Fourth of July

This year we celebrated together and served smoked meat, with party potatoes and anything else folks wanted to share.

I made a few patriotic items to serve with them.

 patriotic parfait

white sangria with blueberries, raspberries and pineapple cut into stars

 

 I also served strawberry mimosas, although we could not find strawberry juice so it was more champagne with strawberries.  It was still good so I am certain the champagne in strawberry juice would be yummy!

Frozen Water Party

The party was a compromise.  I wanted to do water as it is summer and hot (and hopefully not raining) and the kids need to be outside.  But she was insisting on Frozen even though I am over going to Frozen parties.  I used my plan for the invites adding 'Frozen' into it.  The four remaining sections have the date, time, RSVP, and "in lieu of gifts please donate to.." as I try to do.  So we had mostly all water toys and I add some "Frozen" food and fake snow, plus a cardboard Elsa & Anna.  The cake also got some Frozen love.

This is the cake.  I saw this one and thought it adorable so I just added Olaf for our compromised theme.  I tried to add the foil for Olaf's tanning like in his song.  It took many days because of the freeze time required but totally worth it!

The Frozen food labels and the summer food labels were both free printables.  There were snowballs (pirate booty or white cheese balls which I could not find), beach balls (orange cheese balls), pool noodles (Veggie Sticks), beach blankets (Fruit by the Foot), fish (Goldfish), Olaf's noses (baby carrots), life preservers (Fruit Loops because I wanted something that wasn't more candy), gummy butterflies, flower lollipops, ranch dip, apple slices, jello ice cubes and melted Olaf's (yogurt with pretzel sticks, eyes, and Mike and Ike orange candies).

Jello ice cubes was one of the snacks out.  I did follow the recipe but the layers did not work as expected.  Maybe my fridge was not as cold but the set up for the first layer should have been closer to an hour instead of 30 minutes.  I had moved it to the freezer but had already made the second layer so I needed to use it before it got too cool.  I should have checked it before making the second layer.  Needless to say, our ice cubes were just all blue.  Oh, and the instruction say to use an 8x8 dish but really you need one twice that size.

We had fake snow.  I tried three different recipes because I was curious how they were each turn out.  These links are where they came from: one, two, three.  I personally thought number one was the best of the three.  It felt fun in the mix.  Number two actually felt cold in my hands when mixing so that would have been my favorite if it would have just made more.  It took a large box of baking soda to get maybe half of one recipe of the other.  Number three seemed to mold better, but since the flour was not white white, it was not as white as the others.  I made them all the night before and none of them really worked the same the next day.  So there must be additional mixing needed after storing each one, or maybe my mix was just a little too dry originally.

I also made the sponge balls more for fun than anything else.  The water bombs were a nice addition for the smaller kids, and then when the bigger kids found them they had fun with them too.  Together with the beach balls and water guns, the bigger boys made the party fun for themselves.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party

I did a Mickey Mouse theme party for my son.  We had ears for everyone to wear when they came, although the young ones did not want to wear them while at the party just their older siblings.

I used cricut for the mouse ears with a cut round half-circle and white buttons.  This is also how the invitations were made.

More of his friends were able to come at the end so I had to improvise with elmo and friends cupcake toppers since I did not have enough mickey and minnie.  Good thing the kids do not care.

We served milk with the flavored milk straws which was Clarabelle's mooo juice and mooo mix.

Donald's popcorn

Pluto's puppy chow

Chip's dip & Dale's crisps.

Mickey's treats

Oh Toddles bugles

Pete's pretzels

Minnie pizzas

Daisy's dumplings

Hot Diggity Dogs

Goofy grapes

The goody bags has mickey and friends pez and stickers, a mickey whistle, and a crazy straw inside a reuseable small tote which has become my girls' new purses.

Here is the food labels I used.

Teacher Appreciation 2015

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed this year, so I just went with simple gift cards for the teachers.  And I did not get all that creative on the presentation either.  But this is for me to remember what I did so I can try not to repeat.

Thank you for being a light in the life of a child.

Thank  you for totes being an awesome teacher.

Thank you for helping me write a chapter in my story.

Thanks for making me feel like a star.

Thanks for sparking my creative juices this year.

I did a target gift card for all of the staff (it's a small school) and our extra curricular coaches/teachers.  I apparently forgot to take a picture.

This was something we decided to make special for a teacher from parts of a craft we did for a school auction item.  It turned out pretty nice.

I normally do something for the staff and teachers during this week to put in their break room.  This was from one of the days.  The rest were just non-creative food items.  Cupcakes & Brownies, Chips and Queso on Cinco de Mayo, Veggie and Fruit trays, rice krispie treats, and this no bake eclair.  I have made this cake so many times, and it is loved every time.  So easy that it's crazy.

Be Mine Valentine

These are the Valentine's from my kids for this year.

From the boy.  I used several free printables.

"Wheelie"

"Never tire of you" <- took me too long to post and can't find the link anymore

"You raced into my heart"

"I like how you roll"

From the girls.  I used this free printable.

Kid's Valentine Food

We have a party around Valentine's Day every year and kids are invited to come along.  This was the failed kid food this year.  It was much harder to keep the dough shaped like hearts than I expected.

Hello Kitty Party