7/12/15

Gender Reveal


Note to self: When planning a gender reveal party, start earlier than one week out. I got sick over Fourth of July weekend and decided in my downtime that I should probably start thinking about how I wanted to announce BOY or GIRL after our anatomy scan.

I found this pin on Pinterest and decided that was it! I loved the idea and the cool picture she got. Plus, I had already been thinking along the lines of balloons and I really didn't have time to decorate a big box. Although I think that idea is super cute too. Party City and Hobby Lobby were both out of stock for 36 inch black balloons so I paid $11.00 shipping to 2-day it from Amazon. So what if I paid double the amount on shipping that a 3-pack of these balloons cost me. It was going to be worth it. =)

I gathered more ideas for food on Pinterest and hit up Hobby Lobby, Target, and Tom Thumb for my party items. We had a small gathering of family and it was SO FUN and joyous to get to celebrate what felt like a monumental event for our little family. Would we be bringing home blue or pink in December?

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Let me back up here for a second and talk about our sono the day before. We did decide not to find out the gender so that we could be surprised along with everyone else the next day. It took a tiny bit of excitement away from that day but it was SO worth it and I would definitely do it again. We had a new sono tech this time and right away she said, "Oh you're going to make this difficult, baby." Baby Ivey was all curled up and not wanting to budge which made it hard for her to look at and measure all that she needed to. Even still she got it all except for the face straight on. So I go back in two weeks for that. But we saw the four chambers of the heart, and the belly, arms, etc. She finally said, "OK, I'm going to look for the gender now. Ryan continued looking at the screen even though I told him to stop! ha. Then she said, "I'm going to type it now." He looked away and I asked her, "So you think you got it?" She said, "Yeah!"


Karlyn was begging me that night to open the envelope but honestly I really wasn't that tempted. I figured we had waited for this for a few years now - what was 24 more hours?

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I took the day off to get the house ready and my sister (thank goodness!) came over to help. I worked from about 7:00 that morning until 7:30 that night when everyone arrived. It was a long day but the anticipation kept building and I couldn't wait! It was kind of crazy and I don't know if it's because I was going, going, going but that afternoon for like three hours or so I had pretty much a constant cramping feeling and sometimes it caught me off guard. Not really hurting per se but just ache-y, crampy. It worried me a little - although we had just had our sono the day before - but I figured it was just baby growing and things stretching and I remembered a day like that with Karlyn around this same time so I figured and hoped everything was well. <<You really don't stop worrying, I tell ya.>>

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Karoline and I had fun at Party City and it didn't take long at all for them to put it together. We had a little bit of a hard time fitting the balloons in my car but once we moved Karlyn's car seat over one, they fit. I was glad I had her though because it was windy too! 


We got home and finished making snacks and put the finishing touches on a few things. 


Everyone started to arrive so we stood around and chatted, ate, and speculated. =)

My sister-in-law Sam and I. Sam and Luke are expecting baby Harper in November!

Sam, Ashley, and I. Sisters-in-Law!

Party Food. We went with a PINK + BLUE theme if you couldn't tell!

Ryan was in charge of a game so he had everyone go around and guess boy OR girl and write down their reason why. Karlyn told him red meant girl and black meant boy. Clearly.


Then it was time for the BIG MOMENT! I made a mistake here and forgot that we needed the balloons to be high so that the confetti could fall down. Ryan was thinking he would bring the black balloon down to Karlyn's level so that she could pop it so...the pictures of the actual balloon pop didn't turn out quite like I'd envisioned. But we decided to throw the confetti up afterwards and got a couple good ones that way. Live and learn!



This picture (above) was right after the balloon pop and shows our true reactions.

Ryan: Ah, seriously?!

Me: Yay!!

Karlyn: WOOOOOOOOOOO  HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Confetti Toss

We're having a GIRL!



Karlyn asked the next day if we could keep the confetti out. That way when the baby came in December, she would know she's a girl. ;-) #toosweet


We are thrilled and so thankful for everyone that came to celebrate with us. What a fun, memorable evening! And thank you to Sharon for taking pictures for us!!



1 comment:

Amie said...

Aw I love that she wanted to keep the confetti so the baby knew she was a girl!!! Too cute :) Congrats!!