Gender Reveal Party

There has been so many fun things happen lately, and I hate that I haven't blogged about them. Life has a way of just happening, I guess! I never realized how busy the end of school is---I swear it's just as bad, if not worse, than the beginning of the school year.  And we only have three in school so far--I just can't imagine what it'll be like in a few years with all six in school!

We've had so much fun already this summer, but one of the coolest things ever happened last Sunday. My friend, Caroline, surprised my family, friends and me with a gender reveal. We had a Dick and Jane theme (I wanted to be original--such a snob). I thought that other than being origianl (yes, I searched the web and saw nothing of the sort), it fit two Enlsigh teachers to have a literary theme--and so we did. I also happen to kind of love vintage stuff--so really it was a perfect!

Caroline did such an amazing job putting the party together. She did all things "decor" and "style." I love how creative she is---I plan to be her someday when I grow up :)  She made the invitations, set up the cute decor, and planned the big reveal. The manner in which she revealed our baby's gender was a surprise to everybody up until that moment!

Let me walk you through one of the coolest days of my life!

                                                   Welcome to our Gender Reveal Party!

                                 Here's our family of seven waiting to hear about our eighth member!

 Caroline and her husband built and painted this lemonade stand. I love it and want one exactly like it--remember I want to be her someday! Copy-catting really is the biggest form of flattery! We had cherry and regualr lemonade on our stand here.

 This table full of goodies was to the right of the drink stand. We served Ceasar salad, brushetta salad with garlic toasts, chips with guacamole, white queso and salsa, crackers with blueberry or blackberry jalapeno jelly poured over cream cheese, fresh fruit, sausage balls, and cocktail shrimp! Some of these things have been my cravings--the salds mostly!

Caroline had such cute vintage items to add to the table. My mom also let us borrow some toys from her childhood--this red trunk included (it held a stash of little doll clothes, originally)!

 I didn't get a close-up of this table, but it was adorable. Caroline made little tags attached to clothes pins for people to pin to their shirt--these read "Dick" or "Jane," and the guest chose one based on their own prediction for our baby's gender. This table also had little cards where each guest could write their name, whether they thought it was a boy or girl, and any name suggestions they had. I've kept these suggestions for the baby book!

After filling out their cards and picking their clothespin, the guests could sit down at the tables and play with all the vintage toys (of course, this worked because we had lots of littles there)!

 I tried to get around the room and visit with all my friends and family. I was so thrilled that they all came and were nearly as excited to find out about our baby as we were!

 Miss Caroline--the hostsess-- and me! She is so sweet and giving. I don't know how she comes up with all the cool ideas she does, but I do know she's had lots of practice throwing parties. This girl is in her element whilst party-throwing! I really don't know how she does it--I mean, she has four kids all five and under, blogs nearly everyday, serves in some ministries, and is a great friend! So blessed to call her friend!

Here's my first family of all girls-- my mom, sis and me. I was so happy my sister could make it to the party, but I wish my SIL and her family could've been there. It's been too long, Nancy!!!

Prior to the party, I wrote on a few chalkboards. One said what the Chinese calendar, the Mayan calendar, and the ring test predicted our baby's gender would be. In order it was girl, girl, boy! This chalkboard just lists some old wives' tales about predicting gender. There was only one true "girl" answer--one of the answers was both. But at one point during party planning, Caroline did assure me that the baby was just one gender!  

 Kids played outside for quite some time at the park next to the shelter house...

 ...while the adults ate and mingled.

Here is Peach and one of her besties! It appears they both thought "girl" and "boy."

I'm not a huge cake fan--but I'm a huge frosted cookie fan. And a week before the party I found the coolest place for such a treat. I wasn't even looking, but this cookie place happened to be next door to a pizza restaurant the girls and I ate at after a doctor's appointment. A few days later it dawned on me that I should order dessert for the party from there. I didn't go wrong--these were delish!

This is my mom's little red table from her younger days. Caroline had this cute little wagon that we stuffed with some trailmix for the kids. We also had paper plates (instead of the glass one we used for adults) and little after-dinner mints!

Once everybody was done eating, we all headed outside. The whole group broke into teams based upon which gender they thought Baby Copeland was. Look how huge the "boy" group was. I was a little surprised. I figured most people would think we were having a girl based upon our recored. That surely wasn't the case!

 Look how little this group was! Matt and I didn't announce what we thought our baby was until right before this picture. I wanted everybody to make up their own mind and not base their guess off of mine or Matt's.  I know some people think moms have intuition about their baby's gender--but I usually don't! My first inclination with this child was "boy" because my first trimeseter was so much easier than all five previous babies.  But as you can see in this picture, both Matt and I thought our little one was a girl! A total of 16 thougth this baby was a girl, whereas 26 people thougth "boy." I even made some snide remarks about how I was so sure this was a baby girl in my belly to my friend, Heidi, standing next to me in this picture. We had a good laugh--we were totally sure!

 After the pictures, we headed inside and Caroline handed Peach (who just learned to read this year) a book she made. Peach read the book aloud to the whoele group! It was written as the old "Dick and Jane" books were written with words like "Look. Look and see. Look and see what baby will be."

It was a little hard to hear her sweet little voice, but after she'd been reading for a minute I thought I heard her say "It will be a BOY!" See my face in the picture above--it's one of confusion and shock.

And this is me laugh/crying. I did hear "boy," and I was completely taken away. I had totally prepped myself for girl because I honestly didn't think we made boys. I had gotten used to the idea of having a house full of girls. I was ready for the challenge of six kids--and all were going to be girls. But when I found out it is a boy, I had a huge reaction. I had no idea I would react this way.

I just couldn't believe it. I told Matt later than evening that I had no idea I would cry, and I had no idea where the tears came from. I would be just as happy if I was having a girl. So I think the tears really did come from the pure schock I was in. Of course, my husband was as calm and cool as ever. It takes a lot to get a big reaction from him, but he was very happy too. He just doesn't break down cry/laughing when he hears news like this. That role is apparently left for me :)

 My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think this is where Caroline is reading it again to make me really believe what I heared was correct. And by the way, the illustrations and words went together so well. I'll have to show a page by page of this book becaus it was seriously perfect! And I loved that Peach got to announce it to the whole group! How special for her--for all of us!

                                                                        Yep, still in shock!

It's a BOY!!!!

Thank you Caroline, for throwing such a fun party. I had an absolute blast. I seriously would do this again in a heartbeat--so worth waiting the four weeks between our sono and the party. And thank you to friends and family who showed as much enthusiasm as I was feeling!