Introduction
On May 30, 2022, my wife and I held a gender reveal party for Sarah (our daughter) and Cory. Since this event was so much fun and ended in a big surprise, I thought I’d share a few thoughts and scenes from the party.
Background
For the past two weeks, my wife Toni has known the gender of the baby, which is due in November. Toni kept that secret perfectly. Sarah and I were both convinced that the baby is a girl.
The Couple
Sarah and Cory are shown here before the reveal.
The Reveal
The slideshow below documents the actual moments of the gender reveal. These are five screen captures of a movie that I took. These captures represent less than two seconds of elapsed time. Before recording the video, I wanted to accomplish two things:
- I wanted to know how long it took Sarah and Cory to realize the gender of the baby.
- I wanted to capture the look of surprise at the moment it occurred.
1 – Sarah tries very hard to explode the cannon (0 seconds) 
2 – Cory’s cannon explodes, revealing the gender (a boy) (0.3 seconds) 
3 – Sarah opens her eyes because she heard Cory’s cannon explode (about 1 second) 
4 – Sarah is now tracking the confetti (1.5 seconds) 
5 – Sarah’s look of surprise as she recognizes the gender! (less than 2 seconds)
In the first two pictures, Sarah had her eyes closed for a second as she tried in vain to explode her cannon. Those cannons took a lot of torque to explode. Once Sarah opened her eyes and tracked the confetti (pics 3 through 5), she received a huge surprise – the baby is a boy!
Lessons Learned
- Those cannons are hard to explode, and they fire high into the air with a lot of force. Be sure to have them pointed into the sky and not into someone’s face! Be cautious if you let youngsters try to fire them because they will struggle to generate enough torque and the cannon will be pointed in many different directions!
- The party cleanup should occur quickly before the confetti gets wet! A vacuum works great but needs frequent clearing of debris.
- These parties are a lot of fun and can deliver huge surprises!
Final Thoughts
The continuation of life is something to be celebrated. It is inspiring to have a first grandchild on a finite time horizon. I’ll have to finish this story in November, once the little one arrives! Thanks for reading!
The party scene 
The answers indicate a girl, but that isn’t the case 
Some of the food – notice the baby carriage fruit salad! 
The baby with the pacifier – Toni’s creations are so cool and tasty on a hot day!! 
Some of the decor 
More of the decor with little Jettster dressed in the right colors 
Lots of balloons 
Balloons are great for decorating 
Balloons are great in pictures, especially when the fantastic host is included! 
More ballon props 
The happy couple 
The aftermath 
A vacuum to the rescue!
