Luca Dinner and a Movie Party

For the premiere of Luca, we set out to create a dinner party. Rachel and I had read the book prior, so we knew what foods were going to be incorporated in the movie. 

We picked out three different types of noodles and created a pasta bar for our main entrée. I made meatballs, crab cakes, had red sauce, white sauce, and pesto along with the noodles. 

We also had cucumbers (sea cucumbers) and watermelon as sides. For dessert we had gelato.

We also painted pictures that represented characters in the movie. 

Apple Carrot Muffins

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup ground flaxseed

3/4 cup old fashioned oats

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup almond milk

1 cup shredded carrots

1 apple shredded with the skin on

Mix the flour, flaxseed, oats, baking soda, powder, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, vanilla, and sugar together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until there are no dry clumps remaining. 

Fold in the carrots and apples. 

 

Pour in a greased muffin pan and bake at 375 degrees for about 18 minutes. 

 

May the 4th Star Wars Party

I made these finger puppets out of puff balls and pipe cleaners. 

We had Star Wars themed food. 

And played Star Wars Monopoly. 

 

Kentucky Derby Dinner Party

These horse cookies were made from Milano cookies, mini vanilla wafers, Tootsie Roll ears, chocolate frosting hair, licorice, and sugar eyes. An edible marker was used on the vanilla wafers. 

Kentucky Derby Pie. I mixed 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup flour, 2 eggs, 1 stick of butter-melted, 1 cup chopped pecans, 1 cup chocolate chips, and 1 tsp of vanilla. Pour into a pie crust. Bake at 325 for about 45 minutes. 

I cut horses and horseshoes out of cardboard and let the kids decorate and paint them.

We had a horse cleaning station (huge hit). I found this container at the Dollar Tree. 

Non-alcoholic mint julips: 2 cups water, 2 cups sugar, 8 mint leaves. Boil until the sugar is dissolved. This will create the simple syrup. In a glass filled with ice, add 1/4 cup simple syrup and 1/2 cup ginger ale. 

I also made hot brown dip: 8 oz cream cheese, 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese, 2 cups chopped turkey (I used natural lunch meat), 1 small tomato chopped, 6 slices of cooked bacon crumbled, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Stir cream cheese, yogurt, nutmeg, 1  cup of the cheese, and turkey together. Add to a baking dish. Top with bacon, tomato, the rest of the 1/2 cup cheese, and parmesan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serve with crackers. 

We also made Burgoo, but only used venison and chicken. I used this recipe for the inspiration: https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/recipes/burgoo/

We made ours in the Instant Pot. 

 

Country Music Award Dinner Party

For the Country Music Awards this year, we decided to have a dinner party. Because they were held in Nashville, I looked up some famous Nashville foods and replicated them for our dinner. The biggest things I found were Meat and 3 and Nashville Hot Chicken. We smoked meatloaf and mac and cheese, and had mashed potatoes and green beans as the other sides. The desserts were a huge hit: chocolate covered Pringles for cowboy hats, drumstick pretzels, brownies cut into music notes, microphone cake pops put into ice cream cones, and a Kit Kat piano.

The craft was to make our own guitar picks. I also made VIP passes for the kids to wear. 

Rachel even came up with her own awards that she awarded to family members via Zoom. (Greatest Duo of the year went to her grandparents, Best Newcomer of the year went to our new nephew, etc.) 

 

Baseball Opening Day Party

On Opening Day, we like to plan a little dinner party while we watch the game. We have only actually attended one Opening Day in person, but this works as a good second best. Our menu includes things that you would find at the ballpark. This year we had soft pretzels, hot dogs, onion rings, cracker jacks, baseball cupcakes, roasted almonds, root beer, and lemonade. 

 

Peter Rabbit Dinner Party

For an Easter dinner and a movie night, we watched Peter Rabbit, had food inspired by the movie, and went on an Easter egg hunt. 

I used crescent rolls to create these carrot rolls. I pulled out the tin foil after they baked. We filled them with taco meat and cheese. 

We painted rabbit suncatchers.

We made little carrot gardens out of wafer cookies, chocolate pudding, and crushed chocolate teddy grahams. We put orange tic-tacs to look like carrots. We also dipped strawberries in orange colored chocolate.  I had a variety of vegetables and berries out as well. 

We painted flower pots.

Made mini apple pies. I used a rabbit cookie cutter to top off the pies. 

The egg hunt was a lot of fun. 

 

St. Patrick's Day Party

We made rainbow waffles and painted some pictures for St. Patrick's Day this year. We also mixed lime sherbet and 7-up for a green punch.

 

Pi Day Food

We had a lot of circular food for Pi Day this year. I didn't get a picture of it, but we also had hamburgers. 

We played some fraction games and use Pi to solve some math problems. 

 

Football Party Spread

 

Oregon Trail Birthday Cake and Dinner

Rachel has been reading the Oregon Trail books and decided that was the theme she wanted for her 1/2 birthday cake. There was a map included with her books that we based the cake off of. 

We had pancakes, bacon, soda biscuits, and molasses pudding cake. 

 

Earth Day Sensory Bin

I just gathered some supplies I had in the closet to put this sensory bin together. The magnifying glass was  a huge hit. The mini pots worked as great scoops. We added little animals as well. 

 

Fruit Baskets

I put these fruit baskets together for Administrative Professionals Day this year. All of the fruit, chocolate, and trail mix came from Aldi. I got the bowl, the cellophane bags, and bow from the Dollar Tree. Each basket was put together for under $20 each.  

 

Dr. Seuss Party

 

For Dr. Seuss's birthday, we had a fun dinner party complete with green eggs and ham, cat in the hat pancakes, cat in the hat Jell-o trifles, Goldfish, and blue Jell-o.