Creative Ways to Announce Your Baby's Gender

Being pregnant is such an exciting time! First you find out about your pregnancy, then you get to tell everyone else, and later, in the middle of the pregnancy, you get to announce your baby's gender. Here are some fun and creative ways to tell everyone whether it's a boy or it's a girl:

Bake a cake with pink or blue food coloring added to the cake mix. Frost it with white frosting. Then with everyone gathered around the table, slice open the cake to reveal the gender! You could alternatively bake cupcakes with pink or blue cream filling, and have everyone take a big bite out of their cupcake at the same time.

Wear a pink or blue ribbon around your belly. Don't say anything about it, just wait until someone notices!

Get a bunch of index cards, one for each member of the family who will be there. Fold them in half and on the inside write the gender of the baby. Give one to each person. Then show everyone the ultrasound picture. Have them write on the outside of the index card whether they think the picture looks like a girl or like a boy. When everyone has written down their guess, have them all open up the index cards to reveal the gender! You get to keep the cards with everyone's guesses on them!

If your husband wasn't able to come to the ultrasound, surprise him with the baby's gender by going to a card or book store and buying him a little "Fathers and Daughters" book or a "Fathers and Sons" book.

If you have the name picked out and haven't told it to anyone yet, announce your baby's gender by trying this idea. Play hangman with the name, middle name, and your last name as the word. Have people keep guessing letters until someone realizes whether it's a boy name or a girl name.

Bake a cake and frost it in the opposite color of the gender of your baby. On top, write either "It's a (right gender)!" or "It's NOT a (wrong gender)!" As you pull out the cake, everyone will notice the color first. Upon looking closer, they'll notice the real gender.

If you have older kids, make breakfast for them in the morning and color it the color of their new sibling's gender. You can make pink-colored pancakes with strawberries, or blue-colored pancakes with blueberries. Or you could put pink or blue yogurt in their lunch boxes. Give them some pink or blue pencils, erasers, or any other small thing that they can pass out to their friends at school. That way they can have some fun with announcing the gender to their friends!

If you have a child already, tell your family you've gotten matching outfits for your two kids. Have one that says "Big Brother (or Sister)" and another one that says "Little Brother (or Sister)."

Surprise yourselves! Ask the ultrasound technician to write down the gender on a piece of paper. Then go to your favorite quiet spot, like the beach, a lake, or the park, and open it together. Or if one of your birthdays or a holiday is coming up, save it as a gift! Another idea is to take the piece of paper that has the gender written on it to a bakery. Ask the baker to bake you a cake that is blue for a boy and pink for a girl. Wait till you get home to open up the box and see what you're having!

Whatever method you end up choosing...have fun with it! You can also stretch out the fun by telling people little by little...first the siblings, then the grandparents, then the aunts and uncles, friends, and so on. Try using a different method with each person or group of people you tell!