Even before we found out we were pregnant, I knew I wanted to have a gender reveal party. The idea of finding out the gender of our baby with all of our family and friends surrounding us, sounded like such a fun idea!
I had the whole thing planned out down to the very last detail. It was going to be a football-themed party. Complete with game ticket invitations….
…and a personalized cake design.
I had also planned a some games, accompanied by a variety of afternoon hors d’ oeuvres.
My husband, Jordan, and I wanted to be surprised with everyone else at the party – so we didn’t find out the gender at the ultrasound appointment. The tech simply handed us a sealed envelope and away we went. It took all of my willpower not to peek on my way to the bakery. But I made it and instructed the baker to fill our cake with pink or blue frosting, accordingly. AND I made sure they knew that I DID NOT want to find out until we cut the cake.
Everything was set. All plans were in order. What could go wrong?
The big day had finally arrived. It was the longest 4 days of my life between our ultrasound appointment and the party day. But alas, it was here. It was a busy day, the morning was a flurry of loading up supplies in the car and last minute food preparation.
We had an appointment with our realtor at our future home before we had to go set up for the party. Away we went, our car loaded down with party supplies. On the way our appointment, we picked up our beautiful cake and lunch, planning to sit in the car and eat while we waited for our realtor to arrive.
And this is where everything went wrong.
Our car was too full to put the cake in the backseat, so Jordan had to hold it on his lap. No big deal. But having a giant cake on your lap, makes it difficult to eat lunch. So we decided to put the cake on the top of the car. Genius.
One thing you should know about pregnant women (if you don’t already know) is that they have to go to the bathroom a lot. So when we finished our lunch, surprise, I had to go to the bathroom. With 10 minutes to spare before our realtor appointment, we decided to make a quick trip to the closest gas station.
It took a good 4 or 5 blocks before we came to a horrifying realization.
Oh. My. God. The Cake.
I immediately stopped the car. It may have been in the middle of the road, or on someone’s yard, I don’t really recall exactly. What I do recall, with photo-realistic accuracy, was the sight of our cake in the rear view mirror. It was just how you’d imagine a cake flung onto the road at 35 mph. Total carnage. And only 1 hour to party kick-off.
Thankfully, from our distance, we couldn’t determine if it was a blue or pink cake. BUT the envelope with the gender inside was still attached to the cake box, among its splattered contents at the corner of 52nd and Bahnson. So we were faced with a few options.
We agreed that we didn’t want to find out our baby’s gender by looking at roadkill cake, so going back for the envelope was out. I don’t think I was speaking coherent English at this point, so Jordan had to call our bakery and explain what we had just done. Fortunately, the baker sympathized with our situation. She said they had our order on record, more importantly, still knew if it was supposed to be pink or blue, and that they could have another cake ready in 30 minutes.
We managed to pick up our Round Two cake, while taking several detours around the accident scene, and made it to our party in time. It was a total, absolute miracle.
Special thanks to the HyVee Bakery on 57th & Cliff in Sioux Falls, SD. You truly saved the day. And to Jeff Galde, for going back and taking a picture of the original cake in all it’s roadkill glory. That’s certainly one to add to the baby book.
Bieber Design 