Detroit Lions Birthday Party

 

David wanted a Detroit Lions theme for his 15th Birthday this year. He always requests beef tenderloin and potatoes for the main dish, but we added some other Lions' touches this year. I made non-alcoholic jello shots in the Lions color scheme and put together a Dan Campbell press conference cutout. 

The cake is two full size 9x13 inch cakes baked together in a large sheet pan. Everything is covered in homemade green fondant. I added blue and white fondant to make the rest of the field. I couldn't make the goal posts with one pole on the bottom, so we had to settle for two poles going all the way down. These are just pvc pipes covered with yellow construction paper. 

For the cutout, I took a picture of Dan Campbell from a press conference video I found online. I used my phone to capture just his image. Then I opened the image in Paint and went to the print preview setting. From there, I selected Fit To and changed it to 4 by 4. I cut out the images from the pages printed and taped them on to a foam board. Then I cut the foam board to fit the picture. I went to our local Dollar General and they happened to be unpacking a shipment, so I found this perfect black box in the shape of a podium. I taped the foam board to the box to get the final product. 

Founding Fathers' Dinner

 

Instead of the traditional burgers and hot dogs, we decided to look up the founding fathers' favorite foods and cook that for 4th of July dinner. 

We made smoked turkey breast for Ben Franklin, had green beans and pineapple for Jefferson, rolls for Madison, mini apple pie for Adams (and almost all of the others), cherry crumble for Washington, and ice cream for Hamilton. We also had mashed potatoes and smoked up some sausage and "shotgun" shells too. (Those are a manicotti noodle stuffed with a sausage/cream cheese/jalapeno mixture and wrapped with bacon). 

We also had angel food with strawberries and blueberries for our red/white/blue dessert. 

Elemental Dinner Party and Photo Board

I made this photo board on a tri-fold cardboard poster from Dollar General. I drew it freehand with pencil and painted it with acrylic paint. 

I used a blue and red tablecloth to symbolize the water and fire parts of the city. 

I also did four cupcakes to symbolize the fire, water, air, and earth. 

The water symbols. 

Air symbols. The cups have cotton candy in them. 

Earth symbols. This pots have cupcakes and chocolate wafers in them. The front cup is chocolate pudding with chocolate wafers and a gummy worm. 

The fire symbols included an actual fire, fire cupcakes, red and black candy in little drink cups, hot tamales, fire cheetos, and Ferrero Rocher candy to represent the fireballs in the movie that get eaten. 

It was also my husband's birthday, so we made a periodic table of elements that said Happy Birthday Steve. 

 

Little Mermaid Dinner Party

Rachel and I loved the new Little Mermaid movie, so we came home from the show and made some treats for dinner. 

We made some decorations with sour candy. 

We also did "shell" macaroni and cheese, crab shaped croissant sandwiches, clam cookies, mermaid chocolate tails, goldfish pretzels, crab candy, mermaid popcorn crunch, and blue Gatorade. 

 

Country Music Award Dinner

For the ACM Awards this year, we decided to throw a Nashville-theme dinner. We had meat and three (meatloaf, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and green beans) 

We also had some music themed threats. 

 

Air Fryer Potatoes

 

Wash and dice about 5 potatoes. Put in a large bowl with 2 Tbsp olive oil and salt and pepper. Cook in the air fryer for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees. 

We like them plain like this, but you could add garlic and parmesan cheese for additional flavor. 

One-pot Pasta

For my last cooking class, we made this one-pot pasta. It is very easy and cheap to make. 

Ingredients: 

1 pound of pasta

1 can diced tomatoes

3 cups water

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

3 cloves garlic, sliced

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

pepper

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

cooked sausage (optional) 

In a large pot, saute the oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes for a minute. 

Add the diced tomatoes, water, salt and pepper, and uncooked pasta. Stir. Let it boil. Reduce heat and cover for about 9 minutes. Add the parmesan cheese when the pasta is done. You can add cooked sausage or other meat if you want more protein added. 

 

Earth Day Activities

One of the bins had brown paper to represent dirt. The other just had water and some gemstones and shells to represent the ocean. In the dirt pile, I added some cards that had pictures of recyclables and trash. I found garbage can pencil holders at Dollar Tree that we used to separate the cards in the correct bin. 

We added some cocoa powder mixed with olive oil to the ocean bin and had to clean the animals 

I also added some shredded plastic bags to the ocean and the kids had to clean that up too. 

We put frosting on graham crackers and made flowers out of fruit. 

We also did some ocean scenes on the graham crackers. 

We did q-tip painting and painting inside of a ziploc bag. 

 

Fruit Baskets

 

We decided to make some fruit baskets for all of the office staff. I got most of the fruit from Sams, but did get the pineapple and apples from Aldi. I also got some trail mix and large candy bars from Aldi. I got the bowls, bows, and cellophane bags from Dollar Tree, and some filler candy/chocolate from Dollar General.  

I spent about $160 to make 9 baskets. 

Kentucky Derby Party

 

We had chicken, tots, derby pie tarts, virgin mint juleps, a horse track charcuterie board, horse Nutter Butters, and meringue roses. I also cut strawberries to look like roses. 

We also made tissue paper hats and sculpted horses out of homemade brown playdough. For the hats, put 4-6 squares of tissue paper on top of one another. Fold it as you would fold a fan. Tie a piece of ribbon around the middle of the fan. Spread out the tissue paper and fluff the flower. Cut a 3-4 inch circle out of a paper plate. Cut two small holes in the middle of the larger circle. Put a headband through the holes and tie the ribbon from the tissue paper to the plate and headband. 

We made some meringue roses. 

Ingredients: 3 egg whites

1/4 cup freeze dried strawberries

1 3oz strawberry gelatin

1/2 tsp vanilla

melting chocolate

Let the egg whites sit in a bowl for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, put sugar and strawberries in a food processor and pulse until powdery.  Add the gelatin. Pulse again. 

Beat the egg whites until foamy. Add vanilla. Gradually add gelatin mixture, 1 Tbsp at a time, beating after each addition. Continue beating until soft peaks form. 

Put in a pastry bag that has the 1 M star tip attached. Pipe out the roses on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in a 225 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the roses in there for about an hour, without opening the door. 

Let the roses cool completely on the baking sheet . Melt some chocolate and dip the bottoms of the roses. Let the chocolate set. 

Coronation Tea Party

 

For our tea party we had black cherry tarts, pecan tarts, scones with jam and cream, pork dumplings, sandwiches, and mini quiche.  I also displayed red and blue fruit. 

I decided to make a photo board featuring the King's Guards.

Cinco de Mayo Dinner Party

 

We had a taco/nacho bar for Cinco de Mayo this year.  We had turkey taco meat and ground beef taco meat, rice, quinoa, black beans, corn, tomatoes, spinach, guacamole, onions, cheese, a variety of shells and blue corn tortilla chips. I also made virgin strawberry margaritas and air fryer churros. 

Ingredients: 

3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp water

1/4 cup butter

1 Tbsp sugar

pinch of salt

3/4 cup flour

2 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

In a saucepan, bring the water, butter, sugar, and salt to a boil. Reduce the heat and add in the flour, stirring rapidly. Continue stirring until it thickens. 

Put the dough in the stand mixer and beat for about 3 minutes with the paddle attachment. 

Next add the eggs, one at a time. 

Put the mixture in a bag with a large star tip attached at the end. 1 M works best. I tried different size star tips. 

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pipe the dough in 3-4 inch pieces on the parchment paper. Put the pan in the freezer for about 30 minutes. 

Preheat the air fryer to 360 degrees. 

Remove churros from the freezer and bake for about 12 minutes. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and immediately put the warm churros in the cinnamon sugar. Serve warm.

May the 4th Be With You Annual Party

For our Annual May the 4th Be With You party we did a breakfast theme for dinner. We had Princess Leia buns, Chewbacca hash browns, Yoda soda, BB8 donuts, grape lightsabers, and pancakes made in our Star Wars pancake machine. 

We also turned our seasonal tree into a Star Wars display.