makins of a jenkins

The day I’ve been waiting for. 

the big question all along. Is it a boy or a girl?! 

Wondering what our first years would be. trains and trucks or painting nails and playing house. (yes im assigning gender stereotypes)  the entire pregnancy i was doing fine and not going crazy wanting to know, but as we got closer i just was giddy waiting to find out what wed be having. the ENTIRE pregnancy i without a doubt knew it was a girl. then a month ago, I had a really real dream where i was changing the diaper and i told my self in the dream “look in the diaper, you can look now to see andria!” and it was a boy. so after that i totally doubted myself and had no idea.

i wouldnt consider myself someone to be into cutesy trends but i knew finding out the sex of the baby aside all our friends and some family would be such an incredible way to do it. you know i love a good party. so i knew i wanted to do a gender reveal party! my generous friend Quinn offered to host a party for us and so we made the ultrasound on Friday, one day before the party, so we only had to sit on our hands for one day and wonder what the sex was.

during the ultrasound, our tech was so great and told us when to look away and i was already being really careful in the ultrasound if she was on the legs or anything, i felt like i was watching a scary movie and kinnnnnda looking because i really didnt want to see any parts by accident.

the ultrasound tech printed a little card that said BOY or GIRL and sealed it in an envelope so we wouldnt know. We promptly drove that envelope over to Quinn’s so she could be the secret only one to know our babies gender!

we had a little BOY vs. GIRL vote going on…but we’ll never know the true vote because as soon as it was announced GIRL, my niece Ava promptly filled in every square inch of  the girl vote side. so we alllll knew what it was. 

PINATA! 

CJ and i went back and forth over what we should do for the actual moment of the gender reveal….like HOW we should find out. silly string. confetti poppers. pop a balloon. cut a cake.  seen em all. what should we do?! i of course wanted to do something i’ve never seen so i wasnt pleased with any of the typical ideas. i searched for a long time and loved the idea of a PINATA because #duh they are so fun and #duh2 we did pinatas at our wedding so it was kinda like 2.0 version. i found an awesome one online that came with print outs and a whole process so i chose that, bought a box and got to work.

i love artsty stuff and projects and never really give myself time to do it, so i was happy to have an excuse to give myself some fun time with it. it took 447229 hours (probably 4 all-together)  but it was actually very easy and turned out great. i chose pink or blue tootsie suckers because, if you know me, these have been a staple in my life for many years, my mom had them in her salon growing up and then i had a constant stash in a gold bowl in my college room. i always had a sucker. it was like my thing. (i.e. i didnt drink til i was almost 21 so those were my party favors in college) 

the idea was, Quinn would know the gender and stuff the pinata with pink or blue suckers and then we’d yank the string and we’d find out what we were having!

THE PARTY

Quinn and Sara went all out and decorated this party so cute and totally spoiled us which was so so sweet and made us feel so special. she seriously did so much, i was like well this is basically a shower now! very spoiled. we had about 20+ people there and ate and talked and then finally pulled the string! we were lucky enough to plan the party on a weekend when we’d already had a girls weekend planned for months, even before we knew i would be pregnant, with my sisters, mom and nieces in town, so it was just perfect and basically the best weekend ever. CJ’s parents and sister also drove up….it was amazing to have them all there!

IT’S A GIRL!!!! 

we couldnt be more excited for a girl. because i had it in my mind the whole time it was a girl, so my heart was kinda attached to the idea. we really would have been happy either way because we want 3 and hopefully will have each gender eventually…but this time around, Im so happy we’re having a girl.

hide my credit cards! good lord, i already had an online shopping habit. so good luck! shopping for a girl has been so fun. im not super into the girly pinky frilly shit – moreso minimalist, neutrals and simple things….so i’ve been searching brands that arent just cartoony baby stuff and so far love Zara Kids, Gap Kids, colored organics, goat-milk, Tesa Babe, Rags to Raches….that’s all i can think of. Do you have any girl brands you love? tell me! 

PINATA! does anyone doing a gender reveal want my pinata? 10 bones? i made it from scratch and its still in perfect condition. it should get more life!  (andria@andrialindquist.com if you do!)