I LOVE parties! Honestly, I want to be a party planner. Except that I want every party to be perfect like how it looks in my mind, and other peoples' stupid ideas sometimes frustrate my idea of 'perfection' so I have reconsidered my ability to be a party planner.
But still, I LOVE parties!
That's one thing that I'm very excited for this year; while I won't be planning nearly the number of surprise shindigs as occurred last year, I'll have ample excuses to throw mini-parties that will be made by small details and flowing themes. A new baby? "Meet the Baby!" party! A little boy turning 4? Knight-themed birthday party! Sister-in-law getting married? Wedding shower! Selling tea? As many tea parties as I can fit into my schedule!!!
I received my login information for selling Steeped Tea products yesterday and started reading through some ideas they gave for holding theme parties. It really got me thinking about what sort of parties I would love to hold:
A Spa party with a second consultant selling Avon or Arbonne products doing pedicures while the ladies sip Coconut Calypso tea and eat frozen yogurt with fresh berries served in waffle cones
A Rainy Day party focused on a group that shares a common hobby, like books or knitting, where they'll eat a freshly baked zucchini loaf and sip Dark Chocolate Chai tea.
A Summer Nights party where we sit around the fire, roast marshmallows and drink Apple Crumble Tea
A Backyard Block Party with the grill running all afternoon and iced Mint Julep Herbal tea waiting to refresh the crowd
A Play Date Picnic at a park where the kids will play while the moms taste Summer Sun Mate and then everyone cools off with BubbleGum Fruit Tea Popsicles
A Mar-TEA-ni Party with the girls featuring a Caribbean Daiquiri tea signature cocktail and anti pasti platters with gourmet cheese selections and dark chocolate aplenty
A classic Afternoon High Tea featuring tea sandwiches, fresh fruit, scones and showcasing the Earl Grey de la Creme and the Pink Lady White Tea. Pretty hats optional (or mandatory - I'd be cool either way)
Every single one of these ideas is layered with opportunities for me to go over and above! Would I really dream of having a Spa Party without the right music, lighting and aromatherapy? Or do you honestly think I could stop myself from making tea cup candles as centerpieces for my High Tea party?? I'm so excited!
And that Knight Birthday Party I mentioned in passing? That's totally a real thing. Gabe had every option in the world for party themes and he chose knights and princesses (I blame Backyardigans). I was worried he'd feel a little ripped off because he was dressed up as a knight for Halloween, but hey, one less costume I have to buy. I started scheming for this last night a bit: I picture games of Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Dragon, jousting practice and maybe even a life-sized medieval-themed Angry Birds built around a cardboard castle. Although perhaps it will be Angry Dragons and the dragon egg hunt will have to come at the end... I'm going to make a tunic for my two youngest boys (weird... I'll have three boys by then!), I'll be dressed as a queen, Matt gets to be the king, and Gabe will be the top knight. We'll dress up Gabe's rocking horse to be a royal steed, we'll make banners, shields and princess hats, and play in a big cardboard castle that the kids can decorate. I think the hardest part is going to be the food. Short of writing "Ye Olde" in front of everything, medieval food for kids is actually kind of hard. Medieval foods was typically very hardy, with not a lot of flavor, but lots of salt brining and smoking. I'm not sure about feed a bunch of 4 and 3 year olds drumsticks, especially not when half the group will be dressed in their finest princess clothes. So I'll need to think on that.
But before all of this happens, first I get to plan something for Valentines Day!!! I've informed Matt that this is his year to plan something whimsical and creative as a surprise for me, so while I won't be hiding 2 dozen hand-made valentines around the house again this year, I think I will serve dinner on the floor around our coffee table and we can have a demi-romantic living room picnic dinner (I say demi-romantic because the kids will still be with us for dinenr that night). I'm hoping to make borscht, maybe cook up those crab legs in my freezer and perhaps I'll find some asparagus on sale which I can wrap in proscuitto (although I much prefer my proscuitto around apple slices...) Oh, and I'd better have cheese of some sort.
And who knows what crazy thing Matt will do for us? At least he acknowledged he was joking when he suggested he write "Happy Valentines Day" in the snow with his urine.
That's why I'm the one who gets to plan the parties in our house.
Mrs. VanderLeek ;)
Showing posts with label Party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Party. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Friday, November 9, 2012
Harry Potter Party and Chocolate Frogs
It was nearly painful to not mention this beforehand, but last weekend I threw my sister a surprise Harry Potter party!
Well, the Harry Potter part was a surprise. The party was supposed to be but due to scheduling conflicts, we had to tell her.
In any event, it happened, and it was awesome!
My sister, my mom and I have read all the books and seen all the movies, repeatedly, and while I knew my sister hoped to one day throw a Harry Potter party for her kids, I knew it was mostly for her own sake! So when we decided to throw a party for her milestone birthday (I'm not telling what milestone!) I had a ready idea for a theme.
But, the catch, as with all slightly-obscure party themes, was going to be making sure that everyone felt included, even if they didn't necessarily get the reference.
So, it took a little bit of extra planning, but we put together a party theme which only Harry Potter fans would really get. A 'secret theme' party, if you will. That meant no direct references, no wands, no spells, etc.
The fun part was coming up with the obscure references! They had to be subtle, because while you can pass a lot off for a birthday party on November 3rd as simply being 'generic Halloween theme', a giant snitch would be a dead giveaway. Don't get me wrong, there was a snitch, but it was small, and hard to find, just as a snitch should be!
The Decorations:
A stuffed white owl on the mantle
A croaking stuffed toad on the bench seat
Black and Yellow streamers, napkins, etc (my sister did an online sorting and was put in Hufflepuff)
A golden snitch hidden among some house plants (I put paper wings on a ping pong ball using glue dots then spray painted it all gold)
A locket casually hanging off a shelf
We found a 'starry sky' vinyl wall covering which we hung on the ceiling of the sitting room (like the enchanted ceiling in the Great Hall)
A Goblet of Fire in the bathroom (a goblet with an LED tealight set in the bottom, with orange and red tissue paper 'flames' coming out of the top)
We also found brick-patterned decorative paper that we hung at the end of the hallway, set a trunk in front of it, along with an old corn broom with a cloak hanging off of it. For anyone who looked closely, they'd see that the broom actually had FireBolt written on the handle
I had also planned to make some giant spider legs to hang over the side of the fence, and some spider egg sacks to go along with that, but at the last minute I changed my mind since my niece isn't a huge fan of spiders.
For the kids:
A sword for my son to play with (try as I might, I could not find any with a ruby-embedded hilt!)
A 'diadem' favor for the little girls at the party
A ball toss game that looked suspiciously like a quidditch hoop... (a hula hoop taped onto a broom handle and then spray painted gold entirely)
My oldest boy was dressed in a red sweater with a gold stripe on it (Griffyndor)
My youngest boy was dressed in blue and bronze, as was I (Ravenclaw)
My niece was dressed in green (Slytherin)
The Menu:
Meat Pasties (really, just sausage rolls from M&Ms)
Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans (actually just Jelly Bellies - I didn't want my grandma to get a pepper flavored one!)
Sherbert Lemons (from a local British Candy Shoppe)
Licorice wands (black licorice)
Pumpkin Juice (Orange punch served out of a bowl set in a hollowed out pumpkin)
Butterbeer cupcakes
Chocolate Frogs
There were a few things that I wanted to do that didn't work out (either I ran out of time/energy, I couldn't find them in stores, etc):
I looked everywhere for a gold ring with a big black stone and couldn't find one!
I was going to make glowing orbs like the prophecies in the Ministry
I was going to get my cat-loving aunt to dress up in a pink dress-suit like Umbridge
I tried to get some treacle fudge and clotted creams but the candy store was between shipments from their British supplier
And, as with every good Harry Potter party, I had to have at least one invitation in the form of an acceptance letter to Hogwarts! I gave this to my sister when I arrived at her house before the party. It read:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mrs. C-----,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Diagon Alley is in a present state of disrepair, so we have made alternative arrangements for our students at this time. You will find many items that you need in the wizarding world throughout the course of the afternoon. (Do try the Sherbet Lemons – they’re delightful!)
Given the close proximity of many Muggles, we request that you adhere to the rules laid out in the International Statute of Secrecy. We have taken pains to ensure the Muggles will not notice anything amiss in the presentation of the wizarding world artifacts – to them it will appear as standard Muggle fun.
Term begins at 2:00. We await your owl no later than 1:00.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
I found a copy of the Hogwarts crest online that adorned the top of the page and tried to make the font and style match the letters in the movie as much as possible.
For the guests that guessed the theme, I had this written on little strips of paper:
Congratulations! You are part of the wizarding world! Spot as many Harry Potter references as you can – you’ll be surprised where you find them!
Oh, and don’t tell the Muggles! *
*in accordance with the International Statute of Secrecy
And now... the chocolate frogs!
They were the highlight of the party! Whether you are familiar with Harry Potter or not, you'll still enjoy a chocolate frog!
At first, I tried looking for a local supplier. Chocolate frogs have been popping up in gourmet chocolate shops all over so I didn't actually have a hard time finding some... but I did have a hard time with the fact that they were $2.50 a piece! For a gift for my sister, that would have been fine. But to have enough that everyone at the party could try one? Not so much. Instead, I looked online for a mold and found one, that after shipping cost around $5. Next, I bought two big bags of bulk chocolate - it wasn't super high-end, but better than your typical melting wafers or waxy chocolate chips. I bought a bag of semi-sweet and a bag of milk for a total of $11. My plan was to make the chocolate go as far as possible by filling the majority of the chocolates. I didn't worry about buying anything for the fillings - I figured I'd make it up as I went.
My next hurdle was the fact that I've never actually molded chocolates before! I'd never even attempted to temper chocolate! So I did some research and found a website that described a method of tempering which was little more than stirring some non-melted chocolate into some pre-melted chocolate. It's a little more detailed than that, but seemed a lot easier than the more drawn out method I've seen done. I put in some forethought to my process and decided to try some solid frogs first with a slightly higher ratio of milk to semi-sweet. I discovered very quickly that I need a new candy thermometer. It's hard to keep chocolate at a consistent temperature when you don't know what temperature it's at to begin with! I took pains to brush a thin layer of chocolate into each mold first so I could be sure that all the grooves were filled. Then I poured in more chocolate, brushed it around evenly and tapped the mold gently on the counter to try to get the air bubbles out. Once the molds were filled I set them in the fridge to quick-set my chocolate. After about two minutes I pulled the chocolate out while it was still soft, and I sprinkled pop rocks on top of each mold! I then let them set completely, popped them in the freezer quickly for a better release from the mold, and then turned them out on a plate. The pop rocks were on the bottom of the frogs of course and they looked fantastic! I was a little worried about my tempering process not working out so well, so I upped the ratio of semi-sweet to milk chocolate since semi-sweet has a slightly higher melting point.
For all of the filled chocolates, after I brushed in my first layer of chocolate I popped the molds in the freezer quickly before I filled them. For my liquidy fillings I then popped them back in the freezer just until the filling set before I sealed the bottoms with more chocolate. This worked really well!
What fillings did I use? Whatever I had in the house! The first couple I actually stuffed with gummi worms because my sister loves chocolate-covered gummis. Then I remembered a leftover jar of some Pampered Chef Chocolate Raspberry dessert sauce in the fridge. I did a tray of those and then started wondering what to do next... until I opened the freezer to grab out some molds and saw a bag of leftover red wine ganache in there! I made the ganache for some fancy desserts a few months back and put the remainder in the freezer to use when I had something it would go with. I softened it quickly with some warm water and filled another tray with that! I had enough chocolate for one more tray, and I remembered that I had some little individually-wrapped caramels in the cupboard that I've been meaning to use up. I heated them in the microwave with a good bit of whipping cream and then stirred them til they were smooth. I ended up with a nice, stringy caramel. Those were the first ones to go at the party. They were absolutely devoured.
I did get the comment that while they were wonderful, the frogs were quite rich, except for the solid pop rocks ones oddly. If I had been more sure of my tempering it would have been better to keep the higher milk chocolate ratio apparently. But honestly, who is going to really complain about a chocolate frog? They loved them!
Overall the Harry Potter Party was a success! It would be fun sometime to do one without needing the theme to be discrete, but this was a great challenge too!
And now I have another challenge before me... How to remake a soup I pulled from the freezer. It was a taco chicken soup, but it lost too much moisture in the freezer. I added a can of tomatoes, some chicken broth, black beans and corn, but I'm completely out of cumin or taco seasoning! Looks like I need to get creative!
Mrs. VanderLeek ;)
Well, the Harry Potter part was a surprise. The party was supposed to be but due to scheduling conflicts, we had to tell her.
In any event, it happened, and it was awesome!
My sister, my mom and I have read all the books and seen all the movies, repeatedly, and while I knew my sister hoped to one day throw a Harry Potter party for her kids, I knew it was mostly for her own sake! So when we decided to throw a party for her milestone birthday (I'm not telling what milestone!) I had a ready idea for a theme.
But, the catch, as with all slightly-obscure party themes, was going to be making sure that everyone felt included, even if they didn't necessarily get the reference.
So, it took a little bit of extra planning, but we put together a party theme which only Harry Potter fans would really get. A 'secret theme' party, if you will. That meant no direct references, no wands, no spells, etc.
The fun part was coming up with the obscure references! They had to be subtle, because while you can pass a lot off for a birthday party on November 3rd as simply being 'generic Halloween theme', a giant snitch would be a dead giveaway. Don't get me wrong, there was a snitch, but it was small, and hard to find, just as a snitch should be!
The Decorations:
A stuffed white owl on the mantle
A croaking stuffed toad on the bench seat
Black and Yellow streamers, napkins, etc (my sister did an online sorting and was put in Hufflepuff)
A golden snitch hidden among some house plants (I put paper wings on a ping pong ball using glue dots then spray painted it all gold)
A locket casually hanging off a shelf
We found a 'starry sky' vinyl wall covering which we hung on the ceiling of the sitting room (like the enchanted ceiling in the Great Hall)
A Goblet of Fire in the bathroom (a goblet with an LED tealight set in the bottom, with orange and red tissue paper 'flames' coming out of the top)
We also found brick-patterned decorative paper that we hung at the end of the hallway, set a trunk in front of it, along with an old corn broom with a cloak hanging off of it. For anyone who looked closely, they'd see that the broom actually had FireBolt written on the handle
I had also planned to make some giant spider legs to hang over the side of the fence, and some spider egg sacks to go along with that, but at the last minute I changed my mind since my niece isn't a huge fan of spiders.
For the kids:
A sword for my son to play with (try as I might, I could not find any with a ruby-embedded hilt!)
A 'diadem' favor for the little girls at the party
A ball toss game that looked suspiciously like a quidditch hoop... (a hula hoop taped onto a broom handle and then spray painted gold entirely)
My oldest boy was dressed in a red sweater with a gold stripe on it (Griffyndor)
My youngest boy was dressed in blue and bronze, as was I (Ravenclaw)
My niece was dressed in green (Slytherin)
The Menu:
Meat Pasties (really, just sausage rolls from M&Ms)
Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans (actually just Jelly Bellies - I didn't want my grandma to get a pepper flavored one!)
Sherbert Lemons (from a local British Candy Shoppe)
Licorice wands (black licorice)
Pumpkin Juice (Orange punch served out of a bowl set in a hollowed out pumpkin)
Butterbeer cupcakes
Chocolate Frogs
There were a few things that I wanted to do that didn't work out (either I ran out of time/energy, I couldn't find them in stores, etc):
I looked everywhere for a gold ring with a big black stone and couldn't find one!
I was going to make glowing orbs like the prophecies in the Ministry
I was going to get my cat-loving aunt to dress up in a pink dress-suit like Umbridge
I tried to get some treacle fudge and clotted creams but the candy store was between shipments from their British supplier
And, as with every good Harry Potter party, I had to have at least one invitation in the form of an acceptance letter to Hogwarts! I gave this to my sister when I arrived at her house before the party. It read:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mrs. C-----,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Diagon Alley is in a present state of disrepair, so we have made alternative arrangements for our students at this time. You will find many items that you need in the wizarding world throughout the course of the afternoon. (Do try the Sherbet Lemons – they’re delightful!)
Given the close proximity of many Muggles, we request that you adhere to the rules laid out in the International Statute of Secrecy. We have taken pains to ensure the Muggles will not notice anything amiss in the presentation of the wizarding world artifacts – to them it will appear as standard Muggle fun.
Term begins at 2:00. We await your owl no later than 1:00.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
I found a copy of the Hogwarts crest online that adorned the top of the page and tried to make the font and style match the letters in the movie as much as possible.
For the guests that guessed the theme, I had this written on little strips of paper:
Congratulations! You are part of the wizarding world! Spot as many Harry Potter references as you can – you’ll be surprised where you find them!
Oh, and don’t tell the Muggles! *
*in accordance with the International Statute of Secrecy
And now... the chocolate frogs!
They were the highlight of the party! Whether you are familiar with Harry Potter or not, you'll still enjoy a chocolate frog!
At first, I tried looking for a local supplier. Chocolate frogs have been popping up in gourmet chocolate shops all over so I didn't actually have a hard time finding some... but I did have a hard time with the fact that they were $2.50 a piece! For a gift for my sister, that would have been fine. But to have enough that everyone at the party could try one? Not so much. Instead, I looked online for a mold and found one, that after shipping cost around $5. Next, I bought two big bags of bulk chocolate - it wasn't super high-end, but better than your typical melting wafers or waxy chocolate chips. I bought a bag of semi-sweet and a bag of milk for a total of $11. My plan was to make the chocolate go as far as possible by filling the majority of the chocolates. I didn't worry about buying anything for the fillings - I figured I'd make it up as I went.
My next hurdle was the fact that I've never actually molded chocolates before! I'd never even attempted to temper chocolate! So I did some research and found a website that described a method of tempering which was little more than stirring some non-melted chocolate into some pre-melted chocolate. It's a little more detailed than that, but seemed a lot easier than the more drawn out method I've seen done. I put in some forethought to my process and decided to try some solid frogs first with a slightly higher ratio of milk to semi-sweet. I discovered very quickly that I need a new candy thermometer. It's hard to keep chocolate at a consistent temperature when you don't know what temperature it's at to begin with! I took pains to brush a thin layer of chocolate into each mold first so I could be sure that all the grooves were filled. Then I poured in more chocolate, brushed it around evenly and tapped the mold gently on the counter to try to get the air bubbles out. Once the molds were filled I set them in the fridge to quick-set my chocolate. After about two minutes I pulled the chocolate out while it was still soft, and I sprinkled pop rocks on top of each mold! I then let them set completely, popped them in the freezer quickly for a better release from the mold, and then turned them out on a plate. The pop rocks were on the bottom of the frogs of course and they looked fantastic! I was a little worried about my tempering process not working out so well, so I upped the ratio of semi-sweet to milk chocolate since semi-sweet has a slightly higher melting point.
For all of the filled chocolates, after I brushed in my first layer of chocolate I popped the molds in the freezer quickly before I filled them. For my liquidy fillings I then popped them back in the freezer just until the filling set before I sealed the bottoms with more chocolate. This worked really well!
What fillings did I use? Whatever I had in the house! The first couple I actually stuffed with gummi worms because my sister loves chocolate-covered gummis. Then I remembered a leftover jar of some Pampered Chef Chocolate Raspberry dessert sauce in the fridge. I did a tray of those and then started wondering what to do next... until I opened the freezer to grab out some molds and saw a bag of leftover red wine ganache in there! I made the ganache for some fancy desserts a few months back and put the remainder in the freezer to use when I had something it would go with. I softened it quickly with some warm water and filled another tray with that! I had enough chocolate for one more tray, and I remembered that I had some little individually-wrapped caramels in the cupboard that I've been meaning to use up. I heated them in the microwave with a good bit of whipping cream and then stirred them til they were smooth. I ended up with a nice, stringy caramel. Those were the first ones to go at the party. They were absolutely devoured.
I did get the comment that while they were wonderful, the frogs were quite rich, except for the solid pop rocks ones oddly. If I had been more sure of my tempering it would have been better to keep the higher milk chocolate ratio apparently. But honestly, who is going to really complain about a chocolate frog? They loved them!
Overall the Harry Potter Party was a success! It would be fun sometime to do one without needing the theme to be discrete, but this was a great challenge too!
And now I have another challenge before me... How to remake a soup I pulled from the freezer. It was a taco chicken soup, but it lost too much moisture in the freezer. I added a can of tomatoes, some chicken broth, black beans and corn, but I'm completely out of cumin or taco seasoning! Looks like I need to get creative!
Mrs. VanderLeek ;)
Monday, April 23, 2012
Boy's Pirate Party!
I know, I know, it's been forever. I'm so sorry! Life kind of ran away with me over the last couple of weeks. But it's, almost, back to normal now, so I should be able to post more frequently again. This past weekend we held our son Gabriel's 3rd Birthday Party - and it was a pirate party! This was the first party we had thrown for Gabe where we actually invited kids his age and had games, etc. and I must say, it was a success! All last week I had prepped for the party by decorating, shopping for piratey things and baking. I opted to keep the menu fairly simple: crackers, cheese strings, jello, brownies, veggies, cookies and marshmallow pops for the treat bag. But, of course, calling goldfish crackers by their name just didn't seem very piratey, so they were labelled as "Pirate Sushi". The cheese strings were cut and pulled to look like Baby Squid, the juice was called "POG Grog", the brownies were Brownie Boats, the crackers were under the inflatable parrot and were labelled "Polly's Crackers", the veggie dip had a pepper octopus coming out of it and the cookies were shaped like sand dollars! 
Oh Yes, and the jello was blue, with candy fish suspended in it, and whipped cream sea foam on top! The kids loved that. The pirate marshmallow pops were very nearly the reason I decided to have a pirate party. I had seen them done on Pinterest and decided to give it a try. Turns out, they were quite easy to do, although I did have a few hiccups with mine. For starters, I opted to buy edible-ink markers to draw the pirate faces on instead of piping icing. This would have been a great idea except that I also decided to coat the marshmallows in white melting chocolate instead of leaving them bare. Turns out that edible markers won't work on such a waxy surface. After trying about three times I put the markers away for another day and made a super-thick, dark grey icing (basically just icing sugar and dye) and piped it on. FYI, if you try to do these, coating them with a higher end white chocolate will help keep the waxiness down and should let the edible markers work on them. But, piping the icing worked out fine - just make sure your icing is thick enough that it doesn't run. I also had to work quite strategically to figure out when to dip the top of the marshmallows in red sugar. I tried too early for a couple so the chocolate drooped, I tried too late for others, so the chocolate wouldn't hold the sugar, but for the most part I nailed it. These were definitely a hit with the kids! 
As I alluded to above, the food was a breeze. I made the cookies in advance and froze them (if you follow the link to the recipe, no, I did not make that actual recipe - but it wasn't for lack of trying. Every grocery store I visited either didn't have tapioca starch or was out of it), the brownies and marshmallow pops I made the day before (and the brownies take 20 minutes from start to finish), the veggie tray and dip my mother provided and the jello was a quick task the night before, and 2 minutes to whip the cream and drop in the fish right before we served it. There was one last treat that I had very little to do with. My dear brother decided to carve a couple mini watermelons for the kids! 
He made a shark and a boat, both of which the kids, and Gabe in particular, thought were amazing! Besides food at this party, we also had decorations. I took a hint from some other party-throwing moms on Pinterest and used plastic tablecloths as swag on my ceiling. 
Matt had a cardboard roll from a job he had finished last week, which we used to make a mast, and we tapped into my shell collection to fill up my designated decor shelves on our bookcase. I also made a paper banner with some piratey patterns that we hung on one wall, and I used some dollar store finds, like gold coins, eye patches and fish net to round out the pirateyness. Oh yes, and I should mention, twine is an invaluable asset when holding a pirate party. I had that stuff all over the place! I used vanilla to dye some paper, one for a treasure map and the other as a sign for the front door that read, "All ye who enter BEWARE!" - funny story, some girl guides were coming around during the party, they got to the front door, saw the sign and ran off! Whoops! 
Of course, as the hosts for the event, we needed to dress up like pirates! Value Village is an endless source of unintentional pirate costumes. From tunic tops with puffy sleeves to bandanas and belts, you may have to look to find it, but there's always something there! 
With all of the prep done, it was on to the actual party! We had 11 kids - 6 toddlers, 4 babies, and 1 older sibling. There were also parents (Moms and Dads), aunts and uncles, and grandparents thrown into the mix! While we waited for people to show up, the kids played with Pirate Pets - Gabe's stuffed toys like turtles, monkeys, rats, etc, and the jellyfish in a bottle I had made last month. Once most-everyone was there we started with a simple game: Walk the Plank! With a bunch of three year olds, we used a wide plank right on the ground and just let them walk across. They thought it was great! We broke out a narrow plank for the older kid, and any toddlers who wanted to try it. From there we went into the kitchen for a craft while we turned on Pirates of the Caribbean downstairs for anyone who didn't want to observe. The kids made jellyfish out of styrofoam bowls. They colored the bowls and then we glued googly-eyes and streamers on! 
After the craft we had a cannonball fight with paper balls. At first the kids weren't very clear on the instructions, but once there were about 50 paper balls in front of them, it was a natural instinct to throw them! We stopped for a snack before we went outside to have our treasure hunt! I had drawn a map in advance with such labels as "Here Be Dragons!" (on the road) and "Quicksand!" (on the driveway). The kids went from the "Safe House", past the "Boat House", through "The Trenches", around "The Forest", over "The Impassable Wall" and through the "Wild Brambles" to find the treasure chest that was loaded up with chocolate coins and the pirate marshmallow pops. The kids all had lots of fun! The parents had lots of food, Gabe got to see lots of his little friends, and at the end of the party, it only took me an hour to get my house almost completely back to normal (there's still a mast in my dining room, but I'll work on that). Hope you like the pictures and the ideas! Mrs. VanderLeek ;)
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Pink, Pirates and Eggs
ARRRRRR! PIRATE!!!
One of the favorite sayings of a little bunny named Max is frequently echoed in our household. There's just something about pirates that makes all little boys dream of being one someday. We've decided to get it over with in our household and let Gabriel be a pirate for a whole day - the day of his third birthday party.
The invitations have been sent (the Facebook invitations, that is) and the planning has begun. I've decided that since we're going to do a theme at all, we might as well do it right. ...Which is why I bought a wooden model 3-mast, 22 gun ship that's 18" tall and 2' long. Not exactly a necessary purchase, I'll admit, but while I was cruising through Value Village with the pirate theme in the back of my mind, and I happened to see this gorgeous ship at the end of one of the aisles, well... what would you have done??? So, $15 later and I am now the proud owner of a ship - an expenditure which my husband has no wish to censure, and my comment of, "We can sell it after the party" was utterly scorned by him this evening.
As I alluded to above, the pirate ship was not my main reason for being at Value Village. Tomorrow is my niece's 3rd birthday party (she and Gabe are 8 days apart) and the theme that she picked was "pink". That's it - Pink. Everyone will be wearing pink, the house will be decorated with pink, the food will be pink... It's all pink. Well, neither Matt, nor Gabe, nor Nathaniel had any pink clothes, so I opted to hit up Value Village for outfits that would last them for the party. Nathaniel was a complete strike out, but my sister had already offered up an outfit for him - check. Matt got an American Eagle pink plaid shirt that I plan to inherit after the party - check. And Gabe... well that one was hard. Anything pink in his size was frilly, flowery, and obviously feminine. There was nothing of any real potential, except... blue. From several unfortunate incidents involving bleach and nice clothes of mine, I have learned that dark blue bleaches pink. You see where this is going, right? So I picked up a blue shirt, brought it home, made a stencil and sprayed it with bleach. I put a cardboard piece inside to keep the bleach from seeping through the layers because I wanted a different design on the front and the back. First I sprayed it with a light mist of diluted bleach. Then I sprayed a more focused stream quickly across the front, leaving brighter blotches. Next, I sprayed a stream of more concentrated bleach around the stencil to make it stand out more. I let that set a bit, removed the stencil, flipped it over and sprayed a stream on a diagonal across the back. The end product actually looks quite cute! And with all my picture taking today I failed to get a shot of this project, so I'll have to post it another day!
Tomorrow is Good Friday and as a Christian, Easter is one of the most important times of year for me. To celebrate the fact that my Savior not only came, and died, but also rose is huge - it's what my whole life revolves around actually.
I tried to convey that to Gabe in a way that a two year old would understand. He might not fully understand the ramifications of Christ's atonement of sin, but He does get that Easter is a big deal in our household. The rest we'll chip away at bit by bit.
Today we prepped for Easter by decorating eggs. We had never done this with Gabe before so he was rather confused when I showed him a picture of brightly colored eggs. "Why are those eggies silly, Mommy?" Sigh... I love him. Gabe's recently decided that his favorite color is green, and for the first time he's actually sticking by a 'favorite'. Everything from his underwear, to his dinnerware has to be green. Care to guess what color his eggs were?
I opted to dye Gabe's eggs with KoolAid, but I wanted them to be more fun that just a solid color. So once the eggs were boiled and cooled we broke out the crayons. Gabe had fun drawing on the eggs and he even thought that was enough beautifying of the eggs - until he saw the green KoolAid. He had loads of fun gently stirring the eggs in the KoolAid and he kept checking to see if they really were turning color. Unfortunately, after taking out the second egg I went to get my camera, realized it was low on batteries and detoured to take them out. When I came back the third egg was a little... overdone. You can see that it looks flaky in some of the pictures. Fortunately I was able to wipe that off and then salvage the egg by more dying later, but be warned! - That's how it goes down when you let KoolAid eggs sit too long!
Once I got the boys down for a nap (which they both skipped yesterday, which explains the lack of a post from then - no naps = no time for fun projects!) I went about dying the eggs I had blown out earlier in the week. Matt never tracked down a dremel for me to make a clean hole so I could fill them with chocolate, so I decided just dying them would have to do for this year. I followed Martha Stewart's instructions for Marbleized Eggs and I realized something - regular food coloring is not the same as the stuff she uses. I'd probably have to use a whole little bottle of food coloring to get anywhere near the intense color she has on some of her eggs. For the base color you can let the egg sit longer to soak up more of the color, but for the actual marbleized effect, it's a one-pass deal; you dip the egg in, roll it once and take it out - done. Anyway, you can see from my pictures that some of my eggs worked better than others. I'm reasonably happy with the end product, but I think that for next year I'll have to order some crazy strong food dye so I can make some more stunning eggs.
I did 5 eggs with a yellow base, and 5 with a blue base. I love blue speckled eggs (check out my Easter board on Pinterest for proof), but some of my favorite ones I did were with the yellow base. The blue ones all ended up looking too similar. In person you can see subtle differences, but I wasn't able to pick them up in the pictures with the lighting I had (I take pictures on my bench seat in my living room to get natural light in, but it was too late in the afternoon when I took these for really good lighting)((Incidentally, I almost fell off my bench seat today trying to get better angles for some shots...))
Well, it's about an hour after I started writing this, thanks to interruptions from excited little kids who don't understand the importance of sleep. I've still got laundry and packing to do, not to mention I was planning on showering tonight. Oh yes, and at some point, I've got to sleep too!
Mrs. VanderLeek ;)
One of the favorite sayings of a little bunny named Max is frequently echoed in our household. There's just something about pirates that makes all little boys dream of being one someday. We've decided to get it over with in our household and let Gabriel be a pirate for a whole day - the day of his third birthday party.
The invitations have been sent (the Facebook invitations, that is) and the planning has begun. I've decided that since we're going to do a theme at all, we might as well do it right. ...Which is why I bought a wooden model 3-mast, 22 gun ship that's 18" tall and 2' long. Not exactly a necessary purchase, I'll admit, but while I was cruising through Value Village with the pirate theme in the back of my mind, and I happened to see this gorgeous ship at the end of one of the aisles, well... what would you have done??? So, $15 later and I am now the proud owner of a ship - an expenditure which my husband has no wish to censure, and my comment of, "We can sell it after the party" was utterly scorned by him this evening.
As I alluded to above, the pirate ship was not my main reason for being at Value Village. Tomorrow is my niece's 3rd birthday party (she and Gabe are 8 days apart) and the theme that she picked was "pink". That's it - Pink. Everyone will be wearing pink, the house will be decorated with pink, the food will be pink... It's all pink. Well, neither Matt, nor Gabe, nor Nathaniel had any pink clothes, so I opted to hit up Value Village for outfits that would last them for the party. Nathaniel was a complete strike out, but my sister had already offered up an outfit for him - check. Matt got an American Eagle pink plaid shirt that I plan to inherit after the party - check. And Gabe... well that one was hard. Anything pink in his size was frilly, flowery, and obviously feminine. There was nothing of any real potential, except... blue. From several unfortunate incidents involving bleach and nice clothes of mine, I have learned that dark blue bleaches pink. You see where this is going, right? So I picked up a blue shirt, brought it home, made a stencil and sprayed it with bleach. I put a cardboard piece inside to keep the bleach from seeping through the layers because I wanted a different design on the front and the back. First I sprayed it with a light mist of diluted bleach. Then I sprayed a more focused stream quickly across the front, leaving brighter blotches. Next, I sprayed a stream of more concentrated bleach around the stencil to make it stand out more. I let that set a bit, removed the stencil, flipped it over and sprayed a stream on a diagonal across the back. The end product actually looks quite cute! And with all my picture taking today I failed to get a shot of this project, so I'll have to post it another day!
Tomorrow is Good Friday and as a Christian, Easter is one of the most important times of year for me. To celebrate the fact that my Savior not only came, and died, but also rose is huge - it's what my whole life revolves around actually.
I tried to convey that to Gabe in a way that a two year old would understand. He might not fully understand the ramifications of Christ's atonement of sin, but He does get that Easter is a big deal in our household. The rest we'll chip away at bit by bit.
Today we prepped for Easter by decorating eggs. We had never done this with Gabe before so he was rather confused when I showed him a picture of brightly colored eggs. "Why are those eggies silly, Mommy?" Sigh... I love him. Gabe's recently decided that his favorite color is green, and for the first time he's actually sticking by a 'favorite'. Everything from his underwear, to his dinnerware has to be green. Care to guess what color his eggs were?
I opted to dye Gabe's eggs with KoolAid, but I wanted them to be more fun that just a solid color. So once the eggs were boiled and cooled we broke out the crayons. Gabe had fun drawing on the eggs and he even thought that was enough beautifying of the eggs - until he saw the green KoolAid. He had loads of fun gently stirring the eggs in the KoolAid and he kept checking to see if they really were turning color. Unfortunately, after taking out the second egg I went to get my camera, realized it was low on batteries and detoured to take them out. When I came back the third egg was a little... overdone. You can see that it looks flaky in some of the pictures. Fortunately I was able to wipe that off and then salvage the egg by more dying later, but be warned! - That's how it goes down when you let KoolAid eggs sit too long!
Once I got the boys down for a nap (which they both skipped yesterday, which explains the lack of a post from then - no naps = no time for fun projects!) I went about dying the eggs I had blown out earlier in the week. Matt never tracked down a dremel for me to make a clean hole so I could fill them with chocolate, so I decided just dying them would have to do for this year. I followed Martha Stewart's instructions for Marbleized Eggs and I realized something - regular food coloring is not the same as the stuff she uses. I'd probably have to use a whole little bottle of food coloring to get anywhere near the intense color she has on some of her eggs. For the base color you can let the egg sit longer to soak up more of the color, but for the actual marbleized effect, it's a one-pass deal; you dip the egg in, roll it once and take it out - done. Anyway, you can see from my pictures that some of my eggs worked better than others. I'm reasonably happy with the end product, but I think that for next year I'll have to order some crazy strong food dye so I can make some more stunning eggs.
I did 5 eggs with a yellow base, and 5 with a blue base. I love blue speckled eggs (check out my Easter board on Pinterest for proof), but some of my favorite ones I did were with the yellow base. The blue ones all ended up looking too similar. In person you can see subtle differences, but I wasn't able to pick them up in the pictures with the lighting I had (I take pictures on my bench seat in my living room to get natural light in, but it was too late in the afternoon when I took these for really good lighting)((Incidentally, I almost fell off my bench seat today trying to get better angles for some shots...))
Well, it's about an hour after I started writing this, thanks to interruptions from excited little kids who don't understand the importance of sleep. I've still got laundry and packing to do, not to mention I was planning on showering tonight. Oh yes, and at some point, I've got to sleep too!
Mrs. VanderLeek ;)
Friday, March 16, 2012
Holiday Prep
What do you guys think of the new look? It's not as whimsical as the last, but I like the organization better, personally! Let me know how you like it!
I'm lucky enough to have my husband home with me for most of the day today, which means I got out to do some grocery shopping. I picked up the basics: flour, bananas, milk, Guinness... That's right - it's St. Patty's Day tomorrow! I mentioned some of my plans already and while I'm working on finalizing plans today, I'm sure that what I end up with tomorrow will still vary. For now, however, I am still planning on making Irish Soda Bread, Irish Cream Fudge, and now I'm adding Steak and Guinness Pie to the list. I've got some White Tail Deer stewing meat in my freezer that has been begging me to cook it, and while White Tail Deer isn't exactly Irish (Red Deer or lamb is more their pace), I'm sure the Guinness will more than make up for my lack of Irish meat. I whipped up the Irish Cream Fudge tonight, along with a Frozen Strawberry Dessert so with those two things out of the way I hope my plans for the Steak and Guinness Pie will go unimpeded.
I love planning things. Have you noticed that? I love having parties, making big deals out of small things, and using any excuse I can to make some fun food. Sometimes, however, I don't have to stretch too far to have a good reason to throw a party. Case and point: Gabe's upcoming third birthday. My darling boy will be turning three at the end of next month and this will be the first year that we're going to throw a real party for him! Since it will be his first big bash, I'm going to go all out! We're having a Pirate themed party, and are inviting all the kids from our weekly Play Date, not to mention some of our other friends of the family, and so we're expecting to have up to 20 kids, plus parents on top of that. We'll have eye patches for everyone, Walk the Plank games, and treasure hunts. For the food I've found some adorable ideas on Pinterest, including Sand Dollar cookies, Pirate Marshmallow Pops, and Octopus Wieners. I'll also be mixing up my own special POG Grog (Papaya Orange Guava) and topping cupcakes with pirate themed toppers and jolly rogers! I'm so excited to plan everything about this party! I have dreams of decorating my backyard with billowing sails (I've tried numerous times to have a backyard party, and it never seems to work, but it has to sometime, right?) and of 20 knee-high scallywags chasing our poor dog around the yard with plastic swords! Sigh... the sweet bliss it will be!
And somewhere between St. Patty's Day and the end of April falls one of my favorite holidays (in the strictest meaning of the word 'holiday')... Easter! The day of promise, hope and salvation is one of the happiest times of the year. I love the meaning, I love the season, I love everything that goes with it.
This year I plan on doing lots of teaching times with Gabriel and lots of fun crafts with him. We'll read bible stories, we'll decorate eggs, and we'll definitely eat chocolate. In fact, I may even make the chocolates that we eat. I felt a little inspired by Martha Stewart Living for April (I subscribe, so I got that issue this past week). The article that Martha contributes herself each month usually has to do with life around her house, and how she organizes, hosts, or crafts. This month it was about Easter dinner at her house and certain traditions that she always keeps up. One tradition for her was molding chocolates in antique tin molds. The beautiful little bunnies looked so adorable that I instantly went on Ebay and tried to track down some antique chocolate molds myself. While the average price was between $90 and $400, I haven't given up hope of tracking down an antique one at one of the stores in my city. But until that happens, I may order some new plastic molds and try my hand at tempering and molding. Who knows, maybe I'll like it enough to really have fun with it (remember that red wine ganache I made at Valentine's Day? Wouldn't that make a great filling??)
Well, my first batch of Irish Soda Bread is almost out of the oven, so I think I'll skip off now to do some tasting! Ta ta!
Mrs. VanderLeek ;)
Until that sweet day, however, I suppose I'll have to be contented with
I'm lucky enough to have my husband home with me for most of the day today, which means I got out to do some grocery shopping. I picked up the basics: flour, bananas, milk, Guinness... That's right - it's St. Patty's Day tomorrow! I mentioned some of my plans already and while I'm working on finalizing plans today, I'm sure that what I end up with tomorrow will still vary. For now, however, I am still planning on making Irish Soda Bread, Irish Cream Fudge, and now I'm adding Steak and Guinness Pie to the list. I've got some White Tail Deer stewing meat in my freezer that has been begging me to cook it, and while White Tail Deer isn't exactly Irish (Red Deer or lamb is more their pace), I'm sure the Guinness will more than make up for my lack of Irish meat. I whipped up the Irish Cream Fudge tonight, along with a Frozen Strawberry Dessert so with those two things out of the way I hope my plans for the Steak and Guinness Pie will go unimpeded.
I love planning things. Have you noticed that? I love having parties, making big deals out of small things, and using any excuse I can to make some fun food. Sometimes, however, I don't have to stretch too far to have a good reason to throw a party. Case and point: Gabe's upcoming third birthday. My darling boy will be turning three at the end of next month and this will be the first year that we're going to throw a real party for him! Since it will be his first big bash, I'm going to go all out! We're having a Pirate themed party, and are inviting all the kids from our weekly Play Date, not to mention some of our other friends of the family, and so we're expecting to have up to 20 kids, plus parents on top of that. We'll have eye patches for everyone, Walk the Plank games, and treasure hunts. For the food I've found some adorable ideas on Pinterest, including Sand Dollar cookies, Pirate Marshmallow Pops, and Octopus Wieners. I'll also be mixing up my own special POG Grog (Papaya Orange Guava) and topping cupcakes with pirate themed toppers and jolly rogers! I'm so excited to plan everything about this party! I have dreams of decorating my backyard with billowing sails (I've tried numerous times to have a backyard party, and it never seems to work, but it has to sometime, right?) and of 20 knee-high scallywags chasing our poor dog around the yard with plastic swords! Sigh... the sweet bliss it will be!
And somewhere between St. Patty's Day and the end of April falls one of my favorite holidays (in the strictest meaning of the word 'holiday')... Easter! The day of promise, hope and salvation is one of the happiest times of the year. I love the meaning, I love the season, I love everything that goes with it.
This year I plan on doing lots of teaching times with Gabriel and lots of fun crafts with him. We'll read bible stories, we'll decorate eggs, and we'll definitely eat chocolate. In fact, I may even make the chocolates that we eat. I felt a little inspired by Martha Stewart Living for April (I subscribe, so I got that issue this past week). The article that Martha contributes herself each month usually has to do with life around her house, and how she organizes, hosts, or crafts. This month it was about Easter dinner at her house and certain traditions that she always keeps up. One tradition for her was molding chocolates in antique tin molds. The beautiful little bunnies looked so adorable that I instantly went on Ebay and tried to track down some antique chocolate molds myself. While the average price was between $90 and $400, I haven't given up hope of tracking down an antique one at one of the stores in my city. But until that happens, I may order some new plastic molds and try my hand at tempering and molding. Who knows, maybe I'll like it enough to really have fun with it (remember that red wine ganache I made at Valentine's Day? Wouldn't that make a great filling??)
Well, my first batch of Irish Soda Bread is almost out of the oven, so I think I'll skip off now to do some tasting! Ta ta!
Mrs. VanderLeek ;)
Until that sweet day, however, I suppose I'll have to be contented with
Sunday, February 19, 2012
SURPRISE!
I did it! I successfully executed a surprise party for my husband!!!
If I sound overly excited about this, you need to understand how hard it is to surprise my hubby. Every year at Christmas I think I'm being sooo sneaky and that he'll never guess what I got him. And every year, if he hadn't guessed outright, he had a pretty good idea of what was coming.
This party was probably one of the hardest ones to plan - not because there were so many details to sort out, but rather because there were so few!
My party style is the over-the-top, fancy-pants, mimosas-in-rented-champagne-flutes style. This, this was a man party.
The menu: Walk-around tacos; individual dorito chip bags filled with taco fillings. And that was basically it. A friend brought a pie, we had some pop and chips, and later we ordered pizza.
No appetizers. No verrines. No brulees or souffles or otherwise elegant-sounding dishes.
Just tacos. And why serve them in the bag? Because what's more manly that not having to do any dishes?
They were a hit, by the way, with guys having up to 4 bags just so they could figure out the ideal way to open and fill them.
But when I say the planning was hard - I mean it. I felt negligent. I felt lazy. I had a melt-down in the middle of our local Costco when I realized they weren't currently carrying any individual baggies of doritos (Thank goodness for Walmart).
I wanted to be baking and making and doing, but it would not only have been impossible to keep petit fours hidden in my house, but it would have entirely missed the theme for this party: manly. I didn't want the party to be about me or my 'legendary' meals (total modesty right there, I tell you) - I wanted it to be about my hubby and his birthday. I wanted his friends to feel comfortable and not intimidated, I wanted it to be a fun-feeling gathering and I wanted, above all, for it to not be about me, but about him. This is not to say that you can't have fun when you have petit fours, but it sets a different tone for the whole party when you whip out the fancy. I wanted the guys to feel free to break out the poker chips and hit up the Guitar Hero downstairs, and if they had to eat pretentious foods with overly small utensils, they wouldn't have been as prone to rocking out to Metallica I think.
As a pat-on-the-back for me: I even refrained from putting the chips into bowls! (Hardcore, I know.)
One of the other hard parts about this party was trying to not act strange. Matt came home a week ago with the idea that we could rip out all of our flooring upstairs and lay in new stuff over the long weekend! He planned to move all of our bedroom furniture into the basement (where Guitar Hero was set up) and to paint baseboards in our living room (where the rest of the party happened). While normally I would have been just as excited as he was to get these jobs done, I vetoed his suggestion citing personal stress levels. I was worried about seeming unreasonable in the week leading up; I wanted to keep the secret but not at the cost of frustrating my husband. Fortunately for me, if you have surprise parties too often, they are no longer surprising, so I've got probably another 5 years before he gets another one!
After working so hard to 'tone down the Martha' this past week, this coming week will be a full 180. I'm helping to run a Daddy-Daughter Dance this weekend and am somewhat responsible for card making, decorating, and general prettiness! Thank goodness for Pinterest to give me lots of ideas!
Mrs. VanderLeek ;)
If I sound overly excited about this, you need to understand how hard it is to surprise my hubby. Every year at Christmas I think I'm being sooo sneaky and that he'll never guess what I got him. And every year, if he hadn't guessed outright, he had a pretty good idea of what was coming.
This party was probably one of the hardest ones to plan - not because there were so many details to sort out, but rather because there were so few!
My party style is the over-the-top, fancy-pants, mimosas-in-rented-champagne-flutes style. This, this was a man party.
The menu: Walk-around tacos; individual dorito chip bags filled with taco fillings. And that was basically it. A friend brought a pie, we had some pop and chips, and later we ordered pizza.
No appetizers. No verrines. No brulees or souffles or otherwise elegant-sounding dishes.
Just tacos. And why serve them in the bag? Because what's more manly that not having to do any dishes?
They were a hit, by the way, with guys having up to 4 bags just so they could figure out the ideal way to open and fill them.
But when I say the planning was hard - I mean it. I felt negligent. I felt lazy. I had a melt-down in the middle of our local Costco when I realized they weren't currently carrying any individual baggies of doritos (Thank goodness for Walmart).
I wanted to be baking and making and doing, but it would not only have been impossible to keep petit fours hidden in my house, but it would have entirely missed the theme for this party: manly. I didn't want the party to be about me or my 'legendary' meals (total modesty right there, I tell you) - I wanted it to be about my hubby and his birthday. I wanted his friends to feel comfortable and not intimidated, I wanted it to be a fun-feeling gathering and I wanted, above all, for it to not be about me, but about him. This is not to say that you can't have fun when you have petit fours, but it sets a different tone for the whole party when you whip out the fancy. I wanted the guys to feel free to break out the poker chips and hit up the Guitar Hero downstairs, and if they had to eat pretentious foods with overly small utensils, they wouldn't have been as prone to rocking out to Metallica I think.
As a pat-on-the-back for me: I even refrained from putting the chips into bowls! (Hardcore, I know.)
One of the other hard parts about this party was trying to not act strange. Matt came home a week ago with the idea that we could rip out all of our flooring upstairs and lay in new stuff over the long weekend! He planned to move all of our bedroom furniture into the basement (where Guitar Hero was set up) and to paint baseboards in our living room (where the rest of the party happened). While normally I would have been just as excited as he was to get these jobs done, I vetoed his suggestion citing personal stress levels. I was worried about seeming unreasonable in the week leading up; I wanted to keep the secret but not at the cost of frustrating my husband. Fortunately for me, if you have surprise parties too often, they are no longer surprising, so I've got probably another 5 years before he gets another one!
After working so hard to 'tone down the Martha' this past week, this coming week will be a full 180. I'm helping to run a Daddy-Daughter Dance this weekend and am somewhat responsible for card making, decorating, and general prettiness! Thank goodness for Pinterest to give me lots of ideas!
Mrs. VanderLeek ;)
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