We didn't do anything for Whitney (for obvious reasons) and for Gia, we just had the doctor put the gender in an envelope for us to open on Christmas Day. That was fun, but I wanted to do something a little more for this one. I had originally wanted to again have the sonographer seal the gender in an envelope, then have Sean and I find out by spraying each other with either pink or blue silly string. I think Gia would have liked that too. But there were 2 problems with this scenario: One, I really wanted to watch the ultrasound while it was being done. But I've seen so many ultrasounds (myself and others- loved working at the Pregnancy Care Centers!) that I know I'd be able to spot boy or girl parts in an instant. And Two, my husband isn't too keen on cutesy photo ops. He kept saying, "What am I supposed to do? Spray you with silly string then put on my surprise face?" Those two things told me my original plan probably wouldn't turn out as dreamily as I envisioned. 

So I went to my next idea: something with my girlfriends! This would solve both problems: I could watch the ultrasound as it was being done (Sean and I would find out at that point what the baby is), AND I could share the excitement of surprise with my friends who would do the screaming and excited surprise faces I thought would be fun. 

Almost everyone thought I was having a boy, but a couple thought it was a girl. I decided to get 12 balloons... half pink, half blue with two being black. Before I went to the party store to buy the balloons, I cut up some crepe paper in the correct gender color. Before the balloons were filled with helium, the girls at Party City filled the balloons with the confetti I had made. This turned out to be a great idea... I was so glad I had brought my own confetti. I didn't have to buy any there, and it was super light which allowed the balloons to blow up beautifully. The girls at Party City also said that they'd had trouble with the heavier confetti popping the ballloons. So I was really glad I brought my own. 

I bought a few more things as the Dollar Store just for decoration: More crepe paper, pink and blue paper, mints etc. Nothing big, just a few things. I also made two desserts: apple pie & strawberry pie. I kept my friends guessing to the last minute!  Here's the quick decor job I did:

It was so much fun! Everyone was pretty surprised. I did record video of that would have been awesome.... but when we watched it back, it cut out literally right as we were popping the balloons... memory card full.  FAIL. Oh, well, at least we have the pictures!

So yes, a third girl for this Wilson family!  I am so excited and can't wait for Gia to have a baby sister! Most of our stuff from Gia is pretty gender neutral, but they will be born in opposite seasons so I will still have to get almost all new clothes for this one. I'm hoping some stuff will still work for her though. We're still stuck on a name. Sean has one he thinks he likes but isn't going to tell me until our date night hopefully on Friday. We have a tradition of deciding our names at Olive Garden, so we shall see. But we will be telling her name as soon as we figure that out!