How to Tell FAMILY

Krista, Get your daughter one of those cute "I'm the Big Sister" T-shirts to wear. Dont say anything and see how long it takes everyone to notice it. I bet they'll notice right away! :-)

I have a receipe for at cookie pizza and deocorated it with m&ms to say baby or due in ___ (let me know if you want the recipe)

The second time we tied balloons to the family dog that said baby.

Get a grandparents picture frame and on the inside write
"the month you are expecting with !!!" my daughter and son in law did that for us a month ago and it was so much fun!
Or place a diaper in their laundry basket, or go to michaels and buy their pink and blue m&m's and put those out for them to see!
Congratulations!

We too had a pregnancy that we found out about before the Christmas holidays (even a couple months before), and used that to our advantage. My husband cut up some 2X2 pieces of wood into block size blocks (like baby blocks). Then wrote one letter on each with permanent marker (each letter represents part of a word or phrase), and wrapped each one individually with glossy colorful Christmas wrap - each adorned with a tiny bow. We stuck them all in a plastic bag and brought them over to our parents house for Christmas celebrations saying it was "just a fun game" to play, and that anyone who wanted to unwrap one, could.

Well, spelling "baby" was too easy, so we came up with "with child" - so 9 individually wrapped blocks.

Believe me, keeping the secret was tough enough, but seeing the absolute joy and surprise on their faces when they all had fun unwrapping the tiny little gifts, then unscrambling the letters to form "with child" was absolutely magnificent. There were tears of joy all around, and I still get choked up every time I think about it.

Good luck, and congratulations!

Check out a party store and get a few table decorations that are baby themed. Make placecards for the table that say 'Grandma ____ and Grandpa _____. My sister-in-law lived in another state and sent flowers addressed to grandma and grandpa.

My sister gave my parents a "save the date" card with a picture of the positive pregnancy test.
I waited until after my first ultrasound and then said I had something to show them and gave them a picture. It took them a few seconds to realize what was happening since the timing of this pregnancy wasn't exactly planned (they knew I was planning on waiting another year).

After you tell the 5 year old it would be cute to get a t-shirt printed that says, "I'm going to be a big sister!" or something and have her just wear it and see how long it takes them all to notice. You could also just have it under a sweater or something until you decide to "unveil" it. How exciting!!! Congratulations to you all.

We were at my son and daughter-in-law's house and they were going to show us a video of their vacation in the Bahamas. I wasn't paying much attention and was turned to the side talking to my daughter-in-law when my husband elbowed me and told me to watch the video. There on the TV was their ultrasound! WOW! What a surprise!!! Now I have an almost 5 year old granddaughter and she is the joy of my life! --R. H.

My best friend taped little cards on the bottom of the plates. After dinner she told everyone to look under their plate to see who was the winner of a special prize.
For this, you'll obviously have to have the table pre set. Her family was estatic and completely shocked!!

Put a pair of pink and blue booties in a covered casserole dish and ask one of the parents to take the lid off so you they can help serve. When the lid comes off and they see the pink & blue booties ... it should be apparent what the surprise is.

How fun! Congrats :-)

Krista, one idea would to take a plain t-shirt and with fabric paint put "I am going to be a big sister!" See how long it takes for your guests to pick up on the good news. Congrats!

Missy

The first thing that came to mind was the place settings. What if you set it up to be kind of a formal dinner table with name cards, but instead of putting their names or just Grandma/Grandpa, put something like Grandma x 2 and see if they catch on. You could even write underneath that what your due date is ("on September 5, 2009"). When they come and it's time to eat, tell them to find their names on the place cards. You could also put "Big Sister" on your daughter's and maybe you could get her to ask them where her place is. You could also decorate the table with baby shower type decorations and blue and pink colors, etc. Let us know how you tell them!
Congratulations on your marriage and pregnancy! God bless your family!

It was this time of year when we told my husband's family too. Since the grandparents have a Christmas stocking for each grandchild, we got them another stocking with a note saying "Guess what..." or something to that effect. :)

Sit down to say grace before the meal. You will have everyone's undivided attention at this point. At the end of the prayer say something like this "I especially want to thank you for the new life you have entrusted to me, Amen" Look up and you won't believe their faces!
I did this at Thanksgiving when we found out about our first baby. It was wonderful.
Congratulations!
J.

Congratulations! How exciting!!!

Put 1 dinner roll or bun in your oven & ask your Mom to check on the stuff in the oven. She will say, "KK there is just a little bun in the oven."

We told my husband's parents on Father's day, we signed the card Love, Jim, H., (cats names) and Globby. Globby was our daughter's nickname in utro. They thought we got another cat, LOL!
You could get a card from the baby saying that they are excited to meet Gramma & Grampa on your due date.

Please let us know how you told them.

Congratualtions K.K.
The way we told our parents is, we had our older son wear a sweatshirt that said "I am a big brother".
We didn't say anything, we just waited for our parents to read the sweatshirt.
It was pretty fun waiting to see how long it took them to figure it out!!

I second the idea of having your daughter wear a "Big Sister" or "Big Sister in Training" t-shirt. Not only will it be a fun moment when you present the t-shirt to your daughter and she figures out what it means, you'll also get the joy of watching her show off her new t-shirt to the grandparents and their joy when they figure out what the shirt means.

If you want a different idea though...you could do a themed dinner. Cook baby-back ribs, baby carrots, baby potatoes, etc. and see if anyone picks up on the theme.

We did this when we had our third baby- we got white shirts for the boys and wrote i'm going to be a big brother on them along with the due date, then we waited to see how long it took them to notice the shirts. it was hard not to say anything, but it was fun to see their faces when they read the shirts!! Congratulations

Hi Krista!

Congrats!! I think a cute way would be to have your 5 year old wearing a shirt that say something like "Big Sister" on it! You could also have her draw each set of grand parents a picture of your new family!

Good luck!

Have dinner and have everything pink/blue like a babyshower and see how long it takes someone to guess. I would just buy napkins, plates etc.

Or

Have your daughter spill the beans some how.