He Turned Two

As I sit here typing this, I can't help but feel like George Banks alah Father of the Bride.  The party is over, everything was fantastic and just now, I have a moment to reflect on everything; it was delightful. And I mean that literally.  Every guest that came was important and appreciated, all of the love that was abounding from one side of the house to the other was awesome and in the middle of it all was my sweet boy- who spent a better part of the afternoon spinning in webs of balloons and attempting to fall asleep.

Since it was his Golden Birthday, Arden enjoyed a Willy Wonka themed extravaganza.  I will go into detail where necessary; almost everything you see was handmade and inspired by Pinterest or some other serious time spent Google Image searching.

Enjoy!

The candy buffet idea is a pretty common one.  I made the candy jars from pillars that I found from Target and then glued jars on top.  While they look nice, they're also sturdy; midway through the party Arden toppled over the gray pillar.  Needless to say, 100 or so Jelly Bellies scampered across our floor in a matter of seconds, but the jar and pillar remained intact.  I call that a success. 

These I purchased from a party supply store.  They look nice, but they are seriously annoying to fluff up; probably never doing this again.

So, we were going to have people "cheese" with the golden frame I got at Michaels ($7.99), but that never happened.  Arden was the only lucky guy to get a framed picture.

Easy.  Cute.  Cheap.

Dip large marshmallows into semisweet chocolate.  Next dip them into nonpareils and skewer.

Bought these at a party store.  Not necessary, but very cute.

My calling card: chocolate covered pretzels.

Glorious.

So, these were supposed to be edible teacups.  Let's have a little chat about Pinterest fails shall we, 'cause this is one of them.  Time consuming and fragile; but it's my favorite part of the movie, so I think it was still worth it.

Despite what you're thinking, the mark on his forehead is a bruise, not chocolate... so no, don't think that I just forgot to wipe it off or something.

By the end of the party, there were: Doritos, fingers, mac and cheese, animal crackers, marshmallows, rice krispie treats and probably a few things that I don't even want to know about, all dunked in the chocolate fountain; in other words, it was a huge crowd pleaser.  Side note: when someone asked me if I bought this, I said, "yes."  A friend of mine said, "You need to flip your hair and say, 'yea, I own a chocolate fountain now."  Apparently, chocolate fountains are a sign that a girl has made it, so consider me: made.

Absolutely adorable.

I love this girl; she's always down to party and appreciates the details like no one else I know.

i'm a big deal.  wow.  let's party.
Anyone who knows us, understands that those captions are spot on.

Clearly, the signage action was plentiful with the over 28 crowd.

Super simple, super cute.  I found this heart ramekin for $1 at Target.  I got a small styrofoam ball for $3.99 at Michaels and then I put a whole 'lotta Dum Dums all up on it.  Tip: angle the sticks towards the surface of the table and not horizontally; I learned that the hard way. 

I searched high and low for a tutorial on making these styrofoam lollipops, here goes: take a styrofoam disk ($5.99 at Michaels) and cover it in tissue paper; do not leave gaps, cover the entire surface.  (I purchased my tissue paper at the dollar store, it's much cheaper and works just as well.)  Insert a dowel rod into the bottom of the disk, I interred mine about an inch and a half.  Take iridescent cellophane and wrap the entire disk, tying a bow at the base of the disk where the dowel rod is sticking out.  Make sure to arrange the cellophane so that it appears as though it is wrapping the disk like a lollipop wrapper would.  Wha-lah.  Project complete.  They cost about $8 a pop, so they are nice, but pricey.

And what Willy Wonka themed party would be complete with out a Wonka bar and a purple top hat?

Happy Birthday, Arden.  We love you!

Shopping Like A Top Chef

Of course cooking programs are always a fan favorite in our house.  Jim and I are big fans of Top Chef- and have been since season one, we're no bandwagon-ers here.  Now, everybody knows that Top Chef contestants exclusively shop at Whole Foods, so Jim and I were stoked to see one coming into a shopping center a few miles away.  Finally, we were going to get the opportunity to buy high quality food at top notch prices so that we I can make mediocre meals.  (Notice I said "I" and that's because Jim is a really good cook, I other the other hand could be classified as "not terrible.")

Okay, so I've gotta admit, the prices are outrageous, but the experience of how a grocery store should be is all sorts of amazing.  It's not all thin, ink-stamped cardboard boxes, it's biodegradable containers and intensely fresh and vibrant produce and gloriously delicious looking fish and cookies that will make you literally slap-yo-self for thinking that the Pillsbury Dough Boy is actually a chef just because he's wearing the hat.

Well, now that I've got your attention with those fascinating descriptions, how about a little look-see at how our trip went.  Hopefully, seeing these pictures inspires you to blow all of your holiday money on a trip to a Whole Foods near you.

Olympics Party

This Friday, friends and family gathered to watch the opening ceremonies of the XXX Olympic games and it was awesome.  There were lots of Pinterest inspired delights and an Olympic ring installation that came out almost better than I expected.  Please enjoy some pictures of the day.  I will be posting some how to's in the days to come.

Cookin'

Over the weekend, we celebrated Uncle Joseph's birthday at a Hibachi restaurant and it was especially awesome for Cullen since he loves, "cookin'!"  Here's how it went:

We waited patiently for the chef, but that didn't stop Cullen from greeting everyone that walked into the room as though they were the chef.

The boy will no longer look at the camera without be promised gum.

Pretty sure he's wondering if this chef knows what he's doing and no, he didn't because he was the waiter that Cullen kept calling the chef.

Preparing for the magic to start...

So, besides the practical cooking portion of dinner, there's also a little "showmanship" if you will.  I've been to other Hibachi restaurants and it seems to be pretty similar, in that the chef likes to get the crowd's attention with some sort of "fire" flare up on the griddle.  Well, let me tell you that when the chef did that, Cullen ran into my arms (notice the empty chair next to me) and talked about the fire, "it's not gonna hurt me..." for the rest of dinner.  Eventually though, he realized that watching a chef cook live outweighed his fear and he was able to make it back into his seat.

It's cool though, my face was hidden so you can't see me laughing, but I was.

Assuring him that everything was going to be fine and that the "fire" was all gone.

In the end, we had a fantastic dinner and Cullen thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  We will definitely be back.

Free of Charge

It started as just something that I wanted to do and has become something that I do.  Everyone in our family is known for something, be it an outrageous moment, a good recipe or a both.  Well, I've become famous for my chocolate covered pretzels.

So, just a little toot of my own horn at the product from this weekend, which I consider to be a great quality for the price (free of charge to the recipient) since I just Googled the price and it's about a dollar a pretzel online.