Percy Jackson Viewing Party

Confession. I have not read the Percy Jackson series. I want to but my to be read pile is very long. Maybe I'll read them this year. These photos were taken when we had a Percy Jackson viewing party Disney+ version.

The best sugar cookie recipe ever 

Recipe here.

I really enjoyed and have since enjoyed this series. My kids have read the books and they say the series is way better than the movies. 

My two oldest kids baked and set the party up while I was at work. All I had to do was come home with pizza. They did such an amazing job. I'm so happy that their friend's like to come over to our house and hang out. 

Coffee and hot chocolate bar ready to go 

The cutest cookies and cupcakes! 

 

Chili Dogs (With The BEST Boiled Hot Dogs)

I'm sitting here typing this up and I just watched the Chicago Cubs win the World Series. I don't watch baseball usually. Unless it's live. But either way this would have went it would have been historical. So we watched and it was stressful at times! What a game! Appropriate that this post is about hot dogs, a great ball park food.
I made about 40 of these for a Halloween party, they are a huge hit. My kids hardly ever eat hot dogs and they loved them. I knew that for a crowd I wanted to put them in the slow cooker like I did for DD's Big Hero Six party. As I was putting them in the slow cooker (my Instant Pot was busy with the chili) I thought, I should flavor this water. I choose whole spices like garlic, bay, and celery seeds. It was PERFECT. Usually hot dogs can be salty for us, so I didn't add any salt. I didn't use stock or anything like that. Even my DH, who doesn't really eat hot dogs said they were good. My kids requested them for lunch the next day. I kept the chili hot in a thermos, and cut hot dogs up in there. I sent buns and toppings separate.

Halloween Party (2015)

Sooo, Finally getting around to posting our Halloween Party pictures from last year! It was so fun to put together. I really enjoy doing things like this. It's so fun. Anyway, we had one of the soccer teams over along with their families.  The kids got to run around and after they went trick or treating together.

Women's World Cup Party

I know this was a long time ago. June 8th as a matter of fact! Yikes, but we had Piglet's soccer team over to watch the game. I set out some cupcakes, fruit, and Diva made a cinnamon bundt cake. The rest of the food was all the yumminess that the team parents brought over. It was so much fun! 

I even got to use my soccer cupcake liners and toppers. I love parties!

Big Hero Six Birthday Party Food

I can't believe there's a number nine candle on that top cupcake. What on earth? I just keeps going faster and faster and people keep getting older and growing. These kids. I'm so blessed that they are healthy, happy, and growing. But come on now. Where are all my babies: Sigh.

Valentine's Day Gifts and Cards

WOW. Talk about waayy behind right? I still wanted to share the Valentine's that the kids gave to their friends this year. 

Pixie handed out these little make your own Snowmen kits. It's funny, because I just happened to have these and the movie Frozen came out so Snowmen were perfect for an Olaf card. I had the pack of the Snowmen from Target's Christmas clearance. The pack of 20 was originally $5, and I got it for $1.25 I made the printable in black and white because I figured the kids could color it in if they wanted to.

Diva gave out these great pencils that have tongue twisters on them from Super Duper Publications. I found the Ventricular, is that the word? Where the image changes when you move the item? These little stars "wink" when moved. Anyway. They were a steal, I found them at Target for 75% off at the Dollar Spot! There was maybe 12 in each bag too! She wrote on the back of each one.

Piglet is BIG into robots and robotics right now, so these sticker packs from Target were PERFECT. She just opened up each one and wrote a message on them for each of her friends.

So those were our Valentine's this year. Simple but still fun, and NO candy!

Dr. Seuss Party

I may have mentioned that it's birthday month around here. Or birthday season. As I'm sitting down to write this hurried post, I realized that all the posts I've had scheduled have already posted. That means I have nothing scheduled tomorrow, soooo I can sit down and procrastinate. I can put this post up real quick instead of making the banner for Diva's American Girl Ice Cream Social. Which is tomorrow.

I had a ton of fun putting this party together for Piglet. I found some printables on My Paper Lily. I made some labels, props, word bubbles in photoshop. I also had a ton of Seuss items from Target's 75% off $1 bin stuff. I have Seuss stuff coming out of my ears y'all.

 Piglet turned 7 in early July. WHaaattt?! Click that link. Seriously. And then just let it play a few times, then you'll know how I feel about birthday's this summer. Everyone is growing up too darn fast. I mean Pixie's going to school this year. Sure that means I'll get a "real" job and join the working world again but. She's my baby! Sigh.

Moving on. The room we had this party in is so TINY. Like 10x15 maybe? I mean for a party it was tiny. I just wasn't thinking we'd be IN the room. I figured we'd be out, riding the train, the carousel etc. I'm serious sometimes I wonder if I think things through, or if I just block stuff out. Regardless we did stay out of the room and we were able to just use it for food, and cooling down.

I didn't get good pictures, I was so rushed. We had 20 minutes to set up before the party. Then I was just busy. One of my favorite things was the photo booth pictures. I got such cute pictures of all the guests. I'm glad that Pixie was messing around and I got a picture to post so you at least get an idea of how the pictures turned out. No? Not really? Sorry. Just take my word for it. Cute.

I printed the props and laminated them. This is how I feel about my laminator-

Manic Monday- Roasted Chickpeas

Today's Manic Monday recipe is Roasted Chickpeas. If you've never made these, they are so good. They are easy to make, and get so crunchy. You can used canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans) or soak and cook your own first.
Season them sweet or savory. I prefer savory.
Curry powder.

Hot and spicy with cayenne, salt, black pepper.

Lemon juice and a little salt.

Taco seasoning.

Five Spice powder

Za'tar

South African Five Spice Powder

Happy Valentine's Day 2013

Don't worry, you haven't missed it yet! I'm a bit early- ok late as far as bloggers go but come on. In my defense I wanted to post ideas last month. But as I am a procrastinator I didn't think about Valentines until 2/5... so here's your post. Maybe you can bookmark it for next year? Or Pin it to a Pinterest board (I would be honored if you did).
I also listed a few ideas for handmade gifts below, feel free to leave a comment with more ideas!
Now, on to these Valentine's day cards for the girls. I have had a stockpile of crayons leftover in a box since my Love Abounds days when I sold molded crayons. So I knew I would make crayons, for at least some of our little friends. Another thing about Valentine's day cards/treats is that pictures are SO easy to just print out. Fairly cheap also. I printed them out last year, you can see pictures below, and HERE. It was so easy. 

That and I love the pictures that  Felipe of Petruzzo Photography did for us this year and I wanted to use them. Their Facebook page is HERE.
Here are some contenders for Valentines in our home.

Pixie- 

These Valentine cards do have names on them also. Just not these one's I'm posting.

Free Friday- Top 5 Posts on GPAC

Crepes filled with raspberries, bananas, Nutella, fresh whipped cream, and nuts.

I thought it would be fun to do a post that links the top five most looked at posts here on GPAC. I had a giveaway post in the top five but decided not to include it, however it was for a Plumbox from Pick Your Plum, I have another one of those open also! Go enter if you haven't already, and check the left side tab for more giveaway links.

Here are the top five posts here on GPAC, with date and number of views. Pictures are below, and above.

Crock Pot Spiced Holiday Wassail

A friend of mine (Becky- check out her site!) brought this over to our house when we had the Operation Christmas Child party. OK, not really this glass, but she brought some to the house. She had said there was apple juice, orange juice, and I think a pineapple/orange juice concentrate. Which she said she used part of a can of that. She also said there were spices. I didn't write it down. I don't have the best memory but it wasn't too much to remember. We had some friends over for Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday so I decided to make some. It's nice because you just throw it all in the crock pot. I added some spices and it was really good!

Mommy Parties- Littlest Pet Shop Viewing Party

The girls set out some of their Littlest Pet Shop toys.

We were chosen to host a premiere/viewing party for The Hub's newest show Littlest Pet Shop. An animated show about a girl named Blythe who moves to the big city. When she gets to the big city, Blythe discovers she can talk to the pets that are in the Littlest Pet Shop below her apartment. The Littlest Pet Shot is in danger of being closed down, so Blythe and the new friends she's made host a fashion show to raise money. Blythe is quite the fashion designer and her designs are a big hit! If you haven't seen the show you can watch full episodes on The Hub's website HERE. You can catch the show on Saturdays 11:30am ET/8:30am PT on The Hub. 

 

Here's a quick synopsis of the show from The Hub's website

November Days of Gratitude Day 17

Diva's Spa Birthday Brunch

 

Today I'm thankful for parties. Sounds crazy but I love them. I love that people go to enjoy fellowship, to build relationships, maintain friendships. I love throwing parties. I love blessing other people, taking care of them. They don't have to be fancy, they can be just the girls and I, our family, or they can be a backyard full of kids. Ok, I love intimate adult dinner parties too, but let's face it. I'm just not at that stage in my life right now. 

I am told I have the gift of hospitality, and for that I'm thankful to God.

 

 

My other November Gratitude posts can be found here.

Are you blogging or posting what you're thankful for? Leave me a link or let me know what you're thankful for in the comments!

Mommy Parties- Pinypon

A couple of weeks ago a huge box arrive at my door, imagine my surprise when I opened it up and discovered all of these fun dolls! It was my box from Pinypon and Mommy Parties. I had no idea it was coming, it turns out I was having a party that weekend! So we got to share these fun goodies with some friends right away! Pinypon is made by the Famosa company, they also sent TWO Nenuco baby dolls. One for us to keep and one to giveaway, along with two  Pinypon caravans.

 The funny thing is Piglet got a Pinypon caravan for her birthday, such a fun toy. It's bright and colorful, the caravan opens up and there's little accessories that make it perfect for creative play. The dolls stand about three inches tall. The dolls we recieved were dressed in bright colors, and as a mom I liked that they were dressed modestly. They have mix and match parts so you can customize each one. Change their hair, clothing, and accessories. The dolls are for ages 4 and up, they are the perfect size for little hands, but we like them because it's easy to change out a top, bottom or hair color. The clothing itself isn't removable so you aren't going to lose or tear clothing. These are some of the dolls we received. But Pinypon also has Pinypon Flower- they smell like flowers and are so cute, and mermaids, my girls LOVE mermaids!

Operation Christmas Child Party

Well, we finally did it. After years of putting it off and making excuses. The house is too small, husband deployed, don't really know anyone here... We had our Operation Christmas Child shoebox packing party. It was so fun! We ended up with 8 boxes as a family, and three other families also packed boxes! Hopefully at next year's party there will be even more! I did mention HERE, that this would be an annual party right? Don't let me think up an excuse next year!
First off I must say, I'm so blessed that my husband and girls helped me get ready. Cleaning and making sure the playroom was ready. The food table, I didn't get a picture of. Sigh. I wanted to. It just had crackers, cheese, apples, Salted Caramel sauce- which didn't set fully and cool fully until after the party. We also had Wassail that a friend bought over, so good. We also had a hot chocolate bar with sprinkles, cinnamon sticks, peppermint marshmallows, sprinkles, whipped cream, toffee bits, Hiwa Kai black salt, caramels and more. We had a mock/what was in this again?  Love Abounds Sipping Chocolat. Oh goodness. Honestly I haven't made a huge batch of Sipping Chocolat. Not to serve anyway. That and I haven't seen my recipes for a while now so I poured in a little bit of this, and a little bit of that. It was definitely like drinking a chocolate bar. So thick. I had to leave milk out for people to thin theirs out. EEK. Sorry for the sugar rush! It's a good thing people didn't come for the cocoa. Here's one cup for you to see though

So, when everyone got here we had the children fill out an "All About Me" form. I had my girls do more after the party for boxes. But these forms can be printed off of the Operation Christmas Child site, or ordered on there also. See? Small space!

Dyed Toothpicks and Skewers

Little flags for cupcakes and appetizers

For Diva's Spa Party I dyed the skewers I used for the bacon with food coloring. It's so easy to do. Add a little Washi tape and you have cute cupcake toppers, food picks for lunches and sandwiches, and little flags.

I just put the picks and skewers in water with a little food coloring in it. Let them soak up some color. Then let them dry before putting tape on them. If you're going to put them in the oven just use them while they are still wet.

Operation Christmas Child Packing Party

Our invitation, and information we passed out for our party

Have you heard of Operation Christmas Child? I've been packing boxes since I came to know Christ as my Savior. (Which wasn't that long ago, 14 years ish- I'm still a teenager!) Operation Christmas Child is a part of Samaritan's Purse. Every year shoe boxes are packed with toys and gifts for a needy child around the world. Anyone can pack a shoe box! The shoe boxes are sent to a sorting facility- items like war toys/guns are removed- and volunteers make sure boxes meet each country's customs requirements. Then the boxes are delivered to the children through local churches and ministries in the area. Read more about the journey of a shoe box HERE.

This year, I'm finally having a shoe box packing party. I've wanted to for so long. It just seems silly, there were always reasons I didn't, there were years DH was deployed, something "came up", our house is too small- it still is! But we're going to squeeze people in. So I'm praying that God will let this be an annual party, that He will use us to bless the children receiving the boxes, and use us to bless our friends that can attend the party. We're going to pack boxes, fill out "All About Me" forms,  we're going to have snacks and play, then we'll send everyone home with a reminder to pray for whoever receives their box/es, . This year's goal is to surpass 100 million shoe boxes delivered to children around the world. We're praying our little party can help that goal be met. I'll post more party pictures when I get a chance, our party isn't for a couple of weeks! But keep reading!

Pink Lemonade Lip Balm

For Diva's Spa Party we made some very simple, easy lip balm. We used petroleum jelly, cosmetic glitter, and pink lemonade mix. It was easy. The kids helped stir it up. But there wasn't much to do. I thought about doing a coconut oil beeswax lip balm. I'm glad I didn't, there was so much going on, simple was best for this party.

Pink Lemonade Lip Balm

Petroleum Jelly

Cosmetic glitter

Pink Lemonade powder- I used Crystal Light

Containers

Put the Petroleum jelly in a microwavable bowl. Heat the jelly until warm and a little runny. Stir in glitter and Pink Lemonade powder. Keep stirring and reheat if needed to combine. Put into containers, let cool.

CupKate's Event Designs- GIVEAWAY

These darling candy cups are from CupKate's!

For the past two weeks, I've been SLOWLY putting up Spa Birthday Brunch photos and posts. You can see them here. I have other posts to come, but this last post that featured food had many items from CupKate's Event Designs. Kate was amazing to work with. She answered my questions via email quickly. She helped me with sizing of items (Appetizer Spoons) for deviled eggs. She was honest when something wasn't in stock- I've ordered items for a party before and have been assured they would reach me in time only to sit around the afternoon of cutting out cupcake toppers. Kate let me know when the item (Push Pop containers) would be in and that they would ship right away. I decided to wait on them. Kate had my box with other items packed and ready. When the Push Pops came in, she shipped my box right away. All items were delivered in time for Diva's brunch. Items were packed carefully, they were clean, and the presentation showed they were packed with care.

Kate's professionalism and fast service sets her apart. I couldn't be happier with the service I got, and how my items were packaged when they arrived. Here is a little more about CupKate's Even Design straight from her!

I’m Kate, wife and mother to two of the cutest kids, ever. {Okay, so maybe I’m biased.} Creating memories by celebrating special occasions quickly became an obsession of mine once my children were born. Seeing them delight in the details of a well thought out party is one of the best feelings! While planning my Daughter’s 2nd birthday, my older sister mailed me a Push Pop container and the idea to use them as party favors. I loved them, sourced them and posted a few pictures of my Cupcake Push Pop creation on my blog and on my Facebook page. The interest in the containers caught on fast and in March of 2011 I opened an Etsy shop to sell the containers. At the time, I was the only retailer selling Push Pop containers by the piece and in small quantities. My name appeared on several high traffic blogs {Including the Cooking Channel’s blog!}. The success of Push Pops led to a full Party Shop, www.cupkateseventdesign.com, with many of my favorite party finds listed for sale. Today, I fill orders, run back and forth to preschool and constantly keep my eye out for the next big thing.

Spa Birthday Brunch- Food.

Another Spa Birthday Brunch post, you can see more of these HERE. This post will be all about the food. I kept the food simple, and took shortcuts where I could. I didn't make my own yogurt (but you can find methods I've used by searching "yogurt" in my search bar), I also used frozen pancakes, and whipped cream in a can- which my kids just LOVED. Go figure.

CupKate's Event Designs is where I got the cupcake cups, the little spoons for the Deviled Eggs, Push Pop containers, Stay tuned for an awesome giveaway from her this weekend!