Curious George Party

Alot of my friends have been asking me about questions about Ethan's birthday party. So, I figured I would do a post about it so I can give all the details.

Ethan was turning two! (Where did the time go??) I knew right away that it HAD to be a Curious George party. He is addicted to the cartoon and loves the books.

Before planning any further, I looked online to find Curious George invites. I found one that I was in love with on Etsy from a lovely and easy to work with Lady that has a shop called, Confetti Prints. Here is a link, Curious George Photo Invitation.

Since I picked out the invitation, I had to pick colors to coordinate with. The invite had primary colors so I choose Yellow, Red and Blue. I would suggest that if you are planning a party, never use more than 3 colors! 

For the place of the party, I do not like to do big parties at my house because I do not like the before or after of cleaning. Not what I need to focus on on my kid's birthdays! So we decided to have it somewhere outside. A friend told me about Lake Louise in Weaverville. The website didn't say anything about renting a picnic shelter but I called and she said that you can. The rental is $50 for 5 hours. Not bad, huh? Here is a link to the park, Lake Louise.

For the time of the party,  This can be harder than what you think if you have a toddler. Since we have two that depend on naps to be in a good mood, we choose 2pm. That way they can take an early nap!

Now that I had the place, time and invite picked out,  it was time to order the invitations. I ordered them, and had them delivered to my email within 48 hours. I had them printed at Sam's, and I bought the envelopes from AC Moore. Invitations complete! Here is what they looked like.



Next step was food.

I found a pin on pinterest for a popcorn bar. It was so cute. I had to do it. I slowly began putting things together. For the popcorn seasoning, I bought it online from Kernal Seasonings. I had two big plastic buckets I could use for the popcorn. I bought 2 scoops from the dollar store, along with 2 cute popcorn buckets (that I put the seasoning and spritzer in), I bought brown paper lunch bags from Target, I bought the small red bowls and napkins from Walmart. I found the popcorn Spritzer at Ingles. (I read online that the seasoning sticks better with it. It did!) For the popcorn, me and my mom popped it the day before. Ingle's sells it, but for a ridiculous price. If you don't want the hastle of popping it yourself, it is a good route to go!



My creation of a popcorn buffet!

I found another pin for a Hot Dog Buffet. I of course, had to do this too! I put a different spin on it. Buying food for parties can get expensive real fast. I was looking online at different hot dog combinations when it hit me. Doesn't Sonic have different kind of hot dogs? Sonic website here I come! I looked online at their menu and bam! I decided to do the New York Dog, Chicago Dog and the American Dog.  All of the ingredients were easy and nothing had to be kept hot.  (My dad was the only one disappointed that there was no Chili and Cheese.) I cooked the hot dogs at home and wrapped them in aluminum foil. I did that so I wouldn't have to buy plates, and the hot dogs stayed warm. The toppings I put in plastic Tupperware to take to the party. Below is my creation of a hot dog buffet!

 

Now that I had the part food covered. I needed to find a dessert. I didn't want to do the traditional cake or cupcakes, I wanted something different! (Of course!) Since I really didn't have anything in theme with Curious George yet, I decided to make Banana Pudding! (Get it?! ) I have wanted to use Mason Jars for something, only because I have seen it a million times on Pinterest. So, that was it! Pudding in Mason Jars! I found Paula Deen's recipe for Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding. Only I wanted to use Mini Vanilla Wafers instead of the Chessman Cookies. (The best pudding recipe EVER!)

Now down to the creative side.

I ordered the kids Curious George T-shirts from Etsy. The shop owner is wonderful and she let me customize the shirts to whatever I wanted. I should have washed them before they wore them. After I washed them, the shirt didn't crease like it did as shown in this picture.

The signs for the hot dog stands I ordered from the Confetti Prints, the same lady who made our wonderful invitations. Here are some of the custom signs she made for us. I bought the frames at walmart. 

For the party favors I ordered Curious George books. I wrapped twine around the cover just for a special touch. I also ordered Curious George series books for people to sign from Amazon.

For the pudding, the Mason Jars came from Walmart. I already had the scrap booking paper I used for the lids. I bought the favor tags from Confetti Prints. I cut them out and used double sided tape to tape them to the lids. I also used twine to wrap the Mason Jars. The inflatable buffet that held the pudding came from Birthday Express. We made the pudding the night before. The morning of, we put it in the jars along with the wafers and bananas. We also put crushed wafers on top.

Finally. The Pinwheels. I found out how to make Pinwheels of course, on Pinterest. I already had the paper, brads, buckets and decorative grass at home. I used pencils to hold the brads in place. Flower Styrofoam is what held it together on the bottom. I also added some of the favor tags to the bucket, I taped them to skewers. Then I wrapped the bucket with twine. Cute and cheap!

If anyone still has questions, please feel free to ask!

Dump Meals

Since my life has been blessed with my two amazing children, I have exactly ZERO minutes to do anything.  Cooking supper in my house either happens during nap time, leftovers being reheated or consists of Dane picking something up on his way home.

One day last week while searching the Internet for easy recipes, I came across a Pin on Pinterest for Freezer Crock Pot meals. While I was reading the recipes I had some pros/cons about the whole situation.



Here is a picture of some of the Dump Meals I made

 
Cons -
1 - I have never been comfortable with freezing meals.
2 - The thought of having to make a couple different meals in a day freaked me out.
3 - Going through all the trouble to make these meals and the end result being that they taste terrible!

Pros -
1 - If I can open a Ziploc bag and pour in the ingredients I have a meal in a minute!
2- The only thing I have to do is pour it in the crock pot!
3- Easy clean up after supper!

Noticing that my Pros were all related to EASY, I figured what the heck. I found these recipes through Pinterest:

Sweet and Tangy Meatballs

Teriyaki Chicken

Apple & Pear Pork

Sweet & Sour Chicken

Beef Stew

Bacon Meatballs

I doubled all the recipes because Mother's Day was coming up and I figured I could make my mom each meal for her gift. I ended up spending a little over $100* for all ingredients, for 14 meals. Some recipes had enough to make 3 bags instead of 2. (*Some of the ingredients I already had at home.)



I came home, chopped the veggies according to each meal, labeled the bags, and tossed the ingredients together. I called it Chop, Shake, Seal and Freeze. I made 14 meals in less than 1 hour. The only ones that took a little while was the Beef Stew and the Bacon Meatballs.



I froze all the meals laying down, to save room in the freezer!

 We have tried the Beef Stew and the Teriyaki Chicken, both were great and even both of my kids ate it!

Note: I tried them both ways. I didn't thaw the Beef Stew out, I just cut the Ziploc bag and threw the frozen chunk in the Crock Pot. The Teriyaki Chicken I thawed out in the fridge over night. Both turned out perfect.





Gardening 101

This summer we decided to grow our very own garden!  Since my dad is not doing one of his massive gardens this year I figured he would enjoy watching me battle my own. I have no clue how to grow anything, because I have never tried. There can be such thing as a fool proof garden, right?

First thing was where to put the garden. I needed it in the full sun, and out of the way. I figured I would use a space that has been painfully ignored and overcome with weeds and bushes next to our garage. I thought it would be a perfect place to put guttering up to collect rain for a rain barrel.  (Notice how I say, "I figured", and "I thought." Ha!)

Since we have been busy remodeling the inside of our house, we haven't had time to do anything on the outside. This is the first year I haven't been pregnant so I figured I would jump in with both feet!


This was after I started clearing out the weeds and brush. I forgot to take a picture of the complete before.



This is a picture of the brush pile I removed from the garden area.

It took 2 loads to remove it all!
We have the best neighbor in the world.  Thank goodness he has heavy equipment!

My awesome brother who has a massive garden in TN let us have his old tiller.


Planning where to put the garden was the easiest, preparing the garden was the hardest! After getting infected by Poisen Ivy from head to feet and being sore in places I thought was impossible,  I'm happy that that part is over!

Now that we have the first stage complete, stay tuned for the next blog about what is going in the garden!