a neat game I hosted last year: take a big bowl of rice and add about 5 big safty pins. blind fold the guest and have them try to pick out the safty pins. it's harder than you think.

Martina

Buy her thank you cards, give each guest the envelope & have them address it to themselves, put envelopes in basket & draw one for prize. Now the new mommy will have all her thank you notes addressed, will save alot of time, which the new mommy will not have very much of with new baby.

Theme could be anything. Does your niece have a hobby or like gardening, do crafts? Does she work? What are her favorite colors? I would keep the refreshments simple. It does not even have to be cake. Cookies or a apple/cherry crips would be a nice change. Go to the cooking forum and ask about food There are some talented people there. Because you live in Az, the theme could be western. Big cowboy hat in middle of table full of minature things related to the west. Games, there use to be books that people would tear pages out and fill things out. Check with a baby store in your area.
Hope this helps
Marie

Thanks to you all. You gave me some good ideas.
Now I'm off to the cooking forum to get help with the menu. It's going to be a couples shower around the dinner hour.

I like the idea of everyone bringing a frozen cassarole to the shower, to be used after the baby comes home.
Laurie Oh

A friend of mine just had a shower for her daughter and one of her neat ideas was to ask the invitees to bring a children's book in lieu of a card with their gift. They could sign the book inside as they wished. What a treasure for a small child to have a library of personally signed v\books to begin their life with!

Games: the rice bowl sounds like fun. Personally I was never fond of the word games because I am not a quick thinker and never could win.
One of the games that I thought was very fun and gets people laughing and cheering is similar to the rice bowl game. Empty a bag of cotton balls in a large bowl and hand the BLINDFOLDED player a large spoon and the cotton bowl. The object is to get as many cotton balls on ones head with the spoon in a certain amount of time (1-3 minutes depending on how many people you have and how long you want the game to last). Everyone has to play so sitting in a circle is the best choice. Of course coaching is permitted and encouraged. The winner is the person who is able to get the most cotton balls to stay on their head at the end of the time limit. An egg timer with a loud ending ring is perfect.

I just had a baby shower for my daughter. We passed around ribbon and each guest cut one as long as they thought they needed to go around my daughter's tummy. Was fun to actually measure them and we saved the pieces of ribbon that they cut. Each person signed their piece of ribbon too and we saved them for her babybook!
I made some premade scrapbooking pages that would include pieces of advice from each person attending. When I sent out the invites, I included the small cards for them to think of something to write to the baby or my daughter...advice for them! Something that my daughter and her daughter can look over whenever they want. A great way to include the guests/friends into her baby scrapbook!
I bought some "babies" made out of blankets and sleepers on Ebay and they were adorable. The theme was Sugar and Spice, everything nice.....and it was worked into the menu.....lots of sweet(small cakes, molded mints, etc) and even some spicey appetizers! And almost everything was PINK! Just was fun!
And of course...........LOTS of pictures!
Just a wonderful memory made.......and expressions of support for my daughter!

I hope you had fun.......and that YOU had time to enjoy it all!
Julie

I love iowajewel's idea about the advice scrapbook. That is terrific!

Please DON'T have the guests address envelopes for thank you notes, as one poster suggested. There was a string about that a while back, and many people found it really off-putting. If you want to save the new mom some time, do some other chore or errand for her. But if she has time to attend a shower and open gifts, she -- actually, THEY, assuming she's not a single parent -- has time to thank people for gifts, including the 20 seconds it takes to address the envelope.

You can do so many things. Since you know that it's a boy you can make a themed baby shower for a boy. Pick a theme and decorate around it. YOu can then even have your snacks follow the theme. Like a little pumpkin or future NASCAR Champion's baby shower. You can have a diaper cake done as a center peace in the same theme. Check some cool ideas on this diaper cake blog

Here is a link that might be useful: Diaper cakes blog

I found a great idea for a center piece

Here is a link that might be useful: How to make a diaper cake step by step

The last shower I went to, each guest was given a party favor of a BooBoo Bunny. Instructions on the link below. They sure were cute.

By the way, I differ with another poster here. I do not like the idea of having everyone address their own thank you note. That would not be good manners.

Here is a link that might be useful: Boo Boo Bunny

I agree with socks about the thank you notes. Baby will likely be born after the notes are due - plenty of time for mom to address them.

Hello,

If your niece is expecting to give birth to a healthy baby boy. The perfect color should be a combination of baby blue and white. Choosing the perfect invitation is also an important aspect. There should baby shower games and favors for the guest. Thanks.