Gender Reveal Party

A while back before I was even pregnant, I saw the most darling idea for a gender reveal party on www.supermommoments.com. I thought it was just so darling and loved seeing the picture of the couple opening the box to reveal either pink or blue balloons, telling them if they would be having a boy or a girl. I knew if I were going to have another baby, I totally wanted to do that since it would be a big deal either way what we were having--either our 6th girl or a boy after having 5 girls. So, fast forward a few months, I was planning to do a gender reveal party with family and few close friends. I figured we would find out in the middle of July, so we'd have the party around then. But like I mentioned in couple of posts ago, I was able to get in for quick ultrasound. I hurried and put together the party since I knew I couldn't wait too long to find out. So here is our party in pictures.

the invite--ended up having to e-mail it out since it was so last minute...


We had everyone who thought it was a girl to wear pink and those who thought it was a boy to wear blue. These are the "teams." Note that I am in blue but really thought I would be seeing pink balloons. Brian went out the night before and found a lovely pink Rick Springfield t-shirt at Goodwill.



We had everyone tally his or her vote as they came in. I didn't get a picture of the final tally though.


My parents brought over a bouquet of pink roses with blue baby's breath. So fun!


The food...aka "What are you craving?"



We had food for sweet (oreo truffles and fruit), salty (chips and salsa and dipped pretzels), crunchy (kettle corn), chewy (dipped marshmallows and Reisens) and sour (lime and lemon bars and sour patch kids). We also served lemonade and water.





We had everyone offer name suggestions. Some funny ones were Brian Jr. (which was in both the girl jar and the boy jar), "Nacho" and "Stink.


We read those names, then it was time to open the box! The morning of the party, I went to Party City along with a big box and the envelope. I explained to the male employee what I was doing and instructed him--after we left--to look inside and if it said "boy" to put blue balloons in the box and if it said "girl" to put pink balloons in the box. The guy looked at me a little interestingly, then called for back up reinforcement, so I explained it to a female employee. We left and I was just dying, thinking of them opening the envelope and knowing before anyone else!! I had Terri pick up the box in case anything went wrong and she saw something. She would be the only one who knew and it wouldn't ruin it for me or Brian. I was SO nervous opening the box! I was prepared to open it and see pink balloons. It felt like I was opening a mission call! We undid the ribbon, then had to undo the tape they put on the box. We finally opened it and found...




BLUE!!!

Words cannot describe how I felt at that moment. Shock. Disbelief. Excitement. Everything!! It was just so bizarre to see blue balloons in the box. I really expected to open it and see pink. Everyone cheered and yelled (you can see the video below). It was so fun; I am so glad we did it this way to find out what we are having. So priceless. We looked at the ultrasound and it seemed pretty obvious that it was a boy. We hadn't see anything like that on the previous 5 ultrasounds we've had. LOL.



Yesterday was filled with even more emotions. I took Eliza, Libby and Ellie and we went up to the outlets and started his wardrobe and got a few outfits for him. As I was in Gap looking at a shirt, the thought hit me, "We have to do scouts now!" Waaaaaaahhh!! Haha. Pinewood derby--all of that!! Ugh! LOL. And I have to learn how to tie a tie. And what do little boys wear to church? We have to basically start from scratch--new clothes, new socks, new blankets, new burp cloths, etc!! Overwhelming! New car seat, new swing. It'll be fun though. The best part is that we get to get rid of all the clothes that are too small for Ruby! It'll be so nice to clean out like that. All in all, it is a huge shock for us to be having a little boy, but we couldn't all be any more excited.