Celebrate Our Military Heritage with an Army/Navy Baby Shower

Whether you were a military brat or you're about to have one of your own, you can show your pride in serving your country with an military baby shower for the army, navy, marines, or air force. This is a great theme for a couples shower.

Start off this unusual baby shower by sending the appropriate invitations. There are now camouflage designs on baby shower invitations, from pink, blue, and green camo designs to those in traditional colors of olive drab and browns. Add in the details of the baby shower using some military terms like “Atten-shun! You are required to report to (Host's address) Barracks to welcome a little soldier to our world.”

Decorations are as near as your local recruiting center. Once you explain to them what it is you want to do, they will be very willing to loan you life-size cutouts of army men, camouflage netting, and other military gear to perfect the setting of your party area. They will probably also send you some pens, pencils, notepads and lots of other stuff you can use as prizes or to stuff your favor bags later on.

Recreating “Desert Storm” in your party area may be a little tough, though. You could, however, rent or borrow some picnic tables and set up your own “barracks.” No flowers! Set up a little vignette in the middle of the table with children's military toys and little army figurines.

Decorate your room with balloons and streamers in green, brown, and pink or blue. Add a welcome banner to that and your room is ready. Bunch the balloons in groups of 3, 5, or 7 and twist some of the streamers from the knots in the balloon. These can hang from the walls, corners, or even the ceiling.

To show your pride and patriotism, there is nothing wrong with hanging the flag from one wall (be sure to check the protocol on putting up a flag inside a building!) or using small flags to decorate the party area and the food.

Set up a mess area at one side and serve all of your favorite comfort food – chicken pot pie, macaroni and cheese, grilled sandwiches, a hearty soup. Just make sure all the food is filling and also leaves a feeling of security. Dessert, of course. A classic yellow cake with fudge frosting is a popular comfortable food, as is rocky road ice cream.

If you want a special cake for this, there are several ideas you can use. One is to make or order a tank cake. Easier army-navy military baby shower cake variations are baking a soldier's helmet using a metal bowl as a cake pan or making a military scene using a sheet cake as a base.

As to games, how much do you really know about the military? A trivia game based on common and uncommon military facts is a fun and informative game to play. And to release all that stress, have a pinata to break in the middle of the room. Fill the pinata with hard candies and small baby items like travel-sized baby wipes, hand sanitizer, and pacifiers.

Military baby shower favors don't really need to follow the theme. The farthest you need to go is to use a camo ditty bag to hold the entire favors in. you can stuff in a military-issue pen and notepad, hard mints, and a lip balm with sunblock. Add a Hershey bar to that for a perfect finishing touch.