Lingo & Laughs

My girlfriends took me out for my birthday, and we had a silly conversation about the crazy slang that our teenagers and students use.  Nothing makes you feel more old than hearing this lingo & not knowing what it means! This funny conversation brought me to the idea of hosting a Lingo and Laughs party to have a little fun with teen slang.

Invite: I designed the invitation with bright neon colors to add a teenage vibe.  I played with various teen slang phrases to come up with the wording which was quite fun.  "No cap" (no lie) and "straight fire" (great, awesome, cool) are two of my son's favorites currently.  I also am constantly being called "bruh" by him on accident, which lead to the "RSVP Bruh" at the end.

I set the table with a black tablecloth and bright colors to match the invitation.

Two friends gave me beautiful flowers on my birthday.  I used the bright pink roses as part of my centerpiece, and the smily face mug that the other flowers came in as well. I had a light up board with a message using some teen lingo.

For the mug, I filled it with neon glowsticks I purchased at Dollar Tree.  

For a table runner, I designed a timeline of teen logo through the decades.  Starting with the 1950's "Come and get it, Daddy-O" to the 2020's "Dinners a vibe, pull up!"  I just printed these out and taped the cardstock together to create the runner.

I had fun coming up with slang text conversations for my placecards.  I used an image of a iphone screen, and designed text boxes with silly conversations between two friends.  (Sorry photos not great of these placecards).

Each place card had a different slang focus: Savage, Slay Queen, The Real MVP, Glow-Up Goddess, Extra AF, Lit Legend, Bae, and Boss. I added a Reeces Peanut Butter Cup candy bar to the back to make it a thicker (more like a phone) than just card stock.

For the napkins, I purchased various bold colors and then added a slang flashcard to the front.  I tried to use different phrases than were on the place cards. Things like: Mid, Gucci, Cringe, Drip, Delulu, etc.

Designing wine labels to match the party theme is always a fun challenge for me.  For these labels, I incorporated more teen slang of course.  "Lowkey" this white wine is "Savage" for the chardonnay label.  For the red wine it was, Don't be "Sus" - "Slay" this Cabernet.

For the wine charms, I used popular emojis that teens use in their text threads.  My daughter helped me with the most popular ones, and then I added the ghost (for ghosting) and the GOAT (greatest of all time) that represent popular slang terms.

Menu:  There is a lot going on for me right now, so I decided to make the menu super easy, and catered most of it.  We started with guacamole, salsa, and chips as an appetizer.  I used alliteration with slang words to call these "GOAT Guacamole and Salsa with "Turnt" Tortilla Chips.

The main dish was tacos with two meat choices.  I called these "Bussin'" Beef Tacos and "Lit Chicken Tacos."  Bussin = extremely good or tasty; Lit = exciting or excellent.

Alongside the tacos, we had "Basic" Beans and "Rizz" rice.  Basic = average in slang; Rizz = charisma in slang.

For dessert, we had "Fire" cupcakes.  Vanilla cupcakes with red, yellow and orange frosting piped on to look like fire.  Fire = exciting or cool.

Favor: As a fun decoration and silly parting gift, I decided to make kitchen tea towels with silly slang phrases.  I purchased flour towels on Amazon that were thin to help make the permanent iron on vinyl stick longer.  I used my Photoshop to design the images, cut them out using my Cricut, and then ironed them onto the towels.  I hung them up on ribbon like a clothesline over my beverage station.  I had 8 different phrases, so guests picked which one they wanted as they left.

A silly theme, so we had some laughs out of this one trying to figure out what the phrases meant & laughing at the changing slang through the decades.  It was a fun VIBE all night and the theme was FIRE!

Puzzle Party - Piecing Together Great Times

The monthly dinners are a fun evening each month with 10 of my close girlfriends, and they are a chance for us to catch up, laugh, and just have a good time together.  The monthly dinner for this month fell only a week after the passing of my dad, so it came at a time when I needed a little joy and friendship.  I wanted to find a small way to honor my dad with this month's dinner theme, but to do so in the positive spirit and joy typical of my monthly dinners.  I decided to host a jigsaw puzzle themed dinner as my dad was a huge fan of puzzles, and I loved doing them with him and my mom.

Invite: I found an image of a heart puzzle and designed my invitation around that.  I added words on each piece that I associate with our monthly dinners and came up with "Piecing Together Great Times" as my slogan for the evening.  The puzzle piece graphic at the bottom I used to include the details.  For this dinner I thought it might be fun to do a puzzle swap, so I asked guests to bring a new or used puzzle with them to the dinner.

Decorations:  I used the colors of the invitation as my party colors.  I had a red tablecloth and used yellow accents.  

For the centerpiece, I put together a 300 piece puzzle to use as a base.  Then I purchased two puzzles from the Dollar Store and used these pieces to fill vases and added fresh flowers.  I didn't include any water, so I did have to take the pieces out and add water after the party.

Alongside the vases, I placed boxes of puzzles I already owned to add to the decor.

As place cards, a friend of mine agreed to use his amazing woodworking skills to cut out puzzle pieces and stands and include the guests name on each piece.  It is so nice to be surrounded with talented people that are willing to help at every turn.  Check out his website: johnscustomww.com

For napkin rings, I glued 3 small puzzle pieces from the Dollar Tree puzzle to a piece of cardstock to wrap around the napkin.

It was fun designing the wine labels for this dinner. For the red wine, I found a puzzle of a red wine bottle and glass.  I put this in the center and added text around it: One Piece = One Sip?  I am always bargaining with myself when I do puzzles to complete a certain number of pieces to earn a reward, and I am sure I am not the only one that does this!  For the white wine, I used the text "Chardonnay...An Essential Piece that fits with any meal."  I designed  two puzzle pieces with a white wine bottle, a glass, and lips to show that these 3 things fit well together.

For wine charms, I used PhotoShop to create puzzle pieces in various colors, and put each guest's name on them.  I had to play with the size a bit to make sure it fit on the stem of the wine glass without falling off, but it worked.  At first I used real puzzle pieces, but decided that no one was really going to remember which random piece was theirs, so I needed to have names on them.  That's why I went with this idea instead.

Menu:  Instead of having menu tags to label each dish like I usually do for my monthly dinners, I decided to make each item a puzzle.  Each guest paired up with another guest to put together a puzzle of part of the menu.

We started off with a pear salad.  I used this recipe for the salad and dressing from Gimme Some Oven.  I loved the dressing and the salad with the gorgonzola, fresh pears, avocado, and candied walnuts.  Will definitely make it again.

For the main dish, I served Pork Tenderloin with a Balsamic Glaze.   I mostly used the recipe from Primavera Kitchen, but I put the foil wrapped tenderloin outside on the grill instead of heating up my house with the oven.  

As side dishes, I served steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes.

My dad loved ice cream, so since I was honoring him with this dinner theme, I decided to have a simple ice cream bar for our dessert.  We had vanilla or chocolate chip ice cream, cherries, nuts, sliced bananas, whipped cream, caramel syrup, and chocolate syrup.  

I also used a chocolate mold to make colorful puzzle pieces for guests to eat or put on their sundae.

Activity:  I didn't get a chance to set up the activity I had initially planned for this monthly dinner, but wanted to include it here because I think it would be a fun idea.  Often my parents and their couples group at church would host puzzle parties.  They would have several card tables, each with a different puzzle, and guests would rotate around the room at times to work on different puzzles and converse with different guests.  A cool idea if it works for your group.

Favor:  I had fun making the parting gift for my guests.  I created a collage on PhotoShop of images from the invitations from the last two years of monthly dinners, and made a puzzle for each guest to take home.  Instead of putting them in a bowl, I used a puzzle. Here is what the finished puzzle looked like when put together. 

I designed it to be 5x7.5", so it would fit perfectly onto 11 wide popsicle sticks.  After printing the image, I lined up the popsicle sticks and taped the back to keep them in place.  Then I used modge podge to adhere the design to the sticks and to cover the design in a gloss to protect it.  Once dry, my husband used an exacto knife to slice apart each stick.  I put them together randomly, tied them with a ribbon, and attached a puzzle shaped tag I made on PhotoShop.  

It was another great dinner with friends, and a beautiful way to celebrate my dad's love of puzzles.

Red, White, & You - A Tasty Tribute to Rhyming Words

With fourth of July in a few days, I decided to theme my monthly dinner around this holiday, but with a twist.  I hosted a Red, White, and ________ Party where everything from decor to food to attire was supposed to rhyme with blue.  It was so much fun to put together, all the food was delicious, and the girls really had some fun with their rhyming "blue" attire.

Invite: I chose a simple patriotic bunting to top the invitation and then used red, white, and blue throughout.  I wanted guests to understand the idea of this party and that the "blue" would be replaced with another rhyming word.  I tried a spinner wheel, but that didn't look right on the invite.  I ultimately decided on a drop-down menu to show guests that it could be red, white, and "BLUE" or "YOU" or "CREW," etc.  I used this drop-down menu throughout many of the party details.  On the invitation, I also tried to incorporate some more words that rhymed with blue such as "rendezVOUS," "VENUE," and "VIEW."

I thought it might be fun to ask guests to dress in attire for the party that rhymed with blue.  I gave them some examples on the invite, but also let them know that they could just wear blue if they couldn't think of anything.  Pictured above you see a boy named SUE, myself dressed with a patriotic TUTU and a HAIKU on my shirt, and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss.

We also had two guests who wore items from their recent trips to OAHU, a guest with a BLUE dress and fun HAIRDO, and a BARBECUE chef among other rhymes.

Decorations: I used a red tablecloth and white plates and created a centerpiece with items that rhymed with blue.

I started with the board from a game of CLUE.  I bought red, white, and blue fake flowers and placed them in "vases" of RAGU pasta sauce,  a bottle of SHAMPOO, and a bottle of Mountain DEW.  Yes, I wasted the pasta sauce in that I just threw it out after the party, but I thought the jar looked better full of sauce than empty.  On the table, I also had a box of TISSUE and a bottle of GLUE that I made labels for.

For place cards, I came up with a CLUE that described each guest with a rhyme rather than just listing names.  Each guest had to figure out which rhyme matched with them to figure out where to sit.  It was fun to come up with fun or funny short phrases for them.

With the napkin, I made a napkin ring with Red, White, and the face of PIKACHU.  Kinda silly, but it rhymes with blue!

For the wine labels, I tried to think of even more blue rhymes.  I designed the label for the white wine with the same drop-down menu idea from the invitations inviting guests to "chase the red, white, and BLUES away with some chardonnay."  For the red wine, I came up with a simple rhyme "A rich bold HUE to bid woes ADIEU."

For wine charms, but printed off various brand logos or things that I could think of that rhymed with blue.  For my dinner, these included: igloo, Shamu, Hulu, Subaru, Pooh, Yahoo, Taboo, Clue, Peru, and zoo.

Menu: The menu (notice even menu rhymes) I chose for this dinner was delicious!  For these dinners I more often than not, try new recipes.  I don't get to do that very much with my own picky family, so monthly dinners give me that opportunity!  This dinner was no exception as all the menu items were recipes I had not tried before.  I started with a blue cheese dip for Red, White, & FONDUE. If you like blue cheese, this dip was amazing.  If you don't like it, then this recipe is not for you.  I found the recipe at Dash of Sanity.  The only change I made to the recipe was that I used smoked blue cheese instead of regular (as I love smoky flavor) and because it was a fondue, I served it with French bread cubes.

For the main dish I served Red, White & BARBECUE Chicken.  I wanted to make my own bbq sauce and tried the recipe from All Recipes for Best BBQ chicken.  The marinade paste and the sauce were easy to make and could be made ahead of time.  The only changes I made to this recipe was that I served chicken breasts instead of drumsticks, and I used apple cider vinegar instead of white wine vinegar because that is what I had in my cupboard.  My husband volunteered to grill the chicken and baste it as it was grilling.  It was so good.

As a side dish, I made Red, White, & BREW (beer) potatoes.  I found the recipe for these Beer Potatoes at Cookist.  These potatoes were easy to make and tasted great.  

Another side was a pasta salad I titled Red, White, & CORKSCREW Pasta Salad.  I found the recipe for this Tri Color Pasta Salad on Food, Folks, & Fun.  Having a pasta salad I could make the night before allowed me to have more time with my friends rather being stuck in the kitchen doing prep. I followed this recipe, but also added garbanzo beans.  

I titled my dessert Red, White, & TIRAMISU.  I went the easy route and just purchased an already made tiramisu from Costco instead of making it myself.  Only challenge was getting it out of the package and having it look nice on the plate!  It was really tasty though and not something I usually serve at my monthly dinners, so it was a nice change.

Party Activity/Game:  Before we had dessert, we played a couple rounds of TABOO which was really fun.  We didn't have teams or anything, we just sat at the table and everyone guessed.  Then we took turns with who was the clue giver.  

Favor: With the 4th of July later in the week, I decided my party favor would be patriotic TATTOOs.  I found really inexpensive ones on Amazon.  

The first ones I bought arrived and they were very dark colors, so I returned those and purchased a couple of this set of 8 sheets.  The were bright and festive, and since the party was prior to July 4th, the guests could easily use them to celebrate the holiday. I used the same drop-down idea and was able to include a thank YOU and tribute to this Monthly Dinner CREW.

We had a great time at this dinner and it was really fun to put together. I got most of my ideas after looking up rhyming words on the internet and then figuring out how I could incorporate those words.  The challenge was fun.  Happy 4th Everyone!