could we not have Cracker Jack?!

The beautiful cake was made by

Andrea's Cakes of Romeoville

here in the Chicago Suburbs. Her daughter works with us,

so I gave her a photo of one I saw on the internet and

her mom did a fabulous job of recreating it yet

added her own fun touches to it!

A co-worker of mine found a cool story to relate

Grandpa's favorite dessert, lemon bars, to the Cubs!

Apparently in the 1920s-30s, lemons were thrown at players

or refs that didn't do well in that fan's opinion!

I named the lemon bars "Sour Loser" Lemon Bars!

This is what the favors were displayed in.

I also made a banner with the grandson's name

based on an idea I found on Pinterest.

 

Here's the party in action! Grandpa was opening

gifts to the left.We were so happily surprised 

by his daughter and baby coming to the party!

 This party was a lot of fun to put together and I received so many compliments on it. That felt really good. Thanks for looking and happy crafting!