Well as luck would have it my birthday fell a few weeks after we found out baby Mejia's gender, so we decided to plan a gender reveal themed birthday party. The suspense makes for a better turn out!
We're new where we're living. Only been here about 8 months, so the only old friends that made it came from far away and spent the whole weekend. Also more than half of our guests were native Spanish speakers, and the other ones knew little to no Spanish, so I was nervous people wouldn't really talk to each other, but in the end it went off without a hitch, and I started to feel at home in South Carolina. I thought I'd share what we did, since it was such a success, and gender reveal parties are kind of a new thing still, maybe others will want ideas.
The menu was simple. Lots of fruit out, a marshmallow creme/cream cheese fruit dip, and then make your own tostadas. So pulled chicken in the crock pot, refried beans, cheese, lettuce, salsa, guac, etc. We had a pink and a blue drink. I hate all fake blue products, and if someone could figure out something better, go for it. I did blue Hawaiian Punch with sprite, and raspberry ginger ale for the pink, but there's a million things that are naturally and deliciously pink, so plenty of options.
People mingled and chatted for the first hour or so. I wrote up random old wives tales on a white board and people started to guess team boy or team girl. I also had a list of foods I've craved. Just sort of as conversation starters. Then people did my "Bet on Baby" game. I mentioned in the invite that they shouldn't bring gifts, but that everyone bring a dollar for this game. So there were two gift bags, one pink, one blue, and guests decided if they were team boy or team girl, wrote their initials on the dollar, put it in the bag of choice, and then took a pink or blue sticker to show what team they were on. Rules and explanation were on a white board so people didn't have to find me and ask questions. After the reveal, the winning bag would be drawn from and one person would keep the money, while we kept it all from the losing bag, for baby expense. In our case it was extremely lopsided and we ended up with most of the money. mwahaha.
Then once people were settled in I had them take a true false quiz for fun. It had 15 statements about my birth, Roberto's birth, the pregnancy, etc. For example, Roberto weighed 4.5 kgs (9 lbs 14 oz) when he was born. (TRUE! Please baby, don't take after your dad in that regard!!!) Emily's only food aversion has been pork. (FALSE, definitely chicken!) Anyway, we went over the answers together, and then saw who got 15/15 (no-one) and went down. When I got to 12/15, 3 had that score. 2 were team girl, and 1 was team boy, and I gave their team points.
Awhile later I had team girl in one room, team boy in the other (with a double wide doorway so they could see each other, so the space worked out well.) and we had a baby themed sing-off. I don't know what the actual name of this game is, but you're given a word, and have to think of a song with that word in the lyrics and sing that line. One team starts and it goes back and forth until a team is stumped. I had made index cards with baby words. We ended up just playing four rounds and it took an hour. With a word like "baby" you can go for awhile! We did baby, cry, doctor, and born. We allowed the Spanish words, so everyone could contribute. It was a LOT of fun, and I didn't have a particularly musical crowd. They don't have to be great singers, just sing enough of the song so it's recognizable. I say mom or dad is judge since you can't pick teams without giving it away. In our case I judged and kept score, and my husband played with the team with less people.
The cake was fun. We didn't cut it open til the end since that was how we did the reveal. The invite told guests when the cake would be cut so everyone would be there for the big event. Other than that open house can work. I made two round cakes from cake mix, evened out the bottom one and made my first layer cake, which really wasn't bad. I dyed the cake batter blue, and frosted it white. The cool part was I made a little nest with pretzels and Cadbury mini eggs, and made up a little rhyme that worked in our case: Bebita o Bebe'? Who's hatching in May?
Since it was about 30 to 8 in favor of girl most people were surprised! We drew the winner from the gift bag for team boy. It took a little convincing for him to accept it, but I really wanted it to be a GAME and not just donate to the new parents! Some incentive to play and get it right!
Anyway, it was a great time. I recommend asking the guests you feel comfortable with to bring a little something- tostadas, 1/2 gallon ice cream, etc. to cut costs, and don't make it a baby shower. It's not about gifts (though some will bring stuff because baby stuff is too cute to resist!). We had about 35 people- men women, little kids and teens, and it worked well. Also I think some structured activities and a team competition helped build camaraderie in a group where plenty of them didn't know too many others.
It's a boy! So excited!
