Gender Reveal Party

So, we debated over the many ways we could surprise our boys when we found out if they were getting a brother or sister. They had enjoyed my previous ultrasounds so we thought we could just bring them but I knew the appointment would get too long for their attention spans so we debated on some other ideas. At some point Charlie and I watched a video of someone cutting open a gender reveal cake. Charlie LOVED this idea. I told him we couldn't do it until we found out if we were having a boy or girl. HE looked at me in total seriousness and Said "MOM, that's how we find out if it's a boy or girl, we need a cake!" I thought that would be fun but my cake skills are super lame and Marissa said she would totally do it if we found out the gender before they moved to Nashville. Which didn't happen. So we opted for the tried and true balloon in a box method because what little kid doesn't love opening a giant package? We decided to make it a family night and do it at our favorite Park. And then we had lots of people asking about if we knew the gender yet so I just started inviting them to the park and made a whole party out of it with friends and family. And that's the story of our somewhat unintentional but incredibly fun Gender reveal party. And here a random assortment of photos from the event.

So earlier in the day, my mom had come down to watch the boys while Max and I went to the ultrasound appointment. I was super anxious. Max was sure it was a girl, and he has a talent for guessing anyone's baby. A perfect track record really. I tried to be ready for any possibility, I really was going to be happy with a boy or girl, but I found myself already thinking it was a girl. At the ultrasound. the tech started at the brain and moved down so we didn't have much glimpse of the gender until later in the appointment. In this time, i was becoming more convinced it was a girl. And then the big surprise....in case you hadn't heard yet....  

 

 IT'S A BOY!! I was somewhat surprised when the doctor sad, yup, those are definitely some testes right there! I was happy but a little shocked! haha! The boys were excited, Charlie had said he wanted a brother and Miles said he wanted a sister. I think Charlie just wanted blue balloons because that is his current favorite color, and Miles just wanted to choose something different than Charlie. But either way, they are happy since they got balloons.

 In their massive balloon package, they also got some blue silly string. I wish we got more for all the kids but I wasn't thinking that far ahead and we just had 2 for our boys. They loved it even though Miles couldn't push the button on his own.

 We enjoyed cupcakes with all our friends, (there really were a lot of people there, but I wasn't doing so great at taking pictures) we had both my parents, Elizabeth and her kids, my cousin Stephanie, Todd, and their kids, Joe and Lindsay and their girls, The Heap family, the Taylor family. and Richard and Marissa were present over FaceTime.

 

And, surprise, I was able to upload the video, enjoy it with our annoying voices and comments and all.  

And there you have it, I'm surrounded by a house full of boys and I'm pretty sure I love it. I've really been enjoying the ages of my boys and how they can enjoy the same activities together and it will be fun to add another boy to the mix. Hooray for the Baertlein boys and for me being even more outnumbered!