Parties

Halloween – The Archives

October 18, 2012 By Kris Moran

I used to host a big, fun Halloween party the Saturday before Halloween each year. I never was a big Halloween person – until Son was born. My only request to my Dr. during my pregnancy was “please don’t let him be born on Halloween!” Now I think that would have been cool. But…he made his entrance a few days before and we ended up having a Halloween/birthday party combo 6 years running. I think my favorite Halloween party was the last one 3 years ago – it was an 80′s themed party and kids and adults all came dressed in 80′s costumes. We had several Madonnas, a rubik’s cube, the Golden Girls, Punky Brewster, Mr. T, etc.. I will always cherish those photos and memories! After that party I scaled back to a small party on Halloween – some of our friends come over and we eat chili and a few appetizers and then we all drive golf carts around the neighborhood trick-or-treating.

Here are a few photos I dug up from the archives to share with you through the years of Halloween (last year pictured above was “Toddlers and Tiaras and a Bears football player.) As I type this, Daughter (at 10 years old) is now pretty much my same height and has a shoe size 2 sizes larger than my own. Son is not far behind in the height department and we could share shoes but he doesn’t really care for wedges or Ugg boots! Daughter typed a letter to me outlining all the reasons she should have a phone - I’ll have to scan and share that later, it would win anyone over. The point is…they are growing up way too fast and pretty soon they will be too old for trick-or-treating! (Some faces have been blacked out to protect the innocent!)

Son won the Costume Contest at the 80′s party with his Gene Simmons KISS costume!

And I’m not saying this is or isn’t husband, but this crew also won the Costume Contest as Richard Simmons and the Sweatin’ to the Oldies “ladies.” I pee a little every time I see this photo:

These Solid Gold dancers at the 80′s party still kill me. I couldn’t black out his lips in this photo because really – that makes the photo:

This was all of us last year by the golf cart. Husband went all out with his costume…I think he called it “deer in the headlights”

This Chuckie was pretty funny – we found him/her at a house where we trick-or-treated. They had the dad jumping out of the bushes to really freak you out and they had fake bloody limbs on the stairs up to their house.

This is really going back in the archives to the pumpkin patch days:

People who have never seen me pregnant don’t believe that I get as big as I got. No, this is not twins or octuplets. This was taken about a month before Son was born…back in the days with a digital camera that had 2 megapixels and before lasik eye surgery:

Isn’t she the cutest thing? This child never had hair until she was about 3 years old. It all fell out and grew back to the thickest hair you’ve ever seen – see what happens when you wish too hard? I said I wanted enough hair for a bow – not enough that her hairdresser said he will start charging her by the pound! There is nothing cuter than baby feet…nothing…

This was when my little pumpkin turned 1 – still getting the hang of how to walk, I guess:

This was Daughter trying on brother’s costume:

I could eat them with a spoon:

This was the year Johnny the Torch actually started a tree on fire with a sparkler:

I hope you enjoyed my walk down memory lane!

~Kris

Filed Under: About Me, Daughter, Entertaining, Family, Holidays, Husband, Kids, Parties, Son 4 Comments

First Communion & Cinco de Mayo

May 11, 2012 By Kris Moran

These two occassions seem an unlikley pair – but this year they fell on the same day…May 5th! Son, a second grader, made his First Holy Communion on Saturday night and we had a dinner/pool party after for our family and some of his friends’ families. It was fun to see Son all dressed up – for a boy who considers jeans TOO DRESSY for formal night on the Cruise, it was nice to see him in a shirt and tie instead of basketball shorts and sports team t-shirts. In our church, First Holy Communion is a very special time – it would bring tears to any mother’s eye.

Two years ago when Daughter made her First Communion, I hired a professional photographer who did a full shoot of her in her dress and veil and she created custom invitiations for the dinner after. For Son, I quickly rushed him to the back yard and snapped the world’s fastest photo and then found an invitation online that could ship quickly. Lucky for me, the picture turned out pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself:

And here are a few photos from the Service:

After the Mass, the Church had a reception for all - two HUGE cakes with each of the communicant’s names on it (they each got the piece with their name) and lemonade. After that we went back home for a Cinco de Mayo themed dinner party and the kids all swam like fish in the pool all night. Here are some party details and recipes:

Sources: Paper Flowers, Tissue banners and salsa bowls here, tablecloths from Walmart, large beach towels from Target, Tissue Pom Poms from Party City and all ribbon and tulle from Hobby Lobby.

Dinner was a taco bar with beef or chicken and all the fixings. Instead of plates, I used these foil to-go containers that I bought at the Dollar Store. If you plan ahead, you can buy these much cheaper at an on-line restaurant supply company. The downside is you have to buy 200, but only $20! Everyone loved eating from these and it was less mess with the tacos.

I served individual layer dips and displayed them on top of a sombrero.
I made these the night before and trust me, they were delish.

The dessert bar – yum! I served lemon cupcakes (on a sombrero), brownies, strawberry pound cake trifle, chocolate chip cookies and sopapilla cheesecake (not pictured.) The recipe for the amazing trifle is at the end of this post – super easy and you can make the day before!

Water bottle labels and food label table tents from Etsy - awesome, last minute service!

Every single Coronoa was consumed…when in ~~Rome~~ Mexico!

Make-ahead Mason Jar Margaritas. I love anything in a mason jar so when I found this reicpe on Pinterest, I had to try it – muy bien!
See the full recipe below.

Last but not least – I bought some stick-on mustaches at Party City and hot glued them onto skewers and put them at the head table along with some sombreros – people could then pose for pictures using the mustache and hats – made for some funny pics of our friends!

RECIPES

Strawberry Pound Cake Trifle

- 1 Sara Lee Pound Cake, thawed (this dense cake works best for this recipe so it doesn’t get mushy)
- 2 or 3 pints of fresh strawberries – sliced and tossed with 1/2 Cup sugar
- 1 1/2 Cup sugar (1/2 cup used above)
- 2 eight oz packages of cream cheese, softened
- 3 cups whole whipping cream, whipped to make 4 cups

1. Slice the pound cake into 1 inch cubes.

2. Beat the cream cheese and 1 C of sugar until smooth. Then add then whipped cream and mix lightly.

3. Start the first layer of your trifle with pound cake and place along the bottom of your trifle bowl.

4. Layer the pound cake with the juicy, sliced strawberries.

5. Top the strawberries with a thick amount of the whipped cream mixture.

6. Repeat layers one more time until top layer is whipped cream.

7. Garnish with a whole strawberry or even white or dark chocolate shavings.

*You could also add blueberries and make this dessert look patriotic for Memorial Day or 4th of July!

*This recipe can be made the day before – this will give the pound cake time to absorb the strawberry juices.

Make Ahead Mason Jar Margaritas
I made 3 batches of these margaritas which filled 24 1/2 pint mason jars. Save your packaging and freeze the jars in it to save freezer space.

- one 12oz can frozen limeade
- 1 C Tequila
- 1/3 C Triple Sec
- juice of 2 limes
- 4-5 cups of ice

In a blender, combine all ingredients except the ice and blend. Then fill the blender to the top with ice and blendy until slushy. You do not want any big ice chunks. Pour into 1/2 pint mason jars and screw the lids on tightly. Freeze until ready to serve. The margaritas will thaw to a slushy consistency in about 5-10 minutes. Do not put them immediately into an icy cooler like I did – the ice will stick the the mason jars and is hard to remove. I would recommend putting them into a cooler or drink bin without ice until they have thawed.

Next up – Daughter’s dance recital and her birthday party. Then I am taking a nap. A really, really long nap.

~Kris

Filed Under: About Me, Cooking and Recipes, Entertaining, Family, Kids, Parties, Son 5 Comments

The Days Are So Long, The Years So Short

April 20, 2012 By Kris Moran

Busy. Busy. Busy. That about sums up my life these days. The kids either have a practice, game or tournament every day of the week. Today I thought was our first day off in 15 days and then daughter’s team called a practice and son’s coach signed him up for a hitting camp. Rewind to February. I am sitting in the cold rain at son’s first travel ball tournament. It was miserable and I confess I complained all morning that the tournament wasn’t canceled – bad weather was looming – and I just knew we’d get all the way there and it would get rained out. But it didn’t. As I’m sitting on the bleachers - cold and wet – my phone rings with a real estate related call. Another agent wanting an appointment to show one of my listings. I told her I was sitting outside in the rain at son’s baseball tournament and she got real excited and said “Honey you are SO LUCKY. I would give ANYTHING to have those days back with my children. Now they are grown up and moved away.” Wow. It took that one silly phone call to give me some perspective. Enjoy life while you are living it. Pretty soon these kids are not going to need me or even want me to be around. They aren’t going to snuggle at night or give me kisses goodbye at school. I won’t have any rainy travel ball tournaments to go to and cheer on my kids. Cherish the moment – in the moment.

Brother, sister-in-law and their 3 little nuggets came to visit for a week during Easter. We had glorious weather. But my kids had that pesky thing called school. We soaked in as much time as we could with the cousins and cried lots of tears when they left. Daughter actually locked herself in her bathroom when we were saying good-byes. She was crying so hard that sister-in-law had to knock on the door holding the “Bug” coaxing her out for a hug and a goodbye. I wish we lived closer. Actually, I wished THEY lived closer because I don’t do snow. Here is a picture I snapped of the Bug on the beach in her cute little Janie N Jack swimsuit ensemble. She is the cutest, smartest 2 year old I have ever met – we have holes the size of Texas in our hearts when they leave.

We got the new swingset installed! Its pretty great. I told the builder I wanted it sized for my tall kids. Well, he took me to my word and it was so tall that Husband actually had him lop off 3 feet. Can you imagine this 3 feet taller? We had to go buy extra chain so the kids wouldn’t need ladders to get on the swings. Some day if I ever have some free time I need to stain or seal it. The posts were dug 3 feet deep in the ground – would have gone deeper but we hit water. Darn sea level. The swings and hardware are all from Home Depot…the swings can support up to 350 pounds. Before extra chain:

And the ”after”:

Things are moving slower than I’d like at the Beach House. Just like everything there, the walls are schitzophrenic. Some have beachy wood paneling (not your Grandma’s 1970′s paneling) and some have an almost stucco finish. So we decided to panel all the walls in the living room and kitchen. Well, one batch of wood was bad and had to be re-ordered, bringing the work to a halt. My contractor said the Kitchen might arrive this week – that would be great news. We are getting close. Picture it painted the perfect shade of white.

Yesterday I stopped by Home Depot to pick up some flowers and herbs to plant. Son is making his First Communion on May 5, so we are having our family and a few of his friends over for dinner after. Well turns out that day is also Cinco de Mayo so the party is going to be just that. Mexican food, mojitos, sangria and some fun decorations I ordered from Etsy and an authentic Mexican Fiesta store! I am planting my own basil and mint, using Miracle Gro soil and fingers crossed it will grow enough to use in time for the party. Herbs grow so well in pots by my pool – it has a screen so they are protected from bugs and creatures. The herbs must love humidity because they grow the size of a small tree by July. I also bought some new cobalt blue pots at WalMart – less than $30 for the largest size. They look JUST like pottery and then you touch it and its lightweight plastic. I carried them to my car and I got more than a few stares of wow, that girl is STRONG to be carrying those huge pots to her car.

And some photos of my Cinco de Mayo Party inspiration, from my Pinterest Parties board:

The sangria filled with chopped up fresh fruit like strawberries and apples and yes, basil from my garden. Grow basil, grow!

I know a margarita would be more fitting, but my fav drink is a mojito. For the two times a year I actually drink! I am trying this recipe from the Food Network because it makes an entire pitcher and it gets great reviews. Grow mint, grow!