Pregnancy and — well, pickles and ice cream, right?!  This idea is a GREAT way to throw a baby shower that will not break your bank too… ice cream, toppings, salty pickle appetizers, drinks, and you've got it!  A perfect afternoon spring or summer baby shower. (This idea is also great for those that need to throw a gender-neutral shower.)   For this party we we found these adorable ice cream dishes and spoons at Dollar Tree — which also doubled as take-home favors.  (The kids loved that.)

This was the invitation for the shower, which was for a mom having a baby boy:

A few more pics…

Since everyone attending this shower was a mom, we played a game guessing everyone's particular pregnancy cravings… {tip: don't think die-hard vegans don't crave loaded cheeseburgers or burritos on occasion! lol…}

For this game, an extra-large pickle jar (like you can buy at Costco or Sams) was emptied and refilled with pickles of ALL sizes…

The food is what makes this shower so simple to throw together.  An ice cream bar is quick and easy to assemble…have a few different kinds of ice cream flavors (simple is best, since you're providing toppings as well) and go to town with the rest… hot fudge, caramel, marshmallow cream, nuts, sprinkles, cherries, strawberries… anything you think your guests might like… We had several ice cream scoops decorated with ribbons to match the decor.

The appetizers are also simple… my favorite were the pickles wrapped in cream cheese and ham.  So simple to put together and very tasty.    You can use salami or corned beef… whatever you prefer.  Here's a link for one version, and believe me, you really can't go wrong with these.  We wrapped mini dill pickles, but you can also wrap large pickles and slice them into rounds.

We didn't want too many strong pickle flavors so while we offered various pickles for people to snack on, we also made some "green eggs" salad sandwiches (just your basic egg salad recipe, with green food coloring thrown in.)   We also added a green fruits and veggies tray (with green apples, cucumbers, green peppers, kiwi, etc), and a green punch.

Everyone had a great time and nobody went home with green tongues.