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[bigletter]This is an odd time for celebration, but that hasn’t stopped me from doing whatever I can to celebrate both the big and small moments life has managed to present us, regardless of the fact that we are still stuck in a worldwide pandemic. From socially distanced picnics at the beach or in the park, outdoor birthday parties or setting up a taste of the Italian Coast on my balcony, I will not give up the pursuit of party.[/bigletter]
Therefore embracing the excitement over our baby on the way with family and friends was a no brainer and the perfect excuse to continue my joy in creating special moments for myself and those around me!
I’ve never been too fond of showers in general, wedding or baby, but the idea of including everyone: my husband, male friends, female friends and our entire family, felt like less pressure on me and more focus on the real star, Baby Simanovsky!
The avid entertainers in both myself and husband weren’t going to let the pandemic get in the way of doing something fun. However, I knew full well the zoom exhaustion plaguing many of the people we intended to invite, so I vowed to do my best to make the virtual celebration engaging and entertaining for everyone.
Additionally, I wanted to see a few close friends who live nearby to celebrate the baby, but also to just legitimately feel normal again for an afternoon, while socially distanced outside, as closely resembling what I’d imagine a baby shower during better times to look like.
So I opted for both!
Our Virtual Shower
Of course a zoom celebration was inevitable, but a less than entertaining one was most certainly not!
My husband and I spent a lot of time working out some fun games and details to make the event stand out and based on that here’s what I think we got right:
Compiling guest’s parenting advice, silly or serious, packaged in one video // We wanted every guest to get a chance to give their opinions on raising kids, whether they had them or not, and rather than asking everyone to speak on demand amongst a large group online, we had them send in self-made videos to an app that later created one big fun video to play during the shower. We got both humorous and well thought out responses from everyone, making us laugh with gratitude around the excitement and support. It was also a fun way to involve everyone during the zoom celebration whether present or not.
Creating a signature cocktail for baby // This was a no brainier, we wanted to add a fun edge to the day, at least for everyone except me! Sending the recipe a few days in advance hopefully got our guests excited and made it as clear as possible that this celebration was meant to be lighthearted and relaxing, whether or not they enjoy vodka to the degree to which my Russian husband and his family members seem to! The cocktail illustration is by Anna at Uniqueorn Design Shop on Etsy and the Little Russian recipe by moi!
Introducing each guest, via baby Simanovsky // Introductions are important and can help break the ice in a big group, but I’ve always found them boring and sometimes even anxiety producing. Plus when you have 45 guests it just takes way too long, so I devised a plan for Arthur and I to introduce each party guest from the perspective of our future son. For example, John Doe, the one who our son is likely to call for stock tips and maintaining anonymity during an investigation into his dealings with gluten-full donuts in Los Angeles. They each took some time for Arthur and I to come up with but proved a hit whether sentimental or satirical, a version of baby related superlatives for everyone if you will.
A fun music playlist playing in the background // Basically I took every song I could find with the lyrics “baby” in them and wove in thirty second clips of baby shark to play at each ten minute mark, indicating it was time for a big sip of your drink of choice. Some top hits were ...Baby One More Time by Britany Spears, Baby by Justin Bieber and Baby Boy by Beyoncé. If you’d like the full playlist I created click here. On zoom, you can share desktop sound, which I did while having my iTunes playlist on. I believe you can do this with Spotify as well.
Setting up a festive backdrop // The detail most people commented on immediately and the most fun one to create! I just used letter balloons, which unbeknownst to me do not float with helium so we had to tape them together and hang them from the light fixtures unfortunately! Surrounded with an arrangement of green and white flowers in ginger jars. It was pretty simple setup to create and added a lot to our Zoom frame highlighting the festivities of the day. I recommend finding a spot in your home with lots of light and practicing your zoom frame angle ahead of time to ensure your backdrop fits with you in it!
Utilizing both virtual and physical tools for facilitating games // We played two games with our guests which I believe was more than enough but to each their own! One was a celebrity baby name game in which we shared a less than conventional baby name and asked guests to shout out which celebrity were the parents. The answers were revealed by us using a paper print out of the celebrity, taped onto a bamboo skewer that we waved in front of the camera. The other game was a guess which baby, in which we read out silly things that happened to Arthur and I as children and asked guests to vote via zoom polls on whether it happened to me or him. We then used various cut out photos of us as babies/kids on bamboo skewers to show the correct answer, just like with the celebrities. I highly recommend using any alternative to power points to break up as much of the monotony of screen time as possible!
Keep it short and structured // As many frequent Zoomers are aware, so many meetings tend to go over the time they should. Let’s face it, sitting in front of a screen is a pastime we likely all take for granted at this point and it’s particularly exhausting when we do it throughout the work week as well as amongst friends and families. So we made certain our party was under 60 minutes and encouraged people to come and go as they pleased, just as they would in person. We also timed out each activity so there was a flow and kept things as interesting and different as possible, which is especially important when you have a large group of people who don’t necessarily know each other that well, making the common guess that baby game pretty difficult. As for any entertaining, ending on a high note is always best!
My Socially Distanced Shower
In an age of frequent Zoom socializing I feel beyond fortunate to have had opportunities to see friends and family on patios, in parks, at beaches and with tons of fresh, non-freezing air coming through our balcony door at home. My husband and I haven’t socialized at restaurants or parties for the last year and feel really grateful we have been in good health during this stressful and scary time for the world. And when I think about becoming a mom very soon, I can’t help but be a bit jealous the world may be opening back up safely just as I start dedicating even more time at home. So seeing my friends in person for a fun afternoon was at the very top of my list when thinking about celebrating this special time in my life. Hopefully boozy bring-your-own-baby brunches are in my near future!
After finding a lovely, relatively private park nearby while on a run last year, many of my socially distanced picnics with friends found a home. Alas, this was the perfect spot for a very small in person shower with just three close girlfriends and myself!
You know I love a well designed tabslescape, but in keeping with the socially distant measures, I decided that instead of sitting at one table I’d space out my few guests using four rented Adirondack chairs, mini tray tables and a well adorned spread to display all the goodies.
The theme for Baby Simanovsky’s nursery is Oh the Places He’ll Go so therefore I tried to find a bunch of little treasures resembling travel and exploration such as the model sailboat, mini suitcase stack, pagoda and a mini Fortnum and Mason basket. Let’s pray it encourages some fun adventures in his future.
As you know I only cook cheese plates and cocktails, so I set out to make a simple mocktail punch full of grapefruit, mint and blackberries over a lime spritzer. But of course I’ve got to give my non-pregnant ladies something so I had mini grey goose bottles available to keep the beverages extra distant and extra cute, all over mint and blueberry filled ice. If you’re concerned about bringing ice cubes to a picnic my advice is to either store them in a plastic container wrapped in a towel and packed in a cooler. If you need them to stay frozen for longer stretches or have frozen treats, use dry ice with caution.
My signature shareable cheese plates seem to have fallen out of grace with the more sanitation sensitive culture created by the pandemic so I made individual ones instead, each in their own little basket! Basically you can do this with anything yummy you’d like such as pastry selections, seafood platters, crudités: whatever your heart desires.
In addition I ordered individual sushi boxes from one of my favorite spots, KazuNori. My order was strictly crab, given it’s cooked, but I particularly love their toro roll and blue crab hand rolls the most.
Of course I couldn’t resist my absolute favorite cake, the classic marble cake from SusieCakes! I added this little hot air balloon for fun, but I think we may actually hang it somewhere in the nursery. I also couldn’t resist these adorable custom made suitcase shaped sugar cookies, perhaps in part due to my desperation this past year for some travel!
With all the goods we were well setup for an enjoyable afternoon outside and it was exactly what I wanted. No baby games, no gifts to open, just a few close friends and I spending a free afternoon together, a pastime that is sure to become a luxury for me quite soon!
As the sun started to set and the cool spring air came back into breeze, my husband came back to help us pack up and snap a few shots with the good light. As we drove back home we randomly spotted our mothers out walking together and remembered how lucky we are to have our family close by.
A wonderful reminder how having just a few good people can make all the difference in your life; well that and a weeks’ worth of leftover cake for breakfast.
