Announcing Baby#2

How fun and Congratulations!
For our announcement of #2, we took a picture of our daughter in a t-shirt that said "big sister" and then used the picture on a photo card (I think from Shutterfly).We then wrote off to the side: Emilie starring in her new role December.... (date). It was fun to see people reading the card,it took a moment, and then the smilies.
Enjoy~

Valentine's Day is a great time to announce your news, Congratulations! When we were expecting our second, we found out around Thanksgiving, so I waited for the family meal, volunteered to say grace and ended the prayer in "I especially want to thank you for the new life you have entrusted to me, Amen" Then I looked up and saw a lot of wide eyes and happy faces! Have fun and again congrats!

Congratulations! That is so exciting for you. When we found out we were expecting #2, my daughter was just 3 at the time. We told her it was a secret but she blurted it out over dinner with my husband's whole family, but only my brother-in-law heard. His look was priceless and I just put my finger on my lip and said "sshhh". I will never forget that!

Not sure how expensive this is, but you could do personalized M&M's with a cute message. You could put something like Baby on Board, or Big Brother and the expected date or bun in the oven or whatever you can think of!!! Here is the link that I found.

http://www.mymms.com/

Have fun and congrats again!

Picture of older one holding a book "I'm a Big Brother now" and include that in Valentine cards.

We took our parents out for dinner and let our 4 yr old announce that he was gonna be a big brother. We even set up a special signal to let him know when to tell the secret. It was hilarious watching him crack up about having a secret until he got to tell the news. We've also let him tell others (neighbors/friends/etc) as well. It seems to give him a sense that this is such a big occasion for him too.

Also, to keep the momentum going, we let him help my hubby paint the baby's room and once it was done, we dipped his hands in paint of another color and had him put his handprints above the light switch. He was thrilled to add his own little touch and everyone that has seen the baby's room think the big brother hand prints are just adorable and so meaningful.

Send puzzle cards. Write the announcement, cut it into pieces, and let the people on the receiving end have to put the puzzle together to find out. I remember cutting out (big construction paper hearts?) and writing a message, then letting the older child color pictures. Then we cut it into a few pieces, put it in an envelope and shipped it off. She was really into doing puzzles at the time so at first glance the family just thought it was a regular valentine. For us, it was an excellent way to share with people who didn't live near us.

I can't remember where I saw it (a website I'm sure), but it was a tshirt that said "I'm going to be a big sister. Shhh it's a secret.". It would be easy to recreat with fabric paint.

For our second baby we had our 2 yr old DD wear a shirt that said "Guess What?" on the front and "I'm gonna be a big sister!" on the back. We had her wear it to a family BBQ and had people take notice. It was a lot of fun to see all the reactions!
For our 3rd. baby we bought a picture frame w/ room for 3 pictures and placed pics of our 2 DD's in two of them and in the other space I wrote "Baby due to arrive Feb. 08". We gave one to each set of grandparents and had them figure it out. If you have a U/S at your first appt. you could place a U/S pic in that space too.
Lots of good ideas from everyone! Enjoy, it's so fun to share the news!:)

A friend of mine made her daughter a tee-shirt that had Only Child crossed out and under it said Big Sister. On the back she put "coming Spring 2009". It was really cute. She wore it to her 3rd birthday party. We were not able to make it so she sent a picture.

Something that one of my sisters did was she had their 2 year old hold up a sign that said that he was going to be a big brother and gave the due date on it. She then posted it on facebook. You could do something similar and email everyone or have him call those that don't have email and then you can fill them in after he tells them his big news. Just a few cute ideas.

A friend of mine took a picture a her children holding a sign that had a big heart that said "Our Mommy is having a baby". It was cute really cute when sent out another picture a couple weeks later that had baby crossed out with TWINS above it

Good luck!

We looked for a Big Sister T-shirt, but couldn't find one. We went to Michaels and bought a package of make-your-own iron-on sheets (ran them through the printer and then ironed it on her shirt). We found some free online images that we used to print on the sheets.

We arranged dinner out with one set of in-laws and Grammie got it immediately....Papa took some time and help! Grammie cried!

We used our webcam to show our daughter in her t-shirt to the other set of in-laws. It took Nonnie a few minutes and lots of help to understand! BUT, it was so much fun sharing the news this way.

My daughter could only say a few words at the time so we practiced having her say "baby."

Congrats! Have fun!