Hayley's About to Pop!

What a fun theme for a baby shower! Not only was it fun to attend yesterday, but for me, I had just as much fun helping with planning and executing this party for my niece, Hayley. You can find the invitations here that started it all. I promised more POPpin' party details, so here you go:

For the savory table, Jackie, Damaris, and I served ham sandwiches, fruit, cheese dip, jalapeno poppers, shrimp, and meatballs. Sounds fairly conventional for a party. Once you jazz up the names a little and add a cute tag, then you get the idea how we continued the POP theme throughout the menu.

 

This little sandwich, originally called ham party sandwiches, is already in our family cookbook. For this party, they became Ham & POPpy Seed Sliders.

Chunks of fruit on a skewer became Fruit POPs:

I have mentioned this pineapple cheese ball before on this blog. It became the POPular Cheese Ball.

 

Of course, Jalapeno POPpers as well as POPcorn Shrimp didn't need name changes. 

At the last minute, my sister Jackie wanted to add meatballs to the menu since we were planning on having some hungry fellas there. Admittedly, my first thought was, "Noooooooo! We've got to stick to the theme!" After a little bit of thinking, they became Crock POPpin Meatballs. Yes, it's a stretch. But, the hungry fellas are happy. And, I'm happy.

Another side table contained a variety of party favors as well as a diaper cake.

The adorable diaper cake was gifted by one of Jackie's friends, Mary Anne. POP goes the elephant!

POP Rocks and Blow POPs were a hit with the young-at-heart. ;)

The main party favor was Parmesan POPovers. This was Keely's idea along with the message, "Thanks for POPping Over!" I created the tag using the same adorable photo of Hayley that I used on the invitations. This was my first time making popovers. I'm glad I didn't invest in one of the popover pans because honestly, I won't be making these again. (Thanks to my sweet and generous neighbor Mary for loaning me hers!) If you've never made popovers, first know that they're quite time consuming, especially when you only make six at a time. I didn't realize that. Secondly, pretty much all of the recipes that I found for popovers warned that you should serve them immediately. I didn't know that either. Nevertheless, I plowed ahead. Why? The theme! That's right, the theme! So, even if they weren't very tasty a day later, I must admit they looked pretty darn cute.

For drinks, we had bottles of water and a variety of Soda POP. We decorated one of the buckets with the same pink tutu that my sister Vicke used for Buffy's shower.

Now for the main table with all of the goodies: Rice Krispie treats, popcorn, poppy seed bread and cake. By the way, all of the fresh flower arrangements were made by my brother-in-law Greg. They were beautiful!

 

Rice Krispie treats are always a hit. Jackie added just enough pink coloring to make them even more perfect for the party. 

I made another batch of gourmet popcorn that I used as favors for Buffy's shower. Another name change, though: Pretty in Pink POPcorn.

Here is the POPpy Seed Bread that I wrote about earlier. It's different in that you'll not find any lemon in this recipe. Sooo good!

How adorable is the cake? We were so grateful for Jackie's friend Kim who gifted this to Hayley. Her daughter made it and did a great job!

Thanks again to all who POPped in to shower Hayley with lots of love and gifts. Her sister Hannah is next in line. In fact, Hannah surprised us all with the gender reveal at the shower. When the blue balloons POPped out of the box, we all celebrated knowing that the next little one is a boy! This party is gonna be hard to top. So, let the thinking and planning begin. Can't wait!