JACK’S GENDER REVEAL PARTY
Mallory’s youngest son Jack is turning one this Friday! In honor of his coming birthday, we thought it would be fun to revisit some of the fun celebrations we had leading up to his birth.
In early December 2018, Mallory’s sister-in-law Anna and I co-hosted a gender reveal brunch at Magnuson Café & Brewery for her and Chris. Have you visited the café in Magnuson Park yet? With terrific views of Lake Washington and a large outdoor deck, the brewery is an excellent option to sample beer in the sunshine on a warm afternoon. While Seattle weather in early December does not lend itself to an outdoor celebration, the café worked with us to set up a large indoor table which we decorated with beautiful pink and blue pastel floral arrangements and matching pink and blue pastel balloons.
Guests arrived at brunch to find a small gift-wrapped box at their place setting. Once everyone settled into their seats, we instructed guests to simultaneously unwrap their gifts. Each box contained an individual letter ornament from Pottery Barn that together spelled out “I-T-S-A-B-O-Y”.
True story. I originally ordered letter ornaments from West Elm complete with expedited shipping; however, when the ornaments arrived, the box was missing the letter “B”. An important letter in this case. Of course, when I called West Elm the letter “B” was sold out everywhere, which resulted in several frantic trips to all the nearby Pottery Barns to track down different ornaments and all the right letters. Moral of the story – make sure to check your packages immediately when they arrive (I unfortunately had waited a few too many days) to make sure they contain the right items!!
After the big reveal, we celebrated with Donut Factory special order donuts that spelled out “ITS A BOY”; had the café serve our guests a simplified riff on the Tiffany Mimosa (just champagne and blue curacao); and Sam, Emma and Joe took off their sweatshirts to reveal special t-shirts to commemorate the occasion.
I made the children’s t-shirts using fusible cotton sheets purchased at Joann’s Fabrics. It was so easy! You simply put the sheets in your printer and print your text or image (in this case big blue letters) from your computer. Then all you have to do is iron the image onto the t-shirt of your choice. Sam, Emma and Joe loved feeling like they were part of the surprise and that they had a special role in the celebration!
Speaking of Emma, after Mallory convinced her doctor’s office to reveal the results of her blood test to me over the phone, I was so proud of myself that I managed to keep Jack’s biological sex a secret. I didn’t even tell my mom!! But two days before brunch, I received a phone call from the Donut Factory while in my car confirming my specialty order. Not recognizing the incoming phone number, I accepted the call which then proceeded to play over the Bluetooth speakers in my car. Emma happened to be in the car with me, but she totally played it cool (at 5 years old!) and did not spill the beans to anyone. Only after the fact did she say – “Mom, I knew Mallory was having a boy because of the donuts!”
If you are already a parent, did you take part in a gender reveal party for your child? When I was pregnant with Sam and Emma, Ryan and I just had the ultrasound technician reveal the babies’ genders to us during our 16-week appointment. Finding out we were pregnant with twins at 8-weeks was enough of a surprise for both of us! But apparently the term “gender reveal”, a celebration during which parents, friends and family find out the sex of a baby, only appeared for the first time on the internet in 2008 when blogger Jenna Karvunidis posted about a party where her child’s sex was revealed. Since then, references to gender reveals and associated videos on YouTube have grown exponentially. This large fire in Arizona was even caused by a gender reveal party gone wrong. Luckily, donuts, mimosas, t-shirts and Christmas ornaments are far more my speed than explosives.
Visit the blog tomorrow to see the details of Jack’s Sprinkle!
