Good friends and feel-good (healthy!) food on a beautiful backyard afternoon was a perfect way to celebrate Nick & Vani’s baby on the way! Close friend, Marla Hudnall of Fujiko’s Flowers, put together this {Mint & Pink} Owl Inspired Baby Shower with a mouthwatering Paleo menu, Crossfit inspired activities and a heart-stoppingly-gorgeous tablescape, adorable diaper cake and more beautifully captured details by Kaysha Weiner!

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS, to look out for:

• Pink Depression Dishes, Mint Cake Stands with Wood Slices and Stunning Floral Arrangements
• Watermelon Soup Shooters, Buddy Miles Cocktail & Coconut Macaroons
• Handmade Owl topped Diaper Cake, Ripped Fabric Garland & Painted Upholstered Chairs
• Mini Plyo Box guest sign in, Thrifted Bassinet for gifts & Mason Jars with pink straws + “Congrats” Party Flags

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Marla…

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INSPIRATION & THEME

Our rag tag class of 6AM CrossFit is an extremely close knit community.  We celebrate birthdays, housewarmings, play hooky to go to Disneyland, etc.  So of course when one of our couples announced they were expecting, we couldn’t wait to throw them a shower… CrossFit style!

The parents to be really liked the Happi Tree theme by Dena Designs, and told me they were planning on decorating the baby’s room in various shades of pinks and greens with a few accent colors.  So, I had my colors and my theme, and since the guests were all fellow CrossFit people, I wanted to make sure we included elements from that community.

INVITATIONS

Invitations were designed by my husband, Andrew Deutsch, and assembled by me.  We took the Happi Tree characters and designed them to be doing CrossFit activities… the owls now had kettle bells in one wing, the birds had headbands on and were sweating, the squirrel was now lifting a dumbell instead of sniffing a flower, and the porcupine was down below with his plyo box and medicine ball.  Invitations were finished off with a belly band, that matched the envelope lining.  Addresses were done by hand with acrylic ink to give a raised thermography feel, and stamps were custom created to match the theme of the invitation.

TABLESCAPE

Amalfi tables were decorated with vintage doilies, dishes were white distressed square plates on top of mint green linens and adorned with “Adam” pink depression glass plates from 1934.  Centerpieces was a collection of four types of arrangements in jadeite glassware, milk glass, vintage bottles and distressed bird cages with wood slices. Flowers were mostly a soft pink such as juliet garden roses, cafe au lait dahlias, soft peach carnations, and pink astilbe.  For greens, I added in succulents, air plants, mint and varagated pittosporum.

GUEST BOOK

For the guestbook, I purchased a mini plyo box from WOD Toys and decorated it to match the theme.  At many CrossFit gyms, when you go to workout as a guest, it’s customary to buy one of their gym t-shirts.  So, for favors, we gave out t-shirts which were designed by Andrew.

DECOR & DIAPER CAKE

For decor, I wanted it soft and feminine.  Giant tissue paper flowers (tutorial here) were made and placed up in the trees to imitate the flowers on the Happi Tree pattern.  A sign at the front of the house welcomed guests.  (Our home gym is fondly referred to as “CrossFit Driveway”.)

There was an old bassinet to hold gifts which I got from a yard sale down the street.  The two vintage chairs for mom and dad to sit in were purchased from a thrift shop and then the fabric was painted pink to match the theme (tutorial here).  The curtain behind them was a collection of fabric strips that were cut at a 45 degree angle to prevent from fraying and then tied on.  I also made them a diaper cake as part of our gift to them.  On top I made an owl stuffed animal holding his own kettle bell.  Inside contained diapers and bath products from Burt’s Bees.  But best of all, it also contained a quilt echoing the theme of the baby’s room which had been hand made by my extremely talented aunt, Beth Norris.

FOOD

For food, many of the people at our gym follow the Paleo diet which consists mainly of fish, grass-fed pasture raised meats, eggs, vegetables, fruit, fungi, roots and nuts and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, refined salts, refined sugars and processed oils.  To achieve this, I turned to one of our gym members, Chef Stefan from eliteEATS to cater the event.   Menu consisted of:

• Watermelon Soup Shooters with Mint
• Chicken Satay Skewers with Spicy Cashew Dipping Sauce
• Shrimp and Avocado Salad with Mango, Lime and Cilantro
• Grilled Vegetables
• Zucchini Hummus
• Grilled Peaches with Balsamic Glaze

DESSERT

For desert, I created a separate table wrapping the base in pink fabric and decorating with more fabric strips. Desserts were displayed on vintage cake plates I had collected over the years.  Cupcakes were decorated in adorable cupcake toppers of the Happi Tree characters CrossFitting away.

• Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes (by eliteEATS)
• Coconut Macaroons  (Elana’s Pantry)
• Chocolate Avocado Mousse with Cashew Cream (The Clean Plate Chef)

DRINKS

For drinks, I again wanted to keep it as Paleo-ish as possible.  So, I substituted in coconut sugar for where it called for white sugar, and made sure that the alcohol was either tequila, or vodka made from grapes instead of grains.  Drink station was set up on an old work station recovered from the garage.  A small sign was placed near the glasses saying “Raise a glass to the future Vixen!”  (In our gym the boys are called Volts and the girls are Vixens.)  Mason jars were placed out for drinking, and pink striped paper straws were decorated with flags designed by Andrew with various sayings like “Pitter Patter”, “Sugar & Spice”, “Nick & Vani” etc.  Some of the drinks went into apothecary drink dispensers, while the rest were poured into swing top bottles and placed in a vintage baby bath tub to keep cold.  I even managed to get my brother, Christopher Hudnall, to contribute his award winning recipe that recently debuted at the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival “Garden to the Glass” event.

• Cucumber Mint Water
• Coconut Water
• Iced Tea
• Basil Lemonade
• Basil Vodka Gimlet
• The Buddy Miles (by Chris Hudnall)

ACTIVITIES

Last of all… activities!  Every year, there is a world wide competition sponsored by Reebok called “The CrossFit Games”.  Teams and individuals compete to get the title.  This year our gym’s team made it all the way to regionals!  So, for us we had “The Shower Games” with pink kettle bells as prizes for the winners.

Workout Of The Day (WOD) #1 – 1 minute of water balloon pregnant burpees.  Stuff a water balloon down your shirt, and do as many burpees as you can in 1 minute without letting your water break.

WOD #2 – “Full Term”  In a team of two work as quickly as you can.  One person works with a backpack containing a 15lb med ball on their front.  They will complete 9 squats, 9 sit-ups, and 9 push-ups (9 = months of pregnancy.)  They will then sprint 40 meters (40 = number of weeks).  Meanwhile their partner will be holding a bumper plate over their head.  They will then switch off, completing 3 rounds total.  (3 = number of trimesters.)

WOD #3 – “Clean up the House”  Colored blocks were scattered around.  One partner had a laundry basket to hold behind the line to catch the blocks, the other partner wore the backpack with the 15lb med ball on the front and had to squat down, pick up the block and toss it into their partner’s hamper.  Whoever got the most blocks in 1 minute won.