Okay, so I went a little nutty with coordinating everything for the baby shower. When I decided to build the decorations around the pennant banners, the ideas just blossomed and grew – I couldn’t stop myself! The napkin rings, the baby clothes banner hung from the mantel, the vase for the flowers, the ties for the treat bags – everything sported green and blue checks, stripes, and polka dots. But what really speaks volumes about my need to have everything “just so” is the fact that I had my sweet, generous, and good-natured sister spend three whole hours cutting out fabric numbers to fuse onto envelopes for the final baby shower activity of the party:
Baby Quotes & Words of Advice
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| Close-up of fused fabric number |
I’ve always loved quotes. They often express what I feel but could never put into words. They inspire me, make me laugh, and sometimes bring me to tears. I thought reading some inspirational quotes about babies and motherhood would be a good way to wrap up the shower.
I found lots of great baby and motherhood quotes online and printed them out on cute blue and green scrapbook paper cut to 4″ x 6″, so they would fit in a standard photo album. I also designed and printed decorative 4″ x 6″ pages to use for advice cards.
I arranged the 24 quotes in the order that I wanted them to be read, alternating serious and humorous ones, and starting and ending with the ones that I considered the most important. Each numbered envelope got one quote card and one advice card.
Everyone drew an envelope from a basket and opened it to see their quote card and advice card. Reading the quotes in numerical order made it more interesting than just going around the circle. You never knew who would be next. It was a lot of fun – some of the quotes garnered chuckles while others elicited knowing smiles from all the moms and grandmothers there.
Here are some of the quotes we read …
Quotes about babies and motherhood
It is not a slight thing when those so fresh from God love us.
– Dickens
A baby is born with a need to be loved — and never outgrows it.
– Frank A. Clark
Making the decision to have a child – it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body.
– Elizabeth Stone
Families with babies and families without babies are sorry for each other.
– Ed Howe
Having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit.
– Bill Cosby
A new baby is like the beginning of all things – wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities.
– Eda J. Le Shan
Babies are such a nice way to start people.
– Don Herrold
It sometimes happens, even in the best of families, that a baby is born. This is not necessarily cause for alarm. The important thing is to keep your wits about you and borrow some money.
– Elinor Goulding Smith
People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one.
– Leo J. Burke
A babe in the house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love, a resting place for innocence on earth, a link between angels and men.
– Martin Fraquhar Tupper
If nature had arranged that husbands and wives should have children alternatively, there would never be more than three in a family.
– Lawrence Housman
Child rearing myth #1: Labor ends when the baby is born.
– Anonymous
I can’t think why mothers love them. All babies do is leak at both ends.
– Douglas Feaver
A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for.
– Author Unknown
A baby is an inestimable blessing and bother.
– Mark Twain
Babies are always more trouble than you thought — and more wonderful.
– Charles Osgood
Every child begins the world again.
– Henry David Thoreau
A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.
– Carl Sandburg
What good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is usually best after all.
– Benjamin Spock
Getting a burp out of your little thing is probably the greatest satisfaction I’ve come across. It’s truly one of life’s most satisfying moments.
– Brad Pitt
If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do well matters very much.
– Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
In the sheltered simplicity of the first days after a baby is born, one sees again the magical closed circle, the miraculous sense of two people existing only for each other.
– Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Maternal love, like an orange tree, buds and blossoms and bears at once. When a woman puts her finger for the first time into the tiny hand of her baby and feels that helpless clutch which tightens her very heartstrings, she is born again with her newborn child.
– Kate Douglas Wiggin
After the quotes were all read, it was time for the guests to offer their own pearls of wisdom for the expectant mother. We took a few minutes for everyone to write down their advice for the new mom.
As each woman read what they had written, I was surprised and touched by the care and thought that they had put into what they wrote. All of the sentiments really came from the heart. There was such a feeling of togetherness in the room, a bonding of mothers, daughters, aunts, cousins, and friends, all of us supporting Sara and offering her our love and heartfelt wishes for a wonderful life as a mother.
While we were writing down our advice, Sara opened one last gift, a baby photo album which will hold all the quote cards and advice cards, as well as photos of the baby shower and the new baby.
After reading their advice to the new mom, each person wrote their name on the back of their numbered envelope and put it into a bag, then we drew names for the final two game prizes.
As the baby shower came to a close, we all stood together and joined hands to pray for Sara, her husband, and the baby on the way, asking for God’s guidance, protection, and blessing. It was a special moment. There was such a spirit of love in the room – I think we all felt it.
So, in the end, a baby shower isn’t really about the gifts and food and decorations, it’s about women coming together to make a new mom feel special, cherished, supported, and cared for, and to let her know that she’s not alone in what’s ahead of her. We will all there with her in spirit, empowering her with our prayers and our love.
Before you were conceived I wanted you
Before you were born I loved you
Before you were here an hour I would die for you
This is the miracle of life.
– Maureen Hawkins
6 Comments
This is a lovely idea! I am hosing my cousin's shower in January and I think we'll do this!
Glad you could use it, Angie! Good luck with the shower.
Sweet, beautiful, loving ideas. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful shower ideas!!! this is exactly what my mom wants me to do for my sister-in-law's shower…I so appreciate you sharing your recipes as well–can't wait to try them…what kind of buttercream did you use for the cupcakes?? THanks again
I always use the buttercream recipe from my old Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, but any other would probably work as well. Best of luck with your baby shower. Everyone really enjoyed the quote activity at my daughter's shower.
I really like your idea of the quotes and words of advice. I am using a variation for a party I am hosting this weekend. Thank you for sharing. 🙂