Independence Day 2013

Independence Day is my favorite holiday. I've thrown a party for most of my adult Fourths. This year's party was pretty easy because almost everyone brought a (delicious) dish! I decided not to struggle with grilling hamburgers for a crowd this year, so to compensate for having only hot dogs as a main dish, I assembled a hot dog bar with fancy-ish toppings.

As I lay down to sleep that night, I realized I never set out the shredded cheese. Oops. I didn't take a picture of it, but the Blueberry Lavender Lemonade was delicious and fairly easy to make. I still have a pitcher left over and have been adding it to my iced tea!

I've baked a flag cake every Fourth since I was sixteen. The "recipe" has been altered many times. Last year I started making it in a half-sheet pan instead of a 9x13, to feed more people. This year, after using one box of white cake mix per pan, I started to suspect that I'd previously used one and a half. So to be safe, I made a third layer. Daring greatly!! I was thrilled that all layers came out of the pans cleanly. However, most people preferred the other desserts that were brought, so now I have a ton of leftover cake, and only one me. Lesson learned.

After seeing this outdoor summer centerpiece idea on Pinterest, I had to make some for the party! It's sliced lemons and limes, and sprigs of rosemary and mint, in a mason jar filled with water and a few drops of Bug Off essential oil. Then you add a floating tea light. These made me so happy! I'm not sure how effective they were at actually repelling bugs, but they looked pretty and smelled good.

 

Most people left around 8:00 to see fireworks (or put their kids to bed), but a few friends stayed and joined me in playing with sparklers in the backyard!

I hung lights across the backyard for the party. I enjoyed them so much, I'll probably leave them up for a while. (Gandalf likes them too.)

 

 

My parents and I went to the Bartlett fireworks on the night of the 3rd, but they were delayed until almost 10:45 because the control board didn't work and had to be replaced. Then something else went wrong and there was no finale… the fireworks just sort of stopped. It was a bummer (although I was glad to see them at all). I'm thinking next year I'll have the party the day after the Fourth, so I can go to the downtown fireworks with everyone else!


How was your holiday?

Little Miss Sunshine Party

Last weekend, I went to Dothan with my parents for my niece's first birthday and dedication at church! I got back Tuesday night and am still trying to catch up on life, hence the quiet here on the blog. There's a lot to talk about, but I think the birthday party deserves its own post.

 

Debra planned this Little Miss Sunshine party for months, and her work definitely paid off. It was the perfect theme for happy Niecy. :) The party was held at the church gym. Most of the congregation's kids were invited, in addition to Lance's parents and extended family, me and my parents, some relatives who live in Decatur, and my grandma, who flew in from Miami.

Because so many kids would be there, Debra planned lots of themed activities like a bean bag toss, coloring area, Play-Doh area, and sensory station (a bucket of uncooked rice with some rubber ducks in it). I was amused as kids fought for a chance to get their hands in the rice. My educator sister just nodded knowingly.

To me, the most impressive activity was a memory game with covers of the Mr. Men and Little Miss books. Debra made the cards herself!

She also printed Mr. and Little Miss nametags for everyone.

There was a wall of Niecy's monthly photos all the way through her first year. It was fun to see how much she's already changed! People loved looking at these.

When it was time for presents, all the kids wanted to sit in a circle around Niecy. It was really cute.

 

A friend made the adorable cake and Niecy's smash cake. She says she's just getting started with cakes, but this looked like a professional job to me! Debra got the cupcakes from a grocery bakery and printed out the Little Miss Sunshine toppers herself.

Like most one-year-olds, Niecy wasn't sure at first how she felt about cake, but eventually decided she liked it. Later, fueled by sugar, she took TEN steps! And "danced" with Debra and me!

It was a great time. More trip recap to come.

Bread & Wine: The Dinner Party

Part 2 of 2

As I mentioned yesterday, I just read Shauna Niequist's new book, Bread & Wine. In the letter that came with the book, Shauna encouraged reviewers to have a dinner party using some of her recipes. Like her, I love an excuse to get together with friends, especially around a table. So I set a date and invited a small group of friends whom I thought would enjoy each other (several of whom I'd long wanted to introduce to each other). I e-mailed them explaining about Bread & Wine, the recipes, and the dinner party. To my excitement, most of them could come and were enthusiastic about choosing recipes! Dividing up the cooking made for a very low-stress party for me.

Our dinner menu (from the book) was as follows:
Bacon Wrapped Dates
Goat Cheese Biscuits
Brannon's Caesar Salad
Maple Balsamic Pork Tenderloin

Dessert:
Blueberry Crisp
Nigella Lawson's Flourless Chocolate Brownies (both with and without nuts)

Non-book menu items:
Hillary's couscous (legendary!)
Ina Garten's Parmesan Roasted Broccoli (I wanted an extra side, and this broccoli is one of my favorite things in the world.)

Since I was hosting, I prepared the pork tenderloin for the main dish. Unfortunately I had some trouble with the recipe, which simply called for "2 tenderloins." I don't cook meat very often, so I wasn't entirely sure what that meant. First I erroneously bought a five-pound pork loin roast. After intense discussion and texting of photos with my friend Stacy, I went back to the store and bought two correctly sized tenderloins. Then, paranoid that I still didn't have the right cut of meat, I searched Shauna's blog for a link to the original recipe to double-check the weight. With that settled, I was still skeptical about the tenderloins only needing to be sautéed for two minutes on a side. Sure enough, they remained pink inside (and got pretty charred outside), but 10-15 additional minutes in the oven finished them off. In the end, the pork still tasted great, and my friends weren't upset about the delay. Some of them were confused by their recipes too. Maybe I'm just clueless, but I think more clarification would have been helpful.

All of the food was delicious, but if I had to choose a favorite item, it would probably be the goat cheese biscuits (prepared by Caroline). They were AMAZING. I also took a lot of blueberry crisp off Elizabeth's hands (she made a double batch), and it's been fantastic for breakfast the past couple of days. I think it needs ice cream if you're having it as a dessert.

Eight ladies were in attendance including me. As it happens, that's the maximum number I can fit comfortably around my dining table with the leaf out. We all feasted and had some great conversation and fellowship. Everyone seemed to connect easily. We had a good mix of Memphis natives, new-to-towners, single women, married women, and moms. That's hard to achieve nowadays! I was prepared for most people to take off after dinner, but happily, they stayed and talked well into the evening. I wish I'd documented the evening better, but I didn't want to annoy everyone with incessant picture-taking.

So, the dinner party was everything I hoped it would be, and I was very happy. (The company and good food were also timely comforts for me and Kathy after the Tigers' bummer loss in the second round of the NCAA tournament that afternoon.) Several people said we should do this again. It would be great, and appropriate, if this party was the start of something new!

Mommy-To-Bee Baby Shower

Last weekend, with some help from my mom, I threw my sister her first baby shower at her house in Nashville! Debra's not due until May, but she's having FIVE baby showers, so she wanted to start early instead of having a bunch of parties at the end of her pregnancy.

One of Debra's nicknames as a child was "Busy Bee." A while back, I think even before she was pregnant, I saw some bee baby shower pictures on Pinterest and noted it as a cute idea for the future. For this party, I tried to convey the bee theme without going totally overboard. :)

I ordered invitations on Etsy and printed them at home! It was much easier (and cheaper) than searching a bunch of stores and having to settle for something so-so and expensive. If I were better at graphic design, I could make my own invitations, but right now I prefer to let the experts handle it!

Instead of a whole cake, I opted for cupcakes from the Publix bakery (another benefit of having the shower in Nashville). I was able to order the exact amount, color, and kind of cupcakes I wanted, and of course they were delicious. The cupcake toppers are also from Etsy. I printed them at home, punched them out with a 2" scallop punch, and hot glued them to cake pop sticks.

This is the easiest punch ever. Debra froze cranberry juice in a Bundt pan ahead of time, and we unmolded it into a punch bowl, then poured equal-ish amounts of ginger ale, pineapple juice, and lemonade over it. No measurements needed. It's pretty, too!

The menu was pretty low-key. Fruits, vegetables, chips and dips, a cheese ball, etc.

I made mini honey pots for the favors. You can order pre-made ones online, but I didn't think of it until it was too late. So I found these jars at Garden Ridge, filled them with honey, and hot glued more Etsy punch-outs onto them.

Debra enjoyed the party, so that's the most important thing. This aunthood thing is starting to seem really real! I'm excited. :)

What I Did On My Christmas Vacation

our local musical light display

Partly thanks to the convenient placement of the holidays in 2011, I just had ten days off from work! It was the first staycation I've taken in ten years of cubicle dwelling. Here's a recap:

+ Christmas 2011 was a success! My parents, brother, and grandma attended my church with me on Christmas Eve, but we didn't go on Christmas Day because Debra and Lance arrived mid-morning. As usual, my parents were excessively generous with gifts. I got a sewing machine (you'll be hearing much more about that), AND an electric leaf blower and electric edger that are super easy to use. Not sure what it says about me that I'm equally excited about craft and yard implements.

 

 

+ For New Year's Eve, my parents, brother, and I had dinner downtown at Pearl's Oyster House and went to the Tigers game. We arrived back at my parents' just in time to see the NYC ball drop on TV. At our midnight, we switched to the guitar drop on Beale Street (and the "Moon Pie Drop" out of Mobile - did anyone else see that?!?). I was home in bed by around 1 am. As far as I'm concerned, it was an almost perfect NYE.

+ On New Year's Day, we had one midmorning service at church, which was an absolutely perfect kickoff to the year. Then I hosted an open house/late brunch. About 20 people came and everyone seemed to have a GREAT time. I feel loved and blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life. ♥ We didn't do a craft this year, but I made a simple backdrop for photo ops:

 

 

 

+ Before my sister went back to Nashville, I got to feel my niece kick for the first time! It was amazing. (She has a name now, but it's not public yet.)

+ I bought a Kindle Touch the day after Christmas. It felt indulgent and impulsive, but I'd been thinking about it for a long time. Now I can participate in BookSneeze and other stuff for book bloggers. I'm still totally Team Real Books, but I'm excited to have an e-reader for vacations, rare books, giveaways, flash sales, that kind of thing.

+ I also bought long-awaited faux wood window blinds, and they look wonderful. I'm thrilled that the days of yucky beige aluminum blinds, and cats rattling them in the night, are over! (Pictures to come.)

+ One of my vacation goals was to see movies, something I never do anymore. I watched We Bought A Zoo, One Day, Tangled, and Dolphin Tale, and enjoyed them all. My mom was amused that I described Dolphin Tale as "surprisingly emotional," but it was. I was a mess for at least a third of it. (If you'd ever seen my dolphin-and-whale-covered childhood bedroom, this would make more sense.)

+ I enjoyed long lunches with Nell at Cafe Eclectic, and Caroline at Petra Cafe. Both places were on my list of restaurants I wanted to check out.

+ I went to the Brooks Museum to catch an exhibit of 1950s Everglades etchings. The other exhibits were cool too. I'd like to go to art museums more often.

+ I ate way, way too much. I exercised most days, but I don't think it was enough to counteract the constant desserts and dips (and wheels of Brie). The post-holiday soup and salad diet starts this week. :P

I hope everyone got at least some holiday time off! How were your breaks?

The Anniversary Party

Today my parents celebrate 35 years of marriage! My sister and I really wanted to do something for their 35th anniversary, but our plans kept getting thwarted. Finally, running on pure determination and excellent teamwork, we threw together a surprise anniversary party in about a week. It wasn't as elaborate as it would have been if I'd had a month to plan, but I think it actually worked out better that way!

Debra came to Memphis on Friday night and helped me with last-minute preparations. Our parents didn't know she was in town. I had told them I'd be picking them up for a surprise around noon, but Debra was the one who pulled up in their driveway! She blindfolded them and took a meandering drive back to my house, where a bunch of their friends were waiting. They were VERY surprised!

Debra brought her wedding veil for my mom to wear at the party, and I made a felt-rose boutonniere for my dad. (One circle of felt and a glue gun. Couldn't be easier.)

We had a light soup and salad lunch. I made Ina Garten's Italian Wedding Soup (get it?), which was enjoyed by all - I'll definitely make it again. After lunch we played a round of the Not-So-Newlywed Game. :) Although both of my parents forgot some things about their marriage, they both correctly answered "What is the first thing your spouse does when he/she wakes up in the morning?" even though my mom never gets up before my dad leaves for work. That's oneness right there.

Of course, we had cake and champagne! I felt too overwhelmed to bake a cake from scratch, so Debra brought a delicious Publix bakery cake from Nashville. If you see the "Lemon Infusion" cake at Publix, I highly recommend it. (We almost had a Cake Wreck, though - the bakery worker had to be reminded how to spell "Anniversary.")

 

Since Kevin and Lance (my brother and brother-in-law) couldn't be there, we printed out photos of their heads so they could appear to be participating. LOL!

The decorations were my favorite part (and also the most time-consuming). I smuggled some old photo albums out of my parents' house, scanned an assortment of pictures, and reprinted them in black and white so they'd look uniform. Then we hung twine clotheslines around the living room and attached the pictures with clothespins. Everyone enjoyed looking at them! We also made a giant banner - actually, Debra did most of the work on that.

My dad's friend volunteered to take a group picture, then snapped away like a paparazzo even though no one was ready. Things got pretty crazy, but we ended up with a couple of good shots.

 

 

All in all, the party was a success and my parents had a great time! I'm very thankful for their strong relationship. If not for their great example, I'm honestly not sure if I could keep believing in marriage. I don't take it for granted.