Chelsea’s Baby Sprinkle

My MOPS (Mother’s of Preschoolers) table planned a surprise baby sprinkle for Chelsea- who is one of the ladies at our table who is also one of our MOPS leaders. We held the event at my house. Chelsea is expecting her third baby and is now 34 weeks along. She is officially a boy Mom with her third boy on the way! We had to reschedule the event once because of severe storms in our area. I am glad we did, as it was a beautiful evening for the event and we actually spent most of the evening outside, as it was so pleasant. Chelsea thought she was coming to a birthday celebration for our table leader Lindsay, so we actually celebrated both Lindsay’s 29th (again) and Chelsea’s baby. We did a Cinco de Mayo theme for the food and beverages since it was May 5th! I made tacos, served Margaritas, and everyone brought food that went with the theme. Chelsea brought the birthday cake for Lindsay and Lindsay brought the surprise baby cake for Chelsea.

I had fun planning her sprinkle. I have hosted several baby showers, but never a “sprinkle”. A shower is a more elaborate event, typically for ladies when they are having their first baby. A sprinkle is a smaller event, but I think it is important to celebrate the arrival of babies even if they are your second, third or more, as each is a precious blessing! I enjoyed planning the sprinkle, and making is personal for Chelsea’s baby Beckham who will be here soon!

I made a personalized baby bunting for Chelsea. She had the baby’s name on her baby registry, so I knew she was naming him Beckham. I love that name! I saw on her registry that she had some grey chevron style items chosen, so I thought since she liked that kind of style I would make the bunting to match. It turned out cute.

I am not an accomplished seamstress by any means, but I can operate a sewing machine and sew straight lines- which is all that is needed to make this kind of bunting. Here is the link for how to make a bunting, as I described in a previous posting: https://livingjoydaily.com/2016/02/08/how-to-make-and-easy-and-adorable-bunting/ I added the letters to each triangle before I sewed it all together. I did that easily by picking up some iron-on fabric letters at Hobby Lobby. Did you know they have an entire aisle of iron-on items at Hobby Lobby? I didn’t know that until about weeks ago. Now I am excited about all the fun iron on things I can make! They even have iron-on monograms!

I also made some burp clothes to match the bunting. I am going to be making some more for a precious nephew who is on the way too. I will provide a tutorial in a future blog posting on how to make these, as they are adorable and easy to make! Once again, all you need is a sewing machine and the ability to sew straight lines.

I planned one activity for the sprinkle. It was making a baby scrap book or Beckham. I know how hard it is to find the time to make a baby album for babies #2 and #3. Time becomes more scarce once you have multiple children, so I thought it would be neat to make an album for Beckham and all Chelsea has to do is insert the photos. We decorated scrap book pages and when they were complete we added them into the book. Now he has a baby book that is photo ready before he is even born. I picked up scrap book supplies at Hobby Lobby along with a boy baby album that had an adorable B for Beckham on the front.

I also wanted to add some personalized words to the album, so I asked that each lady attending the sprinkle write a prayer or some words for Beckhan on a small piece of paper and then I placed all of these beautiful words on the last page of the album, as a keepsake for Chelsea and Beckham. I wish I had taken a photo of this page of these personalized writings, as each lady had such beautiful words for Beckham.

At a baby shower you usually play a series of games. Since a sprinkle is a smaller scale event, we played one simple game. I like this game, as it goes on all night long. I gave each lady a ribbon necklace with a plastic baby block attached. I gave the ladies the following instructions for the game: “You can’t say the word baby or margarita tonight. If you do and someone else hears it then they get your necklace. If you hear another lady saying it you get her necklace. If the person is wearing multiple necklaces you get all the necklaces she is wearing. The goal is to have the most necklaces at the end of the night”. It is an easy and fun game. Kathleen was our winner at the end of the night and I had a gift bag ready for her,  was to wear the neck

Our evening at the sprinkle/ birthday party was fun! I am very thankful for my MOPS ladies. I look forward to the twice monthly MOPS gatherings and time I get to spend with fellow Moms who share in similar life struggles. We all have children that are not yet of primary school age, so we know the daily challenges of dealing day in and day out with toddlers.