Minecraft Bithday Party

     This post got lost in the hiatus shuffle.  We actually did this party before Christmas last year, and I didn't realize I hadn't posted this until just now! So just pretend I posted this last Thanksgiving, would ya?  Thanks.

     So the boys wanted a Minecraft birthday party this year.  I was not thrilled.  Minecraft is the most boring game that was ever invented in my opinion, and it has the added benefit of making me extremely nauseated when my son tries to show me something and goes zooming through the world like a crazed, half-dead, drunken Ender Dragon.  But the party was pretty fun to put together, I must say.  And the kids had a fabulous time.

Found these at Amazon thanks to Bliss Bloom Blog who I shamelessly copied about 75% of this party from.  Thus the ease, I suppose...

Made these with Perler Beads, hot glue and toothpicks.  I was inspired by Bliss Bloom Blog's fantastic Minecraft Party.   The square cupcake tin came from Amazon.  (Hiatus Update: My husband fell in love with Perler Beads after this and bought just about every color there is so he could recreate all his favorite video game characters.  In fact, while the boys and I were making Perler Bead ornaments for the grandparents this year, he was busy putting the TARDIS in Santa's sleigh to hang on our own tree!)

The best thing about Minecraft is the food.  So many people try to take red candy and call it "red stone" or "TNT" but Minecraft already has so many real food products, the menu practically writes itself!  Here you see potato salad, cheese cubes, and hard boiled eggs.

Here is honey roasted chicken.

Found these sweet juicebox printouts at Bliss Bloom Blog.

Moar Minecraft munchies.

All the cards I printed with the help of MinecraftBay on Etsy.

     Got the idea for this sad little guy from Catch My Party.  Theirs is much better done, I ran out of room and the tape kept falling off.  Maybe you'll have better luck than I did...  But anyway, I got the plates at my local party store and one pack of a different color green from Amazon.  I used the left-over plates as the party plates to eat on.

The grass and streamers came from Amazon.  Props to Bekah who hung those streamers for me.

Yep, that's a Creeper face pinata.  I just used one of the three masks I bought, covered the hole with construction paper, and let the kids beat the tar out of it.  I made a loop out of a zip tie to tie the rope to.  The kids all went through once blind folded, but it was so tough, we let them go through again a few times without one.  Work for that candy, kids!

     We had a slime ball toss.  You may remember these from our Monster party a year ago.  I had a few left over and let them over inflate to make these slime balls.  We played it just like an egg toss.

Inspired by Bliss Bloom Blog (again), I found this set of paper Minecraft figures on Amazon.  They were the perfect decorations! (Hiatus Update: These little paper toys have really hung in there!  The kids still play with them!)

     Using another free template, this time from FPSX Games, I made these little TNT poppers, for our final activity.  The kids had a great time and the boys are begging for more video game parties.  I think next year I'm going to do an easy party like hire a magician or something.

A Very Happy Halloween to You...

     Our Halloween party was this weekend.  It was a whirlwind of ladybugs, robots, spiders, and werewolves all wrapped up in a tidy 1950's-era package.  It was also pouring down rain and pitch dark so I don't have a lot of pictures of our scavenger hunt in progress, I'm afraid.  I have lots of shots like this:

Yeah...

So I'll tell you what we did and show you pictures of what it looked like sans kids...  We held a 1950's style Halloween party including some reproduction decorations.

We carried the theme into the menu by trying to replicate a TV dinner in a more desirable way.  We served homemade meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and steamed peas and carrots mixed with mint.  There was also a jell-o salad style dish because 50's and a 7-Up Cake.  Our starter for the kids was Vienna Sausage size organic hot dog chunks.  We also had meatballs, gluten-free cookies, and the vegetarian main was beans and franks.  We washed it all down with punch and martinis!

This was an agar agar Jell-o salad stand in.  It was interesting.  I especially liked the salad dressing.

Minted Peas and Carrots
1 lb bag carrots, peeled and sliced
1 bag frozen peas
2 Tbs mint
salt and pepper to taste

Steam the carrots until almost done.  Add the peas and continue steaming until warmed through.  Toss with salt, pepper, and mint.  Serve immediately.

Punch
1 Bottle Sparkling Apple cider
1/2 Gallon orange juice
1/2 Gallon Earthwise Wild Berry Guava Lemonade
12 scoops Raspberry Sorbet

Add all drinks to a large punch bowl and top with sorbet.  It doesn't look like much, but it tastes great and there are no HFCS or artificial flavors!  It also happens to taste great with vodka, so if you happen to make your martini a little too strong, dollop a little punch in there and you'll be a happy haunter!

One of our lovely hostesses, Danika.

 Our cowboy, David, who handed out the scavenger hunt sheets, sock hopping it up with a robot and a ladybug.  You just don't see that kind of thing every day.  For music, I found several, mostly 50's era songs including: Wooly Bully, Lil' Red Riding Hood, The Twilight Zone theme song, Bo Meets the Monster, Halloween Spooks (featuring Lambert, Hendricks and Ross), I Put a Spell on You, Witch Doctor, Punky Punkin, Morgus the Magnificent, The Purple People Eater, and of course, Monster Mash all downloadable on Amazon from about $.90 to $1.50.  Some of these songs are crazy weird.  Just sayin'.

 Our homage to 1950's cowboy flicks, the kids had to break out of jail by sliding down the slide.  The sheriff gave them a handy map to the rest of the scavenger hunt.  Apparently he was in on the whole thing...

First stop, Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

 Next up, apples on strings.  At every station, the kids got stickers to prove they completed the mission.

 

 Because it was raining and I was busy appleing out in it, I don't have one picture of our witch, Lauren, who many kids said was their very favorite part of the hunt, and was also one of our hosts.  She had a bubbling cauldron full of dry ice and a bowl full of "eyeballs" for the kids to scrounge through to help her find her jewels (skull rings which the kids got to keep).  So here's a picture of her hut, which you may remember as the troll house from our fairy party a few years ago.

 Can't really have a 1950's party without a hula hoop, can you?  No.  No you can't.

 

A classic game with a 1950's twist.  Tossing mini Frisbees into the pumpkin's mouth turns a bean bag toss into game using an iconic vintage toy.

Note to self: Yellow Frisbees are hard to find in a leaf pile...

Spooky ghosts in the rain...

 Fortunately revealed in the daylight to be balloons with flashing lights inside zip-tied to dowels.

 Our fortune teller (and co-host), Tori, before she braved the weather to read our guest's fortunes.

  It was wet business...

 EEK!  A GHOST!  Matt was the scariest ghost in a sheet the world has ever seen.  Three-year-olds the world over were terrified.  The kids were rewarded with Trader Joe's candies when they returned with their scavenger hunt sheets filled out.

 Twin housewives, Bekah and myself.  At the end of the party.  With fallen hair and rubbed-off make-up.  Drinking.  I also discovered something about my costume.  All it takes is a hair change to turn perky, perfect wife-lady into:

The Lunch Lady.

Hoagies and grinders, baby.

A Post About the Super Bowl. Yes, that Super Bowl...

     There are a lot of folks out there who love football.  I am a folk who enjoys listening to football on the radio.  The commentary is more interesting and the commercials are less flashy.  We may make an exception this Sunday since the Seahawks have made it to the Super Bowl.  The excitement is a raging contagion here.  People talk to each other in line at the grocery store or standing at their cars pumping gas.  Even my boys, one of whom thinks it's called the "Super Goal," are pumped up, counting down the days till the Hawks battle the Broncos over a small brown ball and bragging rights.

     If you are one of those folks who loves a good game, I've got a little menu here I think you might enjoy.  If you're not, I've got a little menu here I think you might enjoy.  A burrito bar is a great way to feed vegetarian and carnivores simultaneously without too much fuss.  This one has a few different options.  My favorite combo is the sweet potatoes with rice, kale, beans and avocado.  My boys prefer just bean and cheese.  Lettuce, chips, rice and beans with a little salsa makes a great salad.

Everything on the bar can be prepped ahead except the meat, avocado, and the sauteed veggies. 

Pico De Gallo

8 oz tomato, chopped
2 oz garlic, minced
4 oz green pepper, diced
4 oz onion, diced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp lemon or lime juice (optional)
1/4 C chopped cilantro (optional)

Mix all ingredients and serve immediately or up to a day later.  Stir in a minced avocado and you've got a top notch guacamole.

     For a family friendly celebration, a Mockarita may be the way to go.  My boys had mixed reactions, but I liked it a little less sweet.

 

Mockarita

6 limes
2 navel oranges
1/2 ruby red grapefruit
3/4 C sugar
2 C ice
2 more C ice (optional)
1/2 C sugar (optional)

I peeled the skin off the limes, oranges and grapefruit with a knife, checked for seeds, and threw the fruit into a blender.  I buzzed it up, then strained the pulp out.  I returned the juice back to the blender and added the sugar and ice.  A few more seconds and they were ready to pour!  You could jazz these up with some tequila but the virgin version is just as exciting in my opinion.

     We followed up our feast with some Tres Leches Cupcakes.  The recipe I used came from a cookbook, but you can use any recipe you want.  I wanted to make sure with all the extra liquid that these would hold up.  I tried some in nut cups and some in these fluted cake cups.  They both held up extremely well, though the cakes in the nut cups pulled away from the sides.  These fluted ones were definitely much prettier.  I cut the baking time down to 20 minutes from the 30-35 which was recommended for a full cake.  The recipe I used also suggested a sweet whipped cream frosting.  I just chose whipping cream and vanilla for mine and relied on the sweetness in the cake and milk glaze. 

Have a nice Superbowl Sunday!

It's Sneaking Up on Me, I Can Feel it...

It's about to pounce...  That time of year when all heck breaks loose around here.  After Halloween begins the long downhill slide of merriment until the New Year arrives.  We've got two birthday parties to attend, one to throw, two more small home birthday celebrations to deal with, Thanksgiving, 12 Days of Christmas Cookies, 25 days of Advent, Christmas, and the arrival of our dear friends for a week-long visit all between now and next year.  Plus there's supposed to be school, martial arts, piano lessons, and swim lessons in there somehow.  And all you guys out there probably have similar schedules!  It's just that time of year.  It's the most wonderful time of the year.  It's going to kill me.  And I wouldn't change a minute of it if you paid me.

One thing I'm doing different this year for Thanksgiving is that we're actually going to have real live guests here with us for dinner finally.  Since my husband and I got married, we have always had people over for Thanksgiving.  Every year a revolving list of friends has feasted with us depending on what family plans people had.  One year we had one person.  Our largest gathering was 10.  When we moved to Washington though, we just never found anyone who could join us.  Everybody had family here and plans.  But this year I ordered a turkey.  And not just any turkey.  One of these turkeys:

Photo Courtesy: R Heritage Farm

That's right, folks.  One of these beautiful animals is ours.  My friends Monique and Ben at R Heritage Farm are selling heritage, GMO-free, pastured turkeys.  (I hear there may even be a few left if anyone's interested.)  Note how colorful they are.  How they are roaming around completely cage-free on green stuff I understand some people call "grass."  They may occasionally (try not to faint, y'all) eat a bug.  If I'm going to cook an animal, this is how I want it to be raised.  Pay attention, farmers.  If one of these gorgeous, grumpy gobblers is going to give his life to feed my family, I wanted to make darn sure none of him was wasted so I put the word out on facebook and lo and behold we had a friend in town!  I am so excited to be having guests again I can hardly contain myself.

I am going to cook the bird low and slow just like the good old days and I will probably trot out lots of traditional (yet vegetarian) sides to go with it.  I'll post a picture of the bird once it's done if I can get one before the horde descends.  To inspire you a little, here are some recipes I've made in the last few years.

Mains:

Apple and Sage Roast Chicken

Simple Roast Chicken

Sides:

Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic Vinegar	Roast Fennel
Roast Vegetables with Quince	Vegetarian Mushroom Gravy
Pears	Five-Minute Cranberry Sauce
Pears with Ricotta Cheese and Chestnuts	Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup

Breads:

Whole Wheat Bread	Pumpkin and Sage Cornbread
Pumpkin and Sage Cornbread Dressing	Simple Cornbread Dressing

Desserts:

Pumpkin Not-Pie Dessert	No-Bake Cheesecake with Soft Orange Cookie Crust
Rhubarb Kumquat Crisp with Goat Cheese	Pumpkin Mousse

Hopefully, I'll get a few new ones posted soon!