Thursday, February 14, 2013

Valentine, Sweets and Whoopee(Cushions)

Had the best time dipping whatever we could find in Chocolate with Sawyer, my youngest son. And, we let the sprinkles flow. Every time I'd add sprinkles, he'd go behind me and add more. We sent these fun little sweets to his class today. Happy Valentine's Day!!! <3




Can never get enough uses out of the drink "machine" we found at WalMart last year. Taped a white heart doily to the front, filled with pink lemonade. Et voila!


Chocolate Covered Strawberry "Sundae" for the best teacher in the WHOLE world!!

Not exactly the most romantic Valentine. But, positive his elementary aged friends will love them. Sorry if you don't think it's in good taste. I grew up with 2 brothers and have 2 sons. Always try to be very lady like. But, hey, I get their humor!!! Found the free printable below at http://www.supermommoments.com/2013/01/my-funny-valentine/. Cute blog too!


Hope your heart is filled with love today and always! Find someone that needs a hug, hand or smile today!!

L<3ve and Joy,
Amy

Update: Unfortunately, the "whoopie cushion" that we purchased at a local super store, did not hold up well at all. Most of them burst the first time they were blown up. I recommend going with another brand of mini whoopee cushions. What I originally wanted was the pink ones. But, couldn't find in town and didn't leave myself enough time to order. I found several links online where you may order them.  

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

A Little Mardi Gras Fun

Wanted to share a little Mardi Gras fun with you guys and gals! As you know, we are in KY not LA. And we really don't have any reason to nor do we "celebrate" it. I just like to do some cultural things with dinner for fun occassionally! We have a local bakery that bakes King Cakes every year and we just have to have one. They do 3 flavors: Cinnamon, Butter Rum, and Strawberry. We are equal opportunists and like them all though we only order one each year. This year we went with cinnamon. :)
 
The story behind the King Cake originates from the visit of the 3 Kings to the baby Jesus. Whomever gets the piece of cake with the baby Jesus figure in it is supposed to host the next party or buy the next cake. If you want to read more here's a link to a website with the story:
 
General info from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_cake
 
 
I'm a bit of a history geek, so I'm always fascinated with the way customs start and evolve over time.
 
We didn't have a cajun dinner this year. But, have in the past. There's a wonderful place called Hebert's Meats where you can order and have it shipped on dry ice overnight. I really love their crawfish pie!! Here's the link to their page and menu:
 
 
Joy and Bon Appetit! Thanks for stopping by.
Amy
 
 

Sunday, February 10, 2013

A Little Fellas Super Bowl Party


Super Bowl was eventful at our house this year. Our favorite team the Patriots were not in the big game this time. So, my husband agreed that out son could have some 10 year old friends over to "watch" the game. Honestly, they really enjoyed it and while they didn't sit right in front of the tv watching every play. They all kept up with it in between shooting hoops and spontaneous wrestling matches or teasings about what girls they liked. It was a lot of fun.

My son fancies himself the party planner. His ideal party would have had all his nerf guns arranged in a circle in his bedroom floor so his friends could choose their weapon when the arrived in the spirit of the movie "The Hunger Games." He also wanted to have a pickle juice drinking contest. I vetoed both ideas. But, after hearing from his friends these would have been a big hit among 10 year old boys, his friends anyway. Still would not advise them. Wasn't in the mood to take one to the emergency room for a nerf accident or clean up, well you know, from a pickle juice induced illness. :)

I am going to share the mom approved ideas that we pulled off thanks to the help of the best production assistant ever, my husband, Brandon.


The centerpiece field goal. We used $3 worth or a 10' section of pvc pipe,  2 elbows and one tee. Brandon cut the post and both 'legs' of the post 2' each. The bottom sections connecting between the elbows and tee are 1' each. We just used a hand held, manual pipe cutting tool. Didn't even glue the joints together since we covered it in yellow duct tape. The duct tape was only because it was too cold outside for spray paint to have dried completely and not be tacky to the touch. Used a pail that we already had. Filled the bottom with floral foam and boxes for sturdiness. Stuck the post in and surrounded with green shredded paper. The football pinata was a fun find. Made the banner using markers, cardboard and clip art I found online.
Originally, I looked online for Super Bowl party supplies. but, frankly, I was too cheap to pay the huge shipping to get the items here in time. This is when I decided to have a split field style tablescape. So, I picked up plates, napkins and forks in each team color cheaply at a local party supply liquidation store. One of my favorite party shops! The party banner across the front was less then $2, 1 $1 green table cloth and used craft tape and stick on numbers to give the look of "the field."

A local bakery made cupcakes for us. Half in one team color and half in the other. The best part for the boys was the Super Bowl Ring topper.




So, I mustache you a question. Haha! The boys LOVED the mustaches. They could choose black for the Ravens or red for the Niners. We are from KY and UK basketball fans. So, we all love Anthony Davis and his unibrow. As soon as one of the boys decided to have not only a mustache but, another stache as a unibrow, they all did. Too much fun!!!







Food and Drink:


Found a wonderful webpage with free Super Bowl printables. It was very helpful. I used it to make labels and decorations. I found them on the website: http://catchmyparty.com/blog/free-super-bowl-party-printables-from-simply-create-designs. But, she originally found them from Simply Create Designs. They were free. But, Simply Create Designs also has some very cute party printables for sale reasonably. http://www.etsy.com/shop/SimplyCreateDesigns. We made up the names just to go along with the teams in the game. Comical how the boys had to declare their team loyalty if they chose to drink the opposite teams drink. Just used powdered drink mixes. Always a hit with the kids. And, cheap!!!! :)








Found the idea on Pinterest to arrange pepperoni as a football. Let's just say, it looked better on Pinterest. However, it tasted good. My husband and best assistant ever improvised with the field goal pizza. Not pretty. But, tasty and the idea was good. All pizza was eaten.


We used the Pampered Chef Taco Ring Recipe and cut the crescent roll dough into football shapes, filled and baked. Yummy. Again, not perfection on the first try. But, a huge hit. Will definitely improve on the look of these for tailgating next football season.

One of the moms, made these yummy rice krispie football treats. She used premade treats, cut them in the football shape, dipped in a caramel sauce and decorated with icing to look like footballs.




To keep the boys interest (though nothing did as much as the half time show. :)) We played a game. Made a grid of 100 squares. They each wrote their names equal numbers of times in the blank squares. After that was completed pregame, we randomly added numbers 0-9 on each side. Whatever the ending number of the ending quarterly score was and the name coordinating with that square won the prize for that quarter. The prizes were cheap trophies found at a local hobby store and a ribbon. Lucked out and found golf ribbons for 90 cents each at the party supply store. Covered them with a Super Bowl sticker. All the boys wanted to win one and kept up with the quarterly score totals. Loved all the math going into certain scoring situations as the quarter end got closer. They had no idea they were getting all the math practice.

Notice the mustache stuck to the top. Just can't go wrong with a fake stache and a bunch of boys. :)



The prizes. Also, notice the color coordinated candy. It was hilarious how they wouldn't eat the candy or food if it wasn't their team colors.


We had so much fun planning and partying!! Hope you enjoyed looking through the fun we planned. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Joy!
Thee Alley Kat