There has been a ton of inspiration floating around the internet for throwing a ‘Little Man’ baby shower (aka mustache bash).  I got to help with a family shower recently, for which we pulled together some crazy cute ideas, most of which can be sourced from this Pinboard.  The colors were light blue, green and black.

We used a reception room at a church, so we didn’t have to worry about finding tables or having enough parking space.  Here is the welcome table.  I purchased a book off the registry to use as the guestbook.  The black frame came from Hobby Lobby.

We were pushing it on time to get all of the decorating finished, so the gift table was the last thing we worked on.  I had punched holes in one end of some dollar store tablecloths to hang as the backdrop.  Another hostess made the adorable necktie onesies hanging over the backdrop.  I think I might have made a banner with mustache and/or necktie cutouts to go around the long or round table if I had had a little more time.

Here is a close-up of the diaper cake I made.  I used some of the receiving blankets the couple had registered for to wrap the layers and topped it with leftover ribbon from the first diaper cake I made a couple of years ago.  I found the bowtie at Goodwill.  The topper was cut using my Silhouette, and the mustache was from a dollar store pack.   The picture also shows the corsage and boutonniere that I made using baby socks.

In the back of the room, we set up a couple of homemade games and a photo booth for the guests.  One of the other hostesses made the adorable penant banner and all of the photo booth decor.  She also picked up some white balloons and added mustaches to them – so cute!  As part of my gift to the couple I bought items that we could use to play ‘The Price is Right: Baby Edition.’  Each game card listed the items on the table and gave a bank of prices from which to choose.  It proved to be difficult because a few items were the same price, and I didn’t reveal which price was used multiple times.  The second game was ‘Name that ‘Stache.’  I pulled and cropped a dozen pictures from the internet of famous men with mustaches.  The mother-to-be ended up winning by correctly guessing 11 of the 12.

Our food buffet consisted of ‘Man’wiches (recipe), bowtie pasta salad (recipe), grape salad, ‘little man cigars’ (chocolate-covered pretzels), cupcakes and a veggie platter.  I made the pineapple-lemonade punch from this blog post.  I made the paper rosettes out of blue chevron cardstock using this tutorial.  Bands of the same paper wrapped around Ball jars that held the utensils tied the accents together. Using this tutorial, I made the napkins into little bowties.  Another hostess made mustaches to fit over the straws for the drinks.

Lastly, we used round tables for guests.  I had purchased blue tablecloths a couple of years ago for another shower and was able to get another use out of them.  The centerpieces were simple with a piece of patterned cardstock, topped with a glass bottle filled with green paper grass and mustaches on skewers.  One of the hostesses made the bowtie favors out of small packages of M&Ms.

Bradley and I decided to finally find a puppy.  We have always wanted one, but having a crippled cat meant that a puppy was on hold.  After losing Wibble, we began our search the first weekend in March, thinking it would take a while to find just the right fit for our family.  We went to Cobb County Animal Control, Cherokee County Animal Control, both of the Atlanta Humane Society campuses, and several other rescue organizations.  We ended up back at Cobb County because of a couple of the puppies we had seen there.  I knew I wanted one that greeted us at the front of the cage without being wild, and did not cower in the back of the cage.  One puppy stood out on our second trip.  He was wiggly (like any puppy), but never barked at the other dogs, even though they were going crazy.

After signing the paperwork and paying for the little man, we had to leave him to be neutered the next day.  So far, he is a great car rider – curling up in a ball in the back seat almost immediately.  He seems to love all other dogs and people.  We have had him in training classes for the last month, and he is a quick learner with most of the commands we have worked on.  He does get distracted (puppy energy) and it is hard to get and keep his attention when he gets that way.  He has had a few accidents in the house, which is to be expected, but he has gotten very good at going outside almost immediately when we take him out.  He loves to cuddle and loves every toy we give him.  He hasn’t tried to chew on much that we don’t want him to, and is easily diverted to a toy on the occasion that it happens.  He loves playing fetch and has gotten good at bringing the ball to us and dropping it for the next round.

So far, he has not been overly concerned that there is a cat in the house.  Our cat has always stayed hidden while we are at home even when it was just us, so nothing has changed there.  When their paths have crossed, he is interested and sniffs her, but not hyper with her, and she doesn’t freak out, just tries to quickly get back to a ‘safe’ place.

Naming him proved to be extremely difficult.  I wanted his name to fit his personality, but we ended up just calling him Buddy, which is what I call all male animals by default.

We ordered a dog DNA test for him and the results came back yesterday.  He comes from a Cocker Spaniel mixed line and an American Staffordshire Terrier mixed line.  From initial inspection of the included descriptions, I think he gets his overall size, head shape, and eyes/eyebrows from the Cocker Spaniel side and his coat, tail and ears from the AmStaff Terrier side.  We think he is pretty much full grown by his guessed age: 8 months.  The last time I weighed him, he was 20 pounds.

Say hello to our new Buddy!