Gender Reveal Party - Team Pink/Team Blue

**Update: I have had a lot of emails & requests for the fruit pizza recipes. I have created a printable recipe card with the cookie & frosting recipe. To see it, click here. Thanks!**

This weekend we had our Gender Reveal Party! It was SO much fun! I went with a "Team Pink/Team Blue" theme, which was so much fun to decorate. I'm proud to say that since this is a totally unnecessary party, it was done without spending a whole lot of money! 

Here is the sweets table. 

I got an unfinished 11x18" frame from the $1 tree to make the chalkboard. I just spray painted the frame, painted the glass with chalkboard paint & used my silhouette to cut out "BOY" & "GIRL". You can't see it in the picture, but the little sign at the top says "Cast Your Vote". 

To help with the guessing, I wrote out a bunch of old wives tales about predicting baby's gender. I put the boy answer in blue & the girl answer in pink and then circled the one that was true for me. Clearly these are not accurate. :)

I made the cupcakes myself, which was a lot less work than I thought it would be. Although I was VERY thankful for my kitchen aid mixer! It was a chocolate cupcake with buttercream frosting. The middle is just whipped frosting with blue food coloring. 

 

I made the cupcake toppers using a scalloped punch and taping the paper to candy sticks. The question marks are vinyl that I cut out using my silhouette. It is SO much easier to cut out vinyl than to cut out paper & glue it on. 

Here is a picture of the whole table. Like how my darling husband moved my car to the back to have more parking out front?... not the best background for pictures. The things that guys don't think of :)

There were mostly sweets on this table. I also had a buffet with the savory stuff. The party was at 2:00 so I didn't have a full lunch, but I think there was plenty to eat!

I cut out these cute little popcorn boxes out of cardstock using my silhouette. The question marks are also vinyl {like the cupcake toppers}. I had all of the pink paper left over from my wedding so all I had to buy was the blue paper. The popcorn box was $1 from the silhouette store and we glued them together, but next time I think I'd use glue on the outer edges and tape on the bottom. The glue dried wavy and made the boxes not stand up totally straight. 

 I got these cute pink m&m's around valentines day & in the blue containers I bought a pack of mint york m&ms. It was way cheaper than buying  the specialty colors of m&m's, which are 6.99 per color for a little bag! To make the boxes stand up straight, I put about 10 m&m's in the bottom of each bucket to weigh them down and it worked perfectly! 

My favorite part of the whole party {ok, besides my baby boy!} was the mini fruit pizza bar!! Fruit pizza is my FAVORITE dessert and these were perfect. I think I ate 5. I will post the recipe soon for the delicious {non-rollout} sugar cookies that my mom made! 

YUM! Couldn't get any better! 

I love the idea of making water bottle labels, but it seems like a TON of work for something people are just going to throw away. So I just took the labels off tied them with a ribbon. Cute & only took 5 minutes! 

 Here are all of the yummy cupcakes! I was planning on buying them, but then my cheap-ness kicked in and I'm so glad I made them myself. It was really not as hard as I thought it'd be to fill them. 

 Trav & I both sported pink & blue... which I do realize does not match at all!! But it's all in the spirit of the party :) 

 I don't think this is the final tally, but there were a couple more girl votes than boys the entire time. 

 Here is team pink waiting to eat their cupcakes! 

 And here's team blue... the winning team :)

 Proud grandma... even though she's sporting pink for baby girl! I think she'll still like baby boy just as much :)

I know this is photo overload, but you just can't get enough baby!! Now this mama is exhausted & I'm ready for a night of couch & netflix. 

Linking here this week: 

Sundae Scoop @ I heart Naptime, Weekend Bloggy Reading @ Serenity Now, Show & Tell Saturdays @ Be Different, Act Normal, Show & Tell at Blue Cricket Design,  Weekend Wrapup Party @ TT&J, Weekend Link Party @ Lolly Jane, Tip Me Tuesday @ Tip Junky, Tutorial Tuesday @ Hope Studios, Take A Look Tuesday @ Sugarbee Crafts

23 Weeks - It's a Boy!!!!!!

 How far along? 23 weeks 

Total weight gain: I haven't weighed myself this week, but I'm not going to now because I've been eating ALL day :) I'm sure it's a couple more lbs. than last week though!

Maternity clothes? No

Stretch marks? None yet 

Sleep: I have started the middle of the night pee, so not as great as before. 

Best moment of the week: Announcing baby BOY to the family! We had our gender reveal party & it was so much fun! 

Miss anything? Just iced coffee on these warm sunny days :) 

Movement: Lots! 

 Anything making you queasy or sick: No
Gender prediction: BOY!! All boy. Before we announced the gender, so many people kept saying even the baby's face looked like a boy! I have a feeling there's a mini-Trav in there. 

Labor signs: No, just some cramping but I think it's more because of baby's position. 

Symptoms: Still pretty congested & I've noticed a lot more heart palpitations lately... My blood volume must be increasing! :)

Belly button in or out? Completely flat

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or moody most of the time? Happy!

Looking forward to: BABY SHOPPING! I haven't been able to shop with my mom yet because I didn't want to give away the gender! I'm also looking forward to start working on the nursery!  

Daddy got in on the action this week! He is so excited to have a son! {and he really does NOT have a belly! I think he will kill me for posting this:)}

 Here's a sneak peek of the cupcakes from our gender reveal party! I will be posting pics SOON! It was so much fun! We have the best family & friends :)

DIY Burlap Clip Frames Tutorial

Well, I promised a craft, so here I go! Yesterday I made these cute clip frames with a burlap background. They were super easy & really cheap! 

I started out by using a plastic $1 tree 8x10 picture frame and spray painting it white. If I didn't have to spray paint the frame, this project literally would have only taken me less than an hour for all four. So it may be worth it to just buy white frames next time! :) 

 Because I used the crappy frames, I cut down the cardboard a LITTLE bit on each side. I only did this because these frames have to bend in order to get the cardboard backing into the and I didn't want the paint to crack when I put it back in. 

 I cut a piece of white paper & glued it over the cardboard backing {since the burlap will show through}. Then I cut the burlap w/about 1 inch extra on each side. 

 I folded the burlap over the back & hot glued it on. This was messy because the burlap I used had holes in it, so the hot glue seeped through when I folded it over. I used an old credit card to fold the fabric over which stopped my fingers from getting glue all over them! 

I used these clips from Target. They were $2.00 per package, but I had to buy 4 packages because I only wanted the white. But it was worth it to not have to spray paint these clips {which I have done before & are a huge PAIN!} I can just save the black & use them if I make more with a different color scheme. 

 I measured down to the middle & hot glue them right on top of the burlap. I didn't use the glass for these, but you could if you wanted & just glue the clips on top of the glass. 

 Here they are completed! I think they turned out so cute! And I love that I can easily change out the pictures without taking apart the whole thing. 

Here they are all hung up with some wedding pictures in them. I printed out 4x6 pictures for these but 5x7 would also work. I also made the frame in the middle using my silhouette & some free vinyl my mom got at work! It is hard to see because it was impossible to take pictures of, but the quote is: "Be joyful always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances." 

I originally got the quote off of a pin on pinterest but there was no tutorial because it was uploaded by the user. Doesn't that drive you crazy?! :) So if you know who to give credit to, let me know! 

Sorry about these awful pictures! Directly to the left is my front door which opens up into them, so it was literally impossible to get a picture with natural light! I tried at all hours of the day :)

 And here's a closeup of the quote frame. 

 Now I just need to add the pillows back to my bench so it doesn't look so bare! 

Hope you are enjoying this spring-ish weather as much as we are!!

Be Blessed! 

Linking up here this week:

20 Below Thursdays @ Christina's Adventures, Hooking up with HOH @ House of Hepworths

22 Weeks & 4d Ultrasound Pics

How far along? 22 weeks! 

Total weight gain: 10 lbs

Maternity clothes? For the most part, no. We did have a marathon shopping trip in the city, so I wore my maternity jeans simply out of comfort... but still wearing my regular clothes every other day! 

Stretch marks? None yet 

Sleep: Great! 

Best moment of the week: We had our 4d ultrasound... which was SO fun! The ultrasound tech kept commenting on how active our little one was and we got to see so many sweet little details! We also went to Babies R Us {I'd never been there before!! I'm in LOVE!} and bought a few things for the baby. {Can you believe I've held out on baby shopping this long?!}

Miss anything? Not really

Movement: Tons! The ultrasound tech said it's because baby is laying directly on top of the placenta and being pushed up against the surface of my belly which lets me feel every little movement. 

Food cravings: No big cravings, but still eating lots of sweets. 

 Anything making you queasy or sick: No
Gender prediction: One more week to announce! So far our family is pretty 50/50 on what they think baby is. 

Labor signs: No

Symptoms: Feeling pretty good! Just noticing I get tired easier and am not quite as quick as I used to be at work... but nothing to speak of! 

Belly button in or out? Completely flat

Wedding rings on or off? On.. it was hot & humid a few days this week and they got a bit snug. But are back to being loose now. 

Happy or moody most of the time? Happy!

Looking forward to: Announcing baby's gender!

And here are some photos of our sweet little one! I always said that these 4d ultrasounds were creepy & I'd NEVER do one... but I am so glad we did! It was so much fun seeing baby stretch out & wiggle all over. The clarity of the features were amazing! It was a 20 minute session & they sent us home w/a CD of 28 pictures & a DVD of the whole thing. I would definitely recommend it! 

So here's the last week to guess....  Is this face a Boy or Girl?! 

Little baby has his/her mouth open! 

 I don't know why, but I love this one! You can see baby's little nose so perfectly... and it definitely looks like baby has Trav's nose {thank the Lord}!

And this is daddy's favorite picture... baby's giving us a "thumbs up". Trav says baby's saying "I'm doing good in here..." so stop worrying about me! :)

And for any of you local readers, the 4d ultrasound was done at Enlightened 4d Imaging in Bloomington {about 5 mins from the Mall of America}. Totally worth the $100 that the economy package costs!