It's a Boy!!!

 

     Last Friday, we got to find out the gender of baby M!! Since we are both really close to our family, and know it takes a village to raise a baby, we decided to have a gender reveal party where we would find out the gender of the baby with our family.  I decided on a "what will our little pumpkin be?" theme.  All the decorations were fall/pumpkin related and the food was an Oktoberfest theme. My sister-in-laws contributed to the good eats with homemade pretzels, potato salad, and a meat, pickles, and cheese tray. I provided the sausages, kraut, and spaetzel. 

Obviously, the main part of the party was finding out the gender of our baby and we decided we would have my sister-in-law, who is a chef, dye the inside of a cake pink or blue based on the gender. It was really important to me that neither of us knew the gender prior to cutting into the cake. So I had the ultrasound tech seal the gender in an envelope that I handed over to a coworker who texted my sister-in-law the gender so she knew what color to dye the cake. Below are the pictures from the party(taken by Nikki, of course). Some of the captions will provide more information about the details of the party or recipes on making the items yourself. Enjoy!

This was outside by the front door so people saw it as they walked in. The sign said " What will our little pumpkin be?"

This was the dessert table

These are brownie bites in the shape of pumpkins.

Recipe for Brownie Bites shaped like pumpkins:

Make brownies using your normal recipe. Once out of the oven let cool for 15 minutes. Once cool, but still slightly warm, cut a square of brownie place a peanut butter cup in the middle and roll the brownie square around the peanut butter cup so that it is in a shape of a ball. Let cool. Once completely cool, melt orange candy coating. Roll brownie bite in melted orange. Slice a tootsie roll in half and use as the stem. The "pumpkins" on top were Reese's free.

The cake and the sign!

The sign by the cake "What will our little pumpkin be?"

The cake my sister-in-law made with the gender hidden inside

Take-home gift  were loaves of flavored dessert breads (chocolate pumpkin, carmel apple, or french vanilla) and the sign in front of the basket said " Thank you LOAVES for joining in our special day".

Old Wives Tales board and then pink or blue pumpkins to wear based what they thought the baby was.

The prize (cookies) for those who guessed the gender correctly. The tag on the cookies said "Good guess! You're one smart cookie".

It's a BOY!!!!

 Francis was very happy (so was his dad)!

I just had a feeling it was going to be a boy! I was really happy too, but couldn't resist celebrating that I was right!

Fall Craft Project

 Last Thursday I was feeling kind of crafty and as a way to thank my friend Nikki for taking time out her schedule to take our pregnancy announcement photos I decided to make her a fall wreath for her door. I also watch my niece on Thursday after school so decided she would also take part in the crafting adventure. So after going to the local craft store ( and being informed by my niece that this store is for girls) and picking up some felt for felt flowers, a strain of fall leaves/acorns, and a large and small wreath for decorating we headed back home.  While I worked on making felt flowers, my niece worked on her wreath. This was a simple craft; even someone her age (age 3)  was able to do it without help. She had a ball doing it. She was pretty proud of the finished product, as well.

  Here is what you need to complete this:

•  Fall foam stickers (we used an assortment of fall leaves and pumpkins)
• 1 small wreath

How to do it:
 Have child pick the stickers they would like on the wreath. Peel, then place where they desire on the wreath and continue pattern (peel and place) until wreath is the way the child likes it.

After she finished I thought "Dang, I just missed a great learning opportunity". As a teacher I am always looking for a "teachable moment".
 So here are a few of the ideas I came up with afterward for younger kids that are educational:

1. Have them sort the leaves and pumpkins by color
2. After sorting count how many of each color they have (which had the most, which had the least, name the colors, can you find something in the house the same color, what letter does the color start with, etc)
3. Sort by type of leaf or pumpkin
4. Again you can count
5. Depending on the age, they could make a pattern before sticking it on the wreath

I am sure there are plenty more, but those are just a few that quickly popped in my head.


Here is another picture of the wreath I made for Nikki (Taken with it hanging at a different angle, I think I like the flowers on top better than this angle.):

If your interested in making it you will need:

•  Felt in an assortment of fall colors
• A hot glue gun and glue sticks
• A garland of fall decor
• A wreath
• Floral wire

 I started by making the fall flowers. The directions for felt flowers and a similar wreath can be found here in a previous post. After making all the flowers, ( I made 12 in an assortment of sizes, colors, and color combos). I glued them on with the hot glue gun.  I am proud to say I didn't even burn myself once this time! After that I laid the garland of leaves on the other side (about half the garland) and tied floral wire around the garland. Then I folded what was left of the garland back up the same side and secured it with floral wire as well.  It was pretty simple and very cheap to make. My kind of craft! 

 Hope you enjoy!