A Pink and Blue Party

Thank heavens I stumbled across the idea to do a "Gender Reveal Party" mere weeks before baby's gender revealing ultrasound.

Here's how it works: Ultrasound tech doesn't tell you the gender but rather writes it on a card and seals the envelope. Sealed envelope is given to a noble cake-maker trustworthy enough to conceal a tiny secret for a few hours. Cake-maker ices the middle of the cake with pink or blue frosting, frosts the outside in a neutral color and then removes all evidence. Cake is brought to pregnant girl's house and a party is to be had!

Our cake-maker with the results:

As soon as she teased about opening the envelope in front of me, I got outta there and got my mind on other things -- the over-the-top decorations for the party! So what if I was super anxious all week waiting for the news which caused me to use my nervous energy to get a little elaborate with my party? I think you'll agree my nervous planning was worth it.

I mean, it just would be a gender reveal party without lollipop lips!

And staches for team blue.

I started setting up on Sunday and I kept asking Jeff if it looked cute. By Sunday night every time Eli passed the table he would point and say, "Cu!...Cu!..." I enjoyed the reassurance from my one-year old that my cuteness efforts were appreciated.

Pink and blue balloons? You betcha!

And what do ya know? Before long we had some guests arrive. Here's the Cox crew with pink shirts casting their girl votes.

Bryan and Celeste. Two more girl votes.

Brooke with her special decoration she made for me. Plus a pink shirt.

Golden Fam provided our first blue votes. Dallas wore tan to predict our baby will be a human. I hope he's right.

Jeff was team pink. I wanted to be, but my gut made me put on a blue shirt.

The cake-maker and her sidekick with the big brother. My mom made sure to clarify she had the pink shirt on before she saw what the gender is. One pink. One blue.

My sister-in-law Laura makes chicken salad to die for. It was tasting so good as I was chowing down I didn't even notice chunks of chicken were flying everywhere. I had a chicken piece sitting on my shirt for a good 5 minutes before Laura so kindly informed me I was spewing food. In the wake of all that, my camera got some of the dressing on the lens. I am so sad Melissa and Kyle are blurry! But they still look cute. One pink and one blue.

Here's the beauty that taunted me all through dinner:

Papa John's pizza buffet. Yes please. And, by the way, I'm eating for two.

Here's the reason I couldn't help but wear a blue shirt...the Excells are notorious for their boys! Seven grandsons and one granddaughter on Jeff's side.

At 7:00 we gathered round the kitchen table for a reenactment of our wedding day as we sliced another cake together.

Okay. So I just watched Jeff slice it while I squeeled and squirmed.

After seeing the results, I pretended I was going to mash all that BLUE frosting in his face -- wedding day style.

Always trust a mother's intuition.

My fears of being in Cub Scouts for the rest of my life were confirmed. Which was a hard pill to swallow. But nonetheless, we're excited for our future scout to arrive.

This was Eli all night -- picking up scraps from the floor, stealing other peoples' cakes and smacking babies in the head with toy baseball bats. He's going to be such a good brother.

My theory holds strong that the Excells cannot produce girls. Oh well. The world could use a few more mustaches.

We can't wait to meet you #2! And I hope you like dinosaurs.