Poetry and Soup - a Poetry Reading Party

A friend and I were talking when she confessed to writing Poetry.

I shared my thoughts on Poetry with her.

I told her I think Poetry is such a romantic art form,

and the writing and sharing of Poetry should be a more regular 

occurrence in our social groups.

and this is how this started...

We were afraid we were the only old fashion, romantic minded people

but we found quite a few neighbors who thought Poetry and Soup

was a lovely idea. SCROLL DOWN FOR THE PRINTABLE INVITE

We had a variety of soups; a hearty bean and ham soup, a warm minestrone soup, 

a classic broccoli and cheese soup, and a creamy chicken noodle

We also had an apple crisp and oreo pudding dessert. Nothing sweeter 

than topping off the event with these treats.

The gathering was delightful if I could have changed anything

I would have had everyone bring their recipe cards

to set aside their dishes, since I want to replicate all of them.

I didn't try to pen my own verse for this party,

Partly because I need to grow my confidence in writing Poetry

and Mostly because I had in my possession a Poem my 

Grandpa used to recite to us at family gatherings.

We believe his Grandma was the original writer

and he had such fond memories of her sharing it

that he continued the tradition 

and that is a tradition I want to be apart of as well.

Here is my family poem, it really is to good to keep to oneself

Once I had a handsome Beau,I loved him dear as life

I often thought the time would come when I would be his wife

His pockets how they would jingle, you bet he had the cash

the diamond ring, a watch and chain, and a darling Black mustache

Oh that Black, oh that cute black mustache,

Now you know I've got a Beau with a darling black mustache

He come to see me last Saturday night, stayed to almost three

said he’d never loved a girl as well as me

said we’d live in the greatest style, you bet we’d cut a dash

then he pressed upon my lips that darling black mustache

Oh that Black oh that cute black mustache

Now you know I've got a Beau with a darling black mustache

But o alas things changed for me, a blondie came to town,

my handsome Beau he fell for her and flatly turned me down

I tried so hard to get him back but away from me he’d dash

so now you know I lost my Beau with the darling black mustache

Three of the poems shared were penned by their owners and I think they should publish their poetry for all to enjoy. Other poems shared were these
If by Rudyard Kipling
this poem would make an excellent discussion piece
Rindercella
this poem is quite entertaining and quite a mouthful

I enjoyed myself so much at the party and I do so

look forward to dabbling in Poetry and penning something of my own.

I am quite excited to make this another tradition

that will add simply joy to my life.

I hope it brings joy to you to,  HERE is a blank invite with the images.

Frozen Party - 2 years old

FROZEN BIRTHDAY PARTY

I was recently clearing my computer and I found my daughters 2nd Birthday Party. I thought it was worth the share. Of course it was Frozen theme, she love the movie and the soundtrack was either playing or being enacted in our house constantly :) 2nd birthdays are my favorite because they get so excited about everything! and appreciate all the simple things. I knew this theme would put her over the moon and I was rewarded with so many fun memories from this day

INVITATION

For the invite I found this blank Frozen Ticket that I filled in. I liked all the spaces they had for information. I was easily able to fit everything on. Here is the Link to this adorable invite.

DECORATION

For the Decor we tried to use what we had around the house. I got some Sticks from outside and spray painted them white. Then we used Coffee Filters to make the perfect Snow Flakes. We filled up a few Balloons and hung them with some Tissue Paper Balls I made. I just crumpled up some newspaper wrapped some tape around it so it would keep its shape and hot glued tissue paper to it! SO EASY!!! I used a plastic table cloth as a table runner and set the food out. I also love my Chalkboard, it is fun for all occasions and can be used at any party or event. I was lucky to find that frame at a thrift store. I took the picture out, spray painted the frame Gold, and then spray painted the backing with Chalk Board Spray. It was cheap and well worth it :)




FOOD

We had so much fun with the food, we had TWO requirements...
1) enough to feed us all of Lunch,

2) food my kids like, especially the birthday girl

We found lots of good food ideas online and made up a few have fun scrolling through :)

       

For the cake I went simple I found those figurines, printed off some pictures and slapped on two Candles. She couldn't have been more thrilled with the end product!

and I'll leave these special moments right here, eating cake, opening presents, and 

most important, saying THANK YOU to our guests

Thanks for Stopping by :) come again!

How to host a Ball-Jane Austen Style

Do you love Pride and Prejudice or Downtown Abbey? or have you seen Austenland? Do you, like me, love Mr Darcy and the whole Regency Era, and wish for just one night you could experience the magic of this era?!

Well keep reading, because I am going to tell you how I threw my own Regency Era Ball and pulled off my most successful parties yet....

1) INVITES- I bought special wax and a stamp from Michaels, but I am sure there are other craft stores that supply them and a great selection on the internet. I designed an invite, I will attach the format HERE, and printed it on tan card stock.  As I folded my husband stamped the seals on, he turned to me on the final one and said "This is the main reason I agreed to this party." It was fun watching his enthusiasm in making the perfect wax seal on each envelope. In hopes to have people be serious about this party also included Dress Suggestions at the bottom of the invite.

2) DELIVERING THE INVITES- To show people the seriousness I had for this party, I had the invites delivered on a silver tray by my son. It added to everyones anticipation and started to set the mood for the party

3) SERVERS- I hired some youth to be the "Help" for the evening, after all what type of Regency Era Dinner and Ball would it be without servants? They were amazing! So proper and helpful, defiantly earned their wages.

4) ANNOUNCING GUESTS AS THEY ARRIVE- I tied off all the other entrances to the gym except for one which had a sign on the door that said "to wait for the help to take their coats, fill out an announcing card and the help would walk them in and announce them" I also had an instruction card at the table on that showed them how to fill out the announcement cards

Announcing is my favorite part, I rush over to couple and thank them for coming and shower them with compliments on their ward robe. Then I introduce them in my best British accent to all the other company and take them to an area to have their picture taken.

5) PICTURES - You probably aren't going to get good pictures indoors at night unless you have studio lighting but a "mmmeeehhh" picture is better then no picture. Your guests have worked so hard to get ready for the night you should take a second to take a picture of them even if it is a quick snap with your phone.

6) DANCING- for finding dances to teach I use a combination of this YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/RegencyDancesOrg and this website http://regencydances.org/dancelist.php I would suggest hiring someone to teach the dances unless you have past dance experience and are comfortable teaching large groups. I also send my guests a link through email or facebook in case my guests want to watch the dances before they attend.
My favorites that I would suggest are first Corn Rig for a very easy and lively Dance
and second Ramsgate Assembly for a little bit harder but more romantic dance.

7) DINNER- I only had a dinner at one of my Balls, because a 5 course meal for a large group is expensive! but it was wonderful having dinner with the group. I set the table with place cards, and a menu. I also placed conversational facts about the Regency Era under their plates. During the dinner guests would take turns reading their facts loudly to the group. The facts really kept the laughter and conversation alive during dinner and helped us interact as a group and not just the people by us.

8) CARD PLAYING - at my second ball we did card game and the "help" served light refreshments, instead of doing a full dinner. We played a modified version of this game http://www.janeausten.co.uk/the-game-of-loo/ if I did this again I would have placed the rules at each table and taught the "help" how to play so that they could answer questions and settle disputes. I think it would also have been fun to do a tournament!

There is always an overwhelming response of how fun these balls are and that we should make it a tradition, which as you can see we have! I highly recommend this party to all my readers. It's a romantic evening to be remembered!

And may I add some of the Men put up quite a fuss but end up having the most fun!

Please comment with any ideas that would add to this party theme, or if you have any questions.
SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave
SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

Napoleon Dynamite Party 2!

We had so much fun with our first Napoleon Dynamite Party we wanted to do it again! But not the same exact party, this party has fun NEW IDEAS!

First, "Tina, you fat lard, come eat your dinner" for Dinner we had a QUESADILLA BAR. "Make yourself a dang quesadilla" with lots of tortillas and cheese, and other toppings. You can find some brown paper at any DOLLAR TREE store and draw all over it. Isn't my husbands llama drawing freakin awesome!

Then for dessert we did a PEDRO LOVES SUMMER CAKE. (Which my amazing husband made, yum yum!)

We also came up with some freakin' fun things to do

1) CHICKEN WAGES-Remember when Napoleon works in the chickens, "do the chickens have large talons?" and he is paid in change. Well we left out a clear bank with change in it, and had everyone guess how much change was in the bank

2) ANIMAL DRAWINGS- Our animals were inspired by Napoleons favorite animal the LIGER! "it's pretty much my favorite animal. it's like a lion and a tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic." We had a jar full of animals and had each person draw an animal. Then, we took a piece of paper and folded it in half, had everyone find a partner and one person drew the top half and the other person drew the bottom half. When they were done they unfolded the paper, named their creation, and gave it a superpower. CLICK HERE for the PRINTABLE

3) PAPER FOOTBALLS- Uncle Rico inspired us with his quote "I bet I could throw a football over those mountains." We made paper footballs and took turns flicking them over our cardboard mountain.

4)A SUMMER PINATA- Pedro gets in trouble for making a piñata that looks like Summer, but everyone at our party loved the piñata and the prizes inside

and then we did some of the old favorites like DEBS PORTRAITS & BOONDOGGLE,

and the Napoleon Dynamite cartoon... which you can find on my other napoleon dynamite party post

and we sent our guests home with this party favor CHAPSTICK "but my lips hurt real bad" You can print off your own and wrap them around a standard chapstick, PRINT HERE

Toy Story Birthday Party

So my oldest just turned 3 and we celebrated with a toy story party. This is the boys new favorite show. (We finally graduated from CARS)

First was the invite, the famous etch-a-sketch was used in our design. Free Printable Here

Next the DECOR got a roll of sky blue paper from the dollar store, unrolled it , cut it in half and then hung it on the wall for a backdrop, I then cut out white clouds and taped them onto the backdrop. For the table we put a white table cloth down, cut out black spots to go on top and the used a red table cloth, folded for a table runner down the center.

For food we had PIZZA PLANET PIZZA

And for the cake we had the three eyed alien cupcakes! I like cupcakes cause they are smaller then a slice of cake usually is.

Last of all we used our backdrop as a toy story photo booth. My son loved the props and would name which prop belonged to which character. Here is a Free Printable of the TOY STORY Props

Cinco de Mayo - Recycled Piñata

We had a lovely Cinco de Mayo.

And the DAY OF Cinco de Mayo. We decided we had to have a piñata for that evening. We used empty cereal boxes. Some leftover tissue paper from a baby shower, and some painting tape from when we painted the bathroom.

Filled it with candy we had around the house and paper from our paper shredder to mimic confetti ;)

It was fun to make, fun to break, and even fun to clean up, and it didn't cost us anything.

We try to make some part of each day a special day and holidays help us do that.

So find a reason to celebrate and make yourself a piñata!

Apple Party

My Husband just got a job with Apple! and anyone who knows us knows what a big deal this is for our family!

 We just had to celebrate!

And what better theme then an APPLE THEME!

First I have to give a huge thanks to the Balls Family, not only did they feed us a wonderful dinner that night, but they also provided all the dishes for the Carmel Apple Bar. They are SO CUTE!

For the Candied Apple Bar, I bought a variety of apples, carmel and fudge, an a variety of toppings

Topping ideas…

• Cranberries
• Marshmallows
• Chocolate Chips
• Coconut (A MUST HAVE!!! so good!)
• Nuts (I chose pecans)
• Oreos (smashed)
• Pretzels (smashed)

After enjoying the candied apples, we played GAME “Apples to Apples”

You can play it the standard way or our way. Every one gets a stack of GREEN  cards, face down, with out looking at them. Then you give a fill in the blank statement, such as “my cooking is______” every one chooses a card to flip over, it is funny because some are true and some are so far from the truth it’s funny! At our party some ones cooking was “deadly” and we all laughed cause she was the one who fed us dinner! (which was amazing, not deadly) 

If you need some ideas to get your creative juices flowing, you can download this list I came up with

Another awesome thing about playing this way, is there are no winners or losers, just lots of laughs!

This party was way easy and still lots of fun, so go buy some apples!

Uncle Yakabo's Far Away Birthday Party

Elder Yakabo went to Ghana, Africa, on his mission, back in August and is away for his 20th birthday. 

We wanted to do something special for his birthday. So we threw him a BIRTHDAY PARTY!

Here is the CAKE WE BAKED, and decorated it in honor of him turning 20.

We all got together and sang happy birthday to him, blew out his candles and ate the cake!

Then we made BIRTHDAY CARDS for him! 

We took pictures of the whole thing, printed the pictures, and sent them to him along with our cards 

and treats and a gift (a texas tie of course!) So now he'll have his Birthday Party in an Envelope!

I hope he feels all of our love for him when he gets the package!

Napoleon Dynamite Party - LUCKY!

This party is a tribute to my home town, PRESTON, Idaho!

Not only did Napoleon Dynamite put us on the map,

It also brought me fame, 

AND is a great theme for a party!

First we had to have a great invitation. My awful handwriting finally came in handy and my talented husband used his great artistic skills and drew an awesome Liger! "a mix between a lion and tiger with mystical powers"

Here is a FREE PRINTABLE of the invite for you

We started out by throwing our STEAKS on the grill (chicken for the sissy's) and had some TATER TOTS as a side "Napoleon give me your tots!" Then washed that all down with 1% milk "I see you're drink 1% Milk, is that cause you think your fat? cause you're not, you could drink whole if you want"

Then we sat around and watched the Napoleon Dyamite Animated TV Show, the shows are so funny, and completely true! You can buy a show on Amazon for $1.99 or the whole season for $9.99 and stream instantly CLICK HERE 

While we were watching and laughing we were also keeping our hands busy with some Boon Doggle 

"Pedro offers you his protection"

And no one can leave one of my party's without pictures! Deb's Portraits was one of my favorite parts! 

"now imagine you're weightless, in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by tiny little sea horses"

Some other Napoleon Dynamite party ideas are...

   

Steak Throwing Contest

Play Football

Bike and RollerBlade Race

Play Tether Ball

Have a Dancing Contest

OR Make your own dang Quesadilla's instead of Steak

After everyone left mom and I sat down to practice our Napoleon Drawing Skills. Playing pictionary using a word list I compiled from the movie. Which you can grab HERE

So go have some fun and laughs, have your own 

flipping sweet napoleon dynamite party, LUCKY!

If you want MORE check out my 2nd Napoleon Dynamite Party!