Loving This Wednesday

I haven't done a What I'm Loving Wednesday in a while so I thought "why not?"

I'm loving these chips. They've changed my life. It sounds dramatic, but it's true.

Source: fritolay.com via Megan on Pinterest

I was never a big fan of the kettle cooked potato chips but these changed my mind. I may or may not have eaten these at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning.

I'm loving that my baby sister hosted a Houseparty last weekend featuring Breakstone's Zesty Blends sour cream and sour cream dips. She had some yummy appetizers featuring the Zesty Blends Chipotle and Garlic and Herb sour creams.

Baby Sister made our Aunt Peggy's famous taco dip with the Chipotle Sour Cream and it gave the dip a nice kick.

Even more than the food, I enjoyed an evening with my family in the home that I used to visit my grandparents in...now home to my baby sister and her family. 


I'm loving a conversation I had with some friends the other night. One of them recently lost her brother to a long battle with cancer. For his obituary and memorial photo, they used one of him in his mid-twenties because that is what he'll look like in heaven (when you get to heaven you revert to the age/look of your best self). I guess this thought is from a book that I must find and read soon. I LOVE the idea, just absolutely love it.

I'm loving all the great things on Pinterest...especially my board dedicated to Butterflies!

Source: butterfly-magic.net via Megan on Pinterest

Source: polkadot-butterfly.tumblr.com via Megan on Pinterest

I'm loving that I'm getting to walk more often these days. I don't think my pace would be considered "exercise" by most, but I sweat while I walk so it's exercise to me!

Source: diethoroscopes.tumblr.com via Megan on Pinterest

The Force was Indeed with Us

As you know from previous posts, I hosted a Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 3 premiere party last night. Thanks to House Party for providing the party pack and many of you for the suggestions on games and food.

I was told by my sister and a friend that I was crazy brave to invite nine children (and Going Jane's 3 who participated virtually) into my home and host a theme party. A party that was not celebrating a holiday or a birthday. I scoffed at them. I'm an AUNT. Aunt Mimi to be exact. I'm the fun aunt. I'm the one who bought all of my nephews Star Wars shirts to wear to the party! I can handle a 3-hour party, right?

How hard could it be? Put out some food, plan some activities and let them go at it.

Well, I forgot that I'm a nervous party hostess. I worry about the food. I worry that everyone is enjoying themselves. I worry about the kids (boys mostly) killing hurting each other as they wrestle on my rolling ottoman on my hard surface floors! More on that later...

I took Friday off of work to clean the house and prep for the party. It's amazing what you can get done in a day. In addition to cleaning the house and the garage and fixing way too much food, I also got four - that's FOUR - loads of laundry done. On a Friday no less. That's awesome for a working gal who usually has to fit housework and laundry into her weekend.

I have to admit that I took the easy route when it came to decorations and games. I snapped up some of the fun SW party paraphernalia from Wal-Mart, including plates, napkins, favor bags and stickers.

I even re-purposed the plastic tablecloth into a photo background that each child posed in front of at the start of the party. Kind of like those backgrounds on the red carpet. You know, the ones that celebrities pose in front of at movie openings and such.

When the boys walked in and saw the wall, they went nuts. "Yoda, mama. Look, it's Master Yoda!" Too cute.

Don't they look like lil' celebrities!

As you can see that the cool action figures from Hasbro were a HUGE hit from the very start. I meant to hold onto them for a big reveal but the nephews knew they were on the premise so I just went with the flow (that's important at a kids party, right?) and let them each choose an action figure.

House Party also provided some cool tattoos se we applied those as well. See... (it's Boo and Princess from Beyer Beware)

Even some of the big kids adults put them on. Doesn't Anakin look cool on Lil' Sister?

She couldn't quite convince her son/my youngest nephew to get one. This situation may be reversed in another 16 years! However, when she put him in bed that night, he asked for a tattoo!

Captain Rex even made an appearance!

Brat (aka my youngest sister) found the costume at a garage sale recently. It was a hit. We even got one of the nephews to do a classic Capt. Rex pose.

 

Well, we were supposed to play the cool new Galactic Battle Game with action figures but that required each child giving up his/her new action figure to use in the game and I'm sorry that was SO not happening. So, they just had some fun in the garage. My older sis took home the game board because as mother to three of four of my nephews, she has many Star Wars action figures at home and saw the value in the cool organizer on the back of the board.

After some serious playing, it was time to eat! Here are some of my fun Star Wars-themed goodies!

The fun moved inside after we ate and the kids really, really wanted to watch some Clone Wars. Unfortunately, it was about an hour until the new season of the show started on the Cartoon Network. However, I anticipated this situation and had DVR'd a few episodes of last season's show!

Everyone was interested at first...

But as the real show began, only the diehard fans remained.

The others were running in circles around my house chasing each other, spilling their bowls of M&Ms all over my floor and throwing balls into my bedroom while standing on the stairs! All except one, this precious, quiet child was hard at work on the fun activity sheets House Party provided.

By the end of the show, only the two 3rd graders remained! But they LOVED it.

Overall, a great time was had by all. The kiddos enjoyed the festivities and the adults enjoyed some "grown up" conversation among the chaos!

So in the end, it was a success but my confidence on my ability to host a rockin' kids party AND maintain my sanity was sorely tested. I'm still recovering. Thank goodness I have the weekend!

Blog Hopping and Party Prepping Friday!

Forgive me for the very short and sweet blog post today.

I'm actually taking a vacation day (yeah) and prepping for my Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 3 premiere party later tonight.

Baking, cleaning, setting up...oh my! But I'm going to do some blog hopping before I start.

All I can say is...Let the Force be with ME!!




 

Party Planning, Part II: Action Figures, Cookies & Pink

Hello visitors from Follow Me Back Tuesday!

My hostess pack from House Party came last week for my Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 3 premiere party. The season opener for SWCW is Friday night (September 17) on the Cartoon Network at 9 p.m. EDT.

My oldest nephew saw the action figures and went wild!

He honed in quickly on this one..

Captain Rex is his favorite character. He's already laid claim to this one but has to wait until Friday to get it!

I have talked on here already about this party and my baby sister's, aka Brat, baby shower and how I've been planning them. I have had some great suggestions from both old and new friends for both parties.

My college roommate told me that her son's birthday party later this fall is Star Wars-themed and she passed along these games: Pass the Death Star, Feed Jabba the Hut, Jedi vs Sith, Use the Force, Jedi Obstacle Course, and Meteor Shower.

I still need to finalize the menu and the games and the other entertainment for my SWCW party...so stay tuned!

As for the baby shower, it went off without a hitch this weekend. For the food, we decided to forego the cake and concentrate on cookies instead! We had quite the spread and they seemed to be enjoyed by all. Though we realized how easy it is to just pick up a cake from the bakery while we were each making several kinds of cookies!

I even tried to add some flair and used two of these 3-tiered cake stands and put a flower in the base of the middle and top tier.

Add a tablecloth, balloons, wildflowers and you have our decorations!

No shower is complete without some games. You can see the mommy-to-be judging the "babies" the guests drew on paper plates while their eyes were closed! In the background, you can see our Aunt Peggy passing the toilet paper.

No, we didn't use the toilet paper as hillbilly napkins. It was the second game...how many toilet paper panels around is the mommy-to-be's belly! Most people thought she was a bit bigger than she really is. Just in case you are curious, her belly measures 10 panels of Angel Soft toilet paper!


Then it was onto the gifts.

Now, I want to point out that I was sitting to the side the entire time so I couldn't see her face OR I would have told her that she had a piece of hair across her forehead! Oops...sorry Brat, but aren't the boots adorable!

See, there I am off to the side.

Isn't the quote behind her appropriate at a baby shower for a girl? I just know this baby will be smart, strong and bold! She has some great role models to help her down that path.

Of course, she got lots and lots of pink outfits. I think she said she got 25 outfits in total - not all pink, but the majority were!

Brat got 2 beautiful quilts made specifically for her baby girl. The one below was done by a friend of mine's mom after she saw my sis's blog post about putting together her nursery. She matched the colors of the room perfectly, according to my sister after she took it home and put it in the nursery.

So, one party down, one more to go...can't believe I chose to host two parties in one week!