If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you know that we threw a little gender reveal party! Essentially, the party was to create excitement for our toddler, AJ, as he gets closer and closer to being a big brother.
Jake and I wanted to find out about the baby’s gender in the ultrasound room as a couple. There’s something special about finding out as you’re looking right at your baby – and we wanted to have that special moment.
But we also wanted to make sure that Big Bro AJ was the first to know outside of us and our OB. (We are working so diligently to try and include him as much as possible, particularly since his adjustment from being an only child to a sibling is coupled with the fact that he has a visitation schedule and a two-home situation that his sibling will not have. We are learning that blended families like ours need extra care in some ways!)
Luckily for us, our ultrasound and anatomy scan was scheduled for a Tuesday morning – and we always get Little Man on Tuesday afternoons, so it was perfectly timed!
When the ultrasound technician told us, “it’s a boy,” that morning, I laughed and Jake said “oh my gosh, really?!”
When we first found out we were expectant, I assumed it was another boy – I have for years assumed and felt that I would be an all-boy momma. But the more that I started to show and dealt with symptoms, the more I wondered if I was wrong – this pregnancy has been so different. That, and several of our family members who have had girls said “it’s for sure a girl.” Jake himself thought it might be a girl, too. So we went in assuming pink and frills.
But my initial reaction was right – I’m a boy momma! We are so thrilled and haven’t stopped giggling and grinning about it since. And, honestly, we’ve been thanking God a lot for the financial blessing, because we have some of AJ’s baby clothes and items that will work perfectly for this baby.
To share with our older son, we wanted to create a lot of excitement. We decided that we WOULD do a gender reveal – but we’d center it around AJ and surprising him.
For months, when someone asks if he wants a boy or girl, he’s been saying “we don’t pick, God picks.” My momma heart could just melt at how precious he is. But deep down, he’s admitted that he wants a brother – but that he’d be excited if it was a girl too.
So we went affordable and DIY with our gender reveal. I bought almost everything from Dollar Tree – wooden animals, paint, a frame, a cake topper, cupcake mix and icing, clothes pins, and dessert plates and napkins. I did buy some pink and blue question mark cupcake toppers from Hobby Lobby, and I bought a wooden stand and plaque from Dollar General, too.
Before the big day, while Little Man was on visitation with his father, I painted the wooden accents: some animals and a frame. I used cheap Dollar Tree brushes to paint the wooden animals pink and blue, and then I used q-tips to make polka dots of the opposite color on each animal.
On the frame, I dry-brush painted it gray and used the q-tips to make both pink and blue dots. I printed a copy of an ultrasound photo and put it in the photo opening.
I also painted a wooden plaque half pink and half blue. When it dried, I wrote in sharpie, “Pink or blue, either way we love you!” Then I got glued the plaque to the slatted wooden stand.
I also painted clothespins blue and pink and used a chalkboard sign I already had to instruct our guests to “wear their guess.” I stuck a pink and a blue cupcake topper to the sign for extra decor.
All of this decor cost me around $20 – and a lot of it can be reused. We can reuse it if a friend or family member has a small reveal, or we can repaint and repurpose! My sister has graciously offered to throw us a shower in the early fall – for things I didn’t get to keep when AJ was littler due to the divorce, for things we need to restock on, or for things that we hadn’t needed last time – and since the nursery theme is safari animals, she’s wanting to do the same theme for the shower. We can repaint these wooden animals to match the shower if she wants!
Dollar Tree also had Pillsbury cupcake mix and icing – and they even had pink and blue icing! (I grabbed these items before we knew, so I still have a tub of unused pink icing in the pantry!)
I made the cupcakes as soon as we got home from the doctor’s so they could be ready for that evening.
I baked the cupcakes according to instruction. Once they cooled, I used a spoon to scoop out the middle of each cupcake. Then, using a plastic bag with the tip trimmed off, I dropped a small dollop of blue icing in the center. I then used a bag of white vanilla icing to completely cover the cupcakes and blue icing.
Here’s a peek at our whole setup for the gender reveal party! We decorated just the island in the kitchen since it was just a dessert reveal in the evening.
We invited my parents, Jake’s parents, and our sisters (and my bro-in-law). Jake’s sister had a work exposure to COVID so we had to send her a video of the reveal – but we are so grateful that she was cautious with us having a toddler who had just overcome RSV and a baby in utero.
We had everyone gather around and let AJ take the first bite of cupcake!
He is so excited to welcome his little brother in November! Theodore Jacob Miller – AKA “Teddy” – is already so loved!
Kate with a Twang 