It's a...

Gender Reveal!

Dan and I were able to hold hands as we watched our baby reveal whether whether it was a boy or girl on Tuesday.  We kissed and oohed over the pictures and I cried when I saw the baby's fist move while filling that tiny flutter inside.   I didn't call my family because I wanted to preserve the surprise for later.

An hour later, though, our joy was stolen by a health scare about our baby's kidneys from our doctor that launched us into a panic, complete with stricken text messages for prayers, hysterics, and both of my parents driving to be with us for a meeting with a specialist the next day.  It's a long story for another day (one that I'll definitely share). In short, we found out 18 hours later that our doctor had been wrong about what she thought she saw.

  So much to be thankful for.

Since we didn't really celebrate the day we found out, I put together a silly, cliché, dyed icing in the middle of a cupcake reveal!

Before launching into it, a few thoughts on the oh-so-controversial idea of a gender reveal: 

* If you're not in the mood for baby stuff or have a hatred for pastries filled with pink or blue icing, feel free to skip this post.  

* I think it's cool when people wait to find out the sex!

* I didn't want to wait because none of this seems real yet.  Now that I can call the baby by name, it does!

* I know that I am really revealing the sex, not the gender (which is determined much later), but "sex reveal" sounds icky.

* Finding out had NOTHING to do with me wanting to buy uber, gender specific clothes, like a onesie with "Daddy's Princess" or a boy's cap that says "Little Slugger."  Or, worse, a pink dress emblazoned with, "Diva in Training." For an infant.  Hate that shit.

* If an acquaintance had ever invited me to a par-tay to find out the sex of their kid back when Dan and I were trying (and trying and trying), I would have probably thought #1 -Why the large get-together?  Is this a plea for gifts?  and  #2- I kinda want to punch them in the face.

* Consequently, I only did a gender reveal for my sister, mom, and dad because I knew they were equally excited to find out the news.  I didn't have Dan's mom come because he has a family member on his side who has gone through some baby heartbreak, and it didn't seem appropriate.

* I love a theme.  I think that will be apparent in a minute.  It's my secret shame that I have a penchant for themes and  cute, Pinteresty things, but might as well let my cheesy flag fly.

* This was a totally unnecessary but fun family dinner.  Glad I did it!

Sorry if this is coming off like a disclaimer.  Just wanted to share my reasoning for all of this, so it doesn't seem too self-indulgent.  Maybe it is a little, but the five of us there really enjoyed it.  :)

Without further ado, here is my family dinner with the theme of: 

What will Baby T "Bee"?

I changed out the ribbon and sign on our wreath:

Notice the honeycomb ribbon I found?

The table with yellow flowers and napkins:

The menu revolved around two things: 

honey (bee theme) and raspberries (since my sister calls our love dub "Razbaby").

Our living room got in on the theme:

I bought sunflowers and lemons, popped the ultrasound pictures in the frame, and made little photo props:

I couldn't resist picking up this beehive drink dispenser for the honey lemonade for $20.  Figure we can use it for future BBQ's:

Lastly, I set up a little dessert table:

I see these all over Pinterest constantly and thought it would be fun to try one if for no other reason than that I would have an excuse to buy stripey straws.  For some unfathomable reason, I love fun straws.  

I made the lemonade glasses by buying iced coffees with leftover Starbucks gift cards and scrubbing off the labels.  Cute, no?  I found the directions from here.

I ordered Queen Bee (honey flavored) cupcakes for the reveal from my favorite cupcake place and had them put colored icing in the center.

Way too many sweets for five people... The cake pops were free (bought with the leftover Starbucks gift cards from students.  I don't drink coffee, so I always have a ton of them).  I made the labels using Word and with some fancy paper I had for the kids to use at school:

I bought the tablecloth from Target back in January: 

My sis and I posing.  No, my yellow, striped shirt was no accident, but it was one I already owned.

 My family's guesses on the sex:

I held up both the mustache and the lips.  Jokes ensued about how if our baby is a girl, she would still have a mustache. Beth and I have had to wax since middle school.

 #italiangirlsarehairy

We celebrated Dan's birthday:

 They drank raspberry beer:

 My insanely generous parents and amazing sister surprised me with gifts bags: two pink and two blue, with instructions that I could only open one color later. :)  Corny, "what will baby bee?" pics followed:

Dinner seemed to work out well, especially the honey ham biscuits and raspberry/ blackberry salad recipes.  Of course, we kinda rushed a bit to get to dessert!

Moment of truth:

 We are so thankful for our son coming soon!

The rest of the night we just hung out and took more vaguely "creepy uncle" mustache photos:

Bethany updated the bottom of my chalkboard door: