Gender reveal parties are unique ways for parents to discover the sex of their child and share that excitement with others.

Mat and Ellie Pilcher decided to share the news with members of Morrison Fire Department, of which Mat is a member. A spray of water from a fire hose would reveal the sex of their first child, turning blue for a boy, or pink for a girl.

“We are so excited,” said Ellie. “We had no idea, right up until the water turned blue. Through this whole thing my husband wanted a boy. This whole time he’s been saying ‘It’s going to be a boy,’ ‘It’s going to be a boy.’ Every old wives tale that said it would be a girl, he said ‘Nope, it’s going to be a boy.’ As soon as that water turned blue, he was ecstatic. So was I, but I was open to either one.”

Gender reveal parties have skyrocketed in popularity over the past decade. The parties are meant to be suspenseful and fun.

It usually goes like this: A medical professional writes down their determination of the baby’s sex on a piece of paper without telling the expectant parents. The parents then entrust a friend to keep that information secret and construct an elaborate plan to display either pink or blue through some unique method at a designated time.

This can be done by cutting into a cake with one of the colors inside, or launching rockets with either pink or blue smoke being emitted.

Other methods include hitting a baseball that will explode with either blue or pink coloring, or bursting a piñata with one of the colors as confetti inside.

“We had our gender ultrasound,” said Ellie. “The ultrasound tech wanted to know if we wanted her to put it in an envelope. We did. She asked us to close our eyes while she took a picture and wrote down the sex of the child. We did.”

The couple took the envelope to Morrison Fire Department and handed it to Morrison assistant fire chief Jason Blalock, who the couple trusted to open the envelope and correctly add the appropriate color dye into the water.

“We handed Jason the envelope and I said ‘Now don’t pull a Steve Harvey and get it wrong,’” said Ellie referring to the game show host who announced the wrong beauty pageant winner. 

The idea and logistics behind the reveal was all Mat’s, according to Ellie, and was quickly embraced because they consider Morrison Fire Department members and their spouses as family.

Ellie’s due date is May 13.