Wii Love Bowling

Back in July of 2011, I hosted a super fun monthly dinner titled Wii Love Bowling!  It was so much fun, and we had a blast competing as teams. I totally recommend a Wii party if you are looking for a fun activity that gets your guests active, but doesn't require a ton of props.

Invite: I found a cute birthday bowling invitation on Google images, and just adapted it to use for my dinner. I asked guests when they RSVP'd if they would be willing to be a team captain and design the shirt/come up with the team name for their team.  Once I had all the RSVPs, I randomly drew names to assign to each team and told the captains their team members.

The team captains designed these super cute "uniforms" for their team, and it made the tournament so fun.  One team opted for "The Pin-Up Gals" and the other team was the "Pinguins."  We used the felt that has glue on one side to make these.

Entry:  I bought foam board from the local dollar store to make these giant bowling pins.  I drew the pins and then cut them out, used red scrapbook paper for the stripes, and taped them to cans of canned food to keep them upright.

Decor:  I set my table with a bowling lane down the middle.  The lane is contact paper I bought for a dollar at the Dollar Tree (same paper I used for the Dancing with the Stars dance floor).  I added a few triangles with scrapbook paper to make it look even more like a true bowling lane.  The mini bowling set I got from ToysRUs in the $3 bin.  They were not heavy enough to stay in place on their own, so I taped the bottom with clear tape.

As a place card, one of the girls helped me out by making mini Wii people to look like each guest. She designed them on the Wii, took a photo with her phone, and then added the guest's name.  There are ways to do this online, but I was having difficulty doing this, and my friend was willing to help.  We attached the printed images to straws and added them to the table.  We put them on straws because I served "MargaWiitas" at this monthly dinner instead of the usual wine, so straws were needed.

On each plate, I also put a score card for the evening.  The Wii kept score for us, so this was not necessary, but it was an easy addition I mainly added just for more decor.  The front was the photo and the back was the score boxes.

Menu:  For an appetizer, I made a cheese ball molded to look like a bowling ball.  I served this with wheat thins.  For the main meal, I served Teriyaki Bowling Meatballs,  potatoes shaped like bowling pins with yummy spices, and asparagus.

Dessert:  For dessert, I made this bowling lane cake.  I followed the recipe on Spoonful.com.  The only difference was I did not use black licorice for the black line because it was not available at my local grocery store.  I just piped it on with black frosting instead. My bowling pins are just plastic pins I found at a local cake shop.

Favor: I normally try to keep my favors fairly inexpensive, but I couldn't resist purchasing these mini Wii remote Pez dispensers from Walgreens.  I think they were $1.50 or so a piece.  You can buy them in bulk on Amazon as well, but I didn't need that many and I was fairly last minute, so I got them locally.  I wrapped them up with a tag to play up the bowling theme.

We had so much fun at this party.  The matching team shirts really helped keep the fun vibe going the entire night as well.  Another party I totally recommend throwing!

Dancing with the Stars Soiree

 

 I watch very few television shows regularly, but Dancing with the Stars this past season was one I could not get enough of.  I just love dancing, and I really enjoyed the variety of routines and talent with this season's All Star cast. With this as inspiration, I decided to host my January monthly dinner as a Dancing with the Stars Soiree!

Invite:  The invite was simple.  I just used some images from the Internet to create a card with the "episode" details.  The inside of the card featured the three judges.  I changed their scores to reflect the date of my event for some added fun.  I also asked guests to come dressed to perform with a costume from any dance style.  This was fun as the girls came in country dance attire, a poodle skirt with 50s accessories, a salsa dancer, a flapper, and several other funny costumes.

Decor:  I set my table to look like a large dance floor.  The "wood" dance floor is shelf paper I found at the Dollar Tree. As my centerpiece, I had two large wooden music notes with a mirror ball trophy in the center.  I made the mirror ball trophy with an 8" Styrofoam ball and a large piece of metallic poster board.  I cut the poster board in 3/4" squares and used a hot glue gun to adhere each individual square to the ball.  This took a while to do, but I love how it turned out.  The rest of the trophy is a candlestick that I bought at Michaels.  I just used hot glue to attach the mirror ball to the top of the candlestick.

As a place card, I found photos of the couples from the Dancing with the Stars All Star Season.  I replaced the female star's heads with one of my guest's heads.  I wanted this to be fairly obvious, so I purposely made my guest's heads larger than the star's head on the image.  Not quite as much as a bobble head, but the same idea. *I have these place cards with mirror ball background (without my guest's faces) already sized on my computer.  Email me if you would like them.

I used plastic champagne glasses at this dinner with silver glitter glued to the base. I didn't want to do this with my wine glasses, so this is why I used plastic.  It coincided well with this being the first dinner of the "new year" as well.  From the ceiling, I dangled metallic stars I made with the left over paper from the trophy.  My father-in-law has a lot of music and DJ equipment, so he let me borrow some lights that also added some color and glamor to the room.

On each plate, I folded a 10x10 piece of scrapbook paper into a high heeled dancing shoe for added decor.  On the front of each heel, I clipped hair bows from my daughter and my friend's daughter. I tried to use double sided card stock on most of these for added impact, but the thicker the paper, the more difficult I found it was to fold.  So some of the shoes were double-sided and some were not.  I also included a menu card so guest's could see the "dances" reflected in my menu.

Menu:  To come up with my menu, I started to think of different dance styles/genres that are performed on Dancing with the Stars.  I then tried to incorporate these styles into foods.

The Tangy Chicken with Peach Salsa is a delicious recipe and fairly easy to make.  Since fresh peaches were not in season, I substituted papaya instead.  Still yummy.

Chicken with Peach Salsa

4 large skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (1 lb. total)

2 tablespoons lime juice

4 teaspoons teriyaki or soy sauce

1 medium peach, peeled, pitted and chopped or 1/2 medium papaya peeled, pitted, & chopped

1 small chopped tomato (1/2 cup)

2 tablespoons sliced green onions

1 tablespoon lime juice

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

Rinse and pat dry chicken. In small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons lime juice and teriyaki sauce.  Brush mixture on chicken.  Cover and let stand 30 minutes or chill for up to 2 hours.  For salsa, in medium mixing bowl stir together peach or papaya, tomato, green onion, 1 tablespoon lime juice, ginger, and garlic.  Cover and let stand 30 minutes at room temperature or chill up to 2 hours.  Place chicken on unheated rack of broiler pan.  Broil 4-5 inches from the heat for 12-15 minutes or till no longer pink, turning once.  Top with salsa before serving.

For dessert, I served a Lemon Meringue Pie. This recipe was adapted from Trisha Yearwood's recipe.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Filling:

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 or 3 large lemons)

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

3 large egg yolks, white reserved for meringue

Meringue:

3 large egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In a medium bowl, mix the condensed milk, lemon juice, zest, and egg yolks, reserving the whites for the meringue.  Pour the mixture into your crust.  For the meringue, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, then add the sugar and whip until peaks are stiff.  Spread the meringue over the pie and seal to the edge of the crust.  Bake until the meringue browns slightly, 15 to 20 minutes.  Chill for at least 2 hours before serving. 

Activity:  You can't have a Dancing with the Stars party without a bit of dancing!  The original plan was to break up into pairs and give guest's 10-15 minutes to choreograph a dance in a specific genre.  My friend made a CD of songs for the guest's to choose from.  The dances we "assigned," thinking these would be the most fun and easy, were the tango, salsa, country western, and the jive. It was silly and fun to choreograph and then perform these dances for each other.  I made score signs for the judges using red paper plates, card stock, and Popsicle sticks. In addition to this activity, I also planned to have a bit of Wii dancing, but this didn't end up working out.  If you owe a Wii, this might be an alternative if you don't think your guests are up for choreography!

Favor: I decided to make a mini mirror ball trophy for each guest as a take home gift.  I cut pieces of wood to use as the base and post, glued them together, and painted them black.  The mirror ball is a cake pop covered in silver sprinkles.  I cut the cake pop stick so that it could fit in the hole I drilled in the wood.

If you like Dancing with the Stars, this is a fun party to host. A fun start to 2013!

The Bare Necessities

November is a time we often count our blessings and be thankful for all we have.  Others do not have even the bare necessities, and they are struggling every day. This prompted me to host my November monthly dinner with the theme of Bare Necessities where the girls and I made care packages to give out to the homeless in our communities.

Entry:  I wanted my decor to fit with my theme, but not be depressing.  At first, I was going to decorate all in teddy "bears" and play up this homophone, but that seemed too cutesy to go with our activity.  I decided instead to mix the two.  A shopping cart was donated to my ASB several years ago, so I borrowed that to set outside my entry door. I filled it with blankets, sleeping bags, etc.  Across from it, I set out a flattened cardboard box with a giant panda bear (thanks Gracie!).  I made a simple sign for the panda to hold inviting guests to enter.

Decor:  I set my dining table with some camping tarps as a tablecloth. As a centerpiece, I filled a small shopping cart with washcloths as well as some of the care package items.  Next to this, I placed another teddy bear holding a sign that read: "Homeless Let's Help" instead of the general Please Help that you often see on the side of the road. I placed newspaper under it -- the employment section -- for added color and contrast.

As place cards, I made knapsacks out of a scrap of fabric and a pencil. I filled the inside of the fabric square with Thanksgiving M&Ms, tied the ends of the fabric together in a knot to create the sack, and slid a new pencil in (writing side down so it didn't show).  To add the name to each pencil, I used by Cricut machine to cut letters and then glued them on.

To keep with the theme, the menu card was a piece of cardboard with the menu written in black marker.  The wine bottles were wrapped in paper bags.  I tied the tops with a burgundy ribbon for the red wine and a white ribbon for the white wine.

On the table we used for assembling the care packages, I used a sleeping bag as my tablecloth. I set out another bear, this one holding a sign that read "We Care Packages".  Another small shopping cart held the cards (see Activity section below).

Our good friend Josh in Mammoth carves these amazing bears out of wooden logs.  This bear was given to us at our wedding years ago.  It is engraved with our names at the bottom, and the bear was originally holding fresh flowers when we received it at our reception. He was a perfect addition to my table, and the hole was perfect to stick a skewer with a sign to identify the table.  By the way, you should really check out Josh's website to get one of these for your home, Bare in Mind Carvings. We love ours and get so many great comments on it.

Menu:  Again, I tried to adapt or fit menu items to the theme.  We started with Raspberry Salad with Candied Almonds.  Yummy!  The salad consisted of mixed greens, feta cheese, whole raspberries, and candied almonds.  It was served with a raspberry vinaigrette.  To make the candied almonds, I used 3 tablespoons sugar with a half cup of almonds. In a non-stick skillet, heat on medium heat 6-8 minutes, or until sugar forms a golden brown syrup and coats almonds.

For the main dish, I made individual Chicken Pot Pies, but shaped them like knapsacks.  To complete the look, I stuck a wooden chopstick through the top and tied a small strip of fabric around the end.  Although my pot pies included carrots and peas inside, I decided to serve green beans with it as well.  To make the knapsacks, I made the dough and then cut it into 6"x6" squares.  These squares I filled with the chicken mixture before folding the edges in. Here is the recipe for the inside mixture:

Chicken Pot Pie

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

Freshly ground pepper

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon flour, plus more for dusting

1/2 cup white wine

1 cup chicken stock

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 cup frozen peans

1 1/2 cups cubed or shredded cooked chicken (I got mine pre-cooked from Costco)

Melt butter in a large saute pan over medium heat.  Cook the onions, carrots, and celery with salt and pepper to taste, until the carrots soften, about 10 minutes.  Add the garlic and thyme and cook an additional minute, stirring frequently.  Add the flour and cook off the raw flavor, about 1 more minute.  Turn up the heat to medium-high and deglaze the pan with the wine.  Which in the stock and Dijon mustard.  Add the peas and chicken and cook on a very low simmer until the sauce thickens up into a gravy, 5 to 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside.

For dessert, I served Strawberry Pie with whipped cream.  The best thing about this entire dinner was that I made almost everything the day before, so I actually had a chance to visit with my guests during this dinner rather than spending all my time in the kitchen preparing the meal.

Activity:  As I stated above, this theme was centered around the creation of Care Packages to help the homeless in our community.  I asked each guest to sign up to bring 20 of one or two items on the care package list.  I then bought gallon size Ziplock bags to hold all the items.  The items I asked guests to bring were:

Chapstick

Toothbrush and toothpaste

Deodorant

Packages of Tissues

Soap

Trail Mix

Crackers

Bottled Water

Hand wipes

Bandaids

Granola Bars

Pair of Socks

Coins

Lotion

One of the girls even typed up a list of local shelters in Orange County, and she brought single-day bus passes that we attached to several.

I also crafted a small note card for each guest to write a message of their choice before placing into the bag. The girls seemed to like this addition. (If you'd like a copy email me.)

When filled, the idea of these bags it to place them in your car, so it is handy the next time you encounter someone in need.  Each guest left with two full bags ready to give out to others.


This was a great party, and we all enjoyed putting these bags together.  The feedback I have received from the guests and the stories they've shared when they gave a bag away makes me smile.

Murder Mystery Dinner Night

I had always wanted to try one of those Murder Mystery Dinner parties, so I decided to host one for my monthly dinner in November of 2010.  I did some Internet research on various kits to find one, and I decided on Pasta, Passion, & Pistols created by University Games.  This kit was in my price range, had positive reviews, fit the amount of people I would have at my dinner, and the overall plot sounded interesting.

The kit comes with invitations, scripts, recommended menu, and all the police reports/secret clues that you need to successfully play the game. You can even reuse all the materials (except the invitations) to host another party with a different group, so it doesn't have to be a one-time use thing.

Invite:  Although the kit came with invitations, I did not use them because I like to create my own.  The setting of this murder was an Italian restaurant in New York City, so I went with an Italian theme. All images I found on Google and adapted using Microsoft Word.  I sent only the front (the invite on the left) first.  Once I knew who could make it, I sent the invite again with the character they would play printed on the back of the invite (right). All information is given on the Party Planner sheet included in the kit.  By the way, even as the party host, I did not know anything about the plot, killer, details, so I was also able to partake in the fun of the evening.

Entry: In front of my entry door, I created a body outline with chalk and set up crime scene tape around it.  I also set out an "evidence bag" which was a zip lock bag with a toy pistol inside of it.  On the door, I created a restaurant sign welcoming guests to La Speranza Restaurant.

Decor:  I set my table with a red and white checkered tablecloth, green napkins, and my usual white plates. I set a few pieces of paper and a pen on each plate for guests to take notes during the evening.  The booklets included with the kit have a spot for note taking, but since I didn't know if I would be reusing the game, I didn't want to use those. 

As my centerpiece, I bought white and red flowers from my local florist and tied a red ribbon around the vase.  Next to each vase, I placed a black toy pistol for added decor. Bread and Italian oils for dipping were also on the table along with white pillar candles. I downloaded some Italian opera to play in the background.

For the place card, I used my Cricut machine to scrapbook a card that went along with the character each guest was playing for the evening.  For example, Mama Rosa is a chef, so hers was a chef hat; Marco Roni is a soccer player, so his was a soccer ball.  My monthly dinner guests are all girls, but some of us played male roles for this evening.

Menu:  The mystery kit provides various dinner ideas and recipes.  I created my own menu of Italian food, but I did try two of the recipes from the kit. The two recipes I tried were the Baked Ziti and the Mocha Cake.  Due to copyright, I cannot include the recipes.  Anything Italian would go with this theme though.  You could even serve pepperoni pizza since the person murdered was Guiseppe (Pepi) Roni!!

Favor:  At the end of the evening, I gave the guest who guessed the murderer correctly a large bottle of Italian red wine.  The other guests received miniature bottles of wine.  I created a "restaurant bill" as my tag to attach to each bottle of wine.

Three of us dressed up in our costumes for the evening!

This was a super fun evening, and we all had a great time dressing up, playing our parts, and guessing the murderer.  This kit says the party takes 3-5 hours, and it did take about 3 hours for us.  I knew the girls could not stay super late, so we did move fairly quickly through the script in order to finish.  Note: This did mean our general conversations were lessened a bit to accommodate, but none of us seemed to mind this time because the evening was entertaining on its own.

If you are looking a different way to dine with friends, this might be fun for your group!

Fast Food Fun

Our culture's obsession with fast food made it into my monthly dinners when I hosted a Fast Food Fun theme back in 2011.  The idea came to me as I was trying to think of a monthly dinner theme and menu.  A friend of mine said, "Why don't you just get a bucket of KFC this time and save yourself the craziness; You are 8 months pregnant!"  The thought was appealing for all of 10 seconds, and then my crazy brain became overloaded with ideas to go with the KFC, etc. theme.  I thanked my friend for her inspiration as she rolled her eyes at me!!  Although it took some work running around town to ask fast food restaurants for various items, I did really enjoy hosting this theme.  Most of the chains were very friendly and willing to give me what I needed for this party, and the decor was super easy.

Invite:  I designed a french fry box on Microsoft Word using a Google image and a bit of editing.  You could keep the front as the McDonalds logo, or alter it to fit your last name, etc. I kept the back of the fry box plain.  Then I cut card stock to look like french fries, and wrote a party detail (date, time, etc.) on the bottom of each fry. The cardstock "box" is glued at the sides.  The fries were just placed so that guests could pull them out when they received the invite.

Decor:  Most fast food restaurants have red and yellow as their colors. (Random Fact: Did you know this is because these colors have been proven to enhance hunger/increase your appetite?)  I decided to stick with similar colors for my dinner.  I used a red tablecloth to cover the table, then folded a black tablecloth to make a runner down the middle.  A few pieces of yellow rectangular card stock were placed on the black to make it look like a street. I also added a few toy cars of my daughters to make it look like they were driving on the street.

As a place card, I made tall sign poles like you would see on the side of the road as you passed a fast food restaurant. I used alliteration with each guest to choose the establishment and included this in the sign logo.  I printed them on card stock, cut them out, and attached them to the top of black straws I picked up at Baja Fresh (I think).  I stuck this "pole" into mini play dough containers (set of 5 for $1 in the Target dollar bin). Make sure you put the logo and the front and back or it may look funny.

Samples of the establishment logos.

I had a student who worked at Jack in the Box, so I wrote a letter to his manager asking to borrow 12 of their black trays with paper accompaniment.  He agreed to loan them to me, so I used these at each place setting. I placed a crown I got free from Burger King on each plate for guest's to wear throughout the evening as well. I used red napkins at each place setting, tied a white ribbon around them, and attached a tag that matched the restaurant on their "sign".  All images were free on Google.

Activities/Games:  I had two simple activities for this party.  The first was Happy Thoughts make Happy Meals.  I got a happy meal container from a local McDonald's for each of my guests, sliced a slit in the front, and attached a paper with their name above the slit.  I made little note cards and asked guests to write down "happy thoughts" for each guest and place it in their designated Happy Meal.  It was rather sweet to read these later especially since they were anonymous.  Everyone needs a little positive energy and compliments every now and then!

The second activity was a Name that Fast Food Slogan game.  Guests had to guess the slogan for each of the fast food restaurants....Finger Lickin' Good....Where's the Beef?...etc.  It was fun to talk about the correct answers after everyone had played.

Menu:  We had homemade fast food items at this dinner of course. All items were served on the Jack in the Box tray without plates.  We started with hamburgers wrapped in Carls Jr. Famous Star paper wrappers.  The burgers were plain, and I placed all the lettuce, tomatoe, etc. on the table for guests to "have it your way"...okay that's Burger King's slogan, but you get the idea! Below are all of the menu items with how they were served...

 

Hamburgers

(wrapped in Carl’s Jr. Famous Star paper)

Ground beef molded into patties

Bun

Cheese

Fixins: Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, etc.

Bistro-Style French Fries

 (served in In n Out fry buckets)

2 pounds russet potatoes

Oil

Salt to taste

Slice 2 pounds russet potatoes into fries, transferring to a bowl of tepid water as you go.  Heat 2 inches of peanut or vegetable oil, shortening, lard, or a combination of fats in a deep wide pot over medium heat until a deep-fry thermometer registers 375 degrees.  Drain the potatoes and dry well.  Add half of the potatoes to the pot and fry, stirring gently, until they soften and blister, 3 to 4 minutes (do not let them color).  Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined baking sheet.  Repeat with remaining potatoes.  Transfer to the freezer until firm, at least 1 hour.  When ready to serve, reheat the oil to 375 degrees over medium-high heat.  Working in 4 small batches so the oil stays hot, fry the potatoes until golden brown, about 5 minutes.  Transfer to afresh paper towels to drain.  Season with salt.

Cole Slaw

(served in KFC bowl)

3 cups shredded cabbage

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon vinegar

2 teaspoons sugar

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon celery seed

Stir dressing together until sugar is dissolved.  Add cabbage and mix.  Serves 4.

Taquitos

(served in Del Taco bags)

Frozen taquitos bought at Costco served with guacamole

Blizzards

(served in Dairy Queen cups)

Vanilla Ice Cream

Choice of Reeses or Snickers

Put vanilla ice cream in blender and add desired candy.  Mix (don’t blend) until desired consistency.

Dairy Queen and KFC made me pay for the cups/spoons/bowls I got from them, but all the other restaurants gave them to me for free.  The recipe for the french fries was awesome.  I recommend making these if you have the time.  The Blizzards were easy and a crowd favorite. 

The evening was a lot of fun, and the food was easy.  This theme takes some pre-planning to get the suppliesfrom the restaurants, but if I could do it 8 months pregnant...I'm sure you can! :-)  If you would like the Name that Slogan document or the Happy Thoughts tag, comment below with your email,a nd I will send it to you.

Thanks for "driving through" this post!!