The great thing about a gender reveal party to share your baby’s sex? You can throw it while you are figuratively bursting at the seams (but “literally” is still a few months away). So get the gang together to share your team pink or team blue news. Read on for fun and creative ways to reveal your baby’s sex and get guests involved in the guesswork.

photo: reneeellisdesigns via Pixabay

Ice, Ice Baby
Using iceor everyone’s favorite cold treat, ice creamis a cool way to share the exciting news:
* An ice sculpture is an unexpected throwback you can give a modern twist to for your reveal. Light the frozen statue with an LED light in pink or blue.
* Fill ice cream cones with marshmallows or candies in pink or blue, depending on baby’s gender. (Ask a friend to set this up if you want to be surprised with the reveal.) Then top half the cones with pink ice cream and the other half with blue. Let guests choose their ice cream cone depending on their boy-or-girl prediction. When they bite down to the cone, they’ll find out if they were right.

photo: highlander411 via flickr

Light Up Your Life
For a dramatic display, plan an evening event with lights so the soft glow of blue or pink will pop against a dark sky:
* Use flashing, colored LED ice cubes in pink or blue to turn a toast to the expectant couple into a flashy show of the baby’s gender.
* Decorate a tree with twinkling lights and host a tree-lighting ceremony in the backyard.
* Let your news sparkle with pyrotechnics! If you also want to be surprised by reveal, enlist the help of a friend to buy the right color fireworks and set them off.
* Some ferris wheels, like SkyWheel in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and The Capital Wheel in National Harbor, Maryland, offer packages that set the stage for an evening celebration. The ferris wheel lights up in pink or blue (or both, for fraternal twins) for a reveal that can be celebrated for miles around.

A Surprise Inside
You have a few more months until you can reveal the ultimate surprise, your new bundle of joy. But until then, you can pop, slice, and whack your way to the tell-all colors of pink and blue:
* Consider a piñata, especially if you’re having kids at your celebration. You’ll find great options on Etsy, like this one from the Pom Joy Fun! shop. It’s an exciting way to let the cat—or in this case, candy—out of the bag.
* Take a classic approach: Serve a cake filled with blue or pink icing for a simple but delicious reveal.
* It all started with an egg, so let the sex of your little chickadee be discovered with surprise egg favors, like these eggs from Etsy shop My Mercado.

photo: JSBannerDesigns via etsy

Team Sports
Let’s face it, everyone is rooting for a gender. Whichever way you choose to reveal the surprise, put a creative spin on the team theme with these dress-up ideas that get guests involved:
* Putter or Pearls: Have those on Team Boy dress in their golf best. Think it’s a girl? Clutch those pearls! You can buy the beautiful banner shown above at the Etsy shop JS Banner Designs.
* Stache or Lash: Provide guests with oversized mustache and eyelash photo props and let them pick a team prior to the reveal.
* Bowties or Bows: Let guests choose from an assortment of bows. Fasten it to your hair if you’re Team Girl. Wear it around your neck to show you’re Team Boy.

Still seeking inspiration? Here are two more ideas for sharing the big news in a big way:

baseballreveal
photo: Brittany Wong

Home Run Reveal
Every sports fanatic will get behind this gender reveal. This expecting mom and dad filled a white ball with colored chalk and painted it to look like baseball. In a collaborative effort, mom pitched the ball while dad swung a home run of electric blue into the air. The crowd went wild. For more smashing photos, head over to Simply Kissed.

gender-scratch-cards
photo: Later Gator Crafts

Lucky Guess Scratch Cards
Send these professionally printed scratch cards along with your invitation to your baby shower so guests know what gifts to buy. (They’ll have fun making a guess and scratching to see if they’re correct.) Or make it a game during your baby shower for interactive fun. To learn how to make your own scratch cards, visit Later Gator Crafts.

Meghan Meyers & Christal Yuen

RELATED STORIES:

It’s a … Sweet Surprise! 8 Clever Gender Reveal Cakes

Boy or Girl? 15 Fun Ways to Predict Your Baby’s Gender

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Perhaps with all you have to do this holiday season, we won’t be able to convince you to cross the 405 just to indulge in a little shopping. Luckily, there’s absolutely no need: we’ve uncovered 2 brand new shops, one in the east and one in the west, both carrying gorgeous things for babies and kids. Welcome, Sweet William & ciao, Caro Bambino—your neighborhoods are better for your sweet sartorial stylings.

Sweet William
We mourned when Tomboy, one of our favorite stylish shops for tots, closed earlier this year. But lo and behold, from the ashes rose one of the coolest East Coast shops for kids, with their very first West Coast store. With a carefully selected collection of independent designers, shopping at Sweet William is like having your very own personal shopper for your kids. They do the legwork, finding clothes of the highest quality, and made by environmentally and ethically responsible manufacturers from predominantly organic materials. And these clothes are adorable, cutting edge and comfy. Yep, they’ll fit in perfectly in Silverlake.

The shop isn’t just a new outpost of a beloved Brooklyn shop, it’s clearly a labor of love. Owners Bronagh and Peter Staley moved from NY to open the store, and their love and dedication is on display throughout. Peter, an artist, built the inside (and outside—peek in the back) of the store, including all the drawings, dioramas and furniture. Bronagh, a former fashion editor at Cookie magazine (moment of silence for the beloved kid style bible), is the eye behind finding the most beautiful, soft and cool kids clothes and toys around. You’ll find great items, from play clothes at dress up coats you’ll want in your size, throughout the store. And if you don’t see the size you want, be sure to ask. The store carries sizes for newborns through age 12.

But can you shop online, if you can’t face the freeway?
Yes! That’s how we first fell in love with Sweet William, and if you’re tight on time and don’t live hipster-adjacent, shop away online.

1406 Micheltorena St., Silverlake
Hours: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. weekdays, opens at noon on the weekend
Phone: 323-741-8161
Online: sweetwilliamltd.com

Caro Bambino
While over on the Westside, Caro Bambino has landed on Main St. in Santa Monica. This meticulously curated store was created to be a “One-Stop” shop full of beautiful and well made nursery furniture, clothing, and gear. For parents, by parents is their motto. The store was the brainchild of owners Nicole Desgroux and Andro Korlaet.  The lightbulb moment came when Nicole found herself an expecting mother forced to drive all over Los Angeles to get all the new-Mommy must-haves. We’ve all been there—the cute clothing store with organic nappies is on one side of town, while the strollers you’ve got to actually test out is on the other. And you have to hit 4 stores to find the car seat that fits your car, your needs, and your aesthetics. What was needed was a warm and inviting place where you could find all those things. And presto! Now we have it.

Caro Bambino has unique and hard to find products, many of which are organic and sustainably made. You’ll find gifts, gear and furniture; everything for the first few years (including guidance and advice from the new parents/owners). Some of our favorite discoveries were the Wishbone 3-in-1 wooden bike, super soft organic sleepers from Finn+Emma, the amazing Comotomo bottles and the sleekly stylish Orbit Baby strollers and car seats.

If you feel lost at sea beyond the product aspect of parenting, they also help guide you through each step of new parenthood, with registry help, classes, workshops and one-on-one consultations that take you from pre-baby to nursing, sleeping and even second baby brush-ups. Ahhh, help has arrived, and it’s all in one easy (and tasteful!) spot.

But can you shop online, if you can’t face the freeway?
Soon! Check the website; they’re fine tuning the online experience and shopping will be at your fingertips any day.

2710 Main St., Santa Monica
Hours: opens daily at 10 a.m., closes at 7 p.m. every day but Sunday (closes at 6 p.m.)
Phone: 310-399-7971
Online: carobambino.com

-Meghan Rose

What’s your favorite new store for kids & babies in town? And is it worth braving traffic? Let us know!

photos courtesy of Meghan Rose and Caro Bambino

 

You may have heard that it takes a village to raise a child, but there are oh-so-many more perks to having a community you can count on. Mom groups are the ultimate resources when it comes to building a mom social calendar, finding like-minded souls who can answer your questions, meeting new people, and expanding your interests. Once you’ve hit upon the right mom group, it opens up all kinds of opportunities–from exercise goals and playgroups to getting home-cooked meals when you’ve got a new baby in the house.

Lucky for us, there are tons of mom groups in the Bay Area. Read on to discover groups based on region and then let us know who else we should add to our list.

San Francisco Mom Groups

The City by the Bay is bursting with mom clubs to choose from–whether you’re a parent of multiples, a playdate expert, or an expecting mom in her 30s or 40s. Search for groups based on your neighborhood, your interests, and more. Check out our the full list by clicking here.

Marin County/North Bay

Head North from the Golden Gate and you’ll find mom (and dad!) clubs for all sorts. The North Bay has you covered if you consider yourself an alternative mama or you are (or know) a nature-loving dad. From Petaluma to southern Marin, we’ve got the roundup of North Bay mom clubs that could use a mama like you.

East Bay

Are you a working mom? A mom who loves running? A first time mom? The East Bay has clubs for all of that and much more. True to its lovable diversity, this region has groups galore–including some for dad, too! Find a club in your neighborhood of the East Bay and get ready for get togethers. Find the full roundup by clicking here.

Peninsula/South Bay

The gang’s all here in the Peninsula/South Bay roster of mom groups. There are groups for expats, LGBTQ parents, working moms, Asian moms, single moms, and more. Find a group in your neck of the woods and join in on the fun. Check out our list here.

Did we miss your beloved mom group? Let us know in the comment section below!

— Abigail Matsumoto

Photo credit: San Bruno Mothers Club