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| Just a cool cake pic I found on Google (Not trying to steal anyone's pic!) :) |
What Will it Bee??
As you may or may not have read in my last post, our anatomy scan was at 18 weeks, on Friday 2/26/16. We had planned a small gender reveal family party for the following day and then I told everyone at school I would reveal to my class (and anyone else interested) on Monday. After that I would post on social media and eventually here.
2/27- Family Party
Saturday was SOOOO much fun for us!! In the weeks prior, we were buying all kinds of fun deco and candy in the pink/blue theme. We wanted to keep it fairly inexpensive and not get out of hand but that's sometimes easier said than done. We ended up with way too much food but it wasn't that much in the end because we found a lot of supplies and things at Dollar Tree luckily! ;) My vision was to have sweet treats/desserts on the table that were all pink & blue and then to have a few other appetizers on the counter. Everything was finger food to make it fun and easy too.
The main focus for the gender reveal itself is that we knew we were using cupcakes with a colored frosting center. We had already contacted a local cupcake shop about doing them for us and all we had to do was call them after the Dr. appt with the news of pink or blue (We used Moxie Cup in New Paltz, NY... they're my absolute fav!! Coming from someone who doesn't really typically like frosting/cake/cupcakes that means a lot!). Since the cupcakes were the main focal point, we went with candies and finger food sweets and candy that were all pink/blue around it so I decorated the table with just that stuff to start. I designated one side pink and one side blue, with all the pink & blue things around the middle or sides. We had tons of stuff- m&ms, Peeps, chocolate candies, conversation hearts, Sweet Tarts, Jell-o, cotton candy, Oreos and cake balls dipped in colored chocolate, and of course the cupcakes in the center. The cupcakes were vanilla with pink & blue sprinkles on top.
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| Groupon had an m&m deal! Scott picked baby feet & Bees (of course!) :) |
We also got balloons at Dollar Tree (side note- I will never spend more than $1 on heloum balloons unless they're special or they don't have what I need. But for all-purpose occasions, it's crazy to spend $3-4 on one when they're $1. Nuts!). We got 5 pink and 5 blue and put them in different parts of the house. I had bee nametags left over from school name tags years ago and found large rattle wall decorations at the party store. Dollar store streamers worked great too and the boy/girl? theme deco was from Amazon (although I think WalMart has it too). I love decorating for all occasions and it was so much fun setting up for this too. We also had a voting sheet where our guests could guess if they thought Baby Bee was a boy or a girl (it actually ended up 50/50 which was funny because everywhere else girl votes were kind of dominating).
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| Thank you, Pinterest ;) |
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| The banner on the mantle says "What will it bee?" <3 |
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| Sign I added to the front door :) |
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| Proud Daddy before the party started :) |
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| Daddy & Mommy-to-Bee <3 |
We had debated the specifics of HOW to reveal with the cupcakes. If we didn't know ourselves, we probably would have bitten into them first. But since we knew and we hate lots of attention on us, we wanted to do it differently. With the help of some genius minds, we decided to have the kids of 2 of our best friends dig in. Alli's daughter is almost 4 and Manny's youngest is 6, so we thought they'd be perfect. We put a little end table in the middle of the kitchen and let them dig in while everyone watched. When everyone saw/heard the news of the blue frosting in the middle, some shouted "IT'S A BOY!!!" :) Team Blue wins!! Now cupcakes were fair game and I felt so much pressure off of me that I could finally say "he" and "him"! ha! :)
For those already wondering, we do have a name picked out but we are NOT sharing it until he's born. Baby Bee shall be called just that in the meantime :) We wanted to keep one more thing a surprise and also have heard lots of stories/suggestions from others to keep the name quiet to avoid rude opinionated commentary from the general public. Sad, but true, it happens. The hardest part for me now is trying not to call Bee by our chosen name too much so I don't get used to it. I'll sometimes say goodnight to him but I need to break that habit or I'll slip. Some friends are already trying to get us to slip and spill the beans and if you're reading this, knock it off silly ;) haha. If we end up slipping I'll be so upset. Baby Bee or just Bee is his name for now (and I know that nickname will even stick around for a while for sure).
Our party was quick but so much fun. I managed to get pics with almost everyone either that day or the next (some of them were staying with us and I stupidly didn't take a single pic of us with my mom or Manny & co until the next day bc they were with us- I made sure to get everyone else as they left, except for a few other friends that managed to escape the camera. Sorry guys! :(
Here are some family pics we did manage to get :)
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| My BFF & sister at heart |
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| Scott's mom, dad, and brother |
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| My mom |
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| My dad & stepmom |
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| Scott's BFF & fam (Manny, Staci, Gabriel, & Greysen) |
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| My oldest childhood friend and other bestie, Korney... who is also expecting!! It's so fun to share this experience together <3 |
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| Bump to bump (current besties & future besties) <3 <3 |
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| Me & Alli again... bc I adore her & don't get to see her enough <3 |
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| Pile 'o fun <3 |
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| That morning, on our way to pick up the cupcakes, we were JUST saying how Bee is like Scott's little buddy. And I referred to him as little dude. Then we came across these and HAD to get them. So fun! |
2/28- Fun reveal to the ladies at Zumba class
I've been going to Zumba still twice a week when I can make it and my friend Marisol is the instructor. She has supported us the entire way in our journey and wanted to reveal it to the ladies at class. It was her first gender reveal too so she was so excited and made blue "Team Ricci" shirts for Scott & I (I have yet to take a decent pic of us in them yet bc mine is in the laundry but I will soon). I planned to meet her there early before class to change into my blue shirt and we would both cover up our blue shirts with our sweatshirts and reveal during the warmup song. Little did I realize that it was hard to hide the color of the tee under my sweatshirt so the only solution was to put my hood up, tie it, and make sure the bottom was tucked in too. I looked and felt ridiculous but it was so funny too!
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Marisol had done a Facebook post the night before about the big #TeamRicci reveal, and asked that anyone who wanted to could wear pink or blue to show their guess for Baby Bee. Then during the warmup, Marisol called me up to the front to dance with her and when she gave me the signal we took off our sweatshirts and everyone cheered! It was so funny! She put a lot of thought into it and I appreciate it- it was a lot of fun celebrating even though I get so shy and embarrassed when attention is on me- lol. The cool down song was Beyonce's "Baby Boy"- haha. <3 Love you, Mari! xoxo
We spent the rest of the day hanging out with Manny, Staci, and the boys before they headed home. It was a gorgeous day to be outside so we went to the park before they left. 60 degrees again in February is unheard of, so you take full advantage when you have the chance!
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| Sporty mama ;) |
2/29- The big reveal for my kindergarten class & coworkers
My friends in the building were buzzing with excitement for Monday to arrive. Mondays are never fun in the workplace but we were all pretty psyched this day. I tortured them all over the weekend by not sharing the news and made them all wait until Monday to spill it. All month long we were taking a poll of whether everyone thought Bee was a boy or a girl. Girl won by a lot so I knew they'd all be in for a shock!
Boy Votes: 13 staff & 7 kindies (20 total)
Girl Votes: 22 staff & 10 kindies (32 total)
My plan was to share with either a cake or balloons but I didn't trust myself to try and attempt a cake so balloons seemed like a fun way, and also easy and different. Again, thanks Pinterest! I wrapped a box with 3 of the baby boy balloons from our party and had it on my desk when the kids arrived. The big reveal wasn't planned until 9:30, when I knew certain staff members would be available. It was kind of a tease being there for a full hour once school started, but it helped build excitement.
I had the kids make their last minute guesses, giving them a chance to change their minds if they wanted to. They're 5 & 6, they're allowed to ;). Then we graphed our results before it was time. I had to throw a little math in there somewhere ;)
As you can see, a few kids jumped ship from the original guesses last month! Originally it was 7 boy, 10 girl and they swapped to 4 boy, 12 girl (1 was absent). Too funny! I made sure to explain to them that just because more picked girl, it didn't mean it definitely was a girl. Typically when we vote in class, it's a majority-rules kind of vote but that wasn't the case with a baby. They did totally understand that and thought it was a funny thought but it was the perfect time to explain the difference between a majority-rules vote and a prediction vote just for fun with a 50/50 guess of something they couldn't control.
Around 9:20, a whole ten mins before I was ready, the whole 3rd grade walks in and sits down, along with a few coworkers. I don't do well with big audiences so I started to get frazzled, but psyched to share the news. We managed to kill some time and once again asked everyone to share their guesses and we read them off one last time.
Finally the moment of truth came... My class was seated in a circle around the rug and everyone else was off to the side in clear view. I brought the box over, explained how it would work (pink balloons = girl and blue balloons = boy), and opened it up. As soon as they saw the balloons, they started cheering and screaming with excitement! It was so cute! One of my coworkers took a video for me (but I'm not posting that or pics to keep the privacy of my kiddos) and trust me that they were so excited!! It was so cute seeing the boys finally get really into it! Up until then, naturally, the girls were more excited (as they should be, it's typical) and the boys were finally on board with the idea. Some of them were shouting "A boy! A boy!!" and the looks on the faces of others were just so darn cute (wide-eyed, big smiles, so sweet). The adults in the room were also cheering from either correct guesses or from shock that it wasn't a girl.... clearly I've gained some weight in my hips/butt so a lot were choosing bc of that ;) haha!
We then walked around to see who was around and shared the news with the other kids/teachers nearby. Everyone was so excited, especially for a Monday morning, for any kind of fun news. :)
So that's it for now... Bee is a BOY!! :)
It's been a very fun, exciting, and eventful week for sure!! Sorry for the delay on here, but I didn't really have any time before today to get it all done.
'Til next time!
Stace, Scott, & Baby Bee
XOXO
#TeamRicci
Congratulations! I didn't realise how much I wanted a boy until we found out the gender when I was pregnant :) You'll have so much fun with him!
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