Boy or Girl - a Gender Reveal Party

We hosted a gender reveal party on Sunday.

I saw the idea on a friend's blog and thought "what a cute way to find out!" I mentioned it to Joel and he agreed. We have never known the gender of our babies until birth. We always liked the surprise (yes, even with twins!).

There were several reasons I thought I'd like to know this time. But, I was still hung up on a few things. First, I didn't want it to be anti-climatic. I love the excitement of everyone when they first hear "It's a ___!" Second, I didn't want to be told one thing and find out later that it was wrong. (That's happened to 2 people I know within the last few months, so it was a fresh reality.)

This whole gender reveal party seemed to be a good answer to that first question. And, well, the second one was something that I'll talk about later.*

After much research, I made a few discoveries and a few decisions. First, I discovered this is the new trendy way to find out your baby's gender. Ha! I'm actually in on a trend. That's kind of funny. Second, I decided to go with a few ideas I saw on other blogs/websites. (So, if you like any ideas, just know that they were mostly borrowed from others.) Click a picture to enlarge it.
We went with a pink/blue theme as much as we could. I even tried to do pink/blue foods. There's not much variety if you go that route though! Guests wrote their guess on a poster as they entered the party. They could also suggest names for us. Our older three kids made posters that said "Boy or Girl". My favorite decoration was the pink/blue onesies I strung over our fireplace. (They're still hanging there!)

I decided we would do some foods that centered around my pregnancy cravings. We served quesadillas (I love any kind of Mexican food!) with chips and salsa, lemon bars (LOVE lemon and lime!!!), and mini pigs-in-a-blanket (they're one of my fav breakfast things). My friend Kristin came up with the idea to do "mini" or "baby" items. I don't know that anyone caught on except those of us doing the food! It was fun to plan, though.
My sweet friends from church came to help set-up and take care of the food. These girls are great!
As friends replied to confirm their participation, I realized I was going to have a slew of kids in my backyard (or house if it was not nice weather!). So, we asked to borrow a bounce house and were so blessed to have it be a part of our celebration! We set out some big sheets of art paper with washable markers and a bean bag game (also borrowed). The older boys just ran around our yard climbing on our fort and swinging. And, it was an amazingly beautiful day!
Everyone wore their team color: pink if they thought it was a girl, blue for boy. Team pink was sorely outnumbered! (Joel, Jenna, and Asa were on team pink, though Asa wore blue, while Rylee and I were on team blue.)
We got my parents and my close friends, Heather and Paul, on video chat for the big reveal. My friend Janet wrote a song for the occasion and sang it just before we each got a cupcake. Joel and I did not know the secret yet. Our ultrasound technician printed a "revealing" picture of the baby and placed it in a sealed envelope. I took it to my friend Pam, who made the cupcakes for us. So, she was the only one who knew the secret until we all took a bite!
We were very excited to see the blue icing!
Pam did an amazing job on the cupcakes. Then, she gave me the revealing picture in a sweet frame that reads: "Memories. We don't remember days, we remember moments." Yep, it's certainly a boy! (I scanned the picture and included it below. *It answers my second reservation quite clearly.)
Asa wanted to know why the picture was so special. So, I explained it to him. He wasn't so keen on me talking about, or having a picture of, boy private parts!

It was a really fun way for us to find out that we're having another little boy. I thought the idea sounded fun, but in reality the party was way more of a blessing than I could have anticipated. I was absolutely overwhelmed that so many of our friends came to celebrate with us and were so excited. Finding out by biting into that cupcake was simply thrilling to me. Trend or no trend, I'm very glad we decided to find out now and I'm even more glad we decided to find out this way!


For those who care to know, the menu included: a relish tray with baby carrots, baby cucumbers, baby tomatoes, and baby gherkins; mini pretzels with lots of dips (ranch, garlic, spinach & herb, and fiesta party, the last 2 are Tastefully Simple mixes); mini bagel sandwiches with ham and chive cream cheese or cucumber and chive cream cheese; baby brownie bites; mini lemon bars; mini quesadillas (salsa and sour cream); blue corn chips; tortilla chips; mini pigs-in-a-blanket (with the crescent rolls shaped as diapers!); pink wafer cookies; blue and white jordan almonds; pink and blue suckers; blue salt water taffy; pink lemonade; blue(ish) sherbert punch; and mini cupcakes in chocolate and strawberry!