Halloween Food Inspiration from My Friend's Party

Last weekend my friend's daughter had a Halloween themed 8th birthday party and the food buffet was so cool & themed up!  I wanted to share some pictures with you, to give you some inspiration for fun but spooky food!

Her husband made the Devil's Eyes above.  They're your normal deviled eggs but with a green olive pupil and a little bit of red frosting from the tube.  I might sound odd to have that sweetness on the egg but they were really good!

You can get a glimpse of these Witches Fingers below the Devil's Eyes in the top photo, and here is a closer look.  Can you guess what the finger nails are?  Marshmallows!  These were made from a kit, I think it was purchased at Target.  But I think it could be recreated with pre-made bread stick dough, food coloring for the green, etc.

There was dry ice in a cauldron setting the mood and in front of it were some cute candies.  Besides what I've shown some other easy but fun ideas that were used on the buffet were:

• Sand Witches: purchased Costco croissant sandwiches
• Jack-O-Lantern Pizza: frozen cheese pizza baked with pepperoni cut to look like a jack-o-lantern
• Fairy Garden Salad: Green Salad
• Goblin Fingers & Dragon's Milk: Carrots and Ranch Dip

Ultimate Party Meatballs Recipe Featuring: Heinz®, Johnsonville®, and Ocean Spray®

Disclosure: I received Heinz®, Johnsonville®, and Ocean Spray® products in exchange for sharing this recipe. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Fall is football season around here, and watching the big game is always more fun with family, friends, and some tasty munchies!  Today I've got a the easiest recipe, perfect for serving hungry sports fans.  You only need 3 ingredients!

Here is the recipe and some helpful tips:

Whipping up some Ultimate Party Meatballs is so easy.  I love that everyone can enjoy something hot and delicious without the stress of time consuming or difficult preparation.   We choose to try the saucepan preparation but these can also be made in a slow cooker, which is a nice way to serve them as part of a buffet since that will help keep them warm during a party.

Step 1: Combine the sauces, we poured in the 12 ounce bottle of Heinz® Chili Sauce first.

Step 1 Continued: Add the remaining sauce, in our case, the 14 ounce can of Ocean Spray® Jellied Cranberry Sauce.

Step 2: Cook over medium-low heat, stirring until smooth.  I used a spoon to help break up the Ocean Spray® Jellied Cranberry Sauce and move the process along.

Step 3: Add meatballs.  Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until meatballs are heated through, stirring occasionally.

That's all there is too it!  It's also a super fast way to get dinner on the table.  The sauce has a little bit of a kick from the chili sauce and a bit of sweet tang from the cranberries.  The sauce is also a pretty festive color.

These are the perfect go-to recipe for entertaining because then the host can enjoy the event too and not be stuck in the kitchen!  The ingredients are easy to find and keep on hand in the pantry or freezer for when unexpected guest show up or you need a last minute dish to pass. I hope you'll give these a try and if you have a favorite go to recipe, I'd love it if you shared it in the comment section!

You can learn more about the products used at the following sites:

• Heinz® Chili Sauce, average price $2.39 for a 12-ounce bottle
• Johnsonville® Fully Cooked Meatballs, Available in 3 Flavors: Classic Italian, Three Cheese, or Homestyle.  Suggested retail: $7.99 for a 24-ounce bag with 28 meatballs per package
• Ocean Spray® Jellied Cranberry Sauce: average price $1.40 for a 14-ounce can

A Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party

Yesterday our little guy turned two years old and the 21st his big sister turned seven.  She had her own fairy party so we combined the kids' celebration with family and close friends.  We were inspired the classic children's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle for the theme, which began with this adorable invitation.  It's a freebie from Make it Cozee.

This year was going to be really low key with no decorations just food and cake, but E picked out a caterpillar cake and our theme took off from there.  Here's the timeline I was dealing with.  We got home from a quick trip I've yet to post about late on the 22nd, leaving me just the 23rd to the 27th.  Most of the 23rd doesn't even count since we didn't go to order the cake until that night, when I decided to go for broke and theme up the party after all.  Good thing Pinterest made it easy to find doable ideas in a short time period.

I got the idea for the "Happy Birthday" banner from this pin.  I forgot to go back and add the antennae and feet but I think it still looked cute.  Our second row has each of the kid's names on their own caterpillar but since we keep their real names private, I've edited that part out.

My Cricut helped take care of the cutting, but if I hadn't had one this paper plate version also seems like a time saver idea.  I was tempted to go with that one because it would be big and and a real eye catcher, but the banner I made uses only supplies I already had - money saver, won out.

I saw lots of food signs and was inspired by these DIY Food Labels from Learn with Play at Home to make versions for my favorite Ikea Tolsby frames.  I used the fruit from her signs create the frame inserts, but added the text to match the one I used throughout the party.  Then I placed three on our mantle to fill in space and carry out the theme.

For the tables I put a double sided Tolsby frame, with a picture of E on one side and B on the other, taken during the past year.  E spent an entire afternoon making our own watercolored paper to use for decorations.  I used some of the larger sheets of green she painted to make sweet little leaves.  Some have holes punched where the caterpillar ate through, just like the book and so cute!  We also made pom pom caterpillars to place on a leaf.

The adorable M&M holder aka "Caterpillar Food" jar I based on an idea from this pin, using an empty pickle jar. 

The caterpillar balloon idea came from this pin.  I also really liked this one, that's crawling around a door frame.  That's perfect for when you don't have helium.  There were also great ideas for making a caterpillar shape out of large tissue paper pom poms and colored Chinese lanterns.  We had just enough air left in an a tank we got last year so the balloon idea was perfect, again I forgot to add the face but guests got the idea.

For the sign in we put out a board book for everyone to leave a message in and create a keepsake for our little guy.  E decided she didn't want a book but did want an autograph page for her scrapbook so we created a very simple one with flower stickers, thicker letters, and washi tape.  We put both out with a sign and pens.

Last year we moved E's celebration for family to the beginning of July for E and then they all had to come back over at the end of the month for B.  It was nice to combine the two into one and she was okay with it because she got her own fairy party and we went on an overnight trip on her actual birthday.

For this gathering she requested one thing, that there be a photo booth with cool photo prompts.  I found a mini pack of pre-cut props at Archivers and we were good to go!  I made a little sign and popped it into, you guessed it...yet another Tolsby frame.  I told you I love those frames!

Here's the sort of lame photo backdrop I was still making when guests began to arrive.  It should be longer so that the picture is filled with the backdrop.  But seriously, the girls are so sweet you don't notice it's incomplete, right? :)

I hope you did notice E's shirt in the photo booth picture.  I'm really proud of how that turned out!  I made both her shirt and LB's #2 shirt.  They are no sew and were made using a sheet of ink jet iron transfer paper and also have their names printed on the numeral.  It's just been cloned out of the photo so I could share these pictures with you.  

I had fun adding little touches there and there and everywhere.  I attached a little sign onto the side of the silverware and plate caddy I picked up at Target back around Memorial Day.  I've put off getting one for a long time but it's so worth it.  It's so handy to have someplace to stick all that kind of stuff that looks neat and tidy.  The sign uses the same file as the invitation at the top was created with, just re-sized.

Here is how we used the rest of the water colored papers that E made for me.  I dug out all of my little white cardstock scraps leftover from scrapbooking for this and it was a great way to use up stash!  Then I used my two inch circle punch to make a border for our island that was inspired by the dots in the book.  The other papers were used for the leaves placed on the tables, shown earlier.

I had to use some cute food signs, this platter was inspired by the book and uses some food images from the Learn with Play at Home download.  Two more great ideas I really liked are a caterpillar sandwich and all fun caterpillars formed out of cupcakes used in lieu of a cake.  There were many versions of each, I've linked to two examples.

Besides the platter above, our menu consisted of:

• Hamburgers and Choice of Toppings: Cheeses, Lettuce, Tomato, and Onion
• Mini Slider Burgers with Hawaiian Mini Rolls - a little sweet and really delish!
• Chinese Slaw
• Potato Salad
• Veggies and Ranch Dip
• Watermelon - also with a book inspired sign, I also was tempted to make these fruit & tomato skewers.  Mine wouldn't have been nearly as cute though!

The last little touch for guests to enjoy, were these Caterpillar Snack bags with fruit snacks for favors and inspired by Make It Cozee.

I really had a lot of fun throwing together our Very Hungry Caterpillar themed birthday, even though I was under time constraints.  It forced me to use what I had and make do with what I could find, preventing me from obsessing and over thinking.  We didn't have very many little kids there but I did come across some fun ideas to keep little hands busy and occupied.  Here are some of my favorites.

Kid's Party Activities:
Caterpillar Coloring Page
Make Your Own Caterpillar: Paper, Egg Carton, Fingerprint, and Paper Rolls.
Balloon Caterpillar Picture
Playdoh Make Your Own Caterpillar

Have you based a party off a book before?  If so I'd love to know which ones.  If you have a favorite party theme, I'm always looking for ideas for future birthdays, leave me your suggestions!  Thanks for coming by!
 

Teen Beach Movie, Premiering Friday July 19th & Family Movie Night Fun

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, I received Disney Channel "Teen Beach Movie" products in exchange for a post about the film.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love summer!  Schedules are relaxed and there's time to have fun together as family.  We let our daughter's strict 8 o'clock bedtime slide and a great way to end a hot busy day is with cuddles on the couch, popcorn, and a great movie on the TV.  Already on our schedule, is to enjoy the Disney Channel's premier of "Teen Beach Movie" on Friday July 19 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

This breezy surf-rock musical comedy is going to be perfect for our family to watch together, the video clip previews have already got us excited to dance and sing along.  The movie has a really cute premise: When teen surfing sweethearts Brady and McKenzie surf their way into a classic beach party movie, "Wet Side Story," they find themselves caught in the middle of the two groups vying for control of their beach's hangout.  It's a beach side movie as only Disney can do it, complete with spontaneous song and dance!  As Brady and Mack try to get back home, they inadvertently change the movie's romantic storyline when handsome surfer Tanner falls for McKenzie and biker girl Lela falls for Brady. 

Both the surfers and bikers are stylized with a retro cool look, adding to the old school vibe of the film.  It's a modern twist on classics such as "Gidget," or "Grease," with a message for kids and tweens about the importance of believing in yourself and following your true identity along with positive themes like self-expression, friendship and youth empowerment.  I am glad to have an option for good wholesome entertainment for my soon to seven year old daughter.

Teen Beach Movie is ideal for a family movie night and to get in the mood we threw a beach themed night!  It was complete with decorations and snacks to make our time spent together even more memorable.  To make planning super easy, right now there is a "Teen Beach Movie" party kit at DisneyChannel.com/TeenBeachMovie!

You'll find everything you need there from banners, to food ideas, crafts, and more.  Please excuse the crinkles in part of our banner, my almost two year old got a little excited over all the decorations and couldn't resist playing with it.  He was really, really, into this special family time and it was great to do it all without leaving home!

We decided to get into the mood, using some of the party ideas from the "Teen Beach Movie" site.  Starting with a "Surf's Up!" banner we downloaded and printed and a cool blow up "Teen Beach Movie" surf board sent to me for writing this post.  While ours themed, another beach blow up were certainly add the right touch to your party decorations.  A stack of inter tubes artfully arranged would look great!

The Teen Beach Movie Party Kit makes it super easy to throw a themed event and leave you with plenty of time for fun!   I was really tempted to go all out with the food but my daughter just wanted fruit and "sammies" aka sandwiches.  I had to remind myself movie night doesn't have to be complicated, what she is going to remember is the time we spend wit her and not how long it took Mommy to make decorations!

Then we laid out our favorite beach towels to get into the beach party mood and popped in one of our favorite Disney DVDs into our player, Jake and the Neverland Pirates to substitute for "Teen Beach Movie" this time. 

Time to dig into some yummy snacks, using the Premier Food Labels and Party Board Surf Boards to carry on our theme. Easy peasy and both kiddos were crazy about the little surf boards. The little signs punched up the level of excitement over the snacks and every day food became extra special.

We had so much fun, here are some more pictures of the silliness to be had!  The photo props and popcorn buckets were sent to me in my kit along with E's bracelet and temporary tattoos but it's easy to get a couple things like leis or inexpensive sunglasses to wear for your beach themed family movie night!

Here is a little video showing more of our family movie night, enjoy!

Our night felt like just a warm up for the big event on Friday, July 19th!  We hope you'll tune it too!

Holiday Tag Making Party

A gift tag making party is the perfect kind of gathering to invite friends over for an afternoon of girl talk, tasty nibbles, and some crafty fun.  It's especially good for your friends who say they "Aren't Crafty", as if there's such a thing!  Everyone is creative, they just might not have had enough opportunities to be so. 

Creating tags is a quick project, several can be made quickly and it's low stress for those who aren't used to doing creative play.  It's also a good theme for the hostess as it requires relatively few supplies and introduces her friends to a cherished hobby.  Anyone who's been a papercrafter for any amount of time probably has everything needed on hand already. 

I put together a tray with all sorts of crafty goodies to greet my guests with, as an attractively displayed supplies can be enough to get everyone excited to get started.  Here is what I suggest you include in addition to a couple of pairs of scissors and colored markers.

Provide a selection of blank tags for your guests in a variety of shapes, sizes, and papers.  I packaged the tags for each guest up in a holiday colored Chinese take out box.  I used my Cricut to cut the tags out, but blank tags in several different sizes and colors can be purchased by the package, as well as the boxes, at craft stores.

I raided my stash to put together a collection of embellishements for each guest that included buttons, stickers, red & white twine, paper flower, glittery words, and some layered die cuts I made with my Sizzix machine.  The contents of each bowl was identical for each guest.

Here is a better view of the kind of supplies I provided.  I also covered the glue sticks with festive paper, just for the cuteness factor.

Itty bitty alphabet stamps were put out for making sentiments.  Not shown, is the collection of seasonal stamps I put out nearby along with my embossing powders (seen in top photo in center of tray), inks, heat gun, and baby wipes for quick clean up.  It's a good idea to suggest any stamping on the back of the tag be done before working on the front, for example if they want to add the "To" and "From" there.

Because tags are so small, it's a good time to pull out any sizable scraps you have left over from other projects like scrapbook pages.  These are great for covering blank tags or adding layers.  I pre-trimmed any odd shaped scraps I had into squares and rectangles to make them easier to flip through and use.  I had some larger scraps clipped together that did not fit in the bowl as well.  You can get a glimpse of these in the photo below.

It's also a good time to pull out what I call my "One and Onlys".  These are left over bits and pieces from sticker sheets or embellishment packs.  Things that are too nice to throw away or pass onto my kiddo fo her crafts but not likely to be used again by me.  This provides a few extra tidbits for guests to play along with.

It's nice to provide some light refreshments.  Besides coffee and a selection of teas, I served a Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball with Chocolate Graham Crackers for a bit of sweetness.  The dip is delish, tastes like cheesecake filling, yum-o!  To give a light lighter option, I also put out some sliced green & red apples and caramel dip.

After a couple of hours of chatting, snacking, and crafting my guests had created a plethora of very special gift tags.  Check out what my "Not Crafty" friends made.  Didn't they do a great job?

Hosting duties prevented me from getting the best pictures, but you can tell that with a little encouragement they went to town and had a blast.  I did not make any myself, opting to provide asstance and guidance for my guests and this worked out really well.   It helped keep things relaxing for everyone.