baby shower {katie}

One of my best friends just had a baby girl! To celebrate the upcoming arrival of her sweet little baby we had to have a party because we are party girls! Our theme was simply pink & green. My friend Kate ordered the invitations from Tiny Prints & they were beautiful & very nice. My friend having the baby was Katie, not Carmen :)



We had a brunch and let me just say, everything was delicious! More details on the food in a minute.







Kate was hosting the shower with me but ended up having to go to a funeral. We planned a lot of the details together & she went to the Safeway floral dept to come up with a centerpiece. She & the florist worked together on a design, but it was way less money to put the arrangements together ourselves than it was to have the florist do it. Thing is, Kate is good at putting flowers together. I am not. I picked up the flowers on Friday afternoon & at some point late Friday night I stood at my counter for way too long arranging these babies. It was not going well & I almost gave up & decided to call Abby (who is seriously amazing at flower arrangements) in the morning to beg her to come do it. They worked out in the end and it's a good thing since Abby ended up having a hectic morning & really couldn't have come. I ended up getting lots of compliments on them which is always a nice pat on the back, even though I know I am the most amateur of amateurs when it comes to floral arrangements. I've ruined lots of flowers. Just saying. (I wish I'd gotten a close up)





The food:

Miyeko put together these awesome fruit & yogurt parfaits. They were so great that I've asked bugged her for very specific instructions a few times and I'm serving them at a stake Relief Society brunch I'm in charge of (the brunch part). She did more than just layer yogurt & granola & fruit. Plus I want details - what kind of yogurt, what kind of granola. You know, why mess with perfection? But look how much she dressed them up? And she says she's not crafty. Liar!



Abby made these cream cheese filled strawberries. Inspired by this recipe (found via Pinterest) but with her own modifications.



Kayla made Overnight Sausage and Egg Casserole from Our Best Bites. It was SOOO good! My family has a traditional egg/sausage casserole that we eat on almost any holiday, but after eating this one I might make it instead next time!



I made French Toast Soufle in ramekins instead of a 9x13. Jeremiah's mom got the recipe from his aunt Heather & made it for us a year or so ago & it's a new favorite. Since finding the recipe we make it along with our egg/sausage casserole at holidays.



The perfect companion to any amazing french toast casserole is definitely this buttermilk syrup. Heaven! My particular recipe is called Magleby's Amazing Buttermilk Syrup that my aunt Lorie gave to me, but there are lots of buttermilk syrup recipes out there. Kate found these super cute syrup dispenser's at the 99c only store in Mesa. Kate made several batches of syrup & everyone got to take home a dispenser full of pure awesomeness as their party favor!



Who would have thought bacon could be pretty? I came across the skewered bacon on Pinterest from this site & I think it's brilliant!



We only played 2 games. One was the extremely easy to throw together play-doh baby game. I re-found the idea on Pinterest (love pinterest!) and saw how cute this girl made it (plus she has some other good ideas too). Katie chose Abby's baby as the winner :)



The other game we played was baby gift bingo (don't know what the official name would be). In case you haven't played it it's a great baby shower game to take some of the attention off the mom opening gifts, which can be uncomfortable (for her). Give everyone a blank bingo card & have them fill in the squares with things they think the mom will recieve. Items like a blanket, pacifier, hair accessories, shoes, diapers, etc. Then as the mom opens presents the guests are checking off bingo squares. I gave a prize to the first person to get a bingo, but next time I will have 2-3 prizes prepared for the bingo game. Sara got a bingo pretty quickly and then the attention was totally back on Katie so it would've been good to have more prizes to keep it going.

I took a big step & ORDERED cupcakes! It was hard to do but so glad I did! Jeremiah was very proud of me! LOL Our hospital bakery is pretty great! These cupcakes were ding dong cupcakes with filling & ganache on top. They were excellent! Even Jeremiah, who doesn't really like cake/cupcakes, liked them.



It was a fun party and it's always great to spend time with friends & eat delicious food. I think it was a great way to celebrate Katie & her new baby girl! I'm so happy for her!

(2/25/12)

¡Una Fiesta! {4th Birthday Dora Party}

How is it possible that Ellie has really turned 4?! For her birthday breakfast she chose crepes. I was so thankful that Jeremiah was happy to make them since I was up late working on party stuff!

After her delicious birthday breakfast it was time to get ready for preschool! She was excited to be able to take the snack on her birthday. She took handisnack breadsticks & cheese, and these ice cream cake cupcakes (love!).

Ellie hadn't ever had a friend party before. She was SO excited about the party planned for after preschool! Ellie's first choice for a bday party was a baby doll tea party. Can you imagine how adorable that would be?! But since one of her 2 bff's is a BOY I just couldn't do a baby doll tea party. Enter the Dora Party.

(I made the printed invitations from this digital/printable set from Shery K Designs. I made the Backpack & Map based off of other ideas I saw online. All of the other party printables are from Cuties Parties. It was so much easier printing & cutting than buying a million pieces of cardstock & piecing everything. And she even customized the colors for me!)

For lunch we had Tico's taquitos & Tico's tacos (mini tacos), Boots' bananas, Dora yogurt, Backpack juice boxes, & water. I was going to make cute little signs for the food, but since everyone was in preschool & not yet readers I crossed that one off my list!

After lunch we decorated mini maracas! They were so stinkin' cute! I got them from Oriental Trading and they were 5" tiny & so so cute! I didn't want to deal with paint so the kids colored them with dollar store markers & decorated them with small Dora stickers and some stick-on rhinestones & little bling flowers. They loved doing this craft/activity!

After the maracas I read them the beginning of Dora's Birthday Surprise. In the book Dora has to go on a scavenger hunt to look for clues that will lead her to a birthday surprise. I substituted Ellie's name & some other words to let them know they were going on a scavenger hunt to find clues for a surprise. They loved this! They all knew that we needed the Map's help so we'd know which way to go (I made the map with posterboard & chalk pastels). Their first stop was Troll Bridge- construction paper taped across the sidewalk in the backyard with the Grumpy Old Troll guarding the way. They had to solve a riddle about birthday cake (I took it straight out of Dora's Birthday Surprise), and then I let them cross the "bridge" and I gave them their first clue - a blindfold (scarf). Next was Musical Falls- we have a couple of rock fountains in our backyard. They had to look under river rocks until they found the one with the pink star on it. The clue for that stop was a bat. The third place they had to go was Star Mountain- our playset. They had to climb to the top of Star Mountain & bring down an Explorer Star for the final clue- a couple pieces of candy.

With all 3 clues they guessed that the surprise was a pinata. They were all very excited! It was hilarious watching some of the kids try to hit the pinata. Almost half of them only used one hand to hold the bat & swing! :) Everyone got a turn & then we let Ellie have a few extra whacks & that was it. I'd completely forgotten to bring out the Dora goody bags that I'd planned on having them collect their candy in so they were all trying to hold as many pieces in their hands & shirts as they could until I got them their bags. :)

Next we did presents, then cake & ice cream. Jeremiah was super proud of me because I ordered a cake (from Victoria at the hospital bakery)! I've always made my kids' cakes & it killed me just a little bit at first to order a cake, but I'm so glad I did!

Ellie was utterly spoiled with the presents her friends gave her! She loves every single thing she received & has spent lots of time playing & coloring this past week.

I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the goody bags I made! I tried & tried to find small lavender gift bags online & it was a total fail. Unless I wanted to buy them in bulk (and when I say bulk I mean by the hundreds & thousands!). Instead I used brown paper sacks, folded them down around halfway, and glued a purple piece of cardstock to the front & then added Backpack's face, just like on the juice boxes (which were my sister Tara's idea). Here's the goodies the bags were filled with:

Star Jelly Bracelets - Oriental Trading; Fiesta Donkey toys - Oriental Trading; Dora pin back buttons - Love Bug Buttons; Dora snack containers - Target Dollar Spot; (they were filled with Dora fruit snacks); Play-Doh; Bubbles; Dora dress-up stickers - eBay; Dora pencils - eBay

Ellie loved her Dora the Explorer party! We rounded off the day with her favorite dinner - pasta carbonara. Both sets of grandparents were here for bday dinner. We're very fortunate to have them here. It was awesome having my mom's help before & during the party!!! Anyway Ellie got more presents & we had more ice cream cake cupcakes for her family party dessert. I don't think a 4 year old could have asked for a more perfect birthday!

I love you Ellie!!!
xoxoxoxo

A Lego Party!

Funny that I always wanted to have a baby in October. I had visions of awesome halloween birthday parties, of course. But Jack REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted a Lego party! Okay, honestly his first choice was Mario Bros, but I said no (I LOVE playing Mario Bros, but Jack & Mario Bros is a whole nother post). Once he realized there was no way that I would do Mario Bros he was set on Legos. Once I realized he wasn't going to change his mind I went to work on the party (meaning lots of time checking out other people's lego parties on blogs) and got excited!

Of course as I was up till I can't even tell you what time the night before the party b/c I'm the queen of procrastination, I kept thinking why am I doing this? What's the point? The kids would have a fun time if I bought a dollar pin the tail on the donkey game at WalMart & had cake & ice cream, right? And that led to how silly birthday parties really are. I mean you invite all these people that wouldn't normally give you a gift on your birthday but then they are suddenly required to. I was telling this to Jeremiah yesterday morning before the party & he looked at me funny & said "who are you?"

It made it worth it while I was getting ready for the party. First Jack was going through some Legos since I'd bought a ton on eBay to fill the pinata with. There had been some minifigs in the mix and he was asking if I was putting them in the pinata. I told him I wasn't because I thought he'd want to keep them & if I put them in the pinata he would most likely not get them. He said, "Oh thanks mom! I do want to keep them! You're the best mom ever!" Then he came up to me & gave me a hug & said, "I love you mom. Thanks for all the hard work you're doing for my party." Awwww! He's the best!

Well onto the deets.

Party setup.

(door sign idea from here)


The table centerpiece is a big lego pinata that I made. I forgot to take a close-up of it! Total bummer since you can't really tell what it is in most of the pics! Plus it would be nice to have a momento of my labor :) The party was from 3-4:30 so I kept the snacks simple: grapes/apples & cucumbers/tomatoes on skewers, cheese & cracker lego bricks & juice box legos.

(Juice box idea here, cracker idea here, green lego base idea here)


The party.

As the kids arrived they got a set of Legos to build their own race cars. I saw on someone's blog to check the Halloween aisle at Target for little packages of Legos - score! I was so stoked to find them b/c I'd been watching eBay for days & days & nothing at the time was working. Thank goodness it's Halloween time! Once the kids had their cars built they could choose some stickers to personalize it (since all the cars were the same). I'd planned on a Lego race for our first game but the first several cars couldn't even make it down the ramp. They were WAY out of alignment! LOL They'd turn to the side a little bit down the ramp! One of the boys must have figured out how to adjust them b/c later they all seemed to be going straight, but we never ended up having an official race. The kids loved the ramp & came back to it later during the party also.



After the "races" it was snack time. I was so glad to have Kate at the party to help - from this point she took the rest of the pictures during the party. Thanks Kate!!!

Next we played "pin the head on the minifig." Each kid got a minifig head that they drew the face on. Funny note about Jack's: The new minifigs have a little more detail to the faces so when he was going through the previously mentioned bag of eBay Legos (that were definitely older) & found the minifigs he commented that he really liked the heads. They were like the faces on some of the guys that his friend Tyler has. So I love that that's the face he decided to draw on his (and I have to say he did a GREAT job of copying it)! The little boy at the bottom L in this collage, Spencer, was the winner - he got his head dead on!

Next we had a Lego relay. The kids were divided into 2 teams & had to use a spoon to get Legos from a bowl to a jar. If they dropped their Legos on the way they had to put them back in the bowl & hand the spoon to the next kid. Everyone got several turns but it wasn't a quick relay at all! I thought that this was an age appropriate game when I planned it, but these kids were probably the youngest it would work for because there was mass confusion going on! LOL Even Ellie & Nixon (Kate's little boy. He & Ellie are both 2) played & did really well. They were both very careful & didn't drop their Legos.

Onto the pinata! Always the highlight of a party. Because we're moving into major candy season I was sold when I was looking for party ideas & saw that a few other people filled their pinatas with Legos. Brilliant (although more expensive than candy unless you could find a bucket at a yard sale, which I didn't).

And finally cake & presents! (The white stuff on the cake is powdered sugar b/c I'd read a few years ago that you can give cakes a nice smooth finish by patting them down w/powdered sugar. I've done it before & it worked out, but it didn't work this time. Most of it got dissolved into the cake like it should have, but it left a mottled appearance. Combine that with the ugly shade of blue frosting and what you have is a kind of gross looking cake.)

As his guests left Jack gave them each a goody bag with Lego candy (called Candy Blox by Dubble Bubble), a little coloring book I downloaded from this girl & put together, and a set of 5 minifig crayons that I bought all packaged & ready to go from eBay. The kids also got to take home their race cars & a cello bag w/their legos from the pinata.



Yay! It's over!!! My feet looked like hobbit feet as my sister Tara said at the end of the night. Even my toes were swollen! But Jack has thanked me several times & said what a fun time he had.

Worth it.

LEGO party invites

Guess what I'm working on this week?!

(Invite inspiration came from blissbloomblog & livinglocurto.)

About to Pop Baby Shower

My friend Ashley threw a baby shower for our other friend Amberlee in May. I was in charge of games & favors, and I went early to help set up. I also took pictures - not my best, but it was a fun shower nonetheless so I thought I'd share.

The theme was "About to Pop" and Ashley did a really great job with all the signage & the invitations & everything, staying with the "pop" theme.

So for the games I went with one traditional & 2 totally non-traditional :) I've always thought a baby picture guessing game sounded so fun but have never gone to the effort to put it together for any of the other times I've done shower games. It was well worth the effort!

Another game was that everyone got a balloon they had to pop & the balloon with a baby inside was a winner. I put pennies in the other balloons so that it wasn't so obvious which balloon hid a baby.

The 3rd game was a bubble-blowing contest! It was really fun to see everyone working on their bubble-blowing skills because some of the women there are typically more reserved & some of them were grandmothers (I've never seen any of mine or Jeremiah's grandmas blow a bubble!). Everyone was a super good sport & tried their best to blow a winning bubble! LOL

Totally simple but fun prizes: pop & popcorn (which btw I'm totally a dork & it was by complete coincidence that I ended up with Pop-Secret popcorn - LOL)!

And the favors...

Ashley (L) & Amberlee