Revealing Baby’s Gender

As I shared in my last post, a huge part of my family and its story is about adoption. I have a wild passion for sharing about children in need of families and equipping families to meet those needs. I certainly will be get back to that topic. For today, though, it’s about a little twist in our tale. There may be something in the SMB water, but several of the contributors are pregnant, and I am one of them! We are over the moon to be expecting our first biological child this winter.

With a first pregnancy, my husband, children and I are gobbling up all of the unique firsts to this experience. One that we spent the first 15 weeks dreaming about was the gender of the baby. Now, I know that there are parents who love to keep this aspect a secret. I completely respect that choice—unless I am your friend, in which I find it a little annoying as I want to shop, shop, shop and not in green or yellow.  😉

For us, though, we want to know everything we can about this baby as soon as we can! My children have had rough starts. They already have seen in their short lives, death and loss and uncertainty. My husband and I wanted to make this new baby as real and tangible to them as possible. We want them to rejoice over their new sibling no matter how long we are entrusted to its care–be it 8 weeks in utero, 8 years or 80 years. So we knew for sure we would find out the sex of the baby.

Not knowing if we will ever be pregnant again, we are celebrating at every turn. We had a party to announce our pregnancy and then another to reveal his/her gender. Gender Reveal Parties are not new, but they certainly aren’t as common as I thought they were. In searching for a unique way to celebrate, our options seemed fairly limited. When we finally landed on a theme, we added some trendy 2012 aspects with a few surprises thrown in.

ON TREND:

~Photo Booth Ops at parties. These can easily be set up with sheets or quilts as backdrops in any naturally lit part of your house. Have someone designated to take pictures with props for your guests. These are fun ways to remember who celebrated with you.
~Mustaches! No party lately seems complete without mustaches of some kind!

We had a little banner in our “booth” that said “hoping for. .  .” Our guests chose either mustache (for a boy guess) or lips (for a girls guess) and posed for a picture.  It was a great way to kill time until everyone had arrived. Look at how cute my mom is!

LITTLE SURPRISES:

~unique cake flavors. A gender reveal party is quick. Everyone is gathering for essentially a one line statement. Light refreshments are all that is necessary, but they don’t have to be boring. A little surprise of an orange flavored cake or cherry chocolate is always fun.
~huge balloons. Steph shared about her 36″ balloons at her daughter’s birthday party. What a great statement a big balloon makes! We bought a 36″ black balloon and had the employee at the party store fill the balloon with the right confetti (blue or pink) without us knowing. We popped the balloon with our friends to learn the gender of our baby!

The party was black and white with splashes of pink and blue thrown in.  Here are some resources that helped me have a night I will never forget:

Pinterest. I think at this point, this resource is a given. The quick pins of bright photographs led me down delightful bunny trails to spark my creativity. You can even follow us on Pinterest.

Cake Mix Doctor. If you don’t know this website, you need to. I cook mostly organically for my family, but on special occasions, I have too many details to attend to to cook from scratch. I use short cuts that add a unique flare to my party.

The Tom Kat Studios I actually did not end up buying anything from them. I wanted black and white colors that were a little dark for their style. However, I got party ideas and excellent customer service from Toni.

The Party Mart Big party stores don’t always have what I need. Although part of a chain, this small store has more of a mom and pop feel. They ended up being the only place in town that had 36″ black balloons in stock. They were super helpful.

Martha Stewart collection at Michaels – when throwing a simple party, small things like unique straws or cupcake holders add finishing touches. Martha’s all about the details.

A gender reveal party was right up my alley.  No better way for us to find out we are having a SON!!  What about you?  Did you find out the gender of your baby or wait til delivery day? If you did find out, did you tell people casually or have a gender reveal?  What was the way you revealed the gender at your party?