Our Gender Party...

It's becoming more and more common these days for expecting parents to host a gender reveal party, so that all of their family and friends find out the sex of the baby at the same time.

I love this idea! It may not be something I would do for every child, but the first baby is a big deal. Plus, I feel like it's a really nice way for the parents to give to their families. We all know that baby showers and diaper parties are really helpful tools when having a baby, since everything is so expensive.

I like that gender reveals are the parents essentially giving their families a big THANK YOU and BE INVOLVED party, complete with sweets. :)

Unfortunately, our house is not party friendly. We have really been slacking in the cleaning/decorating departments. Fortunately, my Mom and Larry offered to host for us. What a blessing!

Ours was a gender reveal almost like any other except with a little twist. Most gender parties have a cake or cupcakes or other treat that you and/or your guests slice/bite into and everyone finds out the gender at the same time.

Of course, I wanted ours to be a little different.

I cannot seriously say that I am the first person to have done this, but I will say that I had not heard of anyone finding out at random.

We started with finding a baker who would make our cupcakes. I wanted them very simple - white cupcakes with white/vanilla frosting and metal/dark liners. I told the baker that I only wanted one cupcake to have the inside dyed the appropriate color. I did not want frosting in the middle. I hate frosting in the middle of my cupcakes. Ick.

The day of our ultrasound, we had given the technician two envelopes, two gender cards that Bryan and I had filled out beforehand and we asked her to seal them in the envelopes, one with the ultrasound slide of the babies gender and one with just the reveal card. We asked her to note on the envelope which one contained the picture.

This is the card I made:

Ours was date specific, but here is a free printable if you'd like!! :)

When we got home, we stuck the envelopes in my Bible. Neither of us were tempted, but just in case we had a moment we'd have to crack open the Good Book to get it and I figured the guilt would stop us!!

Anyways, I gave the baker the envelope without the ultrasound photo and she delivered these cupcakes earlier the day of the party. I will be honest with you. RSVPs are crucial for a gender reveal like this. I had 40 people RSVP, and I had to order 4 dozen (48) cupcakes. I asked Jessica (the baker) to separate the cupcakes into different boxes. You are supposed to plan on  about10% of people who RSVP to no-show. So I asked Jessica to separate it with 37 cupcakes (including the special cupcake) in marked boxes and the extra 11 in another.

I am so happy I did this because we had 8 people that didn't show!!!

When we received the cupcakes, I set the boxed 11 aside, and put all 37 on the stand and next to it. I had made name tags for each person scheduled to attend so my friends and I stuck them in randomly. I figured that if someone didn't show that didn't let me know ahead of time (there were two) it went against the odds that one of them would end up with that cupcake.

While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, we had lemon bars, chocolate chip cookies, coffee, tea, water and hot cocoa out for people to snack on. 

Finally, it was time! I was chomping at the bit, I tell ya!

I calmed the crowd and as you can see in the very unflattering photo above, explained the rules.

GENDER REVEAL GAME RULES -

1. Each person had an assigned cupcake - no fighting!
2. Only one person will have the middle of their cupcake be colored to match the gender. We do not know what the gender is or which person has the cupcake. Blue = boy. Pink = Girl. (Yes, I stated this. You can never be too careful.)
3. Everyone will grab their cupcake and wait patiently before biting into it.
4. We (the parents) will let you know when to take a bite so we can do it all at the same time.
5. TAKE A BIG BITE.
6. As soon as you see what it is, call it out LOUD.
7. DO NOT CONTINUE EATING THE CUPCAKE. We will have a replacement for you so we can take pictures.
8. If you have the cupcake and you do not call it out immediately, I get to punch you. Hard. (I quickly amended this to include everyone except my Grandma, cause she's feisty and will totally kick my butt.)
9. If no one got the special cupcake (meaning they were one of the few left from no-shows), Bryan and I would each get another chance. Then we'd randomly select people until there were no cupcakes left.

Once everyone had their cupcakes (there were more people standing in the kitchen and sitting on the couch.)

We said loudly to TAKE A BITE!!!! And everyone did! All of a sudden, we heard a squeal and I look over to see MY MOM! She had the cupcake!! Instead of being able to say anything, she just showed it me! So I called it out...

And she totally started crying!!!

Bryan's Mom, Sylvia and the best Mother-in-law ever rushed to give me a hug before things got chaotic. Once my mom stopped crying, she rushed over to hug me and hand over the goods. :)

There it was. Blue. A son!

Joy, laughter and calls of rigging the game filled the room. We immediately started picture taking. It was at this moment, however that I realized I forgot the most important rule. No Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. until us parents posted it. We had family out of town anxiously awaiting the news and I will forever be sad that we didn't get to notify them before others posted it on Facebook. But very quickly I paused photo taking and Bryan and I sent this text and uploaded it to every social networking site we subscribe to.

We had already picked out the name for a boy and a girl (we'll save the girl name for the next baby) so Bryan had both versions ready to go!

I feel like I look mischievous and Bryan looks stunned. Haha!

Then pictures started again. You can see Bryan tending to the phone in the background. :)

My father-in-law Rick, with a smug look on his face. He knew it was a boy, so he brought a boy fishing pole!

My lovely sister Kari, also pregnant! She's about 12 days behind me. We will have cousin brothers!! 

My mom and Larry!

My sister, Alison, couldn't make it so we Skyped her and the family in!!

My feisty grandmother. She is over 70 but runs circles around me.

The Gaston Clan - Bryan's mom, step-dad and sisters and brother. 

Bryan's Mom!

Shepherd's Godmother, Denise.

After a bunch more pictures, that I haven't hounded people for yet and my own that I haven't uploaded, Bryan and I opened the second envelope that contained the gender card and the ultrasound photo of our boys uh...junk? Haha! We'll put this picture and those items in his baby book. 

 By the end of the party, our phones were blowing up, I was exhausted and ready to actually EAT my cupcake. We took it easy.

We also asked Hunter, our cousin, to be Shepherd's Godfather. It was a special time for us for sure.

I'm sure you are dying to see more than the millions of photos I posted here, so I'll be posting more pictures as I get them.

*These photos were taken by our life-group member and friend, Ryan Newton. He did it as a favor to us and I am so grateful to him!