Syncopated Mama: party planning

Showing posts with label party planning. Show all posts

Great Skate Cake

My ridiculously creative friend made a super-fun skating cake for her daughter's eighth birthday party (held at the ice skating rink, of course).

See how she "figured" it out here...

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When my good friend (and former figure skating student) told me her daughter wanted to have her birthday party at the ice rink, I squealed with delight.

When she told me that even though she lives an hour closer to another rink, she was going to have it at my ice rink, I squealed even louder.

But when Gv and I walked into the party room this past weekend after a long day of lessons and I saw what my fabulously clever friend did with the birthday cake, I was silent.

Because I never would have thought of what she did, but it was absolutely perfect.

Click here to keep reading!

Gv + Cake Bday Party (Plus quick, delicious birthday cake recipe!)

Birthday parties around here aren't necessarily flashy, Pinterest-worthy productions, but they are extremely budget-friendly and full of plenty of old-fashioned fun!

Gv requested a Peg+Cat party this year (way back in October!)

Check out what I did to make that happen...

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commission at no cost to you. Thanks so much for supporting my efforts with this blog!

I've shared before how much Gv loves Peg+Cat. Luckily, I really dig the show myself, so it was easy to say yes when she asked if she could have a Peg+Cat-themed birthday party this year.

Never mind that it was October and I was pretty sure that theme choice would change approximately 286 times before her beginning-of-summer birthday rolled around.

But I was wrong. She never deviated from that idea one bit -- so you can bet she was pretty excited when the big day finally arrived!

Click here to keep reading!

Colorful Campout Birthday Party

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As the time drew near to celebrate another year of our little Gv, I began to contemplate the party situation. We enjoyed last year's event and spending time with family and friends so much, but didn't necessarily think a full‐out party was something we wanted to establish as an annual tradition.

I mean, does a 2‐Year‐Old really need all that?

The answer, of course, is no, but as I said in last year's post, a birthday is really just an excuse to have a fun get‐together and so G and I decided to go for it.

Click here to keep reading!

Colorful Campout, Games & Crafts Edition

Like I said last week, I'm going to tease you a bit with these party details, mainly to avoid creating a bazillion‐page birthday party post and share everything in a more manageable way.

Today's focus is on the games, crafts, and other activities. Last year, I wasn't really concerned with having any activities. I knew Gv would be fully occupied with sitting on the lap of guests and soaking up all the extra love, along with wandering around the party site and exploring the everyday things she found there. I did make sure to include some paper and markers last year, because I knew that her older cousins would appreciate having something crafty to do for the party's duration.

Click here to keep reading!

Colorful Campout, Cake Edition

As I said the other day, I'm going to tease you with these party details just a little bit, since I needed to cut the bazillion‐page birthday party post down to a more manageable size.

Today's focus is on the cake. Since last year's cake didn't hold up well in the Florida heat, I was determined to learn from the experience and do better this time.

First of all, I would not hide M&Ms away inside this thing. Those colorful chocolate treats might not melt in your hand, but apparently they do melt inside a humid cake that's been sitting outdoors in the heat all afternoon!

Secondly, I would try to make more of a typical cake this year. Since last year was Gv's first birthday, she hadn't actually had any sweets yet, and so we wanted what little solid food she was consuming to be as healthy as possible. Besides that, we're not used to a lot of sugar, so we wanted something that would suit our taste buds, as well. This year's version ended up still being a little healthier than probably most people are used to, but I felt I struck a better balance between healthy and "normal."

Our St. Patrick's Day crafting adventures gave me the idea for this rainbow (I mounded up the frosting as clouds to stick the ends in)...then I added some folded paper for a tent and a few pretzel sticks for a campfire!

I needed the cake to feed about 50 people and the only cake pans I had were lasagna‐type dishes. I decided to bake two of these in order to create two layers. The recipe I was loosely following was for two 9‐inch round cake pans, so I had to fiddle with the amounts to make it all work (which explains some of the oddities, like the chia seeds (can't cut an egg in half) and the salt).

What You Need (Cake):

1 1/2 cups butter

3/4 cup palm shortening

3 cups honey

7 eggs

1/2 Tablespoon chia seeds (plus 1 1/2 Tablespoons water mixed in)

4 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

3 teaspoons baking powder (make your own!)

1/4 + 1/8 teaspoons salt

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup buttermilk (I just used regular milk with a Tablespoon of vinegar added)

3 teaspoons vanilla

What You Do:

1. Cream the butter and shortening in your stand mixer until fluffy.

2. Add in the honey.

3. Add in the eggs & chia/water mixture (one at a time).

4. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.

5. Mix together the milk, buttermilk, and vanilla in a separate bowl.

6. Alternate the flour and milk combinations while you continue to run the mixer.

7. Grease two 9x13 baking dishes and divide the batter between them.

8. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour at 350 degrees, until the centers are done (when I tried testing these with a knife, it came out clean, but the cake was still undercooked, so I ended up having to cut a little section out of the middle to check it more thoroughly).

9. Frost and assemble the cake after it has cooled completely.

I was most concerned about the frosting holding up in the heat, so I went with a variation on my mom's classic Christmas cookie frosting, which always got a nice little crust on it after it sat for a bit.

What You Need (Frosting):

1 cup butter

1 cup palm shortening

4‐5 cups powdered sugar

4 teaspoons vanilla

4‐5 Tablespoons milk

What You Do:

1. Cream the butter and shortening in your stand mixer until fluffy.

2. Add in the sugar, a little at a time.

3. Add in the vanilla.

4. Add in the milk, 1 Tablespoon at a time, until frosting is at the desired consistency.

5. After the cake has cooled, frost the top of one sheet. Then, carefully place the other sheet on top and apply frosting to the outside of everything.

Due to the whole wheat flour, this cake is a little more dense than a typical cake. You can definitely taste the honey in this cake, but we really liked that flavor. The frosting held up beautifully in the heat and tasted pretty much like typical frosting. Several guests claimed it was delicious!

Are you in the make‐your‐own‐birthday‐cake camp, or the pick‐it‐up‐from‐the‐store camp? I'd love to hear - leave a comment or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.

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Colorful Campout, Food Edition

I'm going to be cruel and tease you just a little bit, because I'm going to spend several posts covering the different aspects of this year's birthday bash.

Originally, I was going to put it all together in one main post, but then that post grew to be about a bazillion pages long and so I decided to break things up a bit, to save your scrolling fingers, of course.

You're welcome.

Today's focus is on the party food. I went easier on myself this year and came up with a theme that would not only mean less prep time in the kitchen, but would also include items that would hold up much better to the heat of the day.

Click here to keep reading!

Frugal Photo Magnet Gift Idea

For Gv's first Christmas, I created this gift for our family. It was perfect for her inaugural year, but even though I wanted to continue to making personal presents each Yuletide, I elected to keep things a little simpler this time around.

So I made these fun photo magnets out of holiday cookie cutters. I figured turning something like this into a magnet would work well because it was small and would still give everyone a chance to see Gv's smiling little face on a regular basis. Even if people didn't put magnets on their fridge (I didn't used to), then they might still stick them on a spare fridge or freezer in the garage, the washer or dryer, or onto a file cabinet.

These little trinkets weren't too difficult to make, either. The hardest part was figuring out what size to print the photo out at (I just did this on my home printer). To do this, I measured the cutter openings and then resized my chosen photo using the basic photo editing software that came on my computer.

I was able to fit six photos on each page of photo paper. Then I just set the cutter on top of the photo, traced around it, and cut it out.

I slipped the photo into the cookie cutter and then put a few dabs of hot glue around the back edges, just to make sure it didn't fall out of place after I got the magnet on.

I'd made magnets in the past using inexpensive magnet paper for the printer, but I knew that wouldn't be strong enough to hold up these cookie cutters, despite the fact they were made out of lightweight plastic. I'd planned to get this paper in the hopes that it would work better, but I decided to first try to use a bunch of free magnets we'd gotten in the mail.

You know the ones. Local businesses send them out with their cards attached, or they come on the front of the phone book each season (who even uses a phone book anymore, anyway?) I'd always held onto these magnets to use in my classroom (I'd glue all sorts of classroom signs and printouts onto the tops, which didn't cost me a dime!), so I had a pretty decent supply to work with.

The free magnets were all large enough to use with these cookie cutters. I just set the cutter on top of the magnet, traced around the outer edges, then cut it out with plain old scissors. Finally, I ran a line of hot glue along the top edge of the magnet and then set the cookie cutter down carefully on top.

Voilà! A cute little personalized gift for everyone to open and enjoy.

And this idea doesn't just have to be limited to Christmas, either. You could easily make one for any birthday or holiday gift, just by using different cookie cutter shapes. I'm actually thinking that it would be the perfect present for Mother's Day, so if you're still scratching your head trying to come up with a great personalized present for Grandma, this might just be your salvation.

I even think this could work for an annual gift, because family and friends could easily enjoy displaying several photo magnets of Gv as she grows each year. I'm already on the hunt for some great cookie cutters that have simple shapes with large openings. I've found some great possibilities, like:

this set of 50 animal shapes
a colossal set like this one that includes all sorts of holidays as well as an alphabet
or just the alphabet and numbers
or just a simple group of fun year round shapes
or maybe even these sets of flowers, hearts, and stars

If you use your own free magnets, you can see that this project can cost less than a dollar a present, but even if you have to buy magnet and photo paper in addition to the cookie cutters, this idea will still come in at less than two bucks a pop, which is great for those times when you have a heart for giving to a zillion people, but a pocketbook that can only handle a handful (think of favors for a child's birthday party, or even a wedding!).

The one thing I was disappointed in with this project was the quality of the colors when I printed the photos out. We'd been having printer/ink issues and I'd thought everything was all sorted out, but the colors still came out a little wonky when I went to make these gifts. By that point, I didn't have time to have the photos printed somewhere else, so I just made the best of it.

Sigh. I miss my old printer. I'd had this one for years and it printed perfect photos, but our house was hit by lightning a couple of years ago and the budget just didn't allow for this gem to be replaced. I'm hoping to get another in the future, though.

Are you still trying to come up with a great gift for this Mother's Day? Or maybe you're looking for a frugal, but personalized wedding or birthday party favor to send home with your guests. With the variety of cookie cutters out there, this idea really lends itself to several different occasions ‐ which one do you like best? I'd love to hear - leave a comment or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.

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Game Day Dips

I'm not always into the Superbowl. It depends on whether there's a team I'm excited to root for (or against, as is the case this year) and whether the home team is playing (not likely to see that one again, after the way they've been playing for the last decade). But there's one aspect of Superbowl Sunday that I can always get excited about.

The food.

I'm all for any excuse to eat fun food and this day makes it easy to go wild with it. One thing you always need handy while watching the game is something tasty to dip your chips (or other yummy dippers) into.

Here are some (mostly) healthy options for you to try:

Straightforward Hummus - There's a reason this is one of the most popular dips today and sometimes you just can't go wrong with a classic version like this one!

Dairy-Free Dill Pickle Dip - All the punch of a good dill pickle, without all the drippiness of the juice.

30 Ways to Win with Hummus - If you're craving a little adventure with your chick peas, then check out this list.

Creamy Pesto Spinach Dip - The least healthy of the bunch, but oh, so tasty.

Kalamata Olive Dip - Hands-down, my most requested dip at get-togethers.

Dairy-Free Spinach Artichoke Dip - My first foray into dairy-free dip adaptation, and we still think it's the best dip ever.

Tunisian Sweet Potato Dip - Get your daily dose of a nutritious superfood with this healthy dip.

Once you've chosen your dip and dippers, then consider some other snacky treats to munch on while enjoying the highest-rated television event out there (or at least the funny commercials, if you don't care anything about the game).

Fill some Winning Wheat Snack Pockets with something delicious for a treat that fits right into the palm of your hand.

Make a run for the border with tacos or burritos made from this Healthy Tortilla Recipe.

Compliment all that beer you know you'll be guzzling with some Healthy Homemade Pretzels and accompanying Homemade Mustard.

Go with an obvious, but scrumptious choice, by making some Healthy Homemade Pizza.

Don't be afraid to try out a new recipe for game day. I always like making about half of my snacks from my favorite recipes and venturing out of my comfort zone for the others. I started this several years ago and now some of my experiments have become must-makes each year, like Pioneer Woman's Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies. Oh. My. Word. I will live with fire hands for days (because I'm stubborn and refuse to wear rubber gloves) just to savor the bacon-y goodness of these treats. (Yes, bacon can totally be an adjective. There's even a Facebook group that says so) Fix double, no, triple what you expect to eat, because trust me, they will disappear faster than a toupée on a windy day.

Now, go grab some pom-poms and cheer on those birds or soldiers while stuffing yourself silly with snacky treats. Then be all smug if you've made some of the recipes listed here, because they're almost all much healthier than your typical game day grub.

Do you have any favorite foods to enjoy while watching the big game? I'd love to hear - leave a comment or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.

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What You Need (Cake):

What You Do:

What You Need (Frosting):

What You Do: