Stranger Things Party

So after binge watching the first episodes of the new Netflix show Stranger Things I haven't been able to sleep. In my sleepless nights I have been planning a themed party based on the show. Part Halloween party, part '80's party. It will be awesome.

Costumes are called for, of course. Fortunately huge glasses were hip two years ago so it shouldn't be too hard to do that. Then just feather your bangs, wear stirrups on your leggings, and find a jean jacket. You'll look great.

Decorate with lots of Christmas lights and lamps. Maybe pin up the alphabet on your wall, too. Rotary phones, trucker hats, a "flying" Millennium Falcon, Dungeons and Dragons pieces, maybe a hatchet - those would all be great little touches, too.

Your 80's playlist should include The Clash, especially "Should I Stay or Should I Go." And that one needs to pop up multiple times, obviously.

Serve cans of Cola and beer, Nutty Bars, Bazooka, Pez, Smarties, Pringles, Nilla Wafers, apples, bananas, and trail mix - that way everyone has plenty of energy for their travels. ;)


Boom. Party plans: done. You're welcome.

Seven Quick Takes for Your Friday Afternoon

1 - Ahhhh... The Head and the Heart have a new album and this is the new single and I just love it all. (Remember the time Blythe interviewed her brother Kenny - the pianist in THATH - for my blog? It was a good one.)


2 - So who watched Kathryn's Blessed Is She workshop, Raising a Holy Family: Toddlers Through Teens last night? I was so excited to see it - Kathryn has spoken at my parish's mom group before and she was amazing. Her wisdom, her humility, her Texas twang - all of it! Unfortunately I had to miss it...


3 - ... because of freakin' Hand, Foot, and Mouth. Two of my boys have it now and I'm sure Jofis will come down with it, too. I'm holding out how that Baby Tee, the girls, and Travis and I will be safe. For some reason this strand is taking down adults, too, and with school and back to school events beginning next week for half of this household I really hope it's all said and done asap.


4 - But back to happier things and Kathryn... I'm throwing a Star Wars themed birthday party for the boys later this month. Basically I am just gonna do what Kathryn did for her Star Wars themed party. Why re-create the wheel, right? I did just buy this Darth Vadar costume (affiliate link!), one in small and one in medium. It will serve as birthday presents and Halloween costumes, and it will end hours of fighting to our days! My boys love Darth Vadar, not Han Solo, not Finn, not Chewie. Darth Vadar. Oh well.


5 - Here's a quick tip: Got beer you don't like? Use it to cook your stew meat or roast in. It has worked for us every time. In fact, the more we hate the beer the more we love the gravy!


6 - One perk of being a blogger is being able to send flowers for free to a friend as part of a company's incentive. It's true - and you can think what you want of me. I was so grateful
to FTD for sending me this gorgeous bouquet of flowers and letting me send some love to Nell with the same arrangement. She has been a great blogging buddy - she cheers me on and gently corrects and directs when needed. She has opened her heart and home to me and has done so much in service to Blessed Is She and Catholic bloggers everywhere.

So thanks, FTD, for allowing us to #connectbetter. ;)


7 - Last but not least, Kelly's 7QTs today is so good: What To Do When Your Child Won't Stop Staring at a Person in a Wheelchair. I thought it was super helpful.

How We Threw A Sacred Heart Party

The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart is one of my favorite feast days all year. I love celebrating Jesus' passionate love for us, His heart ablaze with His love and the signs of His Passion on display. The image of Christ holding or pointing to His Heart, showing us the mini Gospel - "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..." - it is so perfectly quirky Catholic and I love it. 

This year our celebration lasted all day. The Solemnity is a Meat Friday so we ate bacon and then headed to noon Mass at the local, gorgeous, Sacred Heart Church, as is our custom. More bacon for lunch and then it was time for party prep - a group of friends were coming over for dinner!

We don't have an image of the Sacred Heart so I drew one on the chalkboard that hangs in a prominent spot in our home.

It's not bad.

Then I followed in Mary's footsteps and made fruit trays like the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts, seen at her blog, Better Than Eden. I made mine a bit more simply because I didn't peel an orange, just opened a can of mandarin oranges, and I sprinkled chocolate chips on the strawberries instead of melting chocolate.

To keep things easy on everyone we made the night a potluck. Everyone brought their own meat, a dish to pass, and their own drink of choice. Travis manned the grill and the kids jumped on the trampoline, played on our swingset, and climbed our Maple tree.

As the sun was setting but before a single meltdown I called all the kids to the patio. Each parent got a prayer card and each person was given a glow stick. I stood in front of the kids and talked to them about the reason for our party, about God's great love for us, about the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I invited them to snap their glow sticks and to wave them and wear them as a reminder of Jesus' Heart that burns for love of us.

Then as a group we all prayed the Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (If you ever have a Sacred Heart party please feel free to use the image! You can save it, insert it into a Word or Publisher Doc. Set the paper to Landscape and you can easily fit two per page.)

The kids ran off into the dusk, catching fireflies and we parents stayed in our comfy chairs, sipping rum or beer and chatting with one another. That sounds super saccharine-y so please know that about ten minutes later I spilled my drink on my lap. ha!

It was a great day, and I'm so grateful for my group of friends and for my husband who doesn't bat an eye when I say, "Let's have ten adults and twenty kids over and you can grill them all dinner!"

L's First Holy Communion

 L made her First Holy Communion at the beginning of May. She had been preparing for it all year. Her religion classes all worked toward it and at home we discussed the Eucharist, Mass, the state of grace, the foretaste of Heaven. We attended family adoration and began a new nightly family prayer routine.

Earlier in the school year she made her first confession. The church was filled that Wednesday night with the sixty kids from our parish and all their parents. L sat with her list that she had carefully written down in private. She was nervous and excited and afraid, a bit like all of us before confession. When she was done she came back to the pew and said, "That was great! I want to do that again on Saturday!" We went out for ice cream to celebrate - as did several other families.

We didn't go back that Saturday but we did return several times throughout Lent and the weeks before her First Communion. The week before we went to confession one last time in preparation and then bought a treat to celebrate the sweetness of God's mercy.

We also gave her a sip of red wine so she would know what to expect when the time came. ;)

All the kids made a banner to hang on their family's reserved pew. L made hers all by herself. She cut out the felt chalices and hearts (okay, I did even and smooth those out a bit) and then she stitched them on to the white felt banner. She picked out a baby picture and attached it. She fixed on her letters, provided by her religion teacher, and I was so proud of her. It's a perfect glimpse of my little girl.

And then the day came. We baked cookies - shaped in crosses and hosts, per L's request. We cleaned the house in preparation of guests. We made pink lemonade and L's godmother wrote a fitting Fulton Sheen quote on our chalkboard. We arranged for the chalice from Sheen's traveling Mass kit to be used at the Mass, thanks to the thoughtfulness and kindness of some friends.

We did her hair, put on her dress, tied her sash, and placed her veil. The veil had been mine, the blusher from my wedding day. L's godmother adorned it with flowers to make it special. Her great-grandmother gave her a special bracelet, which she loved and immediately wore.

Our parish has the entire family - parents and siblings - go up with the first communicant. So when the time came L and Travis and B, J, T, J and I all headed up. Baby Tee stayed with Grandma B but Trav and I were able to receive Holy Communion right with our daughter.

Afterwards (and before, actually) there were lots of pictures. Family and godparents came and we celebrated. And L loved it.

Thank You, Jesus.

Fall in Love

This summer I had the honor of throwing a bridal shower for my sister-in-law. Since she is having a fall themed wedding I wanted the shower to be autumnal, too. Plus, I was really hankering for summer to be over. 

I love looking at what other people have done for celebrations, decorations, and party-planning. I usually don't don exact copies, but I am always inspired by the creativity and beauty of others. So with that in mind, I'm sharing what I did to make my sil's shower really pretty and special, and for not too much money!

To begin with, I designed the invitation on PicMonkey. I had them printed at a local office store and loved how they turned out. 

In case you want to try something similar I used the fonts Geo Sans Light, Jellyka Delicious Cake, and Dead Hardy. I have the Royal subscription for PicMonkey and some of the fonts and pics are Royal - just a head's up.

I also used PicMonkey to make a sheet for one of my favorite games:

You can feel free to use that one if you'd like!

Then, for the shower itself I spent a lot of time checking out Pinterest. You can see my inspiration board here, but in the end this is what it looked like. (My apologies for the grainy cell phone pics - I forgot my camera!)

The menu was caramel dip with apple slices, cupcakes from the local bakery, homemade mints (a family tradition!), cheese, crakers, grapes, and fruit salad. My sister-in-law requested Moscoto punch but because girls would be there I wanted to keep it alcohol free. The punch bowl has the Sprite and pink lemonade concentrate and anyone who wanted was free to add the bubbly wine. 

My mom owns white table clothes - which I borrowed, I gathered her and my fall decorations and Mason jars, my friend Katie made this lovely banner for me, and I bought six plastic table clothes in the party section of WalMart for the back drop. For $6 it made a huge impact. 

Another request from the bride was recipe cards. Guys. I looked everywhere for recipe cards and in the end they were nowhere to be purchased so I could slip them in the envelopes. I then tried making them myself but it was overwhelming for me so I printed these up...

 ...stuck them in the invite envelopes, and found my way to this great Etsy shop, where I purchased, downloaded, and printed up super cute recipe cards.

Winners of the shower games, the bride, and the mother of the bride all took home a little treat: a packet of s'more love with marshmallows, mini Hershey bars, and graham crackers.

The bride-to-be loved the shower and, as a lover of fall myself, I was delighted to throw the party for her. 

A Curious George Birthday Party for JP

In July JP turned two. 

So far the twos have been a bit on the terrible side, but he's also an incredibly sweet kiddo. He loves his blankie, the stuffed bunny L gave him, climbing and jumping off things, playing outside, going to his grandma's house, trains, and Curious George. 

To celebrate we had a Curious George themed birthday party for JP. Simple and fun.  

We always include a picture of the birthday boy or girl on the front of the invitation. Grandparents, godparents, and great-grandparents have all appreciated having a new picture each year for a frame or the fridge. 

The bunting has been used and re-used since JF's first birthday four years ago. And just like every birthday, my amazing sister-in-law made the cake.

The menu I framed and sat near the food. Along with the items on the menu I also put out a bowl of Curious George fruit snacks - a total treat for our kids. 

It was a fun, sweet day, and a really simple party theme to pull off. JP loved it - he loved having everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to him and he even sang right along with them - and he had a lot of fun. In the end, that's what makes a party a success. :)

Our party goods were purchased at WalMart.
The bunting was made by my friend, Katie, and she provides tutorials here and here.
The menu I made in PicMonkey - please feel free to use it if you'd like.

A Ballerina Minnie Mouse Birthday Party

Since my girls were both born in May we like to do their birthday party together. This year, L turned 7 and wanted a ballerina party while Resa turned 3 and wanted a Minnie Mouse theme. It was super simple to marry the two, while still keeping them distinct to make sure each girl got what she wanted.  

What I did:

Kept things pretty basic. Pink, polka dots, and black were really the unifying agents with little touches of ballerina or Minnie in other places.  You can see my inspiration board on Pinterest, and I'll give the rest of the details as we go!

The invite: 

I always work with my friend Katie to make the invitations and each year a picture of the kids is included on the front. This one used black cardstock + pink scrapbook paper with white polka dots + white cardstock for the details + a tutu-like ribbon that was sewn onto the bottom. The white polka dots and pink is reminiscent of Minnie Mouse's bow and the tutu ribbon, of course, was for the ballerina theme. 

The details:

Our guests were greeted with a little chalkboard sign that reads Come inside it's FUN inside - just like the Mickey Mouse clubhouse.

Pretty simple decorations. We reused the pink paper bunting from parties past and hung pink and black balloons.

I always use plastic tablecloths. I can cut them to any size, and they always help to make things more festive. Paper straws are another favorite - so cute and the kids love them.

L and Resa both dressed in tutus and their friends were encouraged to do the same. Each ballerina was then able to chose a tiara to wear.

The cakes:
My fabulous sister in law made the cakes again, as she has for the past few parties. L's ballerina cake was a pretty pink one, standing on a tutu-ed cake stand. 

Inside, the cake was ombre - a thrill for the girls. 

Resa's cake was a Pinterest-inspired Minnie Mouse sheet cake. The bow is made from fondant and my sil had to sneak little balls inside for it to keep its shape. We loved it.

The fun:

A family friend and frequent babysitter is actually a ballet teacher at a local dance studio. She came and taught the girls a dance she choreographed to Let It Go. They practiced in the basement and then moved upstairs for a performance. Some of the girls were pretty silly but L loved the whole thing and was really serious about doing a good, graceful job while still having fun. 

Cake was eaten, gifts were opened, and fun was had by all. Super simple, super fun, and just what the girls wanted. Win, win, win!

Jake and the Neverland PIRATE Birthday Party

My boys wanted a pirate birthday party. JF wanted it to be a Jake and the Neverland Pirates party and Ben wanted it to be just pirates. I blended the two and everyone was happy.


The Invites
The first thing we did was make some pirate-y invitations.

I always like to include pictures of my kids on their birthday party invitations, that allows grandparents, great grandparents, godparents, and other loved ones to always have a current picture of my children.

 Red cardstock + scrapbook paper. Then we had the kids crumple sheets of white paper and I wrote in my best Pirate. I also "dirtied" the paper up a bit with some brown and black ink.

The back of the card had a treasure map, which we folded into thirds and taped on the back.

 Again, the kids crumpled the paper. I drew the map with markers and used ink to age it. We also punched out "gold doubloons" using a handy circle punch and some shiny, golden paper.

The Food

I laid the food out on our two-tiered kitchen peninsula. I covered the counter with a cheap, plastic tablecloth and a belly dancing wrap with fake gold coins that we got at a Lebanese wedding reception.  I used a skull from our Halloween decoration bin and my childhood Peter Pan snow globe that now sits on L's dresser.

Golden plates, one package of special pirate napkins from Target, and then some red and white striped napkins from Wal Mart's party section and we were set. 

One thing I loved about the red and white napkins is that I can use the leftovers for Christmas (candy canes!) or even next 4th of July (add some blue plates and we're set!)

My mother- and sister-in-law made this amazing pirate ship:

Ben always talks about "Captain Orangebeard" and so his Mormor found a captain with an orange beard.

We had Captain Hook and Smee's Fish and Chips. Because of allergies I kept the two separate, though most people mix them. 

Two little tips: #1 I put an upside down bowl in the bottom of the big blue bowl so it looked more full. I knew I wanted to use the pretty blue bowl so it'd be remenisenct of the sea but it would take *a lot* of bags of Goldfish and I wasn't going to spend that much money. But the upside down bowl worked perfectly! #2 The chips are actually in a trick or treat bucket from when one of my boys was a pirate.

I knew there was something pirate-y about a dead man's chest so I thought I'd use white chocolate covered pretzels - which kind of look like rib bones, right? - as a dead man's chest.

And then the night before the party I googled it and learned that the chest is referring to a treasure chest. Auntie Leila said to do it anyways and she's a BOSS at homemaking so I took her go ahead as more than good enough.

Cubby (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates) was the keeper of the gold doubloons...

...also known as Rolos.

Some pirate parties had a plate of crackers labeled "Polly's Crackers" which I really loved.

I called them Scully's, keeping with the Jake characters.

My mother- and sister-in-law also made the cake. Isn't it awesome?

The Hook, Jolly Rodger, and Jake are all regular toys. The beach is made from brown sugar. The treasure chest was made of Kit Kat bars and was filled with yellow Skittles.

Because of JF's allergies he wasn't able to eat the cake but I had special Rice Krispie Treats ready for him. They were supposed to be shaped like treasure chests but someone dropped the ball on that one. If you know kids with wheat, soy, egg, dairy, and nut allergies a great alternative for a sweet treat for them are Rice Krispie Treats made with coconut oil instead of butter. Make sure you read labels but I've found Kroger's Crisp Rice cereal and marshmallows to be safe. You won't miss the butter - I promise!

 The Drinks

 I wanted to keep things pretty simple with the drinks. I had Sea Water, also known as ice water and some Izze carbonated juice.

 Paper straws and pirate cups from Target.

The Izze juices I renamed Izzy's Carbonated Juice and my boys were delighted. It was a really simple way to tie in a Jake and the Neverland Pirates character.

These are the little signs I made to label the food.

Little Touches to keep the theme

Ben dressed in his pirate costume for the whole party. I also had eye patches, purchased in the party section at Wal Mart, on the tables. People - okay me and the kids - wore them throughout the party.

Some of the gifts even got in the spirit!

X marks the spot!

a pirate ship shirt for the baby brother.

Our fishy bubble blower was a nice touch and the kids loved it!

Activities

I didn't want to do games but I did want to have some activities the kids could do whenever they wanted. The first and easiest was gathering all our fairy and pirate dress up clothes, throwing in the dinosaur costume, and calling it the Neverland Dress Up Bin. All the kids loved it!

Here's the Tic Toc Croc!

I also buried some treasure in a small sandbox. The kid could dig for bubbles, fake jewels from the craft section, and a few little odds and ends.

Finally, we had a plank. Travis actually made a diving board type plank with some lumber we had in the garage and basement. The kids walked the plank over and over and over again.

Because it was a cool day we didn't want to use a baby pool with water underneath. Instead I borrowed a sheet from my mom. It's blue and has these neat white swirls on it, and they always reminded me of the ocean.

The whole afternoon was a lot of fun. Ben and JF loved every little bit of it and it was relatively easy to do! Of course, Pinterest helped me out a great deal with lots of fun ideas. You can see my pirate birthday pARRRRRty board here.

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