“Tea at Three” Birthday Party

Last year, about 2 weeks before Gavyn’s 2nd birthday party, I had come up with the idea for her 3rd birthday party: A tea party. (FYI: I already have an idea for her 4th birthday party!) I really had no idea how to approach it. Vintage? Mad Hatter? Princess? British? Then I saw this:

Duff Goldman’s Electric Cupcakes (click picture to follow link)

I absolutely LOVED the color combinations, so I lead my thought process with that. I decided on a contemporary tea party. I was inviting boys to the party, so I didn’t want to alienate them with something too “girly.”

I also wanted to keep things traditional, so I served typical tea party finger foods: cucumber bites (instead of sandwiches), shortbread cookies (Walkers’ brand), scones, English muffins (instead of crumpets), mini-quiches, and Newtons.

I also had quite a spread of tea options: Market Pantry Decaf, Republic of Tea Mango Ceylon and Blueberry Acai, Zhena’s Gypsy Tea Mojito Mint and Berry Bellini, Bigelow Green Tea, Tazo Green Ginger and Earl Grey, Tetley British Blend, PG Tips, and Assam English Breakfast.

And I made a sun tea punch, using this recipe.

I decorated the table with a miniature Alice in Wonderland tea set, a miniature tea recipe box, books, and candles.

I displayed Gavyn’s cupcake in a cakestand with the miniature cupcakes. I set the other regular-sized cupcakes (for the kids) in tumbler cups with Trix cereal.

I decorated behind the table with a number “3″ (I make a number out of different materials each year for her birthday), a “Happy Birthday” banner I crafted, and melamine balloons that coordinated with the cupcakes.

I LOVED how the table looked in the end! (You can’t quite see them, but the flowers are in yogurt smoothie containers that I had painted the coordinating party colors. Thanks to my mother-in-law for arranging them!)

For the tea, I had plastic tea cups for the kids, teacups and saucers for the adults, a teapot, a bowl of sugar cubes, and a honey dispenser (filled with honey from my chiropractor’s bee farm).

For our guests, I covered our table with white drawing paper for the kids (and adults) to color. (I did this last year, and decided it was a good distractor for busy kids!) Also, I placed party favors in gift bags made to look like tea bags.

BEFORE

AFTER

Gavyn had SUCH a good time!!! I enjoyed myself, and I’m glad that everyone else did, too! This was the first year that Gavyn has been interested in opening her own presents, so she had a blast with all her friends ripping into her gifts! My little girl is growing up so fast! Thanks to all who celebrated with us!

Now, time to take a breath before executing Christmas decor!!!

33 Beers Birthday Party

Here’s another blog entry for an event from last month!

My husband turned 33 and it had been a while since we’ve thrown a big party in his honor. I got the idea of a beer party when I came across the beer journal “33 Bottles of Beer.”

Thus began the planning! I wanted the colors to be “manly,” so I stuck with black, brown, and gray/silver. And I wanted the food to be a different take on bar food.

There was one specific beer I wanted to focus on: Rolling Rock. Their bottles have the mysterious number “33″ on the back! Originally, I wanted to get a keg, but we couldn’t find a distributor. So my sister-in-law ended up buying all the Rolling Rock in our city! I’m serious.

To go along with the beer journal, my SIL and I visited a couple stores to select 33 different/interesting beers for everyone to sample. We had domestics and imports. Darks and lights. Sorghum and seaweed.

After all 33 beers were sampled, those who finished the task were asked to decorate a paper plate to be displayed on our mantle! Total plates: 4.

DECORATIONS:

I made a banner using brown stencils glued onto black cardstock…attached to wool yarn.

I wrapped black yarn around 2 beer bottles and attached a square of burlap with “33″ written on it. The bottles held bunches of dried wheat.

FOOD:

Galvanized buckets with snacks: Cracker Jack, Bottlecaps candy, Chex Mix, Gummy Cola Bottles.

Store-bought giant pretzels with honey mustard dipping sauce.

Beer Cheese Dip (no picture)

Buffalo Chicken Dip (no picture)

Blue Moon Cupcakes and Guinness Cupcakes

Non-alcoholic drinks: Lemonade and Lime-infused Water

Everyone had such a blast! And my husband had an awesome time with his friends and family!

Derby Day

We had some friends over to enjoy all that is the Kentucky Derby. My plan was to serve traditional food, so I did some research. I figured I wanted everything to be bite-sized…because the race itself lasts 2 minutes!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures of any food…except one! As soon as they hit the table, they were gobbled up!

I got some recipes from the Kentucky Derby website (with links):

Brie Delight
Benedictine Spread
The Early Times Mint Julep

Then there were the easy foods:
Fruit tray w/ cream cheese dip
Veggie cups w/ Ranch dressing
Chicken Salad (a friend’s recipe)
Banana Nut Bread (from a box…shh!)
Sweet Tea
Bloody Marys

The ONE thing I got a picture of:

No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake Bites
Ingredients:
2 cups chopped strawberries
1/4 cup sugar, divided
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 Tbsp vanilla
3/4 cup Cool Whip Lite
30 Mini Fillo Shells

Method:
1. In a container, combine strawberries and 1/8 cup sugar. Stir well. Cover container and set in fridge.
2. In a bowl, add cream cheese, remaining 1/8 cup sugar, and vanilla.
3. With a hand mixer, beat on low until mixture is smooth.
4. Add Cool Whip and mix until well blended.
5. Fill shells with mixture and set in fridge for an hour.
6. Before serving, top with strawberries.

I’m pretty sure that was all the food we had!

For entertainment, we had a horse raffle: put in $5, randomly select a horse’s name out of a cup, the winner gets the money!

I won! (Even though my husband drew the most favored horse!)

We all enjoyed the race even more since we were financially involved! There was lots of yelling and jumping! Mostly from my husband because his horse was in the lead the whole time…until my horse came up from the pack!

I think we’ll keep the raffle a tradition from now on!

I’ve added The Kentucky Derby to my bucket list…but not necessarily the $1000 Mint Julep

Congrats to “I’ll Have Another” and his owners and jockey! It’s great to see a debut horse win!

Whisk(e)y & Chocolate Birthday Party

http://i.storieapp.com/embed/storie/3OvV

Homecoming Housewarming

Our family moved into our new house this past spring.  It was a fixer-upper, to say the least!  We wanted to have a housewarming party, but we wanted to get the house “mostly” finished.

Mostly = finished downstairs, arranged upstairs, and clean!

We gave ourselves a deadline of October 1st, which is when we planned our party.

My husband came up with the idea of a Homecoming party because we moved back to the city where he grew up.  The problem was, where he went to high school and the high school we are currently zoned for are not the same.  In fact, they’re rivals!

To be fair, we went tied in the colors of the school we were zoned for.  One day, we may be donning the purple and gold colors with pride because it’s where our daughter will go to school!  (If we still live here in 15 years!)

THE DECOR

To decorate the mantle, I made a quick banner using felt squares and stick-on letters.  I found some paintable foam fingers at Michael’s and personalized them to my heart’s content!

I made these bullhorns using the paper-mache Christmas trees.  I cut off the tips and painted them in purple and gold.  I finished them off with a glitter spray.

Instead of making full-sized pennants, I decided to make Pencil Pennants.  I cut a purple foam sheet into triangles, punched holes in them, decorated them with puff paint, and put them on yellow #2 pencils.

For a little extra decor, I placed some folded paper “origami” around the living room.  I made a fortune teller, a note to my husband, and some rings.  (Originally, the rings were folded out of dollar bills, but I didn’t want to leave money around my house!) I also had a bunch of squishy footballs, just to tie in the Homecoming feel!

Because I know you want to know what the note read:

Classy.  But he still hasn’t answered….

When I first thought of hosting for a high school homecoming-themed party, I thought of the food.  The first food I thought of was cartons of milk.  (FYI: actual cartons with milk in them are hard to find.) I decided, though, that I didn’t want to have the typical high school cafeteria fare…but I wanted to incorporate it. So, to include milk cartons, I made a banner with milk cartons that I folded out of cardstock.

 

THE FOOD

Pizza

Food that I commonly associate with high school is PIZZA.  I had originally planned on getting squares of pizza, but as I mentioned before, I wanted to play off the idea.  Enter: PIZZA DIP.

Pizza Dip
Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temp
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup mozzarella, grated
• 1/2 cup parmesan, grated
• 1 cup pizza sauce
• Preferred pizza toppings, optional (pepperoni, green peppers, olives, etc.)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F
2. Mix the cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, 1/2 of the mozzarella, and 1/2 of the parmesan. Spread it across the bottom of a pie plate.
3. Spread the pizza sauce on top.
4. Sprinkle with the remaining cheeses.
5. If desired, add pizza toppings.
6. Bake until the cheese is melted and bubbling. (About 20 minutes.)
7. Serve with crusty bread or Triscuits.

French Fries

Potato Planks

Ingredients:

• 1 pound potatoes
• vegetable oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp dry mustard
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder

Method:

1. Set the oven to Broil.
2. Do not peel potatoes. Cut them lengthwise into thin slices.
3. Place potatoes on ungreased pan; brush with oil.
4. Mix the salt, sugar, paprika, dry mustard, and garlic powder in a small bowl.
5. Sprinkle the potatoes with half of the seasoning mixture.
6. Broil the potatoes for about 10 minutes.
7. Remove the pan, then turn the potatoes.
8. Brush with oil, then sprinkle with remaining seasoning.
9. Broil for 5 minutes, until potatoes are golden brown.

Salad Bar

No party is complete without a veggie tray!  This was our “Salad Bar.”  Funny enough, the biggest consumers of this dish were the toddlers at the party!

Sack Lunch

Of course, not every kid in school bought cafeteria food.  Some brought their own lunch.  Most popular sack lunch item: Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich.  I turned it into a simple dessert!

PB&J Cobbler
Serves 12

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/2 cups crunchy peanut butter
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups strawberry preserves

Method:

1. Heat oven to 350 F.
2. Place butter and sugar in mixer with paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high until mixture is fluffy, about 2 minutes.
3. On medium speed, add eggs and peanut butter.  Beat for 2 minutes.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together salt, baking powder, and flour.  Add to the mixer on low speed.
5. Add vanilla.
6. Transfer 2/3 of the batter to a 9×13 greased dish.  Spread evenly.
7. Spread jam over peanut butter mixture.
8. Top with remaining peanut butter mixture.
9. Bake until golden, about 45 minutes.

Ice Cream

Who doesn’t love ice cream!  My favorite ice cream novelty in school was always the classic ice cream sandwich.  This is a very simple recipe!

Ice Cream Sandwich Dessert
Serves 12

Ingredients:

• 12 ice cream sandwiches
• 12 ounces Cool Whip
• 12 ounces hot fudge topping

Method:

1. In a 9×13 dish, arrange 6 ice cream sandwiches.
2. Spread half of the Cool Whip over the sandwiches.
3. Spoon hot fudge topping over the whipped topping.
4. Arrange remaining 6 sandwiches over the fudge.
5. Top with remaining Cool Whip.
6. Cover and freeze. (Can be frozen for up to 2 months.)
7. Remove from freezer 20 minutes before serving.

Vending Machine

If you were like me in high school, you lived off of junk food courtesy of the vending machine!  I offered up bagged chips and bite-sized candies.  (Thank you Halloween candy section!)  I grabbed some dark chocolate Hershey’s Kisses and almond Hershey’s Kisses to keep within the purple-and-gold color scheme!

For our beverages, I made my orange dreamsicle punch.  (Vanilla ice cream and orange soda.)  The original plan was to spike the punch (with vanilla vodka from the “Teachers’ Lounge” bar) after the kids left, but there wasn’t any punch left to spike!  Oh well!

I had a blast hosting this party, and I thank each and every person that showed up!  It was so much fun that I didn’t get a chance to snap any pictures of us hanging out, giving tours of the house, playing on the piano, building a fire in the firepit (thanks to my assistants “Jonny Rags” and little Anna Grace), and drinking “Apple Pie” that my brother made!

Can’t wait to do this again!