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!

Random Shots from My Phone...TOTALLY Random

I have so much to blog about that I really don't know where to start.

I really want to finish up my "Random Shots from my Phone" series but I also just co-hosted a baby shower for Brat, my Baby Sis, and have been prepping for my Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 3 (starts September 17) premiere party (see my prep post). Add to those some interesting travels last week and the start of corn harvest, and I have all kinds of stuff to talk type about.

So, I think I'll go ahead and finish the Random Photos series with a collection of truly random shots I found on my phone recently. Here we go...

First, I'm all about good fashion repeating itself. I also really like the leggings look (on folks who can pull it off, not me) that is out there right now. However, I cannot believe that stirrup pants are back in.

Yes, you read right - STIRRUP PANTS. I stopped in Gap the other day and was busy digging through their jeans selection (all were $35) when I spied these...

I admit that I was a stirrup pants wearer back in the day, but if they aren't bringing back the slouchy socks to go with them...I just don't see the appeal. Maybe I should ask Leslie over at Blonde Ambition or Little Miss Can't Be Wrong over at how i met your father because they are much more fashion aware than I am!

Moving on...

The next two photos are of some paintings I fell in love with during a visit to Gwen Gutwein's studio in Fort Wayne, Ind. I bought the painting in the middle of the first photo - my first real piece of art!

It's of soybean plants awaiting harvest. I am not sure what it is about the painting that speaks to me so loudly, but I'm in love with it still, always.

This painting is one that I thought my mom would really like. She loves birds and while this one is very simple, it's striking...at least to me.

The organizations I work for have a program with the Indianapolis Colts and Tight End Dallas Clark is the spokesperson. We spent a day last spring filming some television and radio spots with Clark. In this photo, he's doing a shoot with the Indiana FFA State Officer Team (last year's). He stopped filming when he realized the FFAers had memorized their lines while he was reading off cue cards. I was impressed by both Clark AND the FFA officers. Both were approachable, professional and lots of fun.

Can anyone tell me who this is? Some of my co-workers and I were eating lunch at our hotel in California last March and this former contestant on the Bachelor was our server! Now, I don't watch the show but a couple of my co-workers do and they begged me to get a shot of her.

This one was taken very casually as I "checked my e-mail" while she was taking our order.

For the life of me, I can't remember what her name is and what season she was on. I guess I could zoom in on her nametag and Google the show, but I really don't care that much!

Isn't this a cool shoe? I snapped this shot while eating in a great outdoor courtyard this summer. If you don't know what the "P" stands for...shame on you. Just kidding, it's for Purdue - the Boilermakers - THE best university in the world. Boiler Up!!!

Every post needs a monkey, right? Haven't you always wanted a Monkey? Sorry, I always think of that Barenaked Ladies song when I see a photo of a monkey...I know, I'm weird.

This very well-dressed monkey (maybe she needs some stirrup pants...) was at a small town homecoming that I attended for work earlier this summer. This was the same place that had the frog jumping contest. It was just excitement everywhere!

While I'm on the subject of animals, here's a shot at the pool in my neighborhood. My sister, nephews and I had just gotten out of the pool when these guys decided to take a dip.

We haven't been back since...

And last, but not least. Did you have a Monchhichi growing up?

We had one in the house but I can't remember if it was mine or one of my sisters. I saw these in Target the other day and just had to get a shot of them. Again, like fashion, I'm somewhat amazed what toys cycle back into circulation every few years!

That wraps up my "Random Shots from My Phone" series. Now that I've cleared off some shots from my phone, I have room for even more so stay tuned for more in the future!

Linking up to:
Mingle Monday

It's Party Planning Time...

I have two very different parties to prep for over the next two weeks.

First, my baby sister (aka the Frugalista, aka the Brat) is having a baby in October so my other sisters and I are throwing her a baby shower.

I know what you are thinking. She's just a baby herself, how can she be having a baby! I still remember going to the hospital to meet this little baby girl that made her way into the world just days before my 8th birthday.

Actually, I'm super-excited for her and her HHBL. They will be great parents to a very lucky little girl. The Brat is having the first baby girl in our family. After having FOUR daughters, my dad hoped, prayed and loudly wished for a grandson for years. He now has 4 wild and crazy grandsons and what does he want? A granddaughter! The man is never satisfied.

So glad that the Brat - my dad's baby girl - is giving him his first baby granddaughter. Won't that be a great photo!

The other party is a kid's party to celebrate the premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 3.

My nephews are HUGE Star Wars fans. When we went to Disney World this summer, the older nephews were way more excited about the Star Wars weekend than meeting Mickey!

So they are so going to flip over this party! I'm planning to have up to 10 children under the age of 10, as well as at least that many adults, to entertain, feed and corral! The party will finish with the season premier of the cartoon series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

My party pack is going to have some fun party favors, including some Hasbro Star Wars action figures, but I want to carry the theme throughout the food, decor and activities.

Since food is the common denominator of the two parties, that's where I started.

I headed to my local Wal-Mart to grab some supplies! In addition to some fun Star Wars napkins and plates, I grabbed some treat bags for the baby shower. We are planning to serve bite-sized desserts and send a treat bag with some goodies home with everyone.

I want to try some fun decorated cookies/brownies and I'm not all that great with icing, so I wanted to practice before baking for the actual parties.

I decided to do to my test run with bar cookies instead of brownies - basically out of laziness - and used 2 tubes of cookie dough as my base.

Before I got started, I also stopped by my local Kroger's to grab some groceries.

You know the old saying, "don't grocery shop when you are hungry?" It's true!

I grabbed some honey BBQ chicken anytizers from Tyson (never had them before and have to say they are yummy) and one of my favorite quick and easy sides - Ore-Ida Easy Fries! I paired them with the healthy weight Green Giant veggie mix - black beans, edamame, sugar peas and carrots...yummy - and a fountain Coke Zero!

Overall, it was a quick and easy meal, except for one thing...I put my Easy Fries on top of my microwave cover dish (just too lazy to take out the cover dish) and this happened.

Oops! Guess I'm on the lookout for a new cover. At least the Fries weren't affected!

Now back to the party food trials. My good friend over at Going Jane sent me a couple of ideas for Star Wars party food. Her kids are HUGE Star Wars fans - fanatics, really - so she's the perfect gal to consult with. Her first idea was a Darth Vader shaped brownie using a bell-shaped cookie cutter and white icing.

Here's the first attempt...

Not bad, but I'll try again with brownies because the cookies cut awkwardly.

I also tried some butterfly and flower cookies for the baby show. Decorating is definitely not one of my fortes. I'll keep trying!

Any suggestions for food for either the baby shower or the Star Wars party? All are welcome!