it's a .... GIRL!!

While home for Benny's birthday, we also had a little gender reveal party for my sis and brother-in-law.  I got the very special honor of not only being in on the ultrasound to see baby Burt, but being the first to hear if this babe was going to be wearing pink or blue upon arrival.  We're talking, the ultrasound tech told me and only me, and the plan was for me to deliver the news to my sis, her family, my parents and a few of our friends that night. That is a lot of pressure, people. Not that I had any say in determining the results but the delivery of such results made me a little nutty. Of course I had no doubt that my sis and bro-in-law would be amazing and loving parents to another boy, it was hard not to be on team pink this time-- and I was definitely not the only one!  Once I knew, keeping the results in- especially from my nervous mom and pestering hubs- was a little overwhelming.  And then I got over it an enjoyed the power I held. ;)

So anyways, we made a fun night of it and ended with the results.

Of course there was food!  This was how we distracted the husbands from realizing they were at a gender reveal party. 

Bow or stache? Make your guess!

I wanted to do something other than the typical cake or cupcake reveal, but then I remembered I'm not very creative. Thankully, my good friend Beth is and she gave me some ideas!  At first I thought it'd be really fun to wrap up balloons in a big box and let them open it outside to reveal either pink or blue balloons. But it was a February night, so it was cold and dark. Boo. The piñata with blue or pink candy was a cute idea, but how do we let our 11 kids go to town on a piñata inside my parents' house without damage to the house or kids?  I ended up merging some ideas and filled clear-ish balloons with pink and blue confetti & candy. I strung them around the house for decoration, and then when it came time for the reveal I told each kid to take a balloon.  They could pop it and have whatever was inside, but they also had to find a little white slip of paper that had been stuck in each balloon. Ten of them said: It's a ....

But one of them (perfectly, it ended up being the last slip found) said: 

Yay!!!  Lots of celebrating and happy tears!!  So baby Isabella is officially on her way, and we can't wait to meet her come July!!  Who would have thought, after four boy cousins in a row, we are catching up with the girls.