Cops and Robbers Party

Who knew that even adults love to play Cops & Robbers?!  We sure do, and my latest monthly dinner with the girls proves it. All came dressed up, and all came with a playful attitude ready to "steal" away some fun!

Invite: I tried to use some police lingo in the invite to make it interesting, but otherwise, just a simple invitation made with Microsoft Word.  As part of the fun, I asked guests to come dressed as either a cop or a robber.  The girls were very clever in what they came up with and we had fun posing in front of the paper line up background I made....

Decor:  I didn't find too many ideas for this type of party on the internet, so I was left to my own creativity (which I love!).  There were so many ideas that came into my mind, I couldn't wait to put them into action!  It all started with the entry decor...

I put Police Line Do Not Cross tape on my front door and made a sign to identify our house as the "police station".  I included entry requirements, and each guest completed these Booking Station requirements before entering.  Under the sign, was a ribbon with mini clothes pins for guests to place their fingerprint cards.  I designed the badge on PhotoShop and used my Cricut cartridge to make the police cars and lettering on the sign.

Mug Shots! Yes, I know it's cheesy, but Mug Root Beer shots was the idea that truly inspired the whole Cops & Robbers theme for me, so I couldn't leave it out!  Guests took their "Mug Shot" before entering.  The red light I bought for $10 off Amazon.

The second requirement for entry was the fingerprint station. I made simple cards with funny aliases for each guest (Robin Banks, M.T. Vault, Patty Larceny, etc.).  I used a normal stamp pad and set out some baby wipes in a pencil box for guests to "wipe away their crimes" after providing fingerprints.  Guests attached their cards to the entry sign after completion which added to the decor.

After guests entered, they passed through my doorway "jail" made with paper streamers.  I taped half the streamers down on top and bottom and left the other half loose so guests could walk through.

Table Decor: I bought a white plastic tablecloth and used black duct tape to make striped lines to continue with the jail/cop theme. I wanted to tie both cops and robbers into my centerpiece as well, so I bought a dozen donuts to arrange on a cake platter and made money bags to go on each side.  The burlap bags I bought at Michaels, then spray painted the money sign on the front. I filled each bag with gold tissue paper and a can of soda for weight and then topped them with chocolate gold coins. I also bought ring pops, but I didn't like how they looked so I left these out.

I tried Photoshop for the first time EVER in making these mug shot place cards...LOVE THEM!  It was a bit of a challenge finding "non-smiling" photos of each girl and then trying to edit them for this project, but I did it.  The above are some of my favorites.

For wine charms, I made half the guests police car charms and the other half money bag charms.  Both were made using my Cricut.

To hold the forks, I made holsters out of black card stock and buttons.  I folded a grey napkin to stick out like a gun.

Menu:  I made the menu card like a police report.  It was fun coming up with even more silly officer names and then of course deciding on a menu that I could tweak to fit the theme.

We started with a normal salad that I called Tossed (in Jail) Salad.

For the main dish, I served chicken, peppers, and mushroom kabobs on sticks.  I called them "Stick 'em Up" Kabobs with Pepper Spray. I also bought wheat pizza dough and shaped the dough into handcuffs.

For dessert, I served Prison Striped Pudding with a police badge cookie on top.  The pudding is just boxed chocolate pudding alternating with whipped cream.  I couldn't find a police badge shaped cookie cutter anywhere, but I found a pretend police badge at Dollar Tree.  I set the badge on the dough and used a knife to cut around it to create each badge.

Favor:  I bought mini chocolate and powdered donuts and wrapped them in cellophane bags as my favor.  Just a little "loot" for the girls to take home.  I had two different tags.

We had an amazing time dressing up and playing our parts.  This was a great theme for a party gathering, and I totally recommend it.  Would love to hear your thoughts and comments!!

A Campfire Campout

Summer is the time for campouts, so I knew camping would be the perfect theme for my August monthly dinner.  On top of that, our family had a weekend camping trip planned for the weekend before my dinner, so I already had camping on the brain.  Of course, this was not the greatest planning on my part as I ended up creating and cooking everything the day of the party without the weekend to prepare!!  I think it turned out great though.

Invite:  I kept it simple with this invite.  My other ideas were to make a S'More out of card stock and have the white marshmallow fan-fold out with the party details on it....ran out of time for that.

Entry Decor:  My husband nailed together some plywood to make an A-frame which we threw a tarp over as a makeshift tent.  A fun way to enter.  I also made a sign out of wood for our Campfire Cookout and set out a rolled sleeping bag and lantern by the tent.  For a last minute job...not bad.

Decor:  I set the table with a brown tablecloth and a couple of matching camping lanterns.  The fire centerpiece I made using paper towel rolls that I covered in brown packaging paper and painted lines to look like wood.  Then just tissue paper flames.  I used plastic paper plate holders that we use for picnics/camping (yeah...less dishes!) at each place setting.

On each plate, I made a tent out of a green napkin using a hole punch and cut up wooden skewers.  I rolled the plastic silverware in a second black napkin to look like a sleeping bag inside.

As a place card, I made a book of matches with each guest's name on them. The photo is the front of the matches.  The back had the date of our monthly dinner as well as a pretend strike swipe.  Inside each matchbook, I made pretzel matches.  The girls gobbled these up before dinner..they were yummy and hard to resist!!

We enjoy wine at our monthly dinners, but I didn't think my fancy wine glasses would go well with a camping theme!  Instead, I bought cheap mason jars from Target and added a strip of gingham fabric with a twine tie, and a leaf wine charm made with my Cricut machine. I also had water bottles which I made a simple label for using Microsoft Word.

Menu: My monthly dinners are usually nicer food, so I didn't want to do hot dogs or a generic camping food.  I chose to make hot wraps instead.  I called these Sleeping Bag Chicken Wraps to fit with the theme.  They were easy to make and delicious.  I will definitely make these again and recommend the recipe.

Sleeping Bag Chicken Wraps

1 package Tyson's Grilled and Ready Chicken Strips (or your own chicken grilled and cut in slices)

1/2 cup barbecue sauce

1/2 cup light ranch dressing

Shredded cheddar cheese

Chopped romaine lettuce

Tortilla Strips (mini, found in the salad section)

Large Tortillas (any flavor)

Cook up the Tyson chicken strips according to the package. Mix together the barbeque sauce and ranch in a small dish; set aside.  Place your tortilla on a plate and fill with lettuce, cheese, tortilla strips, chicken, and then drizzle barbeque ranch over the top.  Wrap the tortilla and secure with a toothpick.

I also served baked beans and corn on the cob.

...and watermelon cut in triangles to resemble a tent.  For the menu tags, I just cut a piece of wood in a rectangle, put the card stock tag on top, wrapped a piece of gingham around it and stapled it in the back.  Simple.

For dessert, we of course roasted S'Mores, so I had a small S'more station set up outside.  I used camping chairs to surround our fire pit and added my kids' mini play tent to the decor. It was nice to move outdoors for roasting and visiting.  By the way, if you haven't tried a Reece's peanut butter cup in place of regular chocolate on a S'More, you are seriously missing out!! Delicious!

I also had a plate of Inside-Out S'More Brownies.  Aagain...yummy!

Favor:  As each guest departed our camping trail, I gave them a small treat. I made small logs out of toilet paper rolls (same as the fire centerpiece), and filled each log with a treat bag of trail mix.  The tag wished them Happy Trails.

This was a great party, and we all had a very fun time chatting, roasting marshmallows, etc. As usual, if you would like any of the tags, labels, etc, just comment below.  I LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Gender Reveal Party

My husband and I will be welcoming Baby Casto #3 in November, and we found out the gender last week.  My friends were anxious to know and celebrate, so we moved our July monthly dinner back a couple weeks to accommodate.  A gender reveal party is a great way to build anticipation as well as tell family/friends in a cute way.

Invite: I themed the party around mustaches vs. lips with the phrases Hello Handsome and Hello Gorgeous, so I wanted these on my invitation. I designed the invitation on Microsoft Word using simple text boxes.  Nothing fancy.

Entry: I made this sign and mini banner for my front door. You can't see it well in the photo, but I cut out a blue bow tie for the cross on the letter "H" and cut out a pink bow for the top of the "S".  On the steps in front of this, I had a blue stuffed animal on one side with balloons and a pink stuffed animal on the other with balloons.

Decor: A set a my table half with a blue tablecloth and half with pink.  For a centerpiece, displayed our dessert cupcakes and vases of flowers in pink and blue.  I also bought pink and blue blocks from the Dollar Tree to spell out "baby" on each side.

I modeled my place cards after the Hello Handsome and Hello Gorgeous theme, but substituted my friend's names. Pink or blue napkins with the female/male symbols were placed on the guest's plates depending on which gender they voted for.

I made smaller versions of the place cards to use as wine charms.  I also set out two bottles of wine with labels to tie in with the mustache and lips theme.

To have some fun with photos, I made mustaches and lips out of card stock and attached them to skewers.  These made for some silly photos!

Menu:  As guests arrived, I had mustache/lips chips and salsa for them to snack on.  To make the chips, I used a mustache and a lips cookie cutter on white and wheat tortillas.  I placed the cut tortillas on a baking sheet, sprayed them lightly with Pam, and sprinkled some Kosher salt on them.  Then baked them in a 350 oven for 5-7 minutes.  Cute, easy, and healthy.

For the main meal, I wanted to incorporate the mustache/boy and lips/girl theme as much as possible. I served Bob's Big Boy inspired burgers (notice I drew a mustache on Bob), Bow Tie/Bow Pasta Salad, and a Strawberry Jello with lips on top.

For the burgers, I set out various toppings for guests to add what they liked: lettuce, tomato, onion,

bacon, avocado.  For the bow tie pasta salad, I followed Jamie Dean's pasta salad recipe.

1 pound bowtie pasta

Kosher salt
1 cup frozen edamame (out of the pods)
2 carrots, sliced into 1/2-inch chunks
One 12-ounce broccoli crown, cut into bite-size florets
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved (preferably yellow and red)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon sugar
1 large clove garlic, minced
Freshly ground black pepper
3 green onions, thinly sliced

Directions
Add the pasta to a large pot of boiling salted water. Set a timer and cook the pasta for 3 minutes less than it says on the back of the box. When the timer goes off, add the edamame and carrots and cook for 2 minutes longer. Next add the broccoli, and continue boiling for 1 more minute. Drain the pasta and veggies in a colander in the sink. Rinse well under cold water to stop the cooking. Make sure to drain off all the liquid. Add the pasta mixture to the large bowl along with the shredded cheese and cherry tomatoes.

In a small bowl, whisk together the oil and vinegar. Then whisk in the mayonnaise, sugar, garlic and some salt and pepper. Add the dressing to the salad and toss well. Fold in the green onions. Serve immediately, or cover with plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours before serving. 

The lips on top of the jello is just the recipe for Jello Jigglers.  The recipe for what I called the Lip Smackin' Good Strawberry Salad is...

1 package strawberry gelatin
1 cup hot water
1 package frozen strawberries, partially thawed
1 small package cream cheese
1 cup whipped cream

Dissolve gelatin in hot water.  Separate frozen strawberries with a fork.  Soften cream cheese with a small about of strawberry juice.  Add separated, frozen strawberries to gelatin.  When mixture begins to thicken, quickly add softened cream cheese and fold in whipped cream.  Refrigerate.  Serves 6-8.

For dessert, I made chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting in the center to reveal the gender to guests. I topped them with scrap booked mustaches and lips on toothpicks. I had originally intended to have guests bite into these as my kids did the official reveal, but the girls and I decided to eat them after, so we could just focus on my kids' excitement.

The Big Reveal:  I painted a big box white and decorated the outside to go with the night's theme.  Inside, I blew up pink balloons to reveal the gender.  My daughter and son LOVED opening the box to discover they were going to have a baby sister.  I also gave out pink and blue silly string dispensers to some of the guests, so this added to the fun as they squirted the string everywhere!

A fun toast with the girls to celebrate the big reveal!  The champagne (sparkling cider for me), was served in glasses with sliced strawberries or blue berries on skewers to fit with the theme.  Notice how many of my friends guessed girl and wore pink! Turns out they were right!

Favor:  I made chocolate suckers as a parting gift.  Each guest, got a red lip chocolate sucker and a chocolate mustache regardless of which gender they guessed. I also colored in Hershey bars with permanent marker.

All in all, it was a very fun night and a special way to reveal our baby's gender to our children as well as some of our closest friends. Only a few more months and the real adventure begins!!  We cannot wait for HER to arrive!!

Sixth Anniversary Gift

As you may remember from my Fifth Anniversary gift post last year, I like to try to give my husband gifts that match up with traditional or sometimes modern wedding anniversary gift traditions.  For a sixth anniversary, the traditional gift is candy or iron and the modern is wood.  Here is what I came up with:

I bought an iron bucket from Michaels and filled it with various candy bars.  I attached cute sayings to each candy bar for a personalized touch.  It isn't a keepsake gift, but it was fun to put together and come up with special/funny phrases for the candy bars.  Here are just some of my favorites...

 

You could totally use this idea for Valentine's Day or as a birthday gift. When my hindsight kicked in, I was also thinking I could have given my husband a candy bar a week or every other week throughout our 6th year as a gift instead of a one-time basket.  This may have been a better idea to keep the silly romance going all year long as well as spread out the tooth decay!!

I made the tags on Microsoft Word.  If you would like the file, comment below with your email address and I'd be happy to send them.

Happy Anniversary Honey!

Summer Bucket List 2013

Have you signed up for The Happy Family Movement’s Summer Bucket List Challenge?  I found out about this super neat idea from a fellow blogger.  The purpose is to encourage families to do things together and create meaningful memories.  It is right up my ally, and after talking with my family over dinner one night to get ideas, I created our list right away.

We tried to pick activities of varying price ranges and time commitment.  Some of the items we do often in the summertime, but others we have never done before which will be really neat.  My four-year old daughter got so excited to scream out her bucket list items like painting seashells, going fishing, and smoothie night.  My two-year old son was adamant about a bike ride, train ride, and donuts!  I created the chart, printed it, and tacked it to our refrigerator.  We use a yellow highlighter to highlight items after they've been completed.  This way we can see our progress, but it doesn't hide the event from view.

Just some photos from our Summer Bucket List fun so far...

Can't wait to complete more fun activities as a family!!