My favorite gender reveal party ideas!

Hi friends!! It’s been a while since I wrote my last blog. I am taking online classes, and with an exploring one-year old and housework, my down time is rare. However, I had to make time to write this post because it’s about one of my favorite things! For those of you who don’t know, I am expecting baby number two in April 2017. I’m super excited (and nervous) for my daughter to gain a sibling and for my expanding family. Today, Nov. 4, was my anatomy scan, and tonight I will find out the gender of my baby. I have planned an intimate gender reveal party for our immediate families and the anticipation is killing me! Nobody will know the gender until the party—including me and my husband.

I absolutely love gender reveal parties. I find it so exciting to watch a couple realize whether they are expecting a boy or a girl. The suspense gets me every time—even if it’s a party for a couple I don’t know. My heart races just before the big reveal and I look forward to assuming bragging rights if I correctly guessed the gender. I have spent endless hours watching clips from the Instagram account @genderrevealvideos and enjoying the reactions of parents when they discover the pink or blue. So, I decided to write a blog post about my favorite gender reveal ideas in hopes that you might like them and use them for your own parties.

Some of my favorite ways to reveal a baby’s gender can get pretty messy and are probably best to be performed outdoors. So here are some cool ideas to do outside:

Silly string:

 If the weather wasn’t so cold, I think this would be the route I would have went to reveal the gender of baby no. 2. Basically you would have to plan ahead for this one, and confide in someone you really trust if you don’t want to know yourself. If you had your ultrasound scan done ahead of time, you can give the results to a friend or family member and have them go out and buy a bunch of silly string cans in the color that will easily indicate your baby’s gender (usually this is pink or blue). Have your “confidant” cover up all of the cans with some sort of wrapping paper that hides what color the silly string is and make sure you have enough for all of your guests. When you are ready for the big reveal, you and your significant other can stand next to each other and on the count of three:

Photo retrieved from: pinterest

Baseball/football/hockey/golf:

For all you sporting fans out there, this is a pretty creative idea to allow others to find out the gender of your baby. For this idea, again, you would have to trust in a confidant to purchase the correct color exploding ball.  Or, you can buy both colors and just give the results to your person and have him or her select the corresponding color. Here’s some that you can find on Etsy: exploding baseball. The way these work is one of you could pitch the ball and the other would bat, one of you would kick a football, slap the hockey puck or swing and hit the golf ball, depending on whatever sport you choose. If all works out well, the ball will explode in a bright pink or blue, letting everyone know whether it’s a boy or a girl!

Photo retrieved from: Pinterest

Smoke bombs:

My cousin did this for her gender reveal party, and I thought it was so cool. She is expecting twins, and so she had ordered a set of four smoke bombs online –two pink and two blue. Her sister went with her to her 20 week ultrasound and was given the gender results in private. When it was party time and all the guests had arrived, someone lit the first smoke bomb for ‘baby A’ and shortly after the second for ‘baby B’. Here’s a link to purchase these smoke bombs: Colored smoke

If the time you discover your baby’s gender falls in the colder months and you would prefer something that wasn’t so messy for an indoor party, here are some more of my cleaner suggestions:

Jack in the box:

So I saw this recently and thought it would be so fun. The only problem is it’s hard to find a gender reveal jack in the box, so some creativity is needed for this project. You can find a regular jack in the box online, but it would be up to you to figure out how to customize it in such a way that would reveal the gender of your baby. If you can find one big enough to put some small flowing balloons in there, that would also be ideal. But, the whole concept is having to wait until the jack pops out of the box using the musical lever to discover the blue or pink while everyone waits in anticipation. Here’s a Youtube link that I found that involved a jack in the box: Jack in the box gender reveal video

Cake surprise:

The cake surprise is a common one, but it is still fun and fail proof. When I had my first gender reveal, I tried to keep in mind something that was going to be easy to unveil. I initially wanted to open a large box of blue or pink balloons, but after seeing countless videos of balloons that didn’t fly out and couples who struggled opening the box, I opted out. Though I didn't do the cake surprise, I would recommend it. The cake is easy, clean and just as suspenseful as all the others ideas.

Photo retrieved from: Pinterest

Cupcakes (or any other dessert):

This is the gender reveal idea that I’m going to do for baby number 2. I have prepared an order of 20 cupcakes (one for each guest), and only of the cupcakes will be filled with the color of my baby’s gender. I will not know the gender, but I have a friend who will know the results and has offered to call in my order. The plan is to have our families bite into the cupcake at one time to discover who has the lucky cupcake! You can do this also with cake pops or anything that you can come up with creatively to surprise your guests.

Photo retrieved from: Pinterest

It’s also fun to get decorative with pink and blue balloons, flowers, and dessert spread. I also like to keep track of everyone’s guesses prior to the big reveal, so that I can have them for memory. What are some of your gender reveal idea favorites? Did you have a gender reveal party? If so, what did you do? Let me know in the comment section, and don’t forget to subscribe! :)