Pink or Blue? Gluten Free Gender Reveal Party

We had some exciting news this Autumn:

When you have three kids and all of them are boys, the stakes become pretty high for the gender of number 4.

Will. THIS ONE. Be a GIRL?!?

So I really wanted to throw a party to reveal whether baby number 4 is a boy or girl!

Party food is not my forte (that would be Jamie), but I decided to try reeeeally hard this time. And everything but the pretzels were gluten free so that everyone could partake!

We had chocolate dipped rice krispy treats, pink lemonade bars (via, adapted with a gluten free flour mix via), swirled sugar cookies (adapted via), and a really yummy mix with chocolate covered pretzels, popcorn, and M&Ms. 

Let's have another look at that deliciousness, because it turned out to be my favorite thing on the table.
Second were probably those lemonade bars, which are truly addicting.  I used a gluten free recipe from this book, and it turns out the thick swirl cookies needed waaay less cooking time but it was hard to tell with the color swirls.  They were a bit overcooked--beware!

And Cupcakes (cake via. BEST. GF. CAKE. EVER. and frosting via), and skinny deviled eggs (via).

We all cast our votes--baby boy or girl?!?  And then it was the moment of truth: 

I know it's hard to see, but that is most definitely BLUE silly string coming out of those canisters!

So everybody put your wallets away--I know you were all planning on sending me adorable baby girl clothes--but I've got everything under control.

I thought I'd be a little bit disappointed, but aren't babies incredible?  I am entirely full of excitement to welcome baby boy #4!  Life is about to get crazy around here!--Well, you know.  Like it isn't already!

Get Organized!

So... let's talk junk. 

Not trunk junk. 

Drawer junk. 

Oh yeah. You know what I mean. 

Everyone has at least one drawer in their house that is the official "this-thing-doesn't-really-have-a-good-place-to-go-so-I'll-just-throw-it-in-here" drawer. For us, it's in our kitchen. It's where we keep our batteries, scotch tape, stamps, twist ties, push pins, paper clips, etc. 

And it was a MESS.

Seriously.

I wish I had a before picture to share. Even when I knew for certain that something was in there, it still took me a couple minutes to find. And who has a couple extra minutes when you are running out the door to drive your oldest to preschool, with a two year old and newborn crying in his carseat, but you need to find a stamp to mail that birthday card that has to get in the mail today or it will be late!? 

AmmIRight!?

I started scouring Amazon for an organization system I liked, and I found some cool ones, but I wasn't ready to plunk down my precious moolah for one unless I was totally in love, or blown away by the brilliance of the system.

One morning I was thinking about the impressive volumes of boxed cereal my family goes through, and that's when it hit me. A moment of pure genius. 

GENIUS, I TELL YOU!

 Why not use the cereal boxes to create my very own organization system--for FREE!?

Materials Needed:

Cereal Boxes

Scissors

Hot Glue

Break down your boxes.

This may seem silly, since we'll be gluing them back up later, but it makes cutting the boxes a lot easier when you can lay them flat!

Measure the height of your drawers. You want your organization boxes to to come no higher than the sides of your drawers. Then you will measure that far in from both the top and bottom of your box not including the flaps--these will form the bottom of your boxes. I like to mark both sides of the box and draw a big fat line all the way across with a sharpie and a ruler. Fancy, I know. Then cut across the line.

Glue the flaps back down/together (I used hot glue) to create a box again. I used boxes that varied in size, so I'd have more options.

Use the side panels of the leftover box material to create dividing walls within the boxes, if you need them. The awesome thing about the side panels is that they are already the perfect width to sit cross-ways inside your boxes. Just make sure to include a bit on each side of the folds for flaps for the glue.

ORGANIZE! Fill your boxes, and fill your drawer!

They're not gorgeous (but could be made purtier with some pretty paper, if you were a little less lazy than me), but they are about as functional as they get. Plus--since the boxes are just placed in the drawer and not connected to each other, it's easy to reorganize down the road.

Confession: I went a bit crazy (we had a lot of cereal boxes) and organized my bathroom drawer, too. It's still a work in progress, but it's so nice not to have everything sliding to the back of the drawer where I can't see it very well.

Aaaand I may have made a little box for the girls' bathroom, too. For the ponytail holders. And hair clips. They love pulling the box out to look at their "pony" options.

What drawers in your house could use a bit of organizing?

Maybe a Cupcake Will Help?

Cupcake Shape (I simplified it a lot) from Miss Kate Cuttables
Cupcake "frosting"--I printed a digital paper I own from Zoe Pearn's newsletter freebie, So Sweet.
Fonts: Lavanderia Sturdy ("Cupcake")
          Code Bold