Did you know that flamingos lay one egg at a time? But before the egg is laid, both parents help to make the nest, carefully mounding it just right with mud and twigs and feathers. Then after the mother bird lays the egg it incubates 27-31 days, and both parents take turns sitting on the nest.
We didn’t know it either, until some of the flamingos came to us ask us to do a baby shower for one of the flock. And they wanted it in two weeks, because they had to be sure to have it before the baby was hatched. And since Felicia had just laid the egg in the nest she and Frankie had built, the flock only had two weeks to plan and have the event.
And Karen and I were already in the middle of planning baby showers for our own daughters! “Please, PLEASE help us,” they said. “It’s important!”
So what were we to do? It’s not pretty when flamingos start crying, so we had no choice but to squeeze another baby shower into Karen’s company’s schedule. Fortunately she didn’t have anything on the books for that day so we were good!
How to do this quick? Well, first of all there wasn’t time to print and mail invitations, and since all of the invitees had email and Facebook accounts, digital invitations were perfect! We’d suggested the flamingos could fly to each home and deliver them, but they said they had too much to do and that would simply take too long, plus flamingos don’t really like to fly a lot!
And all of the flamingo ladies invited accepted immediately! This was going to be loads of fun! Decorating was easy, because we already had decor stored from other parties.
What to serve? Not too tough, since by now we were used to planning parties for our flamingos, and we knew what they liked, but we still had to make it a bit unique, with more appetizer items and fruit. You know, nothing heavy, because the mom-to-be had to get back to the nest for her turn incubating the egg.
And course there had to be cakes, cupcakes, and cookies! And the cuter the better!
Only at this event, since it was a baby shower, we elected to serve an assortment of non-alcoholic punches and drinks, along with limited cocktails. Momma had to get back to her nest, you know, and she couldn’t be tipsy!
Felicia arrived right on time for the shower, leaving Frankie to take his turn on the nest while a number of his friends kept him company and fed him his favorite chilled shrimp appetizers. So everyone was happy!
And the girls had a great time! They played games, again led by Karen and me. They’d wanted to play the “How Big is the Egg?” game, a version of the popular “How Big is Mommy’s Tummy?” game, but Felicia hadn’t wanted to disturb the egg by moving it around to measure it, so that didn’t happen. After the games it was time for food, and everyone ate and ate, and then Felicia opened a huge pile of gifts! So many cute and fun things for the baby flamingo, including a baby book! (What kind of gifts do you get for a baby flamingo? We didn’t know, but her friends did, and they were perfect!)
Everyone kept an eye on the time, and when it was time to leave all the guests signed the guestbook, gathered up their shower favors, and took Felicia back to the nest where she showed Frankie and their friends all their goodies for their first hatchling, who would be arriving in a few days.
It was a great day, and a great party!
And a week later we received pictures of the newest flamingo, hatched just three days after the baby shower.
Isn’t she precious? Now eat lots of yummy shrimp, little one, and soon you’ll begin to look like mommy and daddy, and you can join them on their adventures!
Photo Sources: 1st Row: designMyParty; Pinterest; Dazzle Expressions – 2nd Row: via Pinterest – 3rd Row: Pixabay; Pinterest- 4th Row: via Pinterest – 5th Row: via Pinterest- 6th Row: via Pinterest – 7th Row: via Pinterest; via Etsy- 8th Row: storytender.com