Gender Reveal Party

I meant to post photos from our Gender Reveal party months and months ago, and I just remembered! 

 We had planned to do the party at a really pretty park in town, but the weather just didn't cooperate with us, so we set it up downstairs in our church dining room. 

 So here are all the lovely pictures from our party that day! ... Beware- LOTS of photos! : )

First, here are the invitations that I created on Picmonkey.com. I found my inspiration while browsing through Pinterest. I was able to find clip art on Google to save and insert to Picmonkey.

 {obviously we weren't able to do the party at the park.. bummer}

I planned and prepared pretty much everything for the party myself. Of course I got many of my ideas from Pinterest! Like the banner over the food table. That idea came from this banner, which is originally found on Etsy. I didn't have any burlap material, but I had some tan-ish fabric. I hand painted each of the letters and hearts, then hot glued the triangles to a ling of twine. I LOVE how it turned out!

I really enjoy when I'm able to put together a special party and I have SO. MUCH. FUN with all the little details! I'm totally a "detail" person when it comes to planning these kinds of things!

For the drinks I just bought a big container of powered lemonade and added Koolaid packets to make the colors blue and pink. Blue raspberry Koolaid and Cherry Koolaid. The blue needed a little help, so we added some blue food coloring. I made labels for the drink dispensers with kraft paper and twine.

To raise the drink dispensers, I brought my two largest pots from home and turned them upside down to make little stands and covered them with fabric. I had the pink and blue fabric already in my fabric stash, so that worked out perfect!

The little heart banner is made from kraft paper and my super cool paper heart punch!

I kept the food and treats pretty simple so I wouldn't be overwhelming myself with all the prepping.

Pink Bow and Blue Mustache sugar cookies! 

I bought the mustache cookie cutter from Etsy and the bow cookie cutter came from Ebay. 

I made the sugar cookies a couple weeks before the party and just froze them until the day before the party so I could frost them. Normally I use royal icing, but I decided to try a butter cream frosting this time and I am SO glad I did! It was SO much better than royal icing could EVER be! I will never make sugar cookies with royal icing again, they were soooo delicious! I just colored the butter cream frosting with food coloring.

Aren't they just ADORABLE?! 

Rice Krispie treats dipped in pink and blue colored chocolate

Mini pretzels dipped in blue and pink chocolate 

CUPCAKES!!! 

Okay, these were not anything special. I wanted to use cupcakes as our way to reveal the gender. I didn't make them, but I supplied everything to this local teenage girl I found through our online classifieds in town. I paid her to make our cupcakes and insert the color (pink or blue) into the middle of the cupcakes and then frost them. I have this little cupcake corer thing I got from Ebay that worked perfect. When I went to pick the cupcakes up from her she had turned my white top frosting green and yellow!!! AAHH! So being the picky person I am, I went home and as carefully as I could, I scraped off the yellow and green and refrosted most of the cupcakes. I just did enough to look good on the table, and brought the rest of the yellow and green ones in case we ran out. 

I made my own cupcakes toppers using my heart punch, craft paint, and toothpicks. 

I got the idea to dye the edges of the cupcake liners from this post. 

Pretty blue and pink striped paper straws from Etsy.

I love Mason jars, so of course I decorated some with twine to hold the straws. 

Baby's ultrasound photo framed was a nice decoration for the table! And of course I love adding some cuteness with Scrabble tiles : ) 

 

Everybody got to wear a felt pin to show their vote. Pink bows and black mustaches. I got my inspiration to make them from here! 

The chalkboard is just some cardboard painted with chalkboard paint. And I found the little boy and girl clip art from searching Google. I fell in love with the framed little boy and girl clip art idea after seeing this gender reveal party.

We gave an "Old Wive's Tale" quiz before finding out the gender. You can find the printable quiz here.

After we gave the quiz and the answers, I went through the list and told which ones applied to me.. just for fun in case that changed anyone's vote!

We also took some team pictures with signs I made before finding out the gender.

I had been thinking "boy" for quite a while ..

Hubby had been thinking "girl" ..

But I was right!! : ) 

B. O. Y !

Such a fun party! Loved it!

Check out my "Gender Reveal Ideas" board on Pinterest for more fun ideas! 

Also, come check me out on my other blog, Bumping into Style, where I share my maternity outfit endeavors (or "attempts" .. ) and little tid bits of my pregnancy progress! I am currently in week 34! 

My New Style Blog!

My new little baby bump has inspired me to start having some fun and creativity in getting dressed! So I started a new blog for fun and motivation to keep me dressing my best during pregnancy! 

Come check it out! 

www.bumpingintostyle.blogspot.ca

First Comes Love, then Comes Marriage, then Comes...

B . A . B . Y ! ! ! 

YEP! YEP! YEP! 

Our little family is growing!

I am now in my 13th week, but last week's photo is the latest one I've taken. 

I had my first prenatal appointment and we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat! That was quite a moment! Hubby and I were so happy, we couldn't stop smiling! What an amazing thing, to be able to hear proof of a little LIFE growing inside of you. So emotional!

Sunday, Mother's Day, we announced the news to our church. What a perfect day, right? We didn't plan it that way either. We just wanted to wait until after our first doctor appointment to tell people (other than close family, who already knew) and that just happened to be the next Sunday. Our pastor had all the mom's stand during church, to give them a little something special. He said to me, "Since we believe that life begins at conception, you stand up too, Jessica."  : ) 

Finally I am starting to feel more myself after having constant morning sickness for 6 weeks. I've lost weight due to not being able to eat much at all and not being able to keep foods down. All I could do was lay around on the couch or in bed all day long. Poor Hubby was preparing his own lunches during his half hour breaks and dinners as well. The sight, smell, and thoughts of food would send my stomach whirling! Of course Hubby was perfect about it all. He was doing all the dishes and taking care of everything for me. Constantly running to the grocery store whenever I had a thought of something I might be able to eat and keep down. There was one really bad week where I couldn't get out of bed at all. Water wasn't even staying down! I was feeling pretty dehydrated and got a little nervous. But after that week it eased a tiny bit. I learned that bananas were the ONLY thing that would calm my stomach. So after I figured that out, I never went anywhere without a banana and always kept one on my nightstand for late night nausea and a bite to start the morning. Not saltines, like most everyone suggests. Those would totally gross me out and make me throw up. I haven't eaten a saltine cracker since week 5. Yuck! Morning sickness has eased up a lot now, but there are still occasional nausea spells. Right now I'm finding evenings are not so lovely, or when I got without eating something for too long I get sick. My appetite is still not completely back, and eating is still mostly a chore. I try what I can, or what doesn't completely make me want to puke at the thought.

Ew.. at the moment I'm feeling my first bout of heartburn I think.. ouch..

My craft room is now under construction! .. Saying goodbye to my little craft room, which was usually messy and unorganized! But I'm going through everything in there and organizing or throwing out things. Wow, what a chore this is! I rearranged our master bedroom walk-in closet and made room to store all my crafting supplies. I'll save all those details for another post when I'm done with that department! But I'm eager and excited to clear the room out and begin making a baby room! I've pinned LOTS of ideas on my Pinterest "Oh Baby!" board and hoping to be able to work some of those fun ideas into the room!

Well, so there's our happy news!

"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Wonderful are your woks; my soul knows it very well. 

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." 

Psalm 139:13-16