Bootie Camp: Host your own dad baby shower

Bootie Camp combines a baby shower for dad with new parent challenges, groan-worthy puns, and themed snacks. It’s an excuse to turn the back yard into a training ground and the patio into a mess tent. And it’s all about fun.

The New Parent Obstacle Course is the ultimate dad baby shower game and the centerpiece of your Bootie Camp: a series of silly-but-educational tasks and traps for the Dad-to-Be to overcome.

But first! Prepare the Dad-to-Be for life with baby by outfitting him in a baby carrier and filling it with one of the following: life-sized baby doll, 10 pound sack of potatoes, or your small, very chill dog.

OK. Now the obstacle course stations:

• Complete as many bicep curls as possible with a car seat containing a 15 pound weight.
• Find a pacifier as quickly as possible in a diaper bag filled to the brim with random objects.
• Sing “Rock-a-bye Baby” all the way through while friends cry loudly and tell you you’re doing it wrong.
• Successfully put pigtails in a doll’s hair—while a friend wiggles the doll and tries to take it away.
• Read a bedtime story while answering ridiculous questions shouted by other guests.
• Eat a hot dog with one hand while dicing a second hot dog with the other hand.
• Holding a guest in your lap, “feed” them a can or bottle of the fizzy beverage of your choice, then pat them on the back until they burp.
• Effectively swaddle a grown man in a full-sized blanket.

These are just to get you started. The New Parent Obstacle Course is the perfect opportunity for the experienced fathers on your list to create their own challenges, and to personalize the dad baby shower for your guest of honor.

Additional fun:

• Send everyone through the obstacle course—not just the Dad to Be. Compete individually or in teams. Award prizes.
• Appoint experienced dads (or moms!) to act as judges and award points for skill, style, speed, and creativity.
• To simulate the experience of changing a baby boy’s diapers, give one guest a water gun filled with warm water. That person may squirt competitors in the face at any time.

This is the place to practice your word play. A few to get you started…

• DOD (doody on a diaper) instead of SOS (stuff on a shingle)
• MRSU (Meals Ready to Spit Up) instead of MREs (meals ready to eat)—we suggest smoothies and veggie purees.
• Burp-inducers (carbonated soda and beer)
• Bib-soakers (ribs with sauce or hot wings)
• Ba-bas (bottles of beer)
• Binkies (lollipops)
• Bootie Camp Camo mix (green and brown, or blue and pink, m&ms with surprise raisins)
• Little Bombs (sliders or sandwiches wrapped diaper-style in white napkins or parchment paper)

After all the silliness, give the Dad-to-Be’s pals a chance to offer sincere wishes and words of wisdom. Start with a notebook or journal—or punch holes in the corners of a stack of 3x5s and gather them with a binder ring. Make a cover sheet that says “Marching Orders for the New Dad” (or new family). Ask your guests to write things like:

• The best part of being a dad
• Why they know the guest of honor will be a great father
• Words of advice—from experience
• Their favorite dad jokes
• Tips and tricks for life with baby