Where I Got My Party Ideas

I promised several friends that I would post where I got all of my ideas for Danny's 30th b-day party. But before I start I must thank Heidi for helping me with all of the planning and putting together etc. Without her keeping me on track, and helping me with decorations and the cake (ESPECIALLY the cake) I'm sure this party wouldn't have been as great at it was. Thanks again Heidi!!!

Anyway, I got most of my ideas from Kara's Party Ideas. She put together a similar party for her husband, and I just loved it. The ideas for the invites, food, cassette tapes, color schemes, candy, games, and 80's souvenirs (bracelets and glasses) all came from her. Could have done a whole lot more, as you will see if you visit her site. But working within a budget didn't allow everything - which was fine. The bracelets and glasses were purchase from Oriental Trading Company with a deal that they had for first time online purchases. That worked out nicely:o)

As for the 3D shapes I found a site that would allow you to print templates of polyhedra. So I printed tons of smaller cubes and pyramids to cutout and tape together then strung them up with fishing line. I also made several larger scale 3D shapes by tracing them off of my laptop. It was the perfect decoration for the party, because it looked great and was inexpensive.

While searching for pacman decorations I came across this paper mobile that didn't look to hard to make, so I tried it and gratefully it turned out much better than I could have hoped.

I think that the last big part of the decorations was the 80's slang words put up everywhere. I just did that on my own, again by tracing large letters from my laptop screen and cutting them out. Super easy and again inexpensive.

As for games, it made sense to guess 80's TV intros and sounded fun, so that was a no brainer. I used a TV tunes site to download all of the intros, and boy did it bring back the memories. Such fun! Also, I wanted something where kids could participate, so the guessing game of how many licks to the center of a tootsie pop fit too.

I got a lot of the music that was playing from the library. All of the 80's mix cd's were pathetic or expensive, so the library was an excellent resource too. I can't think of anything else that people specifically asked about, so I'm going to call this info good, and if you have any other requests let me know ;)

Bodacious 30th Birthday!

Happy 3-0 Danny! We celebrated Danny's 30th birthday last night by having a totally tubular 80's themed party. It was radical, and everyone had a gnarly great time! Alright enough with the 80's slang for now ;)

Honestly though it was an awesome party and it was fun to put Danny in the lime-light for the night. Something I haven't done for him - practically ever. I'm happy that he had a good time and I hope that he knows how much I love him and want him to have a fantastic 30th.

We ate pizza, downed kool-aid and soda in massive amounts and also had rubik's cube birthday cake and pacman cupcakes, with strawberry revel ice cream on the side. We had 80's tunes playing and guessed 80's TV sitcom and cartoon show intros for prizes - 80's candy. You could guess how many licks it would take to reach the center of a mini tootsie pop. (257 if you were wondering, I did all of the licking myself ;) There were slap bracelets, friendship bracelets, jelly bracelets and sunglasses for all to wear. Which made for some fantastic pictures - kids and adults alike. To top it all off, what 80's party would be complete without playing pacman on the big screen?

Again it was a great time, and made even better by all of Danny's (and my) friends that showed up to help us celebrate. Happy 30th birthday Danny! Enjoy the pictures and video's - I know I had a fun time taking them.

The birthday boy. (Of course I snapped the picture while he was eating :) Don't you love his 80's attire? Gotta love the electric blue polo with the fuchsia suit coat! The guests. Fran's outfit was superfabatastic! I wish I had a better pic.The rubik's cube cake and pacman cupcakes.

More guests and food.

The drinks - Derrick couldn't get enough of the koolaid squeeze-it's.

The candy. See Deva and Sophia diggin' in the 80's candy jar? How perfect ;)
Avery enjoying her Now and Later.

The totally radical women! The bodacious men - of course playing pacman.

The gals. Gotta love the 80's glasses!

Lexie and her sunglasses and bracelets. You go girl!

The kids and bracelets.Brooklyn and all of her bracelets - she has them all the way up her arm. Way to be an 80's material girl Brooklyn!

Evie and the 3D decorations. So cute! The singing and cutting the cake.

The music and the dancin'! Go Mary! Go Sara! Go Deva! Go Blake!

The end of the night loopyness. So funny!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It has been a fun St. Patrick's day. Mary learned in preschool that wearing green prevents you from being pinched. So she insisted that everyone in the family wear the most green possible, to cover all of our bases. Thankfully, we only have green shirts so we didn't look ridiculous. She came home with a homemade leprechaun and hat, exclaiming that she found a pot of gold. Derrick loved the fake gold coins, and lined them up over and over again.

Today, I made a green breakfast for us. Mary thought that was super neat. She didn't know that milk could be green and actually consumed more green eggs than she does normally. Derrick wasn't too certain what to think about the green cream cheese on his pancake.

Tonight we had corned beef and cabbage with the Water's who started the Irish dinner tradition last year. Which we all enjoyed while listening to Irish folk music. An all around good old Irish time was had by all. Especially Sophia and Derrick, who enjoyed dancing to the music.

Addicted - and Surprised to Be

It's official. Actually, it's been official for awhile. I am now just realizing the extent of my addiction. I'm not ashamed to admit to it, however I am surprised at how easily I became ensnared. No, I'm not talking about the Twilight books. I'm referring to blogging.

I have taken to checking my "family" blog at least once a day - typically while the kids are napping, or after they are in bed for the night. Something I didn't expect to do, or even want to do. I now also have a new reason to take pictures of my kids. I look forward to snapping pictures of Mary and Derrick doing something silly just so I can blog about them, and of course brag.

As many of you know, I have an extremely tough time keeping in contact with people. I am always intending to make that phone call or write that note to someone, but it rarely happens. Therefore, I truly started my blog for the purpose of staying in contact with family and friends better. Which I do - or at least I try to do. I just didn't expect the process to be quite so enjoyable.

I also have rediscovered my joy of journaling. I once up on a time was an avid journal writer. Since kids, not so much, and I regret it - a lot. Blogging has helped alleviate the regret of not writing everything down. Once again a pleasant surprise of jumping on the blog band wagon.

I'm so grateful that I live now, in this day and age, where technology helps me keep in touch and put down in prose, pictures and video the happenings of everyday life. So, I know I've said this before, but thank you again to all of my friends who helped me see past my prejudices of blogging. I couldn't be more satisfied with the outcome.

π Day

We were invited to celebrate pi day this evening. I think it is one of the neatest and tastiest traditions I have been introduced too. I'm convinced and determined to continue the tradition with our family. Every year on March 14th (3.14) the Sorenson family makes a ton of pies to share with family and friends. This year they went above and beyond my expectations. There were over 30 pies, all looking divine and simply scrumptious. To give you a small insight into the heaven on earth I was admitted too, here is a list of pies that were available to sample. In no particular order:

Hershey Bar, Triple Berry, Chocolate Silk, Berry Blast, Key Lime, Snickers, Pumpkin, Sugar Cream, Lemon Supreme, Cherry, Pecan, Apple, Lemon, Orange Chiffon, Coconut Cream, Banana Cream, Strawberry Rhubarb, Pomegranate Cream, Carmel Apple.

I can't state too many times how enjoyable it was to sample as many pies as my heart desired. Thankfully, I didn't make myself sick, but there is always next year ;o)

Interestingly enough you would think that Mary and Derrick had eaten enough pie to last them at least a month, but no. When we arrived home Mary was adamant that she have a slice of the pineapple pie I made. She was upset that she didn't get any at the "pie party" as she called it. So, this picture is of Mary eating mommy's pineapple pie.

Twirling

Mary has always enjoyed spinning in circles. It most likely stems from daddy spinning her around super fast, in his arms, and then setting her down to walk. Which she finds hilarious. Lately, her spinning has been an everyday occurance, so I caught it on video. When I started taping she was already so dizzy that she couldn't stand up and walk in a straight line. Maybe you had to be there to think that it was funny, but I still can't watch without chuckling to myself. We've got one quirky Mary muchkin on our hands.

Grilling, Slush, and Derrick

So, it warmed up here about a week ago and all of the snow turned to slush. Danny, being the wonderful husband he is, decided to grill hamburgers and sausages for us. Can you say delish! The first grilling opportunity of many this season. While grilling, we let the kids out. Mary immediately took to her tricycle. No surprise there. Derrick on the other hand, started digging in the slush. He had a great time, and just impressed upon me a little bit more that he is a fair-weather-friend. Meaning he loves the warm weather so much more than the cold. Yay for spring, which is around the corner!

Requested Recipes

So, I have had recipe requests frequently over the past few months and so I decided to post them. If you have any other recipe requests let me know and I will see what I can do. Furthermore, I'm currently compiling a list of recipes I want to request - so be ready. ;)

Easy Pie Crust

2 C. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 C. buttermilk*
2/3 C. vegetable oil

Measure flour and salt into medium bowl. Add milk and oil. Let everything sit for a minute to settle in, then stir only until dry ingredients are blended enough to pull together with hands to form a ball. Divide dough in half. Roll each portion between two pieces of wax paper. Remove top piece of wax paper. Ease dough into pie plate and remove other piece of wax paper. To conserve wax paper, I use the opposite sides to roll out the other half.

* I substitute 1 tbs lemon juice + enough milk to make 1 C. for the buttermilk. Obviously I don't use the entire cup, but it is easier than keeping buttermilk on hand.

Butterhorn Rolls - a recipe from Connie Schreiner

1 tbs yeast
1/4 C. warm water
1/2 C. butter
3/4 C. milk
1/2 C. sugar
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 tsp salt
4 - 41/2 C flour
1/2 C. butter

Combine yeast and water. Melt 1/2 C. butter in large microwave safe bowl. Add milk immediately. Blend in sugar, eggs, salt, and yeast. Stir in enough flour to make a soft dough (I typically add 4 C. flour all at once. Then add the remaining 1/2 C. gradually to get to the "soft dough" stage). Cover and let rise 2-4 hours (2 hours has always been enough for me).

Punch down dough. Divide in half. Roll half of dough out into a 12-14 inch circle. Spread with some of the second 1/2 C. melted butter. Cut pie fashion into 12 pieces. Roll into crescent shape, place on cookie sheet, spread with more melted butter and let rise for another 2 -4 hours (again, 2 hours is usually sufficient).

Bake at 375 for 5 to 7 minutes, until lightly browned.

Bon Appetite!

Dinosaurs and Fossils

This week in preschool Mary learned about dinosaurs. I haven't seen her this excited about learning something new in awhile. I bet we check out a lot of dinosaur books the next time we go to the library. She came home on Tuesday, telling me about how dinosaurs with sharp teeth eat meat and dinosaurs that don't have sharp teeth eat vegetables. They got to sample meat and vegetables - beef jerky and celery. Much to our downstairs neighbors dismay, I'm sure, she stomped around the house like a dinosaur practically all day. Today she was beside herself when she showed me the fossils they made. She informed me that they are baby dinosaur feet because they are so small. Well, she had to have me take pictures of her fossils. Then she wanted to take a picture of the Stegosaurus she colored. Which she did, surprisingly well, without my assistance.

More Than Two Months Later

I decided back in November that I wanted to focus on the nativity story more than anything else over the holiday season. We sang all of the nativity primary songs every night before bed. I think we watched, at Mary's request "the special Christmas movie" (what Mary called the nativity movie) at least once a week. Furthermore, we acted out the nativity on Christmas Eve with friends. So should I be surprised that months later Mary is still pretending to be Mary, with Derrick as Joseph and her doll as baby Jesus? She still turns our love seat into a stable, something she has done since December. She takes the back cushions down, piles blankets all around and calls this the stable. Her creativity never ceases to amaze me. I'm ultimately quite happy, (o.k. brag happy) that of all of the things/ideas she could have had stuck with her about Christmas, that the nativity and the birth of Christ is what stuck the most. Helps me feel like I'm doing something right. Now if I could only figure out how to get her and Derrick to put the couch cushions back when they are done, that would really be something! ;)